Late Night Pick of the Night: Pearl Jam plays Floyd

Pink Floyd week wraps up on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with Pearl Jam playing "Mother" from "The Wall".  Late Night is on at 12:35 AM on NBC.

In case you missed it, here is Roger Waters & Foo Fighters doing "In The Flesh" earlier this week on the show.

Perpetual Groove, Hogtober, No BS! Brass Band, William Walter & Co

Friday night, check out the No BS! Brass Band at The Camel.  It's $7 to get in.  The show starts at 9 PM with openers The Brand New Life.  Here's the band playing what appears to be an impromptu set at Camp Barefoot 5 in August.  When none of your instruments need electronic amplification, that's something you can do.


William Walter & Co. will be at Sine'.  Show starts at 10 PM and it doesn't look like there is a cover charge.  Here they are, also from Camp Barefoot 5.



I just kind of stumbled on YouTube's Rock in Rio live webcast and am watching/listening to Stevie Wonder live while I write this blog.  There isn't a schedule up for the webcast but from the Rock in Rio festival site it looks like things start at 1:30 PM our time on Friday, Saturday & Sunday.  Bands playing include Shakira, Lenny Kravitz, Maroon 5, Coldplay, System Of A Down & Guns N' Roses.  No guarantees on who you will actually see on the webcast but it might be worth a look-see.  At the very least, they may have lots of crowd shots of beautiful Brazilian women in thongs.

There are a ton of festivals this weekend, not really much musically, but you might want to get out of the house for one of them.  I'll cover some below.  For more, check out the story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch HERE.

Bark in the Park goes down to benefit the Henrico Humane Society on Saturday morning from 9 AM to 1 PM.  There will be a 5k race, a 2k dog walk, dog contests, vendors, a petting zoo, moon bounce for the kids and lots of dogs.  It's out at Deep Run Park and admission is free.

The Hog is returning to Church Hill!  For those of you who have been here in Richmond, you will of course remember the High on the Hog fests at the top of Church Hill at Libby Hill Park.  Well, now it's back as Hogtober and it will run from noon until 7 PM.  It's free to get in.  There will be bbq to eat, stuff for the kids to do, and adult beverages for the adults.  Music includes Rosie Soul & The Rock n' Roll Cowboys at 12:30, The Atkinsons at 2:30, People's Blues of Richmond at 4, Jackass Flats at 5, and B2B Band at 6. 

Get your jam on with Perpetual Groove on Saturday night at The National.  Tix are $15 in advance, $18 at the door.  Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with openers Former Champions.  Here's PGroove playing at their festival (Amberland) in 2009:


Have a great time this weekend! 

Tony Jordan

They Might Be Giants@National, Late Night Pick of the Night: Laura Marling

The always kooky, always entertaining, They Might Be Giants will be at The National tonight.  Tix are $23.  Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Jonathan Coulton. 

We'll have a full rundown of the weekend's musical events tonight.  Tried to do it last night.  Set the alarm on my new cell phone to wake my up in case I fell asleep lying down with the 4 year old while he went to sleep.  Fell asleep, of course.  Found out that the Vibrate on my new cell phone is not nearly as strong as the one on my old phone as I slept right through the alarm and numerous text messages.

Late Night Pick of the Night is English folky singer-songwriter Laura Marling on Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35 AM on NBC.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Kylesa, Mike Mills talks REM breakup

Psychedelic hard-rockers from Savannah GA, Kylesa will be on Last Call with Carson Daly tonight.  Last Call airs at 1:35 AM on NBC. 

Here's a short interview with Mike Mills from REM shedding further light on their breakup: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/blogs/alternate-take/exclusive-why-r-e-m-are-calling-it-quits-20110926?link=mostpopular1

Late Night Pick of the Night: Roger Waters w/Foo Fighters & Greatest Gig In The Sky

To celebrate the release of the Pink Floyd deluxe edition CDs, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is hosting Pink Floyd week.  Every night the musical guest will play a Floyd song and tonight should be quite spectacular with Floyd bassist Roger Waters joining Foo Fighters to do "In The Flesh".

Speaking of Floyd, you can listen to Floyd playing "Dark Side of the Moon" in it's entireity live at Wembley in 1974 accompanied by some of the originial videos used during the performance along with some trippy new visuals.  It starts at the top of each hour and will only be on until 9/28.  I particularly like the jam in "Any Colour You Like".  Click HERE to listen and watch.

Here's The Shins on Jimmy Fallon last night kicking off Pink Floyd week with "Breathe":

Late Night Pick of the Night: Radiohead

Radiohead doesn't do a whole lot of TV but they will be on a special one-hour episode of the Colbert Report tonight.  The show will include an interview with the band and multiple performances.  Colbert Report is on at 11:30 PM on Comedy Central and then they repeat it multiple times after that.  Radiohead may be touring next year and perhaps they will confirm that on the show.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Sonny Rollins

Tonight, check out jazz legend Sonny Rollins on Tavis Smiley on PBS. Check your local listings for air times.

Foster the People, Bio Ritmo, Scott H Biram, Primus, Frank Turner

Your weekend begins with band with the pumped up kicks, yes, it's Foster the People at The National.  Tix are $23.  Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with Reptar and Cults.  You'll want to get there early to see Cults.  Foster the People is all over the place these days with their catchy little number "Pumped Up Kicks".  Here they are doing a "Tiny Desk Concert" for NPR and I bet they play that song.  They'll probably be more amplified at The National but this is cool.


After 20 years, you get to be called an institution, and Richmond institution Bio Ritmo will be celebrating their 20th anniversary with a show at Gallery 5 on Friday night.  Tix are $12 and the show kicks off at 9 with NO BS Brass Band.  Bio Ritmo has a new album out called "La Verdad".  Here's Bio Ritmo at Las Tablas, wherever that is.


You can check out the webcast of Clear Channel Media's (they own a whole lot of radio stations) iHeartRadio fest from Vegas HERE.  This will feature some of the best of pop music along with some of the worst (Black Eyed-Peas, Carrie Underwood, Rascall Flats, J-Lo, Bruno Mars) so pick your spots.  The show runs from 10 PM ET to 3 AM ET on Friday and Saturday nights.  Highlights on Friday include Jay-Z, Coldplay, Alicia Keys and the one I want to see, Jane's Addiction (who will probably go on first).  On Saturday, highlights include Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Sting & Jeff Beck (how the hell did he get on this bill?).  By the way, David Guetta will be on the bill, who I mistakenly called an American Idol guy on one of my Late Night Pick blogs the other day.  When I watched the Last Call with him on it, I found out he is an internationally known French DJ.  I think I was thinking of David Archuleta whose name rhymes with Guetta but is otherwise nothing like him. 

Gutbucket blues man Scott H. Biram will bring his tiny riot of music to The Camel on Saturday night.  Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener The Dimmer Twins (love the name!).  Here's Scott on "Live From Sugar Hill Studios" last year.  He kicks off the show after a short intro.  I'm guessing he plays for about 1/2 of the one hour show since there is only one other musical guest.  That's the other musical guest in the screen shot down there, not Scott.  Scott is not as fuzzy.


Also Saturday night, Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls will be at The Canal Club.  Tix are $13 in advance, $15 at the door.  Doors open at 8 and the show kicks off later with openers Andrew Jackson Jihad and Into It, Over It.  You may dig Frank if you like The Clash, The Decemberists, Bruce Springsteen, or Billy Bragg.  Here's Frank doing "If Ever I Stray":


Primus is back with a new album, "Green Naugahyde", and they are coming to The National on Monday to play a juicy two fat set show for you.  Tix are $35, doors open at 7:30, show starts at 8:30 and don't be late because it's just Primus, no opener.  Here they are doing "American Life" at Bonnaroo this year with their giant spacemen.
 

If you didn't read my ode to the now defunct R.E.M., check it out below.

Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

R.E.M. is over

In an announcement on their web site, R.E.M. has announced that it is over and they have called it a day.  It's hard to say just how much this band meant to me, especially in the late 80s - early 90s, which were their peak years.  Like many of my generation, I discovered them when I got to college.  As great of a rock town as Philly is, in the 80's, the city only had classic rock stations and I couldn't get any college stations were I lived so while I had heard "Fall On Me" and I had "Fables of the Reconstruction", they had never really clicked with me. 

Then I got to college and discovered "Life's Rich Pageant" and it was all I listened to for about three months.  It was their most aggressive album, which appealed to me, young rocker that I was.  It felt free and political and not too weird but just weird enough to be different from the Led Zep and The Cult that I was listening to.  This was also one of the first times that I felt this band was my little secret and only a select few knew about them.  Elitist, perhaps, and indicative of that hipster, "they're cool if they're unknown" attitude but I was in college, so forgive me.

A year later, "Document", their last album on the indie label IRS, blew up, at least at college.  It was on at every party that first semester and even the people that weren't into "college music" (that's what we called alternative back then) owned it but we didn't mind.  Something that good had too be shared so we all dunkenly bopped around to "It's the End of the World As We Know It" and misinterpreted the meaning of "One I Love" until we actually listened to the lyrics.  I went to see them for the first time at The Spectrum that tour, which was maybe half-full, so they still didn't really feel BIG.  I don't remember a lot of that show except a loose feeling unlike that of other arena shows I had seen and a cover of Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue" which I wasn't quite sure if they were being ironic or not but they played balls out and like they meant it.

A year later (1988) they went BIG with "Green" the first album after their big payday from Warner Brothers.  For some reason, I didn't feel like they sold out.  The album still sounded like them and it featured loud, aggressive music like "Orange Crush" and "Turn You Inside Out" along with some beautiful and sad songs like "You Are the Everything", "The Wrong Child" and "I Remember California".  I saw them at the beginning of the tour for that album and then again toward the end.  It was a massive tour and I remember feeling after the second show (at the Mann Music Center) that they seemed tired.  I hoped the grind of the big label album/tour/album cycle wouldn't be their ruin.

"I Remember California" sent me off to my summer in LA and that summer I really began to dig into their older albums, "Murmur" and "Reckoning", especially "Murmur".  I listened to "Murmur" a lot that summer on a crummy cassette with Pete Townshend's "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes".  "Murmur"'s indescipherable lyrics and swampy sound (made swampier by the bad cassette) were a resting place within the glitz and neon colors of LA.  I especially remember listening to "Murmur" while I say on Huntigton Beach on the 4th of July, watching surfers and drinking beer and feeling like I was in the right place at the right time, right now.  "Perfect Circle" still give me chills and almost brings me to tears.

"I Remember California" brought me back to the East Coast for my senior year and R.E.M. disappeared for a while and then came out with what I think is their masterpiece, "Out of Time".  This was one of those albums that was the right album at the right time and seemed to be speaking right to me.  I had graduated in June but was still living on College Hill, not in school, but not feeling completely out either.  I was adrift, unsure what I was going to do, unsure of where I stood at the time and where I would go in the future.  I don't know if the band felt the same ambivilance, on a major label but still trying to keep indie cred.  But the songs on the album seemed to reflect what I was feeling ("Low", "Country Feedback", "Half a World Away", "Losing My Religion") and put me at ease about it ("Belong", "Shiny Happy People").

"Automatic for the People" was next. I was in radio at the time and the day that we got the single "Drive" in, I ran into an office and threw it into the CD player, incredibly excited to hear it before anyone else.  It sucked you in slowly, lyrically and musically, before exploding with guitars.  I listened to it a number of times in a row and just reveled in it, letting it envelop me.  This was my radio album, as I heard the hits many times while on the air, but I never got sick of them and I would always turn it up.  They felt like a respite from the anger and aggression of the grunge music at the time ("Everybody Hurts" - "so hold on....hold on") but also fit in and didn't feel out of place.  And "Nightswimming" still stands as one their most beatiful songs.

Their last great album "Monster" followed in '94.  They had seemed to embrace some of the aggression of the grunge movement but also harkened back to some of that swampy, blurry sound of some of their earlier albums. 

"New Adventures in Hi-Fi" was next.  Perhaps the fact that is was made on tour made it feel a bit casual to me and it didn't really click with me as much as previous albums.

Then the drummer, Bill Berry, quit, and the band just never sounded as interested after that.  The albums would still have a few great songs, but they seemed inconsistent and while I enjoyed them, they wouldn't really click with me.  Perhaps time and the inevitable biography's will have the band tell us if they felt different too.  Perhaps when Bill left is stopped feeling like four friends against the world and more like a job or a business where they hired people to fill his place for an album or a tour.

But the slow decline of the band can't take away their impact on me and my generation.  The hippies would talk about the Beatles and the Stones and though I love those bands, they could never be mine.  They weren't the bands that I grew up with and grew with.  They weren't the bands that I waited with anticipation for the new album from and then played the album over and over again, trying to decipher where the band was and what they meant and what the songs meant to me and my life.  R.E.M. was one of those bands, one of my bands and they always will be.

Berry, Buck, Mills & Stipe.  A Perfect Circle of aquaintances and friends.  R.E.M.  R.I.P.

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick of the Night: Elbow, Jack White & ICP, Grunge Quiz

Our Late Night Pick of the Night tonight is Elbow on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 12:35 AM on NBC.  Elbow is from Great Britain and is getting nominated for all the big Brit music awards (Mercury Prize, Q Awards).  Here they are on the Mercury Prize Awards Show:


Also, here is the long-awaited (well perhaps someone was awaiting it) collaboration by Jack White & Insane Clown Posse.  It's weird.  This is on YouTube but is audio only.


And with the release of Nirvana's "Nevermind" deluxe edition (5 stars in Rolling Stone) and Pearl Jam's "20" movie, the New York Times has a grunge quiz.  I didn't do as well as I expected only scoring 13 of 19, mainly missing the ones where you had to choose one or more.  See how you do HERE.