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Road Warriors 37

October 26, 2007 / Mike Farley

Dave Matthews Band fans are still in full force, especially among college age kids. But recently the US Army beat out more than 100 colleges to win the World’s Largest Pep Rally contest, bringing DMB in for a pair of shows for the Army cadets next month.

The second annual Rock To Roll charity event spearheaded by SideOneDummy Records is set for December 11 at the Avalon Theatre in Hollywood. Headlining the event will be Flogging Molly and Bouncing Souls. Rock To Roll benefits Wheels For Humanity, which provides increased self-sufficiency and mobility to people with disabilities throughout the world.

After a four-year hiatus, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are back with their Hometown Throwdown again, which will be held in Boston at The Middle East from December 26 to December 30 (five shows). Unannounced special guests will also be on hand, and the band has said that you never know who is going to show up.

San Diego band My American Heart spent this past summer on the Vans Warped Tour and hit the road again last night for its Pure Volume/Rise From The Ashes club tour in support of their latest album, Hiding Inside The Horrible Weather. Here are the confirmed Continue reading »

Alternative, Concerts, Pop, Rock

DMed’s Video of the Week: The Lodger, “Kicking Sand”

October 26, 2007 / David Medsker

Picture the Lightning Seeds if they covered a Buzzcocks record. Can U Dig it?

Alternative, External Music, Pop, Rock, Seen Your Video, Songs, Videos

Man-about-MySpace: Clan Neville

October 24, 2007 / Dr. Flucke

Most of the time, the Man About MySpace is at your service to find great new bands for the sampling. Today’s blog, however, offers a tip of the cap to a phenomenal fan site, Neville Tracks.

See, few families in America have put out solid music output for as many decades as the Nevilles, starting with keyboardist Art in the 1950s when New Orleans R&B was a national phenomenon. One could argue for Clan Cole (Nat & Natalie) or the Jacksons or (most legimiately) the Nevilles’ New Orleanian colleagues the Marsalises (patron Ellis teaches at Tulane and still records, and sons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason have all released good and sometimes great recordings for the better part of 30 years), but the Nevilles pop up everywhere, from the pop to the soul to the rock to the world music charts.

And there’s not just the brothers Art, Aaron, Cyril and Charles. There’s Aaron’s son Ivan, a veteran who played with Keith Richards and the Stones, a member of the current Neville Brothers band, and leader of the edgy funk band Dumpstaphunk. There’s Charmaine, Charles’ daughter, whose jazzy world-beat club act is a party wherever it alights.

If you enjoy the Bros., try dipping into the next generation.

But wait, there’s more: Art’s group The Meters added a great Big Easy vibe to straight up funk and whose early-’70s records set the blueprint for the Neville Brothers sound as well as a thousand jam-band acolytes. The Meters’ grooves, today, still sound fresh and creative. Can’t say that about a lot of the dinosaurs from funk’s heyday, enjoyable as they are to spin.

Neville Tracks does its best to track the family’s in-print recordings as well as tour dates. Not an easy job after Katrina forced scattered the family throughout several states. But they persist, and so do the superfans who power this MySpace.

Get to Know

Video Vault – Groove Armada

October 24, 2007 / Captain Capm

“Get Down.” Watch the dancing bunnies multiply and take over the studio!

Artists, Songs, Videos

Ruby Tuesday: Sugarbomb, “After All”

October 23, 2007 / David Medsker

Talk about star-crossed bands. Ft. Worth quintet Sugarbomb freaking rocked, dude. They could sing, they could play, and most importantly, they could write. The only thing they couldn’t do, it appears, was win the love of their label, RCA. After receiving instructions from the label to dumb their music down, Sugarbomb singer and main songwriter Les Farrington gave them “Hello,” a Vertical Horizon-ish slice of generic pop/rock. “You want dumb? Here you go!” Les said.

The label loved it. Uh oh.

The song was a minor hit, popping up on a couple soundtracks, but it was not at all indicative of how talented Sugarbomb really were. Worse, the song gave RCA an idea of how to sell the band, but it would mean turning Sugarbomb into something they were most decidedly not: a generic pop band. Soon after the album was released, RCA dropped the band (the album came out two weeks after 9/11, so RCA was cleaning house). Infighting soon followed, and a few months later, Sugarbomb were finished. Tragic.

Submitted for your approval is “After All,” the final track on the band’s fabulous album Bully (you can find it for a couple bucks on Half.com) and as grand a tribute to Queen as you’re likely to find outside of “Knights of Cydonia.” The last I heard, Sugarbomb singer Les Farrington was playing at piano bars. Why he doesn’t have a MySpace page, I’ll never understand.

Sugarbomb – After All.mp3

Alternative, External Music, Pop, Rock, Ruby Tuesday, Songs