Reviews
For classical composer Lee Johnson, tackling the work of the Grateful Dead was like discovering the musical foundations of a new foreign country. Johnson is known for his concert pieces, choral works, short operas and musicals, planetarium soundtracks, and solo/ensemble pieces that cross into jazz and big band music.
Topics
Today's review is a show readily available for download at the Live Music Archive, 7/29/88, at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey California. This was the first of a three show run at Laguna Seca, and in my opinion the best of the three. I chose this show mainly because of the extremely high quality of the recording currently available at the LMA. It sounds to me to be a mislabelled soundboard or soundboard/audience matrix recording, but I suppose it's possible that its just a phenomenal audience recording.
Topics
Sure, the bands may be old and the music not quite up to date by the standards of today's young teens and adults, but Chicago and The Doobie Brothers showed that even in the millennium they can still draw in a crowd.
If there is a better party band than Ozomatli out there, then I would love to hear them. I wasn't invited to the party at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on May 30th, so I had to crash it. I openly admit to not paying for a big name concert in about 5 years. I got spoiled being a photographer/writer and getting into the shows I wanted to see with press passes. But this past weekend I had to break my streak and actually pulled $25 dollars out of my wallet to see one of my favorite bands ever. The las
Culture, like nature, evolves. Old ideas are made better, and become new ideas. Splits are made between schools of thought, and each side develops into something distinct from the other, even though both are the recognizable progeny of the previous generations. The growth of music over the last hundred years is perhaps one of the most notable examples of cultural evolution in action, and all the more remarkable since the existence of music is, arguably, unnecessary for the continuance of the human species.
This spring, Collin Herring's third album dropped. Its curious title, Past Life Crashing, is probably more indicative of what this talented young singer/songwriter has been about since his last release.
It may not have been quite the British invasion like those of the Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, or The Who, but The Kooks made quite an appearance at Thursday night's show in downtown Denver at the Ogden Theatre
True to the classic spirit of Rock and Roll, and a hard hitting member of the so-called rock revival movement, Super 400 have rediscovered the beauty and simplicity of the power trio. Kenny Hohman's guitar work is at times deliciously thick and crunchy, and at others soaring and smooth, kind of like his voice. And he's got a killer rhythm section, with Joe Daley pounding out the heavy notes on the drums while the perpetually sexy Lori Friday pounds 'em out on the bass
We young people tend, for whatever reason, to badmouth those who are significantly older than us. Maybe it's a fear of getting old ourselves that elicits this response, maybe it's a feeling of self-righteous know-it-all-ism, but what we tend to forget is that a great many things in this life get better with age. Wine does, some cheese does, canned tuna does not, but Hot Tuna certainly does.
Phil Lesh & Friends played the Greek Theater in Los Angeles last night and Grateful Web was on hand to snap some photos.
