Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Tour

I love Tom Petty and for whatever reason, I've never seen him live. I really need to remedy that this summer. He's back with a new album and is hitting the road. As if you need another reason to love Tom Petty, look at his openers...Drive-By Truckers and My Morning Jacket (as well as vets Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and ZZ Top). Find me two better modern-day rock bands who would be a better fit for that gig. I can't come up with any.

You can also stream the first single, "Good Enough," from Mojo on his site right now (his first album in almost ten years). It's a straight up rocker and is actually quite good.

http://www.tompetty.com/tour

Video: My Morning Jacket - "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2"

• My Morning Jacket
• New Music

My Morning Jacket @ The Greek Theatre, 09.21.08

Now that it is settling in and the initial ecstasy of it all is waning, I can say that in all honesty it was one of the best shows I've ever witnessed. Up there with Ben Harper's 3.5 hour performance at 9:30 Club a few years back. Likewise Radiohead at Tower Theatre, DFA 1979/QOTSA/NIN at the Verizon Center, The National/Arcade Fire at DAR, TMV, TVotR, Boris, Eddie at The Wiltern, the list goes on....It was epic. And I will forever wax nostalgiac about how this band literally exceeded every impossible expectation I had for them. Studio recordings ain't got shit on what it sounds like - what it feels like - to hear those vocals live in the midst of a balls out rock and roll assault.

I really don't know how to, in some way, capture what it was like to be within maximum effective range of Jim James & company a couple of nights back. Without getting lost in Sabine's reverberation equation we need to somehow make sense of it all; figuring critical distances will only lead to a maddening plunge down a dark rabbit-hole. And you probably won't hear the vocals down there. Things are good and firm up here on planet earth. Down there, you probably won't feel the goosebumps on the back of your neck emerge when that madcap lunatic with the beard (who has spent the better part of two and a half hours doing things with his vocal chords you couldn't possibly imagine) hits the pedal on "Run Thru" and deepens your plunge into eclecticmusicalecstasy with a Reznor-worthy riff thats been building for five minutes or so. The muted jab on the strings sounds like a pistol grip pump - the not-so-calm before the storm type of foreshadowing that draws your breath away and makes your jaw drop right before Mr. James and Mr. Broemel unleash some of the nastiest guitarwork you've ever witnessed (and you've seen Jack, John, Omar, Ben, Nels, Adam and the like).

But don't go down that rabbit hole either. Don't go comparing or associating. Don't get lost in the categories. Prince, Floyd, Zeppelin, Petty, Elvis, The Boss, they're all there somewhere. So where are we, right now? If time is reflected on the x-axis and we're strictly speaking of the evolution of rock and roll - y'know...where. we're. headed. - where is this band taking us? It's all meeting and merging, exploding and imploding, destroying and creating by the time you get to the chorus, if there even is one. There's too many branches, but it's all so focused and contained. And two and a half hours never went by so fast. And how is it, that the mastermind behind all of this, that guy with the beard and the towel draped across his brow, the one that just did three knee slides the length of the stage, while he was playing during the outro, how is it that he seems to be having more fun than I am? Because I'm having a pretty good fucking time, right now.

Looking back on it you realize how American it all is. But not that nationalistic spew they're shoving down your throat when we club other malnourished, tiny nations to death on the Olympics. No. Not that faux-patriotism that you slap magnetic on the back of your SUV. This is that truly American promise of anything's possible, the America that I like to believe in. Potential. A million ways to the same place. Creating an interpretation of life through every influence that has ever crossed a synapse in your brain. A melting pot. And everyone gets to choose which way to go. Like walking into a country music bar and pumping some Boris on the jukebox and everybody being cool with it. (Give us a few decades and a few more bands like this and we'll get there.) But, they'd been thinking about all of this long before the rest of us, sponging it all up - motown, metal, disco, reggae, country, folk, intro, outro, solo, bridge, keys, brass, and most importantly guitars (their own little musical melting pot). What they found and what they bring to an audience is a wholly different and unique approach to that good ol' American end-state of rocking the fuck out. No limits. No boundaries. No genre of music is safe.

There was this girl five rows in front of us with blonde stringy hair, she was shaking and rocking so hard I thought her head was going to spin off. I've only seen cathode-ray black and white permutations of things as drastic and spastic as this: it was '64 and they were the Beatles. But who am I kidding. We were all under the same spell, the place was going shithouse-rat crazy and well, it ain't evil, baby if ya,...

It's been more than a day now, I need to hatch a plan. I need to somehow figure out how this bad man from California is going to get to Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve. Talk about potential.

Setlist:
1. "Evil Urges"
2. "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt.1"
3. "Off The Record"
4. "Anytime"
5. "I'm Amazed"
6. "The Way That He Sings"
7. "Two Halves"
8. "Thank You Too!"
9. "Sec Walkin"
10. "I Will Sing You Songs"
11. "What A Wonderful Man"
12. "Mahgeetah"
13. "Lay Low"
14. "Phone Went West"
15. "Gideon"
16. "Dondante"
17. "Librarian"
18. "Smokin From Shootin"
19. "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt.2"
----------
20. "Golden"
21. "Wordless Chorus"
22. "Highly Suspicious"
23. "Run Thru"
24. "One Big Holiday"

Insane.

Easily one of the best shows I've ever witnessed. Setlist and photos will follow.

MMJ on SNL

I've become fully immersed in all things My Morning Jacket at the moment. Their new album is ambitious, ballsy, and nothing short of excellent. They performed "I'm Amazed" and "Evil Urges" on Saturday Night Live. Not surprisingly, it was also phenomenal.
"I'm Amazed"

"Evil Urges"

Early Confirmations on Coachella

From Billboard:

"Portishead, My Morning Jacket, the Verve, Jack Johnson, the Breeders and Rilo Kiley are among the early confirmations trickling in for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, according to sources and an L.A. Times report. Full details are expected later today (Jan. 21)." [More]

From the LA Times:

"At a news conference scheduled for today, Tollett and his business partners, which include concert promotion giant AEG Live, plan to announce the full lineup for the ninth edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio this April. It will include the Verve, the Raconteurs, Jack Johnson, My Morning Jacket and Rilo Kiley.

"Tollett is also planning to elaborate on his new venture in Jersey City, N.J.: a three-day August festival (reportedly headlined by Radiohead and Johnson) on a grassy expanse in 1,200-acre Liberty State Park that has a dramatic vista of the Manhattan skyline." [More]

From the LA Times blog, Buzz Bands:

Prince, rumored to be one of the headliners at Coachella, will not play the festival, a source says.

Roger Waters will, reprising his Dark Side of the Moon show. [More]

New Shows for '07; Best Shows of '06

I've been sulking over the last few weeks and it's because I've had no live shows on the calendar to look forward to in the new year. And then everything changed in the last 24 hours. I've just picked up tickets to see new UK buzz band, The View @ Mercury Lounge on 1/3. This is a DIY Scottish band that has been linked to ultimate fuck up Pete Doherty. They've since been getting a lot of play on BBC and their debut album comes out in the UK on January 22nd. I'll go in with low expectations and hopefully leave pleasantly surprised. Also on the books, Peter Bjorn and John, who are somewhat surprisingly doing two shows at Mercury Lounge on 1/29 and 1/30. By now, I hope you have all heard "Young Folks." It was on Grey's Anatomy after all...(that's intended to be sarcastic but seriously best pop song of the year?) Lastly, the best news of all, The Thermals will be doing two headlining dates on the East Coast (w/ the Big Sleep). Tickets go on sale Friday at noon (at least for NYC).

Mar 2 - Black Cat Washington, DC
Mar 4 - Bowery Ballroom New York, NY

And just like that, bands representing two of my favorite albums from '06 kicking things off right in '07.

With that, I thought I'd list my favorite shows of 2006:

1. Editors @ Mercury Lounge (Jan. 20): I don't know one person, blogger, etc. in attendance who wasn't floored by this performance. I had been listening to their album for quite some time but that's a different band. Simply, the most jaw dropping live performance I've probably ever seen and I shared that experience with about 200 people.

2. Muse @ Hammerstein / SSPU @ Mercury (Aug. 3): There are a collection of bands that can rightfully claim to be the best live band in the world today. Muse currently holds that title. Jumping in a cab and rushing to see SSPU at Mercury made the night that much more memorable.

3. Pearl Jam/MMJ @ Continental (Jun. 3): Any Pearl Jam live appearance is going to count as one of the best of the year. They're my favorite band and the benchmark for any rock band trying to make the jump to arenas. Oh and MMJ is no slouch, they get it.

4. Wolfmother @ Northsix (Feb. 19): Watching this band grow into something huge and knowing that InMyTree and I saw them before it all went down.

5. Radiohead/The Black Keys @ MSG Theater (Jun. 14): No need for explanation

PJ Rocks; Jeff Ament Interviews Jim James

One of the cool things about Pearl Jam's Ten Club (aside from the Christmas singles, and priority with tickets) is the magazine Deep that they put out twice a year. Volume 1, Issue 2 just arrived last week and it has a lot of interesting things. On one page there is a letter from the California Avocado Commission thanking Pearl Jam for choosing the avocado as "the quintessential minimal pop art image" on the cover of their latest studio album. On another page they show fans where $2 from their ticket purchase went during their recent tour (Washington, DC, Future of Music Coalition). They continue to impress. I was also happy to stumble across an interview that Jeff Ament did with Jim James from My Morning Jacket. Turns out Jim and I have a similar taste in movies. An excerpt follows:

JA: What, besides music, inspires you to write? Do you have a favorite room, car, trail or spot?
JJ: Like most people I hear talk about making music. I like to be alone. Normally it is a 5-step process for me: 1. A song just pops into my head, usually with full instrumentation, etc-I quickly try to find my minidisk or 4-track and just hum it into the mic or whatever to remember it. 2. I sit down at the 4-track and try to flesh out a nice demo. 3. I take it in to tha boyz and we knock it around, play it over and over and shift it around till we get it all in place. 4. We record it in the studio as best we can. 5. We play it live and let it grow.

JA: There seems to be a big shift rhythmically between It Still Moves and Z, what inspired that shift?
JJ: For Z I wanted to focus more on the bass and drums and keys as the groundwork for the song and less about the guitars. If you listen to a lot of the classic songs-especially a lot of old soul and Motown shit-it rocks sooooo hard and what you notice when you listen to the mix: "almost no guitars!" Now, I love guitars-but the music was just kinda sounding more guitar free, and we tried to make so that when a guitar came in you'd really notice it. Plus I'm a big fan of the less is more philosophy now than I was, being that if there is less thing to listen to in a sound spectrum, each one gets more air. It's like in a song, where there is a huge drum solo or breakdown, the drums sound HUGE cause your ear gets to hear all the air and pumping, but when the band comes back in they just sink back into the mix. I was wanting there to be less in the mix to begin with.

JA: You had a big year with Boston Pops, Bonnaroo, a lot of touring....how long of a break will you take before you start rehearsing/demoing for the next record? Any places you want to tour that you haven't been yet?
JJ: We will do a US tour for our live record in Nov. and Jan. After January I want to take off indefinitely so as to just write and work on songs and not hurry. Who knows what might come up so we may do some stuff here and there but we need to just chill.

JA: How about top 5 of each: books, movies, records, paintings/graphic works?
JJ: Records - 1. What Does It Take (To Win Your Love), Junior Walker and the All-Stars; 2. Heatwave, Martha & the Vandellas; 3. Life is Like a Musical, Outkast; Satan Is Real, Louvin Brothers; anything by Roger Miller
Movies - 1. Little Miss Sunshine; 2. The Shining; 3. Rushmore; 4. 2001; 5. Snakes On a Plane
Bookes (right now) - 1. A Man Without A Country, Kurt Vonnegut; 2. Wind Up Bird Chronicle, Murakami
As for paintings and photos - I have been a really big fan of looking at what my fellow band mates, as well as girlfriends (like Tom's fiancee Linda - great photographer) and crew have been taking on this run of Europe. I feel like it is so awesome to experience some of the greatest works of art I have ever seen in some of these churches and chapels, and then see them through the eye and camera lens of someone I have been with while viewing the place is very surreal. It is amazing how many infinite viewpoints exist in one place in time.

My Morning Jacket Concert Film

Via Paste Magazine:

"My Morning Jacket, known for its reverb-drenched live shows, will release Okonokos: Live Concert Film on Halloween. But on October 30, at 8 p.m., devoted Jacket fans will be treated to premiere screenings in select cities across the country...The screenings will allow audiences to see the concert film the way it was meant to be – in 5.1 surround sound and in widescreen format."[Paste Magazine]