Hampton Phish – 2009 Hampton, VA Phish Video and Audio Clips

The New Mastersounds

Greenlife Grocery and AMJam Productions have teamed up again, and the 3rd Annual Asheville Earth Day is set to take play on Saturday, April 17, 2010. The free event for the city of Asheville will once again be held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in Downtown Asheville, NC. This year’s event will bring back all of the industry and activism leaders in our community in environmentally conscious practices, and will also feature an amazing international music lineup that will include The New Mastersounds, Acoustic Syndicate, The Afromotive, Salvador Santana, Shane Pruitt Band and many more.

Asheville Earth Day is a day-long, family oriented event featuring a Kid’s Village where children can interact and take part in a “recycled” art project, putting our general waste to better use. The Opening Ceremony will feature a kid’s march led by our Earth Day emcee, and games and activities are welcome in the event field all day. Asheville Earth Day will also feature environmentally conscious businesses and organizations from around our region represented in our Eco-Village to educate the public on how they too can be active in protecting our earth.

The Asheville Earth Day again will include local food from participating vendors, and local beer for sale from some of our very own Asheville breweries, Asheville Brewing Company and Pisgah Brewing. The event is free to the public, and will run from 11a.m.-10p.m. The Official Earth Day After-Parties are set to take place, members of Acoustic Syndicate and Pond Farm Pickers will lead an All-Star jam at Stella Blue, and The New Mastersounds will lead a funk extravaganza at Club 828. More event information and details about the VIP ticket experience can be found at avlearthday.org.

WHAT: 3rd Annual Asheville Earth Day

WHEN: Saturday, April 17th, 2010; 11a.m.-10p.m.

WHERE: Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, Downtown Asheville, NC

ADMISSION: FREE! – VIP Experience also available online

James Murphy :: LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem has confirmed May 18 as the U.S release date of its as yet untitled third album. The record will be released on DFA/Virgin in the U.S. and will consist of the following songs:

Dance Yrself Clean

Drunk Girls *

One Touch

All I Want

Change *

Hit *

Pow Pow

Somebody’s Calling Me *

What You Need

The above were recorded at The Manshun in Los Angeles and the DFA studios in New York and mixed at DFA from April 2009 through February 2010. The album was written and produced by James Murphy. Additional mixes were done by Dave Sardy as indicated (*).

The new album is LCD Soundsystem’s first full offering of new studio material since 2007’s Sound Of Silver, which was named best album of the last decade by NPR, ranked #1 in the 2007 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, landed at #12 and #17 respectively in Rolling Stone and Pitchfork’s best albums of the decade, and like its predecessor, 2005’s LCD Soundsystem received a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Sound Of Silver also featured “All My Friends,” ranked #4 by Time in its Best Songs of 2007 and named single of the year by Pitchfork, and Entertainment Weekly #8 song of 2007 “Someone Great.” In 2008, LCD Soundsystem contributed the track “Big Ideas” to the soundtrack of the movie 21. The band has since released the 45:33: The Remixes EP and a cover of Alan Vega’s “Bye Bye Bayou,” issued to commemorate Record Store Day 2009 and earning LCD its fifth NME single of the week. The album will be preceded by the March 23 release of the soundtrack to Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg, which features both composition’s from James Murphy’s original score for the film and the new LCD Soundsystem song “Oh You (Christmas Blues).”

The record’s release will be supported by a world tour beginning with an April 16 penultimate slot at the Coachella festival in Indio, CA and continuing with a run of U.K./Europe headline dates (several of which have sold out well in advance and necessitated added dates) and further worldwide festival appearances.

LCD Soundsystem Tour Dates :: LCD Soundsystem News :: LCD Soundsystem Concert Reviews

Word by: Cal Roach
| Images by: Derek Dysart

John Mayer :: 03.01.10 :: Bradley Center :: Milwaukee, WI

You have to keep your appreciation for music separate from your opinions about the musicians, even when those musicians are doing everything possible to frustrate your efforts. It’s a slippery slope, and if you’re not careful, you’ll wind up having to throw out all your Beatles and Led Zeppelin records. Still, when a fan passed John Mayer a big cardboard sign that read, “MUSICAL NAPALM,” at the end of his set Monday night, it drove home just how difficult it is lately to ignore his offstage antics. But aside from that moment, it was pretty easy to forget the media shit-storm and enjoy Mayer and his crack rhythm and blues band playing a set of well-oiled American rock and roll.

I’ve always felt that Mayer uses a bit too much of a Dave Matthews-ish raspy affectation to make up for the lack of depth in his voice, but his natural vocals aren’t bad and he doesn’t overreach or make his singing the focal point of the show. Some of the best moments were his harmonizing with backup singers Julie Delgado and Melanie Taylor, particularly on “All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye.” Bottom line: You don’t get the impression that he’s up there faking it; there’s soul buried under the sheen.

The Mayer catalog is essentially split between girl-baiting sensual oozers and smooth blues, resulting in a largely tame but undeniably classy performance. He’s not up there humping the mic stand or blowing kisses; he’s making awkward faces as he wails on his guitar in loose-fitting gray pants. He arranged the set in perfect stylistic balance to please almost any stripe of fan. Although any diehard holdovers from his acoustic troubadour beginnings may not have been satiated by a mere two-song interlude, it was a particular treat, as he debuted an untitled tune he’d just written (“Everything you’ll ever be/ You already are to me”) and played a truly engaging arrangement of Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” with his own “3X5″ sandwiched inside.

John Mayer :: 03.01 :: Milwaukee, WI

Those unfamiliar with his material got plenty of kick-downs, as Mayer led the band into a portion of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” at the end of “Half Of My Heart” and ended the set with a fierce “Message In A Bottle” jam that bled into “Why Georgia.” However, it was tough to get your head around his rendition of “Crossroads.” It’s a blues Holy Grail that Mayer hasn’t earned the right to sip from, particularly in this hair-gel glossy arrangement and with a super-cheesy LED “psychedelic” backdrop. Still, Mayer’s guitar solos were scorching.

Mayer’s instrumental chops are admittedly derivative, mimicking Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan most blatantly, but he’s not just another pretty guitar-solo face – the guy can play. A couple of sharp duels with David Ryan Harris and ex-Pretender Robbie McIntosh (who also provided some outstanding slide work) proved to be highlights of the set, but there was no question as to who was the star at any point, and mutual admiration beamed from all their faces. He saved his best stuff for the final song of the night, “Gravity,” leaving no doubt that once the pop pinup/tabloid bull’s eye gig dries up he’s got a lot to offer as a guitar hero. The performance was enough to make me believe that deep down, that is what he’s really after.

Michael Franti & Spearhead opened the show and positively made the most of their hour slot. Franti was among the audience for a good third of the show, whether strumming an acoustic from the stands or bringing all the kiddies (and a few somewhat older kiddies) onstage for the sing-along finale of “Say Hey (I Love You).” This guy knows how to get a crowd pumped up and feeling like part of the show. I’d only caught a couple of disruptive guest appearances by Franti before, so this was an eye-opener of a set. Brimming with positivity and charisma that more than made up for the somewhat run-of-the-mill tunes (except the aforementioned “Say Hey;” that thing deserves its hit-single status), Spearhead is a party with a message that the world can use right about now.

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John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

John Mayer

Michael Franti & Spearhead

Michael Franti & Spearhead

John Mayer Tour Dates :: John Mayer News :: John Mayer Concert Reviews

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