Results tagged “jackwhite”

Playing at... – Trailer – Reviews

Portugal The Man isn't a country or a person; it's a classic 3-piece band from Alaska whose latest album, Church Mouth, is a collection of indie music with a rich classic rock flavor. Their website says that bands referenced on the disc include the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the White Stripes, the Mars Volta and Santana, and... yep, we can hear all of those in there. Especially the White Stripes, since lead singer John Baldwin Gourley sounds quite a bit like Jack White.

by William J. Hayes

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested.

I can't believe this year is over. It has come and gone in a haze of concerts, martinis, deadlines, endings, beginnings, highs and lows.

My preview for Saturday night's Dylan show at the Wachovia Spectrum was pretty enthusiastic, but I'll level with you: I'd heard the stories, and I wasn't expecting all that much from his performance. But even with my relatively low expectations, I was still a little disappointed. A number of times during Dylan's set, I thought I'd stumbled into an easy listening/soft rock concert by mistake, or that he'd been replaced by a froggy William Shatner. He talk-croaked his way through most of his songs, and his band seemed so concerned with not up-staging him that they barely played at all. As Dylan hunched, shuffling and swaying, over his keyboard and groaned out the barely decipherable lyrics, the guitarists mostly just quietly jangled in the background, while the drummer politely tapped his drums to keep time. Only at the ends of certain songs, when Dylan was done "singing," did the guys kick it up a notch and really bang out a great outro. More than once I found myself yawning and checking the time.

Guess who Phillyist is going to see Saturday night? BOB FREAKING DYLAN, that's who!! Sure, he's getting old, and we hear he's not always the best live performer anymore, what with his froggy voice and all, but the guy is a living legend - one of the greatest, if not the greatest, songwriters of our time; a man who changed rock and roll and folk music forever; whose protest songs actually made things happen; whose discography is a litany of classic albums. We've got his CD from this year, Modern Times, and while it's no Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the Tracks, it's definitely a good album, and in the same sort of wry, old-fashioned, bluesy style as his recent releases.

More local music news: Dr. Dog has a busy autumn ahead. On September 14th, they'll begin touring with The Raconteurs and on September 12th, their new EP will be released.

We'd like to be evacuated from our desks right now. It just doesn't look like it'll happen. Sigh.

The best thing about waiting till late in the afternoon to bring you Elite -ist? Even more stories to share!

Brendan Benson plays at World Cafe Live tonight with The Greenhornes, whose recent EP, East Grand Blues, was produced by Benson. Benson's Alternative to Love is one of the year's better albums, providing all of the power hooks and choruses that our indie pop loving hearts could desire.

Last night was our first foray into WXPN's World Cafe Live, and we'd just like to say it is a delightful venue for seeing a show. The downstairs space is simultaneously spacious and intimate; the two separate stages are so well insulated that unless you wander out into the common areas you'd never know there was more than one concert going on; and the table service was friendly, attentive, and carried out by an adorable wait staff - all of whom looked like indie musicians themselves. (Knowing XPN's dedication to local and independent artists, there's a good chance they all independent musicians). Kudos, XPN, for a fab setup.

Brendan Benson's Alternative to Love is one of the year's best albums, so it's understandable that we got a little happy when we heard that Jack White's buddy is coming to World Cafe Live on September 27.