Q: What’s Worse Than Being Known as "The Baby Born at Woodstock"? A: Sitting Through a Six-CD Set of Material from the Original Festival (Note: Alternate Answer "The Baby Born at Woodstock ‘94" Is Also Acceptable)

By David Nadelle on

As for the headline above, of course I jest. Any festival that has kept television, movie, and documentary directors afloat with easy peasy '60s stock footage choices and kept this guy upper New York state’s most eligible dairy farm bachelor from the festival's end to his death in 1973 can't be that bad. Besides, "The Baby Born at Woodstock" is a misnomer. There were two births at Woodstock. And four miscarriages.

Woodstock is still the most famous of music festivals, and as such it gets its fair shake of kudos and stick for being one of the countercultural iconic events of the 20th century. Both fairly and unfairly pigeon-holed as unwashed hippie nonsense, Woodstock featured a slew of performances that, while dated by time that has since passed, simply made the times. It provides one of the best possible time-capsule reminiscences from an era gone by, and of an era constantly recycled and mined for inspiration, nostalgia, and ridicule. The time is again ripe to reminisce over the festival's music and who else but the historical evaluators at Rhino could revisit it up to the gills? No one, that’s who! On August 18 Rhino will release Woodstock. 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm, a box set containing 77 songs of the best performances from every artist who appeared at the festival in chronological order of appearance. This is all part of Rhino’s 40-year anniversary celebration of the original "3 Days of Peace & Music." Available already are reissues of the Music from the Original Soundtrack and More and Woodstock Two albums which coincided with the re-release of Michael Wadleigh’s epic documentary Woodstock (1970) by Warner Home Video.

Some recordings of Woodstock appearances have become the stuff of legend (Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, The Who's killer Abbie Hoffman-bashing set, um, Sha Na Na) or damned near inescapable for any flashback victim, while many more have never been released or appreciated fully (Quill, Bert Sommer, Incredible String Band). The Rhino package set offers a "considerable amount of ancillary material sprinkled throughout the discs -- stage announcements, lysergic babble, the sounds of rain, a cameo appearance by Abbie Hoffman, and the graciousness of Max Yasgur's address to the crowd heard for the first time in its entirety" -- and setlists reflect the definite order of the performances that went down in Bethel, NY, a source of conflicting opinion and frustration in the past. Housing six CDs, Woodstock. 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm is the most definitive audio document of the "aquarian exposition" of August 17-19, 1969 yet produced.

Here are the tracks and helpful asterisk legend. Blame the hippies. Especially if they have typically bonkers names like "Wavy Gravy" or "Chip Monck." Breathe deep but don’t take the green acid. Or was it the brown acid that was bad? Best not to take any acid, flower children…

Disc 1:

1. Richie Havens - "Handsome Johnny"
2. Richie Havens - "Freedom (Motherless Child)"
3. John Morris - "Choppity Choppity"
4. Sweetwater - "Look Out"
5. Sweetwater - "Two Worlds" *
6. Bert Sommer - "Jennifer" *
7. Bert Sommer - "And When It's Over" *
8. Bert Sommer - "Smile" ‹ Bert Sommer *
9. John Morris - "There Goes Marilyn!"
10. Tim Hardin - "Hang On to a Dream" *
11. Tim Hardin - "Simple Song of Freedom" *
12. John Morris - "Flat Blue Acid"
13. Ravi Shankar - "Raga Puriya-Dhanashri/Gat In Sawarital" *
14. Melanie - "Momma Momma" *
15. Melanie - "Beautiful People"
16. Melanie - "Birthday of the Sun"
17. Arlo Guthrie - "Coming into Los Angeles" ***
18. Arlo Guthrie - "Wheel of Fortune" *
19. Arlo Guthrie - "Every Hand in the Land" *
20. John Morris - "All You Funny People"

Disc 2:

1. Joan Baez - "Joe Hill"
2. Joan Baez - "Sweet Sir Galahad"
3. Joan Baez - "Hickory Wind"*
4. Joan Baez w/ Jeffrey Shurtleff - "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man"
5. John Morris - "Bring Scully His Asthma Pills"
6. John Morris "Insulin" & Quill Intro
7. Quill - "They Live the Life" *
8. Quill - "That's How I Eat" *
9. Chip Monck - "I Understand Your Wife Is Having a Baby"
10. Country Joe McDonald - "Donovan's Reef" *
11. Country Joe McDonald - "The 'Fish' Cheer"/"I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag"
12. Santana - "Persuasion"
13. Santana - "Soul Sacrifice"
14. John B. Sebastian - "How Have You Been"
15. John B. Sebastian - "Rainbows All Over Your Blues"
16. John B. Sebastian - "I Had a Dream"
17. Incredible String Band - "The Letter" *
18. Incredible String Band - "When You Find Out Who You Are" *
19. Chip Monck - "She Is Lost"

Disc 3:

1. Chip Monck - "We're in Pretty Good Shape"
2. Canned Heat - "Going Up the Country"
3. Canned Heat - "Woodstock Boogie" **
4. Chip Monck - "The Brown Acid Is Not Specifically Too Good"
5. Mountain - "Blood of the Sun" ***
6. Mountain - "Theme for an Imaginary Western" ***
7. Mountain - "For Yasgur's Farm" *
8. Chip Monck - "For Those of You Who Have Partaken of the Green Acid"
9. Jerry Garcia & Country Joe McDonald - "Green Acid Advice"
10. Grateful Dead - "Dark Star" *
11. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Green River"
12. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Bad Moon Rising" *
13. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "I Put a Spell on You"

Disc 4:

1. Janis Joplin - "Work Me, Lord"
2. Janis Joplin - "Ball and Chain"
3. Sly & The Family Stone - Medley: "Dance to the Music"/"Music Lover"/"I Want to Take You Higher"
4. Abbie Hoffman - "The Politics of the Situation"
5. The Who - "Amazing Journey" *
6. The Who - "Pinball Wizard" *
7. Abbie Hoffman vs. Pete Townshend
8. The Who - "We're Not Gonna Take It" **
9. Jefferson Airplane - "The Other Side of This Life" *
10. Jefferson Airplane - "Somebody to Love"
11. Jefferson Airplane - "Won't You Try"/ "Saturday Afternoon"
12. Grace Slick - "We Got a Whole Lot of Orange"
13. Jefferson Airplane - "Volunteers"
14. Wavy Gravy - "Breakfast in Bed for 400,000"
15. John Morris - "It Just Keeps Goin'"
16. Max Yasgur Speaks

Disc 5:

1. Joe Cocker - "Feelin' Alright" *
2. Joe Cocker - "Let's Go Get Stoned"
3. Joe Cocker - "With a Little Help from My Friends"
4. The Rainstorm
5. Country Joe & The Fish - "Rock & Soul Music"
6. Country Joe & The Fish - "Love" *
7. Country Joe & The Fish - "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" *
8. Country Joe & The Fish - "Summer Dresses" *
9. Country Joe & The Fish - "Silver and Gold" *
10. Country Joe & The Fish - "Rock & Soul Music" (Reprise) *
11. Johnny Winter - "Leland Mississippi Blues" *
12. Johnny Winter - "Mean Town Blues"
13. Blood Sweat & Tears - "You've Made Me So Very Happy" *

Disc 6:

1. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"
2. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Guinnevere"
3. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Marrakesh Express"
4. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "4 + 20"
5. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young - "Sea of Madness"
6. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young - "Wooden Ships"
7. The Butterfield Blues Band - "No Amount of Loving" *
8. The Butterfield Blues Band - "Love March"
9. The Butterfield Blues Band - "Everything's Gonna Be Alright"
10. Sha Na Na - "Get a Job" *
11. Sha Na Na - "At the Hop"
12. Sha Na Na - "Get a Job" (Reprise) *
13. Jimi Hendrix - "The Star Spangled Banner"/"Purple Haze"/"Woodstock Improvisation"
14. Chip Monck - "Woodstock Farewell"

* previously unissued (never before released)

** previously unissued full-length version (previously released on a Woodstock title in edited form)

*** previously unissued Woodstock recording (presenting the actual Woodstock performances here for the first time)

Liberty Spikes, Power Chords, Studded Belts, Oh My! Hey Chicagoans, Riot Fest Is Here with Screeching Weasel, NOFX, and The Dead Milkmen

By Annapocalypse on Aug 7 2009

There is isn’t enough punk rock on Tiny Mix Tapes. And I’m not talking about whatever “lo-fi” flavor of the week is claiming that they totally grew up on a diet of Black Flag. I’m thinking more along the lines of those classic bands that carried our anarchistic teenaged hearts through the 80s and 90s. Too busy listening to Wavves to know what I’m talking about? Get a crash course at Chicago’s Riot Fest, taking place October 7-11 at these Chicago venues: Congress Theater, Subterranean, The Metro, The Beat Kitchen, Double Door, and The Cobra Lounge.

The lineup is as follows: Screeching Weasel, NOFX, Alkaline Trio, Naked Raygun, Cock Sparrer, Murder City Devils, Butthole Surfers, The Dead Milkmen, 88 Fingers Louie, Rights of The Accused, Riverboat Gamblers, Pegboy, No Empathy, Youth Brigade, Teenage Bottlerocket, Lower Class Brats, Teen Idols, Off with Their Heads, Wax, Strike Anywhere, The Arrivals, The Aggrolites, Shot Baker, Flatfoot 56, Fear City, The Frankl Project, The House That Gloria Vanderbilt, Crime in Stereo, Polar Bear Club, Ruiner, Anxiety High, and others to be announced soon.

Tickets are on sale now, but five-day passes are sold out. Click here to purchase three-day passes and individual show tickets. You can also view the schedule right here. What’s that? You don’t live in Chicago? Well, don’t worry; Riot Fest West is taking over the West Coast from November 12-14. Stay tuned for more details. Up the punx!

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys to Embark on Winter Tour with 50% Less Members Than Usual

By Nobodaddy on Aug 7 2009

Dan Auerbach is apparently sick of all of the aggravation and pressure and headaches and crowded quarters and groupie-theft and ego-fights that inevitably ensue when touring with such a garishly large and unwieldy ensemble as The Black Keys. So he’s decided to do something radically different and take his lonesome solo act on the road. And, hey! What a clever bugger! Because, see, the tour, which includes shows at New York City’s Webster Hall, Nashville’s Cannery Ballroom and Philadelphia’s Theater of the Living Arts, is arriving on the heels of Auerbach’s Nonesuch solo debut, Keep It Hid, recently released on Nonesuch for the Nonesuch label. The album, out now on Nonesuch, received that good-old-fashioned praise (the kind that Nonesuch-released records usually receive) from The New York Times, NPR’s Fresh Air, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and even Pitchfork, making Tiny Mix Tapes look like total FOOLS for not reviewing and “praising it” too, apparently (it got a 6.2, by the way).

Keep It Hid was produced and engineered by the lonesome Auerbach at his studio Akron Analog and features him playing drums, guitar, percussion, and keyboards. Its sound, a reaction to the overblown, overcrowded, overproduced, overanalyzed-by-obsessive-critics-and-fans, and overcomplicated “electric blues folk fuck rock” of typical Black Keys records; features songs in the fresh and much-more-palatable “acoustic/electric blues folk funk rock” style. Other guests include Jessica Lea Mayfield, who sings on the track “When the Night Comes,” Bob Cesare, who plays drums on “Whispered Words” (a song originally written by Auerbach’s father), and even Auerbach’s uncle James Quine, who contributes vocal harmony and electric guitar on the track “Street Walkin.” Speaking briefly about the vibe of the record, Auerbach stated, “I wanted a live, organic sound. Nothing was too plotted or planned, just a lot of spontaneity.” The record was mixed by Auerbach’s buddy Mark Neill at Neill’s Soil of the South studio... and released by Nonesuch... Wilco’s label.

Dates:
11.05.09 - Columbus, OH -Newport Music Hall
11.06.09 - Detroit, MI - The Majestic Theater
11.07.09 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theater
11.08.09 - Montreal, QC - Le National
11.09.09 - Boston, MA - The Paradise
11.11.09 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
11.12.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Theater of the Living Arts
11.13.09 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
11.14.09 - Chapel Hill, NC - Cat’s Cradle
11.16.09 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
11.17.09 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
11.18.09 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues
11.20.09 - Memphis, TN - Minglewood Hall
11.21.09 - Nashville, TN - Cannery Ballroom
12.03.09 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
12.04.09 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
12.06.09 - Bloomington, IN - The Bluebird
12.08.09 - Newport, KY - Southgate House
12.09.09 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues

The Books Tour, Premiere New Songs/Video Presentations at Upcoming Dates, Call Reading Rainbow’s LeVar Burton Just to Say Hey

By Mike McHugh on Aug 6 2009

How many books do you think you’ve read since The Books’ 2005 effort Lost and Safe (TMT Review )? 50? Maybe a bit more? Is 50 too conservative of a ballpark for all you Joe and Jane Colleges out there? Well, no matter what your reading habits may be, I’m sure all you beautiful butterflies have done a whole lot of growing in the four years since the dulcet collage of a new Books album emanated from your speakers. Sure, their teeny tiny EP of elevator music dropped in 2006, but it’s been far too long since you had yourself a fresh Books LP to plonk onto/into the stereo. Lucky for you, then, that The Books have got a whole mess of new material, and they want you to hear it!

Unfortunately, The Books aren’t releasing a new album just yet. But on the bright side, fans can expect to hear a whole mess of new pickin’ and pastchin’ on the band’s upcoming tour. Along with the new tunes, The Books went to the trouble of trudging through hours and hours of found video to prepare a series of video collages to accompany their live set. Awww, ain’t that sweet of them? While the new pieces are all eventually going to be part of a new album, right now fans will just have to get all that good Bookery in person or in, you know, a book. Either way, you’re going to learn something and probably get kind of gassy.
08.14.09 - Raleigh, NC - The Lincoln Theatre
08.15.09 - Asheville, NC - Diana Wortham Theatre
09.15.09 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church Sanctuary *
09.16.09 - Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum *
09.17.09 - Columbus, OH - Wexner Center *
09.18.09 - Grand Rapids, MI - Ladies Literary Club *
09.19.09 - Urbana, IL - Krannert Center *
09.20.09 - St Louis, MO - The Luminary Center for the Arts *
09.22.09 - Atlanta, GA - Eyedrum
09.23.09 - Charlotte, NC - Visulite Theatre
09.25.09 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern *
09.26.09 - Princeton, NJ - Terrace F. Club *
11.25.09 - Vancouver, BC - The Cultch

* Lymbyc Systym

Echo and The Bunnymen Record New Album, Play Old Album Ocean Rain in Concert Instead

By Liz Louche on Aug 6 2009

Has Southern rapper Flo Rida’s ubiquitous summer smash “Sugar” -- with its Echo and The Bunnymen-inflected reminder of the female vocalist’s “lips like sugar” and its totally perplexing sample of the Eiffel 65 freak hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” -- got you craving something more original, something more, say, post-punk? That chorus! That lady voice! It’s so saccharine that you really feel that, yes, perhaps her lips do consist entirely of pure cane sugar and possibly some high fructose corn syrup as well. But that’s not what this is about, and by now you can probably figure out the direction this story’s taking. That’s right: Eiffel 65 has been added to the roster for this fall’s All Tomorrow’s Parties in New York State!! Nah, I’m just messing with you guys. Echo and the Bunnymen are releasing a new album. That’s the news.

The band’s most recent output came four years ago with Siberia (TMT Review), but now, on October 13, all that will change with the release of The Fountain! Recorded in Liverpool by Scottish producer John McLaughlin, the album promises “pulsating rock anthems and Bowie-ish pop” (according to the press release). Ooh -- pulsating! But wait -- there’s more! After some very popular appearances at London’s Camden Crawl and South by Southwest, the band has been booked to play the All Points West festival in New Jersey alongside MGMT, Fleet Foxes, Jay-Z, Arctic Monkeys, and Coldplay.

AND, in extra-special news, the Bunnymen are now booking several North American dates, during which they will play their seminal 1985 album Ocean Rain in its entirety. A few confirmed dates are listed below alongside UK dates, with more on the way

10.12.09 - Wolverhampton, UK - Wulfrun Hall
10.13.09 - Manchester, UK - Ritz
10.14.09 - Glasgow, UK - Barrowlands
10.15.09 - London, UK - Roundhouse
10.20.09 - Toronto, ON - Queen Elizabeth Theater
10.22.09 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
10.24.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Nokia Theatre
12.12.09 - Oxford, UK - O2 Academy
12.18.09 - Liverpool, UK - O2 Academy

Man Searching for Bigfoot Stumbles Upon Something Weirder: Matt Valentine in the Deep Woods of Vermont Having Tea with Thurston Moore, Michael Jackson, and Sasquatch; MV & EE Ready Barn Nova

By Jon Lorenz on Aug 6 2009

As you might know just from hearing about them, MV & EE seem to have their own language, as most free-lovin' hippies do. If you don't pay close attention, you just might lose track of them and their many backing bands (The Bummer Road, The Golden Road, Medicine Show, etc.). MV & EE with The Golden Road will be releasing their new record, Barn Nova, on October 13 via Ecstatic Peace!.

The record was recorded in what MV calls "Spectrasound," using his production technique to "place tones dancing all around the stereo sound field." This time around, The Golden Road is made up of many key players, including J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) and Jeremy Earl (Woods)... plus some guys named Doc Dunn, Mike Smith, and Justin Pizzoferrato. As tends to happen, MV & EE "share a wealth of ideas including a serious reverence and desire to upgrade/expand the classic-rock idiom." Inspired by the likes of Jerry Garcia, John Cipollina, and Tom Verlaine, Matt Valentine displays an insatiable appetite for varying idioms with an eye on serious exploration and development. Meanwhile, Elder's harmony leads recall the glorious twinned guitar lines of Canned Heat's Al Wilson & Henry Vestine at their most potent.

This will be the group's millionth release, but the band's fourth major release for the Ecstatic Peace! label.

Barn Nova tracklisting:

1. Feelin' Fine
2. Get Right Church
3. Snapperhead
4. Summer Magic
5. Wandering Nomad
6. Bedroom Eyes
7. Fully Tanked
8. You Feel

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