Miers on Music by Jeff Miers

Zeppelin Fighters of the Stone Age

Not sure I could've dreamed up a cooler band then Them Crooked Vultures.

Foo Fighter Dave Grohl back behind the kit, right where he was with Nirvana. Queens of the Stone Age guitarist/vocalist Josh Homme doing his weird and wonderful thing. And Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist/arranger John Paul Jones laying down the low-end.

 It seems too good to be true, but it isn't. On November 17th, this supergroup will release its debut album, and it is killer, top to bottom. There will be a tour, too, but no word of anything in our neighborhood yet.

Check this out, and get psyched!

Weezer and Weezy

Are mash-ups for meatheads? And should Rivers Cuomo be putting Lil Wayne jams on Weezer albums?
Apparently, these freaks celebrating Halloween at the Fillmore don't have any problem with it. Check it out. Some rough langauge, by the way.

Yoko, the Plastic Ono Band and me

I once had the pleasure of interviewing Yoko Ono. Must admit, I was absolutely terrified going in, to the point where my mouth was dry and my hands were shaking. And yes, it was right around happy hour time, and it was a Friday, but I assure you, that had nothing to do with it. I was scared because, as a lifeling, hardcore, near maniacal Beatles fan, Ono had become a creature of myth to me. When you actually meet the myth, it can be a little... well, weird. And disappointing. And sometimes, completely awful.

As it turns out, Ono could not have been more hospitable. Warm, funny, charming, and incredibly forthcoming about her life with John Lennon, the time with Yoko still ranks as my personal favorite among the interviews I've conducted over the years.

Of course, Yoko is not famous simply for being "the wife of Beatle John." She was already a formidable presence as artist, Fluxus group founding member, and raving avant-gardist by the time she bumped into the then-married, subrurban-dwelling pile of drugged-up frustration that was Lennon. Musically, Ono was way ahead of her time. She prefigured the primal howling and art-rock hybridizations of bands like Can and Neu!, can be heard echoed in works by Brian Eno and David Bowie, is all over Bjork's stuff, and imagined rather early on the collage/cut-and-paste ethic that would inform arsty types like Beck and the more creative arm of hip-hop as well.

Now, Yoko has reformed the Plastic Ono Band, a ballsy move in a career full of ballsy moves. That name comes with an awful lot of baggage, but it's Yoko's baggage, and she's entitled to do with it what she likes. What she did with it, actually, is create a wonderful new album, "Between My Head and the Sky," and earn herself the most unanimously positive reviews of her career on both sides of the pond.

Tonight, (Thursday 11/5) Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band will perform on Jimmy Fallon. In the meantime, check out this freakshow.

Cool new band alert

This year's CMJ Festival in New York City, which took place two weeks ago, generated more new band buzz than Austin's SXSW has in quite some time. One of the group's feted by the industry movers and shakers and music press alike was the UK quartet the Answering Machine, a band so mighty, apparently, that it was able to convince the normally uber-snarky British tastemaker rag NME to drop the attitude.

"Perfect pop songs... a fantastic debut", opined NME's scribe. Of course, that magazine said pretty much the same thing about Pete Doherty, and we all know how that ended up.

Anyway, the Answering machine - even though the band's name is kinda lame, let's face it, but "the Beatles" was already taken - is a pretty cool outfit, and the single being pushed right now, "Obviously Cold", is obviously cool, too.

Check it out.

Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world....

Well, it's about time. Forty years later, and finally, we've got the whole shebang, the entirety of the now nearly mythical 1969 performance by the Rolling Stones inside Madison Square Garden, on a bill that included sets from guests B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner.

No self-respecting rock fan has a blank space on their shelf where the Stones' "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out! belongs, but even if you have the record in pristine vinyl ediition, imported deluxe CD, or remastered digital version, you haven't yet fully removed "Yer Ya Ya's" from wherever it is you keep them during daylight hours.

ABCKO marks the 40th anniversary of "Ya Ya's" with the release - today - of a glorious 3-CD/1-DVD box set. No lie, I nearly drooled all over myself when I opened this thing, observed the hardcover book stuffed with photos of, and reflective critical writings on, the historic event, dug through the extra goodies - a replica of the original promotional poster for the event, a commemorative guitar pick, a little packet of Stones stickers - and finally, sat down to fully absorb the music. Whoa. They really did it right this time.

Disc one presents the "Ya Ya's" album as it originally appeared, but in a brilliantly remastered form that clears away decades of audio brambles and brush. You now feel like you are sitting dead center, ten rows back, at the Garden on November 27th, 1969, watching as Mick, Keith and co. presented the blueprint for the stadium rock show. (This - the full touring spectacle, with lights, massive PA, the whole deal - had never been done prior to the Stones' '69 tour.)

Disc two presents the songs from the show that didn't make the album cut, and have only been available previously as lousy-sounding bootlegs. Now, you can hear the "acoustic set" numbers - "Prodigal Son," "You Gotta Move" - as well as "Under My Thumb," "I'm Free" amd "I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in all their swampy, sloppy glory.

Disc three presents the opening sets from King and Ike & Tina Turner. Both acts were at the peak of their respective games, and hearing the music that so greatly influenced the Stones in this context offers a new slant on "Ya Ya's."

Disc four is a DVD of concert footage shot by the Maysles Brothers, and includes the "acoustic set" as well as a truly scorching "I'm Free."

"Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" was already widely held to be the finest live album in rock history. With the release of this anniversary edition, that's no longer a matter of conjecture.

Here's a little tease to get you psyched for your trip to the record store.

Targeting Pearl Jam

Slate.com has posted a piece entitled "The Last Sellouts," written by someone calling him/herself Jonah Weiner. The gist of the piece suggests that Pearl Jam has betrayed all of the principles it has long claimed to adhere to in order to forge some sort of Satanic alliance with Target .

That chain of stores will be selling the band's new album, "Backspacer," beginning on Sunday, a fact that Weiner posits as proof-positive that Eddie Vedder is a flannel-clad fake who claims to be a liberal while freely frolicking with massive capitalist corporations.

This is so bogus that it boggles the mind. Here are only a few of the reasons why Weiner is being a bit of a weenie:

- "Backspacer" is the first Pearl Jam album to come out minus a record label. The Monkeywrench imprint is Pearl Jam's own indie boutique. All of the previous Pearl Jam albums came out beneath the Sony umbrella. Isn't Sony a much bigger corporate behemoth than Target?

- Target has an "exclusive" on "Backspacer." But not really. iTunes will have the record on Sunday as well. And Pearl Jam is indeed doing trade with independent record stores across the country. The folks at Buffalo's own Record Theater told this writer earlier today that they will be offering "Backspacer" for sale on Sunday.

- The idea that somehow innocent Pear Jam fans will be lured into Target and find it necessary to make a whole buncha "impulse buys" on Sunday is laughable. It's incredibly easy to walk in, grab the disc, pay for it, and leave. I did just that when AC/DC "forced" me to brave entry into WalMart to buy their recent "Black Ice" album. I emerged unscathed, with nothing but "Black Ice" in my bag.

- "Backspacer" is an absolutely incredible record. That fact trumps concern over the mode of dissemination, rather handily.

Read Weiner's article here. Listen to "Backspacer" in streaming audio here.   

Casting Pearls in Toronto

Just did a little quick (and totally guess-timated) math, and I believe I've seen something like 2,000 rock shows in my life. So far. On Friday, inside Toronto's gorgeous Molson Ampitheatre, Pearl Jam offered up a concert that crashed straight into my personal top 10. It was poignant, transcendent, a holy experience. And it was stuffed full of surprises.

The first of them came early. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists were scheduled to open the show, but showed up minus their singer and namesake. Leo, it seems, had passport troubles at the border - "As in, he forgot to bring his," said Eddie Vedder, as he took the stage to announce that pearl Jam would in effect open up for themselves, with a little help from the leader-less Pharmacists. Vedder then sat down with an acoustic guitar and crushed us with beautiful readings of Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain" and "The Needle and the Damage Done." The people who'd come early were freaking out. They freaked more when Vedder announced PJ's Mike McReedy would play a few songs solo - one he'd written for his daughter. Stone Gossard got in on the act with an inspired version of Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory".

Vedder then left the Pharmacists (with McReedy) through a short set highlighted by a blistering version of the Stooges' "Search and Destroy." All of this, and the Pearl Jam set proper hadn't even begun.

When it did... well, let's just say feelings were running high, and they stayed that way for the entirety of the 2 and 1/2 hour set. Here's the set list: 

 Of The Girl, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Why Go, Brain Of J, I Am Mine, The Fixer, Given To Fly, Off He Goes, Even Flow, Unemployable, Faithful, Down, Got Some, 1/2 Full, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl – Sleater Kinney), Do The Evolution

1st encore: Inside Job, Wishlist, Black, Alive

2nd encore:Small Town, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Porch (during which Ed goes into the crowd!), Rockin’ In The Free World

Visit this cool Pearl Jam fan site for some goodies from the show.

 

Lou Barlow says 'Goodnight'

Talk about your late-career resurgences. Lou Barlow has been pretty busy of late, what with the reformation of Dinosaur Jr., his work oversseing the remastering and re-releasing of several Sebadoh albums, and the concurrent pace of his own solo career. Somehow, barlow has managed to complete a new record amidst all the activity, and it's sounding like some of the best stuff the guy's ever done. The record is called "Goodnight Unknown", and the first in a series of videos relating to the album is right here. Merge records will release "Goodnight Unknown on October 10th.

The other 'Jam' band (Pearl, that is)

Pearl jam's new album, "Backspacer," comes out on September 20th. The band plays Molson Ampitheatre in Toronto on Friday, and word has it that much of the new material - written and recorded quickly over the past several months - will be a featured part of the band's live set. Yay!!!

Get psyched by watching this very cool ten-minute documentary on the making of the new record.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=61913944

Perry + Trey + Fishman = mind-melt

Well, Thursday - certainly qualifies as one of the best days ever. I spent the afternoon with Joe Perry of Aerosmith, was treated to a private playing of his forthcoming solo album, pinched myself repeatedly for a few hours, and then headed to the Phish show at Darien Lake.  There, I ended up sitting next to drummer John Fishman's dad. Phish was simply amazing, too, turning in a performance that, in my estimation, justified the five-year layoff from touring. 

Some bad news, though. Perry had hinted during our hang that the Aerosmith tour - on hold following the nasty spill Steven Tyler took on stage last week, which left him with a broken shoulder and a badly banged-up noggin - was in serious jeopardy. "You'll probably find out before I do if it gets cancelled," he laughed, though Perry was visibly distraught about the prospect, not taking it lightly at all. 

Turns out he was right. By the time I got home from the Phish show, the press release was in my mailbox. The whole Aerosmith tour has been shelved. Perry, however, is planning to tour with his own band in the interim. I'll keep you posted on the details. 

If you purchased Aerosmith tickets for Cleveland, or Toronto, or even NYC - wherever you were planning to travel - get your refund at the point of purchase. If you went to Phish, please share your thoughts, and post a complete set-list, if you have it.