JamBase

Sat Eye Candy: Cat Stevens

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:09:00 PST

NICE TO HAVE YOU BACK, ROADSINGER

Today, like every other day,
We wake up empty and frightened.
Don't open the door to the study.
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

We woke with this Rumi poem playing on repeat in our heads. And then, in a flash, it occurred to us what the perfect soundtrack for such poetic philosophizing might be - Cat Stevens. These days he goes by the name Yusuf Islam but the brave, yearning heart of what makes him tick is beating very, very strong. His new album, Roadsinger: To Warm You Through The Night, is a slow stunner (JamBase review), and it's sparked us to explore his back catalog anew. And folks, there's much we need to hear today, now, in this tumultuous moment we find ourselves in.

Like Marley's "Three Little Birds," there's something prayerful and innocent about our opener. If there's a gentler, more quietly blessed way to wake up then we haven't found it.

It's a beautiful thing to see him come back to his old songs, finding a way to fit them into his more pronounced spiritual path of recent years, realizing the great stockpiles of understanding and truth hiding in his "pop songs." To wit, this thoughtful stroll through one of his best from 2007.

Love is a hard thing in his work. It's something that requires much of us, demanding a patience and depth of understanding few of us can muster most of the time. And sometimes he distilled this concept into something wonderfully tough like this blues-tinged jewel from his 1976 Earth Tour.

His recent return to recording in the past few years has shown him to be a vigorous, funny, fiercely engaged musician with still a lot to say in his songs. This is a primo performance of one of the standouts off 2006's An Other Cup.

Here's a dark turn from the new album delivered with restrained style on Jools Holland grand BBC program.

And it isn't always dark clouds and naval gazing. Sometimes he just tossed off a killer ditty that reminds you what a fine nuts 'n' bolts composer he can be.

Stevens' music will always be inexorably liked to the cult film Harold And Maude, which seems to touch a nerve in each subsequent generation where liking the movie lets one know they're amongst fellow freaks. Here's Doug Martsch of Built to Spill performing Stevens' centerpiece tune from the soundtrack.

The highway our feet travel may be long, rocky and full of unexpected twists and dead ends, but if we've tucked the right songs into our bindle we'll be alright. It's a true joy to have this man making music again. We conclude with the title tune from his latest offering and his 2006 Nobel Peace Price concert performance of perhaps his best known anthem.

And don't forget, you can eyeball video sweetness 24/7 with JamBase TV.

Electric Daisy Carnival | 06.26 - 06.27 | L.A.

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:20:00 PST
Words by: Chris Clark | Images by: Ceasar Sebastian & Rukes

Electric Daisy Carnival :: 06.26.09 & 06.27.09 :: L.A. Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Park :: Los Angeles, CA

Electric Daisy Carnival 2009 by Sebastian
It's tough to place a finger on where to begin to explain exactly what transpired at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at Exposition Park in Los Angeles. For two nights, the 13th Annual Electric Daisy Carnival proved to be not only a colossal collection of some of electronic music's biggest and brightest, but 2009's EDC also secured itself as one of the premier festivals around, period.
Boasting a boisterous and kinetically charged bill that included headliners Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, Thievery Corporation and Groove Armada, along with an eclectic array of electro wizards and bass bumpers (STS9, Pretty Lights, Diplo, Boys Noize, Major Lazer, Mark Farina, LTJ Bukem and several dozen others), EDC provided an astonishingly polished product for 100,000-plus revelers to party well into the early morning. Unlike festivals such as Bonnaroo, Outside Lands and Lollapalooza, EDC focuses solely on one section of the melange of music out there today: electronic. From drum 'n' bass at the Bass Pod stage to trance powerhouses at the Kinetic Field to thick, chest-thumping dubstep at the Neon Garden, if you're into pulsating speaker stacks, big bass and sample enriched sonic soundscapes you didn't leave without all your fancies tickled.
And this is just the music.
Both nights' festivities were spread out over the sprawling urban landscape that surrounds the University of Southern California. It's here, adjacent to the storied history of the USC campus that the mega-stadium Memorial Coliseum sits. Once home to the Los Angeles Summer Games of 1932 and 1984, the Coliseum currently houses the famed USC Trojans football team, and quite honestly, it was rather enjoyable to be seeing tens of thousands of scantily clad trance worshippers congregate on the very field O.J. Simpson and Reggie Bush, amongst many others, once dominated.

Electric Daisy Carnival 2009 by Rukes
After getting out of the cab, the sheer enormity of the surroundings was immediately apparent. Scores of teenagers, some I'd guess as young as 13, were decked out in their ultra colorful garb and candy bracelets. Florescent colors dominated the area, as did an onslaught of teenage girls wearing nothing but skimpy lingerie and knee-highs. Without even the slightest hint of embellishment, I have never seen anything like it. I'm sure it was a teenage boy's dream. Other than these aforementioned jailbaits, scores of chemically altered, enthusiastic pacifier-suckers, dress-all-in-blacks, ravers and even some folks with beards and normal clothing filled the massive complex by the time we arrived around 8 p.m. Once at the colorful gateway, it was time to enter the Bass and not look back.
After I actually made it through security (which was maybe 10 minutes compared to the hours reviewers spoke of last year), a true "Party Like It's 1999" atmosphere arose. I've been to several Phish festivals, I've been to a couple Bonnaroos and I've witnessed countless other music festivals from coast to coast, and not one came close to comparing to the production experienced at EDC 2009. Not even close. Music aside, four out of five stages at the festival were as large or larger than any main stage I'd been to, but it's not just the size of the stages, or even the festival itself, that made it so unequally impressive. Festival organizers Insomniac put extreme emphasis on appealing and stimulating all five senses of the concert going experience (their slogan is "Wide awake since 1993"). The sound at each stage, even the 90,000-seat Kinetic Field stadium, was amazing. Visually, the immense lighting rigs coupled with the giant laser fields proved to be a hallucination-inducing experience without the LSD. There were several points throughout the weekend where I had to close my eyes, reopen them and realize, shit, I didn't take any extracurriculars.
Other than the walk in through the main entrance, the festival was kept rather clean (for that many people), with bathrooms readily available and the vending and alcohol was everywhere. Additionally, Ferris wheels and carnival rides could be found everywhere, including on the lawn of the Coliseum! So, for the thousands and thousands of paying festival goers, EDC made everything top-notch, safe, accessible and clean, exactly what all festivals should take into account when planning and executing a vision.
Friday, 06.26

Electric Daisy Carnival 2009 by Sebastian
Diving into the music, there certainly is plenty to talk about. Friday night, much like Saturday, focused each sub-genre of electronic music at a given stage. For the most part, the Bass Pod, which housed all the drum 'n' bass and a not-so healthy barrage of craziness, I stayed away from. Other than that, our crew split time between the other stages. After showing up just as Nick Catchdubs was firing on all cylinders and Daedelus was just ending his set, we made it over to the Neon Garden for Computer Club, an act I'd never heard of before. After running into him alongside a few Goth kids at our hotel in the early morning, his sound seemed properly fitting to his sheer size. Loud and intense, but super-funky, CC warmed up the early arrivals perfectly for Fake Blood, the man who says of himself, "I make music, and I take your music and do what I want with it. If swallowed seek medical assistance, will stain clothes, will sound spectacular." I mean come on, how do you go wrong with that? Opening with Rusko's Kid Sister's "Pro Nails," segueing into a perfectly placed "Big Pimpin'" into M.I.A.'s "Bamboo Banga" into Santigold's "Creator" immediately immersed Fake Blood, aka Touche' aka Theo Keating's, into a frenzy at the Neon Garden.
For all those people who thought EDC was simply a massive rave, all you would need to do to capably discredit that very notion was go see Fake Blood and then make it over to the Coliseum Kinetic Filed for Thievery Corporation. I'd seen Thievery a few times before and knew what to expect, but still, something about seeing them on that grand stage made this show stand out. Gradually building up from just Rob Garza and Eric Hilton on the decks, Thievery seamlessly transitioned into full band format, adding a new member or two as each song developed. Maybe they didn't notice or maybe they were just enjoying the smooth break, but the so-called "candy kids" were a meandering mass of sweaty souls; a continually enlarging group of glow stick-donning 14-22 year olds, twirling and swirling with each passing rhythm. Honestly, it was quite the sight. Unfortunately, the Thievery set was short lived, as it became time to trek back to the Circuit Grounds for the man of the hour, Pretty Lights.

Electric Daisy Carnival 2009 by Sebastian
Now, unless you're either not paying attention whatsoever or have been hiding from what's "in," you'll surely recognize that name. Having just seen him, along with Kap10 Harris, Morale and Shane King in San Francisco a few weeks prior, I had extremely high expectations for the former bass player of Fort Collins, CO's Listen. Needless to say, myself and a crowd of several thousand gathered for the commencement and the sweat-soaked dancing never stopped. For an hour and a half, PL escalated then exploded EDC with a barrage of mash-ups like Rage Against the Machine's "Bullet in the Head" with Rick Ross' "The Boss" and M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" with "Rump Shaker." Sans the drummer, Derek Smith was a one-man head-banger crew, providing some of the freshest mixes and most crowd pleasing beats EDC saw on Friday. From the front to back, the area was packed and moving; something I figured would translate into a fiery performance from STS9.
Sadly, that never culminated. STS9's Live PA set was the definitive letdown of the weekend. Being one of the last additions to EDC, a DJ intensive mega festival, the band had an impressive opportunity to be just that, impressive, and gain a whole new allegiance of fans in the electronic world. Without question, a full band set would've automatically deterred the masses from stepping foot near STS9 (unless they dropped a Velmer-fueled "Orbital" to open or something along those lines), but the PA set wasn't much better. Opening with the new "Lion" the midnight to 2 a.m. set began in rather average fashion, certainly not the way to hype a late night crowd at an event called the Electric Daisy Carnival. After a fairly slow start, the crowd eventually began to trickle out and head over to the 60,000 person strong attendance at the Coliseum for headliner Paul Oakenfold or over to the Neon Garden for Boys Noize. While there was a nice "Glogli" fit into the setlist, it still lacked the normal punch the band characteristically plays with. Much to be expected, a Michael Jackson appearance arose with a short "Billie Jean" beat, but the anticipation quickly subsided as the vast majority of STS9's crowd started heading for the exit.

STS9 Live PA Set :: EDC 2009 by Rukes
After a little more than an hour and a half of their set, we too left and headed over to the end of Boys Noize. Earlier in the night we'd heard him open with "Thriller" and seemingly, he'd never looked back. His crowd was packed likes pigs in a blanket, as the an onslaught of big-eyed, gaping-grinned attendees bobbed and banged away at the closing minutes of the German electro mind-blower, who made the speakers sing, giving those not at Oakenfold plenty to look forward to on Day 2. While there were a few acts I would've liked to see, most notably Shiny Toy Guns, Day 1 was a complete success, even by the highest of standards.
Undoubtedly, Day 1 of EDC was, at the most basic of levels, a phenomenal social experiment, the likes of which I'd never been a part of before. While so many of the other concert and festival experiences I've encountered felt like social experiments, this first day of EDC proved to be a much grander, more colorful, better planned and supremely executed endeavor, where I never saw a sliver of violence, people that were too far gone or even the slightest inkling of life going wrong. For myself, and the friends that accompanied me, EDC Day 1 was quite the musical, cultural and artistic journey.
Continue reading for Saturday's coverage...
Saturday, 06.27

Electric Daisy Carnival 2009 by Rukes
After one of the premier hotel nights and ensuing pool days I can remember, not to mention 80 degrees and sunshine all day, we headed back to the Coliseum and Exposition Center for Round 2 of EDC. While I anticipated a more raucous crowd than the previous night, I truly had no idea what would be waiting in store for Day 2. What I did know was the Kinetic Field would be full of huge trance/techno/house DJs from start to finish, highlighted by Groove Armada, Kaskade and headliner Paul Van Dyk. For those of you reading this that are into electronic music, surely quite a few of you will have had some of your first electronic experiences with the likes of Paul Van Dyk, Crystal Method, Mark Farina and Roger Sanchez (all who also played Saturday night). For others who caught onto electronic sonic hues a little later, Day 2 also boasted Infected Mushroom live, DJ AM, Major Lazer (like whoa!), Diplo (with a special lady friend to be mentioned later) and Simian Mobile Disco, amongst many other performers. If you'd made it through Friday and the controlled chaos that it was, Saturday was taking the leap to the big leagues.
You had better come prepared.
Luckily for us, there were only four in my crew, and we maintained a group philosophy throughout the duration of EDC's festivities; a logistical and rational means to a greater end of not getting lost and no one losing their shit. Well thankfully, upon arriving on the Coliseum grounds at about 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, we stayed true to sticking together. Put simply, the place was a mad house on Saturday - exponentially crazier, more intense, more people and more nuttiness that Friday seemed to hold in check. Whereas Friday was making it to first base, Saturday was hitting a Grand Slam. But still, EDC and its inhabitants remained in a controlled frenzy. There weren't cops running around (other than choking out one of about a dozen or so kids we saw sneak in), there weren't teenage kids falling out everywhere and there certainly weren't any problems that any of us saw. For all the negative press "raves" get, this event certainly wasn't on par with any of those expectations. Authority and control were there just enough to keep everyone in check and with ample places to rest your legs, hit the bathrooms and get some alcohol, food and water, and any major fall out was avoided.

Electric Daisy Carnival 2009 by Rukes
Upon entering Day 2 of EDC, we first attempted to wander over to LTJ Bukem - not by my choice. Drum 'n' bass was never my thing and if you throw a MC into the mix, my opinion continues to deteriorate. But alas, we decided to head straight to the Neon Garden for Philly bred DJ AM. I love DJ AM. I loved him before he miraculously survived a small plane crash with Travis Barker of Blink 182 and I love him even more after the set he played at EDC. Whether it was his scorching electro remix of Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City," his remix of Caspa's "Where's My Money" or the endless energy throughout his hour set, DJ AM came with his game face on and left the stage with way more people around then when he started. As the crowd rushed towards the front of the stage, AM's production coupled with the startlingly crisp sound and out-of-this-world visuals were one of the defining moments of the festival. If you don't know DJ AM, well, you probably should.
After DJ AM finished making all the young ladies shed whatever clothing they still had on, we headed over to the Kinetic Field for a rather back-in-the-day performance. I had first heard Groove Armada back with "4 Tune Cookie" when I first started seeing Phish in the mid-'90s and it was quite odd but enjoyable to see them perform in front of 50,000 people. Just to sit on the third level of the bleachers towards the back of the stadium and watch as the heaping mass of colors swayed to and fro to some drums-driven electronic was an absolutely amazing sight. It was then that all four of us got the timely opportunity to relax, sit on the bleachers and watch as tens of thousands of people lost their shit to "Get Down." There was something so eerily soothing about that moment, a serene picture with 50,000 people at a heavy electronic show in a massive stadium.

Major Lazer :: EDC 2009 by Sebastian
After a short stint at the main stage, we navigated our way through the ever-exploding crowd to what was possibly the most anticipated set of the festival - Major Lazer. Arriving a little early, we had the chance to catch what was the worst DJ name of the weekend, Bass Weazal. Thankfully, a name doesn't necessarily translate into a person or sound. Bass Weazel was actually mastering the increasingly swelling crowd, enticing the audience with a healthy dose of big bass with a slice of grime. Now, I'm not fully convinced I'd go see him in San Francisco, but hey, he was there, so was I, and we worked it out.
Major Lazer just may have stolen the show. The combination of Switch and Diplo together raging a 90-minute set of all sorts of electronic tones, from dubstep to electro to heart-pounding, was a complete mind-wobbling killing. This was one of those festival sets where you don't even care or think about all the other acts that are playing - you tune in and you get down. With a new album out to support, the duo made their way through choice original cuts like "Pon De Dancefloor" and "Hold the Line" while also sifting through their massive catalogues for a delectable taste of Rusko and even threw a little Michael Jackson in there just for fun. Looking around, it was apparent my face wasn't the only one that was blown by Major Lazer. Everywhere you looked there were sweaty faces, ruffled hair, dirty shins and even a little bit of drool. That's how you can tell it was a good festival set. Before leaving for Crystal Method at the Circuit Grounds, we stuck around for Le Castle Vania, another sleeper set of the festival. I didn't know who this guy was but their Daft Punk suite of "Around the World," "Robot Rock" and "Technologic" had everyone freaking out. Or maybe that was all the consumption.
Regardless, the festival was almost over, but not before a quick stop over at the massively loud, color-filled stage of Crystal Method, where everyone seemed to be dancing and partying even harder (I have no idea how that's possible). A quick glance over at Mark Farina was all that was needed before heading over to the man of the night, the Mad Decent man, Diplo. All I will say about his set is this: It was about as heavy, bass-driven and wild as anything I've seen in a while. Even seeing him on New Year's in San Francisco didn't quite compare. Oh yeah, this recently minted mother that goes by the name of M.I.A. made not one but two appearances alongside a guy who's already impressive production credits are just beginning. Dropping "Paper Planes" as M.I.A. made her night-capping appearance, the crowd roared about as loud as it got all weekend, then, as Justice's "Phantom" hit the speakers, Diplo left and other than a few weird minutes of Simian Mobile Disco, our time at the Electric Daisy Carnival was over.
EDC was not only successful at throwing the biggest party I've seen in this country, but also the most well thought-out, put together and executed gathering I've ever experienced. Even if you aren't that into electronic music you would've had quite the time.
Continue reading for more pics of Electric Daisy Carnival 2009...
Images by: Ceasar Sebastian

Diplo

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Aspects of Physics New Album

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:00:00 PST
Aspects of Physics to release Marginalized Information Forms 3 on July 21

Aspects of Physics
San Diego-based modern music-makers Aspects of Physics are not, as the name might imply, fixated on considerations of science. They're a San Diego-based group that was formed in 1993 and exhibits distinct unhurried minimalism as they blend organic rock and electronic elements in a slew of slow-cooked music stew.
Comparisons to storied Krautrock acts were inevitably drawn but Physics was its own beast, at once loud and subtle, lumbering on to the new millennium with both membership modifications. San Diego native Rob Crow (Pinback, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours et al.) is said to have never really been officially enlisted, but when he consistently showed up guitar-in-hand to make valued contributions at his Physics pals' gatherings, he became an assumed, enduring part of the equation.
MIF3 is the final album in a three-part series by Aspects of Physics � spanning five years, seven members, and countless pieces of individual audio bits and bytes painstakingly pieced together to form the cohesive Marginalized Information Forms series. Whereas part one in the series represented the marriage of electronic and rock sensibilities and part two focused more on their electronic leanings, part three shifts towards the more organic live-rock-band side of the equation. MIF3 returns Aspects of Physics back to their roots of amp stacks and drum kits. Taken as a whole, the MIF series runs the gamut from the bleeps and bloops of synths and computers to the distortion and dynamics of guitars and the human condition.
Track List:
1. Logo (Other)
2. Level 3
3. Unwindings Are Sound
4. Oscilloscape
5. That Which Resists
6. Underclock
7. Default Actions
8. Psyklur
9. Junoverse
10. Swip Melp

Lou Barlow: Album & Tour

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:12:00 PST
Lou Barlow Readies His Solo Release And Preps For Tour

Lou Barlow
On October 6, Merge Records will release Lou Barlow's new album, Goodnight Unknown. In the four years since his career-redefining, mostly acoustic record Emoh, Lou Barlow has reunited with Dinosaur Jr. and reissued three of Sebadoh's classic albums. But as the brilliant new Goodnight Unknown illustrates, he's hardly living in the past. Borrowing the live-band energy of Dinosaur Jr. and the stylistic reach of Sebadoh, Barlow has built on Emoh's full production and written a set of immediate, melodic pop songs that Lou describes as, "a cross between my later work with Folk Implosion and my earlier work with Sebadoh... to my ears, anyway."
From the surging opening track "Sharing" to the surprisingly soulful performances on "The Right," Goodnight Unknown benefits from Barlow's tunefulness and his decision to record the record relatively quickly, with old friends and new. The Melvins' Dale Crover adds inspired drum work throughout, and Goodnight Unknown's urgent sound owes just as much to frequent Barlow collaborator Imaad Wasif (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alaska!). The record's considerable power also stems from the new talents on board, including producer Andrew Murdock and Lisa Germano.
Lou Barlow + The Missingmen will be on tour throughout the fall opening for Dinosaur Jr. The Missingmen are guitarist Tom Watson and drummer Raul Morales. Lou "stole" them from Mike Watt for this tour, and is excited to be bringing you the full band experience of Goodnight Unknown.
Goodnight Unknown Track Listing:
1. Sharing
2. Goodnight Unknown
3. Too Much Freedom
4. Faith In Your Heartbeat
5. The One I Call
6. The Right
7. Gravitate
8. I'm Thinking�
9. One Machine, One Long Fight
10. Praise
11. Take Advantage
12. Modesty
13. Don't Apologize
14. One Note Tone
Lou Barlow + the Missingmen on Tour:
09/30/09 Wed Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, ON
10/03/09 Sat The Middle East Cambridge, MA
10/04/09 Sun Northern Lights Clifton Park, NY
10/07/09 Wed Toad's Place New Haven, CT
10/08/09 Thu 9:30 Club Washington, DC
10/09/09 Fri Theatre of Living Arts (TLA) Philadelphia, PA
10/10/09 Sat Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH
10/11/09 Sun Crofoot Ballroom Pontiac, MI
10/13/09 Tue Majestic Theatre Madison, WI
10/14/09 Wed The Pageant St. Louis, MO
10/15/09 Thu The Vic Theatre Chicago, IL
10/16/09 Fri Headliners Music Hall Louisville, KY
10/17/09 Sat Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA
10/22/09 Thu Granada Theater Dallas, TX
10/23/09 Fri Warehouse Live Houston, TX
10/26/09 Mon Beaumont Club Kansas City, MO
10/27/09 Tue Slowdown Omaha, NE
10/29/09 Thu Boulder Theater Boulder, CO
10/30/09 Fri Aggie Theatre Fort Collins, CO
10/31/09 Sat Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT
11/03/09 Tue Marquee Theatre Tempe, AZ
11/04/09 Wed Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, CA
11/05/09 Thu House of Blues West Hollywood, CA
11/06/09 Fri The Fillmore San Francisco, CA
11/07/09 Sat Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR

Tea Leaf Green Tour

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:04:00 PST
Tea Leaf Green "Around The Bend Tour"

Tea Leaf Green
While veering through some of the Summer's hottest festivals, Tea Leaf Green has picked some spots to bring their rock 'n' roll prowess during their "Around the Bend Tour." With stops in all corners of the U.S., Tea Leaf Green will be pulling through starting August 20 at San Diego's Wave House, then to L.A.'s famed Troubadour on August 21, and finish the short California jaunt in San Francisco at Outside Lands Festival.
They'll then head to the Northeast for stops in Troy, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. The tour will end in the Southeast corner - with shows in Birmingham, Athens, Charlotte and finally Charleston - where the band wowed packed houses early in the year.
Tickets for Tea Leaf Green's "Round the Bend Tour" are on sale now!

Fans purchasing two or more tickets through Tea Leaf Green's Ticketing Page will become eligible to win the first run of a limited edition poster designed by Josh Clark � commemorating the band's Summer Tour � which will also be signed by the band.

'Round the Bend Tour
07.12.09 Masontown, WV @ All Good
07.24.09 Detroit Lakes, MN @ 10,000 Lakes Festival
07.25.09 Detroit Lakes, MN @ 10,000 Lakes Festival
08.07.09 Denver, CO @ Dancin' in the Streets
08.08.09 Denver, CO @ Dancin' in the Streets (Late Night CounterClarkWise show)
08.14.09 Ozark, AR @ Mulberry Mountain Harvest Festival
08.16.09 Ozark, AR @ Mulberry Mountain Harvest Festival (Saturday Late Night show)
08.20.09 San Diego, CA @ Wave House
08.21.09 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
08.22.09 San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord (Trevor Garrod solo show w/ Big Light)
08.28.09 San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Festival
09.02.09 Troy, NY @ Revolution Hall
09.03.09 Syracuse, NY @ Westcott Theatre
09.04.09 Buffalo, NY @ Erie Canal Harbor (w/ The Wallflowers)
09.05.09 Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
09.09.09 Birmingham, AL @ WorkPlay Theater
09.10.09 Athens, GA @ 40 Watt
09.11.09 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
09.12.09 Charleston, SC @ The Pour House w/ Gaslight Street
Purchase tickets and learn more about the contest through Tea Leaf Green ticketing here.

Friday Playlist

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:26:00 PST
TIME TO GET SOME SAND BETWEEN YOUR TOES

A distinctly summery feel permeates this week's mini-mix. The music on our stereos and in our tiny, white ear-buds shifts as temperatures rise, the humidity and sunshine steering us towards tunes fit for flip-flops, ocean shorelines and bare legged comfort. Here's a few sweet strains to help move y'all in that direction, beginning with a new one from Regina Spektor's swell new Far album. From their things bloom buoyantly with Marcy Playground and a salute to nude sunbathing (and the lucky ones who get to enjoy the golden baked benefits�) from Pavement. The second half of our assortment rolls into Camper Van Beethoven's sing-along romp about long haired lovelies and surfing followed by a wonderfully groovy number about our modern penchant for self-medication from San Jose, CA's fab The Mumlers and a swell, vibrating epilogue from excellent up-and-comers BLK JKS.

And check out last week's Playlist with Latyrx, The Hold Steady, Cheap Trick and more!

Magnolia Electric Co. Album/Tour

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 17:15:00 PST
MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO.'S Josephine Now Up For Pre-Order
Includes Free Digital Download For Exclusive 7-inch

Magnolia Electric Co.
Now is the time to stake your claim on a copy of Josephine, the first LP from Magnolia Electric Co. in three years. Pre-orders of the album will come with a free, digital download of the 2009 limited-pressing 7-inch, It's Made Me Cry. The 7-inch is a bit of an interlude into It's Made Me Cry.
Like on the 7-inch, Josephine is also an experiment in Molina's songcraft, introducing some real lessons in brevity as he whittles a handful of tracks into well-under three minutes, all while taking cues from great songsmiths like Willie Nelson and Warren Zevon.
Next week, Magnolia Electric Co. will set off on a North American tour with San Diego's The Donkeys, a tour that includes a two-night stand in Molina's beloved Chicago.
MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. TOUR DATES:
07/11/09 Sat Schubas Chicago, IL
07/12/09 Sun The Hideout Chicago, IL
07/14/09 Tue Southgate House Newport, KY
07/15/09 Wed Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburgh, PA
07/16/09 Thu Mohawk Place Buffalo, NY
07/17/09 Fri The Middle East Cambridge, MA
07/18/09 Sat Iron Horse Music Hall Northampton, MA
07/19/09 Sun East River State Park Brooklyn, NY
07/20/09 Mon Black Cat Washington, DC
07/21/09 Tue Local 506 Chapel Hill, NC
07/22/09 Wed 40 Watt Club Athens, GA
07/23/09 Thu Hi Tone Memphis, TN
07/24/09 Fri Rubber Gloves Denton, TX
07/25/09 Sat The Mohawk Austin, TX
07/27/09 Mon Solar Culture Tucson, AZ
07/28/09 Tue Echo Los Angeles, CA
07/29/09 Wed Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, CA
07/31/09 Fri Doug Fir Portland, OR
08/01/09 Sat Crocodile Cafe Seattle, WA
08/03/09 Mon Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT
08/04/09 Tue Hi Dive Denver, CO
08/05/09 Wed The Record Bar Kansas City, MO
08/06/09 Thu The Waiting Room Omaha, NE
08/07/09 Fri 7th Street Entry Minneapolis, MN
08/08/09 Sat The Busted Lift Dubuque, IA
08/27/09 Thu The Paradiso Amsterdam, NL
09/02/09 Wed Bush Hall London, GB
09/03/09 Thu Duke Of Yorks Brighton, GB
09/04/09 Fri Brudenell Social Club Leeds, GB
09/05/09 Sat Electric Picnic Festival Stradbally, IR
09/10/09 Thu El Lokal Zurich, SWI
09/11/09 Fri Le Romandie Lausanne, SWI
09/13/09 Sun End of the Road Festival Wiltshire, GB

mewithoutYou: Let It Go

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 17:04:00 PST
By: Sarah Hagerman
"There's a love that never changes/ No matter what you've done" - "Allah, Allah, Allah"

mewithoutYou
"There's something I read from the writings of the Buddha, 'If I being by nature subject to corruption disease and death, why do I seek after things like nature?'," Aaron Weiss, lead singer of Philadelphia's mewithoutYou says. "Why do I seek the same things in something else that's going to die? Why am I pursuing a wife or family, why am I pursuing a job, why am I pursuing a reputation as a songwriter, or why am I pursuing someone's opinion of me to be high when I know all that is going to pass so quickly? It's just like zooming out and taking a wide lens, looking at your life from outer space or taking a time line of eternity or even in a billion years. My life is so short and it's just the blink of an eye and I really wonder, is there anything that's not passing like that, is there anything that doesn't fade, is there anything that wasn't born and that isn't going to die? Is there anything that doesn't change? Those are good questions and I guess all the religions kind of wrestle with those questions. And I guess everyone does at some point. My parents have really taken those questions seriously, so it's rubbed off on me."
They are good questions. Taking them on can seem like grappling with a few dozen sumos. A complicated situation since you don't speak Japanese and your wrestling skills are rusty at best. Perhaps that's why many who claim to follow God (or even doggedly embrace Atheism, or whatever color of "ism" you like, be it political, moral or spiritual) turn towards exclusionary finger pointing and judgment. It's just easier to look outside yourself than look within, and it takes little effort to bolster a limited perspective when it comes to those big questions, to surround yourself with the likeminded and consume the media that supports your reality. While the world seems closer and smaller than ever, wrapped tight with the forces of technology and globalization, it's still drastically divided. Rome is burning while pundits and opinion makers, TV preachers and message board haters fiddle us into sweaty torrents of righteous rage, jaws snapping and foam flying. Few seem to ask if being proven right in their "ism" is as important as looking towards solutions, towards common ground, towards what unifies. But the search for inner and outer peace is surely part of our collective human experience that transcends philosophical labels. It's the lifetime's journey and finding that light ain't easy.

mewithoutYou by Jake Krolick
mewithoutYou - brothers Aaron and Michael Weiss (guitar), Greg Jehanian (bass) and Richard Mazzotta (drums) - would never profess to have answers or solutions in this respect. They definitely aren't afraid to say, "I don't know," and "whatever happens is fine," even when it come to the big queries. But their songs gaze towards what's universal, with questions, inward reflections and a sense of wonder that looks outward. It's the sound of seekers rather than preachers. The Weiss brothers obviously hold some deep spiritual values, but they were very conscious in our conversations that their words and actions not be taken as vehement statements of purpose. Perhaps this has to do with the Christian label that has followed the band, or press perceptions of the group as devout eco-warriors bent on changing the world. They really see their roles as musicians as being small in the grand scheme of things, to the point of using the stage as a starting point to reflect about the fragile, at times destructive, nature of their own ego attachment.
"In the past there's been that [goal], that I'm going to inspire people or we're going to help people, but it's starting to seem like that's not my responsibility to lead people to the truth or to teach anyone, given that I don't know the answers myself. So, what can I do but continue to seek truth and continue to open and soften my heart and keep letting go of my conceptions, my attachments, my desires?" says Aaron. "If people see that in my life - 'Well, look at that, something about him is going in a good direction' - then maybe they would be inspired to go that direction, too. Whereas if they say, 'Look at this guy, he's just a religious fanatic. He's just preaching to us and trying to convert everybody to what he believes,' that might just hurt people. So I don't know the effect of our songs. I'm beginning to consider that maybe it won't have any effect on anybody. And you'd rather think, well God is responsible for opening everyone's hearts and for drawing people to the truth and for revealing love to people, and I can't do that. I can just ask God, 'Please help me and please forgive me. You sing these songs, you play this guitar, you come and take my life, which is really your life.'"

mewithoutYou
Many musicians speak of being vessels in various terms, but taking the artistic process away from the self can often be difficult. In many ways, this was Michael's struggle as he came to terms with the future of the band. The visions of success and artistic influence that may have danced in their heads, and were presented to them at various stages of their eight-year career (including a Woodie award for "leftfield artist" from MTVu in 2005 where they beat out Arcade Fire and M.I.A.), have been replaced by a sense of, "whatever happens, happens," at least for Michael:
"I personally suffered too many breakdowns hinging all of my life on the continuation of this band as an entity of touring and a career outlet or opportunity and was really hanging my hat on that. You know anyone that plays in a band, it's such an exciting thing [if] you get to make money doing it. It's something that a lot of guys I know, including myself, dream of their whole life and it's hard to let go of it for some people. For me, I'm definitely one of those guys that saw, and does see, tremendous potential and talent in the band, and for awhile I was looking at it as I really need to motivate this thing and help it grow and succeed. But, a lot of times I let myself get too caught up in that and overlooked how tiring it is for some people. The band is made up of other individuals and everybody else has their own idea of what this thing means to them. And sometimes people get to a point where they're not going in the same way they did back when they formed the group. People want to go back to school or want to start focusing on other things. It just took me awhile to get it - that you have to let things go where they're going," says Michael. "So, I'm just trying to become more and more at peace with the idea that whatever is going to go away is going to go away. And whatever comes next is going to be what I have to do. Just to have faith and trust that it's going to be fine. But that was a real personal kind of struggle I had. It really had nothing to do with anybody else but myself. It feels good to stop squeezing and holding onto something so hard that you could choke, you could smother, you could end it even sooner than it needs to end."
He quickly adds, "As for the band, do we have plans to break up? No. Not that I know of. A lot of people say we are and I hear that from time to time, but as far as I can tell we're still planning on being a band. But it's been hard to keep it that way because I've been a little foolish."
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In the past there's been that [goal], that I'm going to inspire people or we're going to help people, but it's starting to seem like that's not my responsibility to lead people to the truth or to teach anyone, given that I don't know the answers myself. So, what can I do but continue to seek truth and continue to open and soften my heart and keep letting go of my conceptions, my attachments, my desires?
-Aaron Weiss

 

Every Blade of Grass
With orchestral arrangements, dig in your cranium melodies and folky charms, their fourth studio album It's all crazy! It's all false! It's all a dream! It's alright (released May 19 on Tooth & Nail) is a further departure from their dense, post-hardcore drive and Aaron's rapid fire lyrical scrawls, which were often marked with a palatable vexation. Here, there's more peace at play, with songs set in talking vegetable gardens and fables sketched vividly, striking imagery drawn out in melodic vocals rather than sing-shouting. The album simply sows its seeds, at times gently pawing the meditative soil, at times stirring the inquiring heart into a joyful swell, particularly on the last track, "Allah Allah Allah," which begins with a rousing celebration of interconnection, "Allah, Allah, Allah/ In everywhere we look," shifting to "In everyone we meet" and "In every blade of grass" in respective verses. Elements of their earlier fervor and darkness are still present on the record, but they are served up in a sonic shift where the branches stretch towards brighter skies. Digging to the roots, some songs do draw from personal stories and shared band experiences, but many draw from religious texts and figures, from Lao Tzu to the Bible, spiritual plurality as inspiration. The strongest presence on the album is Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a Sufi teacher and mystic. A well-respected figure that encouraged spiritual unity, his influence comes from Aaron and Michael's parents, who both converted to Sufism from Episcopalian Christian and Jewish traditions. Michael describes what growing up in their household was like:
"On Christmas we would go to my grandparents' house on my mom's side, and we would celebrate Hanukkah and Passover with my father's parents. Then there would be certain celebrations my mom would try to push on us, like I would witness her fasting for Ramadan. I've been exposed to the three major religions of the world pretty extensively. I think it always gave me a belief that there was a God, and that's been pretty strong, but not necessarily a specific religion or way to worship. Just going out into the world as an adolescent and seeing different friends of mine, some were Catholic or Jewish or Protestant, and it was very hard for me for a while to really latch onto any of them. But I really had a sense that there was something more than just what we perceive on a daily basis. Growing up in my house there was a strong sense of there being an ultimate moral truth, it wasn't just something we decided as individuals."

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
Besides the new album's title, which is taken from his words, two songs - "The Fox, The Crow And The Cookie" and "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate" - are based on Muhaiyadeen's stories. "The Fox, The Crow And The Cookie," is taken from a book the Weiss' parents used to read to them called My Love You My Children ("a book of stories for children of all ages, that's what it says, right on the cover," says Aaron). You're probably familiar with the premise from Aesop: a crow steals a cookie from a baker. The crow's then approached by a clever fox, which compliments his beautiful singing and begs for a song. The crow is so taken with the praise that he opens his mouth to sing, dropping the cookie for the fox to steal. The fable especially rang true for Aaron's own experience as a musician.
"It's warning against flattery and people trying to puff up your ego and pride," says Aaron. "That's something in playing music that's an obvious danger, when you go up on stage and everyone claps or after the show someone wants to take a picture with you or wants to do an interview with you, you might start to get the idea that, 'Oh look at this, I have something important to say,' or, 'I must be a wise person. I must be very talented.' For my life, I've been hurt by that. When I started a band I went looking for that, I really wanted that affirmation, I really wanted that praise and those compliments. But you reach a point where you go, 'Boy, that doesn't bring me peace to hear that about myself.' Instead, it brings me peace to give praise to God, to give all the glory to God, to look to God within and not to worry if people approve of me or not. But, it's really powerful because that is still strong in me, that wanting people to like me and that kind of thing, but I think it has a limit."
"King Beetle," on the other hand, has a more ambiguous moral, one which lends itself to further inquiry.

mewithoutYou by Jake Krolick
"My dad told me that one, and he told me, 'There's other ways of investigating what's true,'" Aaron describes. "By hovering around and pontificating or observing from a distance, you might not get the full experience compared to giving yourself completely over. But the meaning of the story I wouldn't be able to describe or explain accurately, so I will try to keep my words few here. 'Cause of course Bawa is the one that told the story, and mostly I'd want to tell people well, I might interpret it one way but you could find the story for yourself and read it or you could come visit where Bawa lived in Philadelphia, or read some other of his books or watch his videos. The closer you get to the source probably the better chance you have of having a true interpretation of it. Or just look in your own heart and ask God in your heart, 'What's true?' Is there truth and is there a right and wrong? Does love really exist and is there really a God, you know? Is it a certain religion, is it a certain philosophy, why are we here? Just keep searching for the truth within us and not just keep coasting through life numb and entertained or comfortable."
"King Beetle's" dramatic story is scored by a lush, stirring orchestral landscape. According to Michael, producer Daniel Smith had the idea of bringing in composer Joshua Stamper to create classical arrangements for some of the songs.
"[Joshua] just took the direction that we gave him and nailed it with songs like 'Beetle King.' It was kind of a tall order, we told him we wanted something that sounds sort of like a Disney cartoon, something really magical and out of this world, like Fantasia," says Michael. "We wanted there to be a musical representation of certain characters and so the military beetle, you hear trombones come in, or the professor beetle, strings. The flute gave it a very magical, majestic sort of Moody Blues sound, and that's exactly what we wanted - just a real out of this world [sound]. You know, Aaron's not singing about his personal life on this song; that was a little bit of a departure for him. So with that we wanted to create a song where you're just being transported to a different space."
Another departure the band took on the album was in their approach to the songwriting. Previous albums took a collaborative approach to the music, with Aaron's vocals added later to fit around the melodies. This time around, his vocals were present on the demos.
"In the past there [was] more of an instrumental approach, everybody putting their two cents in on everything, everybody's song from start to finish, and then the vocals and the lyrics coming in [after]. Too many chefs in the kitchen sometimes make for a salty soup, as they say," Michael remarks. "So, I really liked the way Aaron already had rigged tunes, and we just sort of made them better, or tried to, well, hopefully we did [laughs]. [We] just figured out where we need to provide support, rather than just construct this big monster and sort of see where the vocals could fit after."
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It's just common sense, when someone's throwing it away to eat that as long as it's still healthy, rather than going and buying something new. It's more just me being a cheapskate, knowing I can ride my bicycle and get around a lot cheaper than putting gas in a car and maintaining it... It's not an ideology that I would want to push on anybody... I'm happy that my brother has a cell phone so I can borrow it right now. And I'm obviously happy that many people have houses so I have so many places to sleep.
-Aaron Weiss

 

What's a 'Freegan'?
The press on their environmental leanings initially piqued this writer's interest in the band. Almost every article you read about mewithoutYou touches on, if not focuses on, the band's biodiesel bus and Aaron Weiss' lifestyle, which is often described as being "freegan." But these sorts of focuses can be somewhat misleading. Yes, the band tours in a veggie bus (now their second bus in five years), and yes Aaron does not own a home, cell phone, car or computer, and yes, he will eat discarded food. But none of these facts, however admirable or interesting, amount to an ethos the band wishes to espouse.

Aaron Weiss
"It's just common sense, when someone's throwing it away to eat that as long as it's still healthy, rather than going and buying something new," Aaron says of his embrace of simplicity. "It's more just me being a cheapskate, knowing I can ride my bicycle and get around a lot cheaper than putting gas in a car and maintaining it. It's a lot less to worry about. Or I can sometimes find free food or I can sometimes sleep on my friends' couches or at my parents' house rather than having my own house, or like right now, borrow my brother's cell phone to have a conversation. It's not an ideology that I would want to push on anybody or tell people, 'Hey, it's wrong for you to have money or wrong for you to spend your money or to have your own things.' I'm happy that my brother has a cell phone so I can borrow it right now. And I'm obviously happy that many people have houses so I have so many places to sleep. So, it's not something I'm trying to spread or convince other people of."
"[But] people hear that there is someone that is relatively well to do, someone who could afford their own food but chooses to eat out of a trashcan instead [and] that's a little weird," he continues. "A lot of the interviews that we've been doing recently, that's been one of the first questions, 'What's with you being freegan?' and that's a term I don't think I've ever used to describe myself. I do buy things. I buy food, and I do sometimes buy all kinds of things. You need underwear and socks and toothpaste, dish soap and all kinds of stuff [laughs]. So, I don't know what it's like to be a freegan because I'm not one."
"Ultimately we are trying to just get our music out there and make a living, and you can't blame anybody for wanting to do that," Michael says, putting their decision to have a biodiesel bus in a similar perspective. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and you do have so many people you are transporting around in that bus, so it's not like that big heavy guilt of just driving around that Hummer as your personal vehicle. So, even if we were to run diesel all the time, the guilt of that would sort of be offset, in that we are ten people in that bus traveling. It's not as horrible when you think about the per person effect. And there's also the fact that we are saving a lot of money; we aren't buying as much diesel."

Aaron Weiss
"I don't know, it's really just a way," ponders Michael, pausing before continuing. "We aren't trying to make a huge statement you know? I don't want to. It's more of just a personal thing for us, but we get asked a lot of questions about it. It's gotten to the point where we had a manager that really wanted to work this angle of our story, that as a band that we have this bus, everyone will hear about it and it will be a media kind of thing. It's not really what we want to be known for. It's kind of funny but I guess at the end of the day that's what people know you for. They chose to write about you and the reasons to want to check you out. If they aren't the reasons that you wish they were then you just have to sort of accept it, but we didn't start a band so we could tour in a veggie bus; we started a band to make music. The veggie bus is a part of getting us to the show to do what we love to do. [It's] definitely kind of a character of its own, 'cause it's an old beat up bus. We made a shirt with all the people that have been involved with us, the main friends along the way, and yeah, the bus is on that shirt, but just as a part of that, just the fact it's been our home. We're not trying to promote any kind of awareness by having it; that's taken care of itself."
The bus is just a part of the mewithoutYou extended family, and if there's a specific value at mewithoutYou's core, on the most basic level, it would seem to be family - both literally, and in a philosophical sense. When it comes to the Brothers Weiss, "That relationship we've had has always been a big part of the band," Michael explains. "He's been my right-hand man and I've been his, basically since high school," Michael says of he and Aaron's relationship. "We've always had the same friends and we went to the same college together and then I joined his band. And every step of the way he's been my best friend. We've been to the point of no return where like it seemed like we would never talk to each other again, all the way back to him being the only person that I could trust with my deepest feelings. He's been everything to me in-between those two points, which is as much as this guy has experienced thus far, the whole spectrum."
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I've been exposed to the three major religions of the world pretty extensively. I think it always gave me a belief that there was a God, and that's been pretty strong, but not necessarily a specific religion or way to worship... I really had a sense that there was something more than just what we perceive on a daily basis. Growing up in my house there was a strong sense of there being an ultimate moral truth, it wasn't just something we decided as individuals.
-Michael Weiss

 

Epilogue: Travelling Light
Given to contemplative stream of consciousness answers, Aaron admitted that he had reservations about doing more interviews, out of a concern for not having, "the right answers. Without fail, when we do interviews I always say something that I regret, or it ends up when I read it back, if I read it, I think, did I really say that? Boy, why do I ever open my mouth?" Despite any hesitations, he was generous with his time. There's a refreshingly open quality to him and the gracious way he shares his reflections. He also seemed genuinely curious about this disembodied voice on the other end of the line, and when it came to my prepared questions, I threw most of them out.

mewithoutYou
"It can sound like a bad thing, like I'm struggling or I have doubts or I'm not sure, but really it could also be a good thing," he muses, when we're talking about spiritual struggles. "While I've experienced many things, I want to go deeper. I want to go further and put the past behind me. To see what more mercy there is."
I wondered if Aaron ever gets frustrated at the superficiality of our culture, where it sometimes seems few are willing to go deeper.
"No, not anymore. I used to," Aaron admits. "It would be really easy to find someone to point the finger at, 'This guy, look at how superficial he is. Look how many hours of TV this person watches,' or, 'Look how much they spend on their wardrobe.' But my parents told me, whenever you see a fault outside or you see somebody else, it's really a way God is showing us something about ourselves. So, if we see superficiality on the outside, and say, 'Oh the world is so superficial,' well I must be superficial because something within me is resonating with that. So it becomes a real blessing whenever you see something like that on the outside, it means I have to go deeper in my own heart and find a place that is true and real within me. I've done so much judging in my life, finding fault with the culture or the church, or even my own friends or the guys in my band or people in my own family; I'm just kind of burned out on it. So, I'm just really happy with the world outside as it is, even with all the craziness that you see."
The subject turned at one point to activism, specifically a war protest where he was arrested alongside his friend, a feisty, trouble-making nun named Sister Margaret. The incident is referenced in the song "Timothy Hay."
"I went over to join her because I thought it might be a good story, a good way to impress my friends if I told them I got arrested with Sister Margaret. So, it was really just that sort of thing, I was trying to be an activist, but looking back you realized, man, I cared more about being an activist than I did about anyone in Iraq. They arrested five of us, including Sister Margaret. Imagine putting an elderly nun in handcuffs. It must have been a hard job for those police officers, but they were actually very nice and they treated us respectfully and it was a very sweet experience."
Describing himself as caring more about being an activist than the activism itself, I was curious if he meant that activism could sometimes be used as a tool to feed our own egos.

mewithoutYou by Ashley Nicole
"That's a good way of putting it, and describes my experience. That's not to say that there aren't many people who may have pure motivations, I certainly don't know. But, I have sensed that with people protesting the war, they are doing it with a spirit of anger and inner violence, protesting a physical war but they're waging a spiritual war, like you're dehumanizing people that work for the government or people in power or soldiers," says Aaron. "[They're] passing judgment, saying these people are wrong and I'm right. And all that is a kind of war. It's not really offering an alternative; it's just feeding the fire and polarizing people. It's not bringing people together. It's not that I regret my time with those crowds. I learned a lot, but I don't believe in that way anymore."
I found Aaron's initial answer about the "Timothy Hay" incident intriguing. Most of us have a strong opinion on politics, and there are, of course, many devoted activists out there fighting for their causes. But there are also those who use political standpoints to draw attention to themselves, or to create further divisions rather than dialogue. I am curious then, if Aaron thinks it then becomes about cultivating compassion on the most basic level, even with those you disagree with.
"I've felt a very clear and simple call to simply put my trust in God and submit my heart to God, who is love," he says. "God who loves everybody. God who loves not only the people in Iraq but also the soldiers in America, and who even loves George W. Bush, who everybody loves to rail on. I have a very clear sense of my call being to have faith in God and to give my life to God and to open my heart to God and then whatever happens is fine at that point. If God wants to use me to go to a protest that's fine, I'm happy to go to a protest, but I won't be angry at anybody and I won't feel superior to anybody because I would see everyone as my own life, I would literally love my neighbor as myself. Because that's how God sees us; God doesn't see us as separate. At least that's what I was raised to believe and that's what feels correct to me. So, if we could just do that one thing, just humble ourselves and submit our hearts, then everything else is taken care of, and then we have compassion because God is compassion. And then we love others because God is love. And then we'll forgive everybody because God is the forgiving one. It's just so perfect and it's so sweet and it's literally no effort. It doesn't require anything on our part except for that humility and that trust. But just like children, that's what we have to be."
It's simple, but it's a difficult place to get to.
"Sure, we've all built quite a life for ourselves and all of our ideas and all of our accomplishments and all of our identities. All of our possessions, whether they be physical or material or inwardly, whether we possess some philosophy or we possess some religion or we possess our Atheism or Agnosticism, whatever it is we think we are. Once we decide upon that we're separate from everyone else who isn't that, and it's hard when we're so wrapped up in these things that we perceive. They define us, so we think, 'If I let go of that, what will be left? I can't let go of that, it's who I am.' It's just that we don't know that that's not really who we are, that we're not necessarily any of the things we say we are. And maybe that's a good place to start, just to wonder, 'Who am I, really?'"
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It can sound like a bad thing, like I'm struggling or I have doubts or I'm not sure, but really it could also be a good thing. While I've experienced many things, I want to go deeper. I want to go further and put the past behind me. To see what more mercy there is.
-Aaron Weiss on spiritual struggles

 

"It's really sweet. We can really travel light that way. We don't have to carry around the baggage of anything anyone's done to us, or any mistakes we've made. We don't have to carry around the regret from that or all the pride from the things we think we've accomplished. We literally don't carry anything. So, it's so wonderful," continues Aaron. "It's like going on a long journey and then trying to pack all these suitcases. It's not long before you start thinking, 'Why did I bring all this crap?' You think it's good, like you think you need that microwave oven [laughs]. But as you're trekking across the desert you start to wonder, 'Wait, maybe I could drop the microwave, because it used to be valuable but now it's just a burden to me.' And that's the way it seems to everything in my life."

Aaron Weiss
Letting go of self-definitions can often be frightening, and is something I struggle with, so the subject hits close to home for this writer.
"Right, right, but little by little," Aaron says. "It doesn't have to be all at once, it might be too much, but we can start small. Just look at something, take a given thought that comes to our mind, someone who wronged us and we can say, 'Okay, I can let go of that one. The thing this guy did to me a few years ago, I can accept it. I can thank God for that rather than holding it against him. I can pray for that person or I can be grateful that it happened exactly that way and have a certain faith that it was for a good reason if I don't understand it.' Just see if that makes it better, see if that feels lighter or feels more peaceful, and if so, move on to the next thing, until maybe someday we'll be completely content with everyone as they are, even with our self, but also willing to move forward, you know? I know it's not easy. I understand what you're saying."
Does this mean Aaron feels like he's coming to his own sense of peace?
"No, but having read enough from and hearing what Bawa said and seeing tapes of him talk - he left the world a long time ago, I don't really remember him, I was just a little baby the last time I saw Bawa in person - but he seemed to be in that place that I'm describing. And that's the only reason I would even think it's possible. You read about people like Jesus from thousands of years ago that were really on a different level as far as their insight into things. But, that's so long ago you don't really know if what you're hearing is true or if it was all changed through history. But Bawa lived up until the 1980s. You can really watch him and listen to what he says and then you see how he was, even with just the look in his eyes you say, 'Man, this guy saw something. He was at a place that I am not. And he experienced things that I haven't. And he has a peace and a love and a compassion that I don't have but he looks like just another human being like me so maybe I can attain that too.'"
I'm also curious about the theme of ego-loss (in the Buddhist sense of the word) in the album. It runs strong, particularly in the song "Good-bye I!"

mewithoutYou
"That's something Bawa spoke of and was able to draw together, the Eastern philosophies or religions with the Western major monotheistic religions, and particularly my background for awhile really into the Christian religion, but never really understanding that aspect of the teachings, never seeing that call of the cross and seeing that as the call to die or to give up our self, to give up our ego and instead let God who is one live," says Aaron. "So, it's all there in the Western religions, too - the unity and oneness and giving up of the self. I never saw it for a long time until I started listening to Bawa, who would talk about Jesus but he would also talk about Buddha and he would talk about Mohamed and he would talk about Moses, and in a way that didn't seem contradictory. 'Peace be upon them, all God's prophets.' It didn't seem like an 'us versus them' [situation], or I have to give up Jesus to accept what Bawa is saying. It seemed like a part of a continuation of what anyone throughout time who has every really looked into these things and been willing to give up what they were holding onto and what they had created, it seems to be what everybody in their heart already knows."
When I got off the phone with Aaron, I thought of my visit to New York in the summer of 2005. It was during a particularly painful time in my life, and all I wanted to do on that trip was bar hop until I was sufficiently numb. But for some reason, I felt compelled to go to the Hayden Planetarium. After seeing the star show and other exhibits, I wound my way down the spiral ramp through the Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway - the 13 billion year history of the universe captured in 360 feet. Evolution, constant change, as each of our steps took us 75 million years further along, through the birth of the Milky Way and the age of the dinosaurs. At the end of that ramp, there's a thread the width of a human hair. It represents the sum total of our species' existence to date. I stared at it and, for a moment, my fear and hurt dissipated. Talk about gaining perspective and zooming out on the timeline.
Bill Hicks once said in the monologue that closed his last appearance on stage, "It's only a choice. No effort. No worry. No job. No savings and money. Just a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy bigger guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one." There it is again, the simplicity of that choice, to look to this often broken world with wonder and love instead of fear. No matter what fuels you on this ride, there are these common threads to follow, weaving through the songs of many seekers who have danced through this hair in the cosmos, tugging at all those questions we don't know how to answer when we gaze up into that endless night sky.
mewithoutYou is on tour now, dates available here.
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George Harrison:
Let It Roll: Songs of George Harrison

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 15:52:00 PST
By: Ron Hart
Over the last ten years, Capitol/EMI has been notorious for treating its reissue campaign of George Harrison's post-Beatles catalog like some kind of under-appreciated stepchild whose parents force ugly new clothes and disgusting new food onto. First was the 30th Anniversary reissue of the Quiet One's masterpiece, All Things Must Pass, from early 2001, considered by many to be the single greatest work by a Beatle outside of the band itself. In addition to the ghastly "colorization" of the original album artwork that would even make the people who tarnished It's A Wonderful Life cringe, whoever engineered the remaster somehow buried the vocals and guitars even deeper in the mix than original producer Phil Spector had already done initially with his Wall of Sound recording style. Then, there was the label's 2005 hatchet job on Harrison's sublime 1971 double-live album chronicling his acclaimed Concert for Bangladesh. While the remastering job of the actual live cuts themselves was great, they cut out the majority of the breaks between songs, destroying the natural flow of the concert that made you feel as though you were right inside Madison Square Garden when listening to the original LP. And worst of all, Capitol finally got its way with the album artwork. After losing its original battle with Harrison over the cover concept - that stunning, iconic image of a malnourished refugee child sitting cross-legged in front of an empty bowl of food, which the suits thought was too depressing and would hurt album sales and then wound up becoming a bestseller and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1973�the label went with the cover they had wanted all along, an image of Harrison from the accompanying concert film, for the reissue (and doing so after Harrison's tragic demise due to cancer in November 2001, thus adding a whole new layer of sleaze to the whole predicament). Meanwhile, the label's 2006 reissue of 1973's Living In The Material World as well as the box set covering the albums released on the guitarist's own Dark Horse imprint were modest campaigns that somewhat offered a reprieve for fans otherwise annoyed by the label handling of the Quiet One's catalog thus far, in that it vastly improved upon the original issues in both sound quality and packaging (although some beefier bonus material would have been nice).
Now comes Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison, a single-disc retrospective released by the EMI group on June 16 touting itself as the first-ever collection spanning the length of George's career. Compiled largely by George's widow Olivia Harrison and engineered by legendary Beatles producer George Martin's son Giles Martin, who did such an outstanding job in 2007 mashing up classic Fabs tracks for the soundtrack to Cirque de Soleil's Beatles-themed production Love at the Mirage in Las Vegas, the 19-track collection focuses primarily on Harrison's biggest successes as a singles artist, something he was much stronger at as opposed to his former mates John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who exhibited supremacy creating both killer hit songs and outstanding full-length albums to back them up. Harrison, meanwhile, produced albums that basically consisted of one or two really great songs backed by a majority of filler material that was neither here nor there. True, Harrison did produce some gems in his solo career beyond All Things Must Pass, notably 1973's Living In The Material World (which, to its credit, EMI did a masterful job reissuing back in 2006) and his 1987 comeback album, Cloud Nine. Not to mention 2002's posthumous swan song Brainwashed and his pair of experimental solo albums he released while still with The Beatles, 1968's Moog-tastic Electronic Sound and 1969's Indian-flavored drone-fest Wonderwall Music, both of which remain woefully out of print at press time.
While there have been George Harrison compilations in the past, none have chronicled the span of his entire career. And though Let It Roll is not exactly a completist's ideal set, as this collection could have easily been beefed up to anthology status given there are much stronger points in Harrison's solo catalog than, say, Ringo Starr, but it certainly does an excellent job in gathering the guitarist's sonic cr�me de la cr�me. Sequenced not by chronology but almost seemingly by vibe, the 19 tracks that ultimately made the cut here interweave as though they have existed side by side on the same long player for all these years. For instance, the segue between Brainwashed's "Rising Son" and Cloud Nine's phenomenal tribute to his old bandmates, "When We Was Fab," flows one into the other so perfectly. The same can be said for the blending of "Blow Away" off Harrison's eponymous 1979 effort into the thankfully-included "Cheer Down" from the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack, not to mention "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" going into Let It Roll's title track, "The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp," originally featured on All Things Must Pass. And while stubbornly elitist Beatles fans (like this writer) might wonder why the likes of "Old Brown Shoe" and "Blue Jay Way" were excluded from the fray here, the inclusion of his big three from his Fab Four output - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun" - is imperative to any collection with GH's name on it, and the fact that the versions came from the Bangladesh concert album seems more appropriate for this project. Another great inclusion on this set is Harrison's rarely-spoken-of cover of Bob Dylan's "I Don't Want to Do It," which was originally featured on the soundtrack to 1985's comedic bomb Porky's Revenge (which should give you a good clue as to why it was little heard).
Sure, one can rail against the powers that be who oversaw the creation and production of Let It Roll and their failure to include such glaring absences as "You" off his 1975 EMI swan song Extra Texture and "Crackerbox Palace" from 1976's diamond-in-the-rough Thirty Three & 1/3 - his first release on Dark Horse. It's understood there are only 80 minutes on a CD, but these omissions - not to mention the exclusions of such rarities as Harrison's working version of Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy" or "Bangla Desh," the 1971 charity single that spearheaded the famed concert and has only appeared on album once via 1976's The Best of George Harrison collection - could have made this very good single-disc set into an excellent double-disc compendium.
Nonetheless, any Beatles fan, be they casual or hardcore, would benefit from adding Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison to their CD shelves, as it is gorgeously packaged in a tastefully designed digipak with a 28-page booklet loaded with great information and amazing photos, making it one of the finer justices given to any kind of Beatle-related reissue in recent years (don't even get me started on the John Lennon stuff). A quality George Harrison best-of has been a long, long time coming, and one can only be grateful that EMI has finally done right by this amazing man and his cherished legacy.

JamBase | Honored
Go See Live Music!

Bowerbirds:
Upper Air

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 15:21:00 PST
By: Dennis Cook
One morning you wake to find you are shackled to your bed and bound and gagged. Oh my, what a predicament.
With this Bowerbirds fabulous sophomore album, Upper Air (released July 7 on Dead Oceans), is off and running towards a freedom we already possess but frequently forget or deny ourselves. As sparkling and pastoral as their debut was (JamBase review), this leaps into the world, climbing as high as the title implies with strong wings - no melting wax contraptions here.
Their foundation of friendly, left-of-center sing-a-longs remains, all the winning traits associated with folk distilled by one band, but they greatly expand on their palette this time, infusing their darkly observant tunes with a moan and reach full of arching electricity, graceful chamber music-esque turns and a vocal blend that's positively swoony. There's not a dud amongst these 10 cuts, which build in density and enjoyment as the record spins to its trembling, sunset conclusion. From the delicacy of "Silver Clouds" to the songcraft perfection of "Northern Lights" to the guarded hope of "Bright Future," every song hits its mark, piercing us with truths snared with thoughtful poetic language and music to match.
In some ways, Upper Air plays in the same fields as recent (and quite excellent) releases from Grizzly Bear and Antony & The Johnsons but with more exposed skin and color in its cheeks. This grapples with fate and the world, as it is, never forgetting the flesh and bone beneath it all. Just wonderful stuff.

Bowerbirds are currently on a joint tour with the equally swell, outside the box Megafaun. Find dates here.
JamBase | Stratosphere
Go See Live Music!

Don 'Sugar Cane' Harris:
Sugar Cane's Got the Blues

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 15:03:00 PST
By: Trevor Pour
I recently had a jazz professor as a guest in my home. Before she could make it through the front door, her thoughts were interrupted by a cacophony of a high-pitched instrumental drifting towards her from the stereo in my kitchen. As an ear-to-ear grin began to appear on her face, she demanded to know, "What IS that?"
"That" was Don 'Sugar Cane' Harris, the one time violinist for Frank Zappa and the man who has been endlessly referred to as the "Jimi Hendrix of violin." Recently, Promising Music released a 24-bit re-mastering of his live 1971 tapes recorded at the Berlin Jazz Festival. That album, originally produced by Joachim Ernst Berendt, features a all-star cast including Volker Kriegel (guitar), Terje Rypdal (guitar), Wolfgang Dauner (keys), Neville Whitehead (bass), and Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine) (drums). From the first note until the very last, this album takes you on an epic journey. It's unequivocally one of the most technically impressive, emotionally powerful and historically poignant albums I've heard at this juncture in my life. Sugar Cane's Got the Blues consists of four tracks ranging from ten to fifteen minutes in duration, each with a unique character and displaying a different facet of Harris' musical persona.
The opening chops of "Song For My Father" are remarkably accurate and precise despite their technical difficulty. Sugar Cane displayed a kind of warped refinement that very few individuals on the planet have mastered; others that come to mind include Skerik, Col. Bruce Hampton and Brian Haas, in addition to a small handful of bebop/free jazz legends. But amongst all these illustrious names, Sugar Cane still, indisputably, rises to the top. With an ability unmatched in his time or ours, he may remain one of the most under-appreciated musicians of his century; not due to a lack of consideration, but because it is virtually impossible to do him justice with mere prose. This particular track weaves a beautiful tale, carrying the audience to dramatic highs and lows without losing their attention or their understanding.
"Liz Pineapple Wonderful," the intro track, sets an absurdly high bar for the remainder of the album by taking no time before screaming into a full-tilt jam. It's catchy, energetic, creative and alive. With impressive interplay between each musician, it remains driven by the Harris' commanding violin. It is immediately followed by the title track, "Sugar Cane's Got the Blues." The longest track on the disc, this creation highlights each performer's ability to explore the depths of their collective resonance without regard for urgency or boundaries. The result is a beautiful and elegant piece, which does not simply tread the line between blues and free jazz but fully incorporates them into a unified style. Finally, the album closes with "Where's My Sunshine," which prominently features the Sugar Cane's soulful vocals, develops slowly with bluesy guitar, and ends with an exquisite piano solo from Dauner.
Musicians of all shapes and sizes, jazz fans of any sub-genre, jam-rock connoisseurs and anyone willing to become totally lost in great music shouldn't think twice about picking this up. Admittedly it's an import and might cost a few extra bucks, but this is an excellent introduction to one of the preeminent talents of the 1960s and '70s. And even if you're well versed in the world of Sugar Cane Harris, this re-mastered record will fit neatly, and prominently, in your collection.
JamBase | Rosin Rich
Go See Live Music!

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks | 07.04

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 14:45:00 PST
By: Cal Roach

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks :: 07.04.09 :: Milwaukee, WI

Stephen Malkmus
It seemed like a coup that Burnhearts Tavern got Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks to play a little free street festival in a southern Milwaukee neighborhood, but Malkmus does have some history with the city. It was here, in 2003, that he busted out a night's worth of Pavement tunes for the first time since that band's demise. No such luck at this Pabst-sponsored show, but there were certainly some surprises in store.
As expected, the band rolled out quite a few tunes from last year's Real Emotional Trash, including opener "Dragonfly Pie," which dissolved into grungy ambiance, and then "Gardenia," which suffered a bit from bass-heavy, muddy sound (all banter was completely lost on the small crowd) but the background vocals were spot-on. "Hopscotch Willie" showcased Malkmus' ever-increasing focus on guitar improv. The Jicks have become a tighter ensemble with each show, it seems, but there is no question who the leader is.
You never know which Malkmus you'll get on any given night; sometimes he's inspired, sometimes nothing is working. Explorations seemed a little stunted in the early going, but some of that may have been attributable to a drunken, overly chatty crowd (what do you expect after six hours' worth of two-dollar PBRs?). By the fifth song or so ("Jenny And The Ess-Dog"), Malkmus was clearly beginning to access the latent guitar heroics within. After a few more, he was on fire, as if spitting in the face of the apathy he helped to proliferate in the '90s, now lounging bemusedly in front of him - overly trousered, fashionably aloof, but probably drunker than he'd have envisioned. He was clearly determined to either win over a legion of post-hipsters or at least reward the fanatical few.

Stephen Malkmus
Tonight's forays ranged between fierce peaks and petering out, but Malkmus was melodic and relatively precise throughout. I'd seen the band last winter and they'd never developed any sort of groove at that show, but tonight everyone was locked in. The only thing that was somewhat disappointing was that drummer Janet Weiss lagged a bit. She is the rare drummer that can completely take over a song, but tonight she was just letting them happen. It was just a case of high expectations, though; if I hadn't seen her completely dominate before, I'd have had nothing to complain about.
Aside from the stalled momentum brought on by "Cold Son" late in the set it was a high-octane show, replete with several brand new tunes that I might have been able to name if I could've made out any of the stage banter. Highlights included "(Do Not Feed The) Oyster," a Pavement-on-cough-medicine slow-burner, and "Elmo Delmo," featuring a dark yet childlike, gooey interlude that birthed a concise, dramatic final freak-out. The evening culminated with an epic "No More Shoes," with Weiss finally coming alive and galloping with Malkmus as he channeled Robbie Krieger, then John Fogerty as the jam intensified, and then Zoot Horn Rollo as it disseminated, a dynamic voyage with the kind of intuitive playing most bands never dream of pulling off.
This showstopper seemed a logical end to the set, but instead, after Malkmus taught bassist Joanna Bolme how to play it, The Jicks got funky with "Emotional Rescue," more competent and fun than it had any business being, a weird, carnivalesque thrill. The encore continued the festival-minded randomness with a hungry cover of The Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night" (a little easier to teach) and a final nod to their most obvious influence with The Velvet Underground's "What Goes On," stretching it out as if they didn't want to leave the stage, trailing off in the end. These covers were more interesting than mind-blowing but The Jicks had satisfied every craving they have the capacity to fulfill, quite the bargain at zero dollars.
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks tour dates available here.
JamBase | Wisconsin
Go See Live Music!

Rosanne Cash New Album:
w/ Boss, Elvis, Rufus, Tweedy

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 14:22:00 PST
ROSANNE CASH TO RELEASE HER NEW ALBUM, THE LIST, OCTOBER 6
SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE ELVIS COSTELLO, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, JEFF TWEEDY AND RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

Rosanne Cash
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash will release her 12th studio album, entitled The List, on Manhattan Records on October 6, 2009. The new LP features Cash's contemporary interpretations of 12 classic songs culled from a list of essential country tunes that her legendary father Johnny gave her in 1973, filtered through her own unique, sophisticated perspective.
Known primarily for her stellar songwriting, Cash showcases her incredible voice on The List � her first-ever covers record. As a result, the album is Rosanne Cash like you've never heard her before as she embraces her heritage and sings for the pure love and beauty of these songs which have shaped who she is as an artist.
Produced and arranged by Grammy winner John Leventhal (Cash's husband, who also contributes guitar work throughout), The List includes Cash's covers of songs with assistance of notable musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright.
The List is the first album Cash has made since she underwent surgery in 2007 for a benign brain condition, from which she has fully recovered.
Track Listing for The List:
1. Miss the Mississippi and You
2. Motherless Children
3. Sea of Heartbreak (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
4. Take These Chains From My Heart
5. I'm Movin' On
6. She's Got You
7. Heartaches by the Number (w/ Elvis Costello)
8. 500 Miles
9. Long Black Veil (w/ Jeff Tweedy)
10. Silver Wings (w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11. Girl From the North Country
12. Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow

The Motet Dig Deep

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:50:00 PST
The Motet New Album Release

The Motet
Packed with all new material and masterfully produced by drummer Dave Watts, The Motet's highly anticipated studio release, Dig Deep, will be celebrated in true Motet fashion with three CD release parties in Colorado starting July 9. Dig Deep is a tapestry of sound that pushes the expectations of any listener who is familiar with the band's signature mix of Afrobeat, electronica, funk, and jazz. Bay Area funksters Albino! will join The Motet for the three night party, which opens at the Boulder Theater on July 9, moves south to Cervantes' Masterpiece in Denver on July 10, and then wraps up at Mishawaka Amphitheatre in Bellvue, CO on July 11.
Dig Deep presents The Motet revisited and refreshed, showcasing 12 great musicians who have contributed to the band over the years. Much of the material is geared toward the studio setting rather than their famed live shows, which is evident in Watts' rich production of interweaving rhythms and melodies. In addition, every song on the 11-track album expresses the talents of these great musicians and plays well to the roots of the band's signature sound.
The record will be available at the shows for the low price of $1 and will be made available for download on the band's MySpace page.
Shows:
07/09/09 Thu Boulder Theater Boulder, CO
07/10/09 Fri Owsley's Golden Road Denver, CO
07/11/09 Sat Mishawaka Amphitheatre Bellvue, CO
08/28/09 Fri Nelson Ledges Quarry Park Garrettsville, OH
08/29/09 Sat Nelson Ledges Quarry Park Garrettsville, OH

Pearl Jam: Album/Tour

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 10:33:00 PST
PEARL JAM ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
IN SUPPORT OF THEIR NEW STUDIO ALBUM, BACKSPACER
Backspacer in Stores September 20, 2009
Ben Harper and Relentless7 to Open All Dates Except Spectrum Shows

Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam announced today that they will play a series of select North American tour dates in support of their ninth studio album, Backspacer. Scheduled for release in the U.S. on Sunday, September 20, 2009, the album will be released in the U.S. through Target, the exclusive mass retail partner, Pearl Jam's own Ten Club and independent retailers, as well as online through digital, and gaming platforms yet to be announced. Internationally, the album will be available beginning on September 21, 2009 via Universal/Island Records. The first single, "The Fixer," will be released at radio on July 20, 2009.
Pearl Jam's North American dates kick-off in the band's hometown of Seattle with two shows at Key Arena (September 21 and 22) and close with two concerts at Philadelphia's historic Spectrum (October 28 and 30).
Ben Harper and Relentless7 will open all dates except for the Spectrum shows.
Public tickets for Pearl Jam's Spectrum shows will go on-sale Friday, July 17 at 10 a.m. EST through ComcastTIX at www.ComcastTIX.com, by calling 1-800-298-4200, in person at the Wachovia Complex box office or select Acme Markets and at www.LiveNation.com. The remaining announced North American dates will go on-sale Saturday, July 18. Specific ticket on-sale times and locations will be announced in local markets. (Note: Potential additional dates and corresponding on-sale information may be announced at a later date.)
A special ticket pre-sale for current members (as of July 7, 2009) of Pearl Jam's Ten Club begins Monday, July 13. Visit www.pearljam.com for full details.
Pearl Jam plans to tour Australia and New Zealand in November 2009. Full details on that leg of the tour will be announced in the coming weeks.
Pearl Jam's North America Concert Dates are as Follows:
09.21 Seattle, WA Key Arena
09.22 Seattle, WA Key Arena
09.30 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
10.01 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
10.06 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
10.07 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
10.09 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena
10.28 Philadelphia, PA The Spectrum
10.30 Philadelphia, PA The Spectrum
Pearl Jam's North American tour dates are in addition to the band's previously announced headlining performances at the Virgin Festival in Calgary, Alberta (Aug 8), Rotterdam's Sportspaleis Ahoy (Aug 13), Berlin's Wuhlheide (Aug 15), Manchester Evening News Arena (Aug 17), London's 02 Arena (Aug 18), Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre (Aug 21), Chicago's United Center (Aug 23 & 24), San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival (Aug 28) and Austin City Limits Festival (Oct 4).

JamBase

Sat Eye Candy: Cat Stevens

Electric Daisy Carnival | 06.26 - 06.27 | L.A.

Aspects of Physics New Album

Lou Barlow: Album & Tour

Tea Leaf Green Tour

Friday Playlist

Magnolia Electric Co. Album/Tour

mewithoutYou: Let It Go

George Harrison:
Let It Roll: Songs of George Harrison

Bowerbirds:
Upper Air

Don 'Sugar Cane' Harris:
Sugar Cane's Got the Blues

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks | 07.04

Rosanne Cash New Album:
w/ Boss, Elvis, Rufus, Tweedy

The Motet Dig Deep

Pearl Jam: Album/Tour

JamBase

Sat Eye Candy: Cat Stevens

Electric Daisy Carnival | 06.26 - 06.27 | L.A.

Aspects of Physics New Album

Lou Barlow: Album & Tour

Tea Leaf Green Tour

Friday Playlist

Magnolia Electric Co. Album/Tour

mewithoutYou: Let It Go

George Harrison:Let It Roll: Songs of George Harrison

Bowerbirds:Upper Air

Don 'Sugar Cane' Harris:Sugar Cane's Got the Blues

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks | 07.04

Rosanne Cash New Album: w/ Boss, Elvis, Rufus, Tweedy

The Motet Dig Deep

Pearl Jam: Album/Tour

George Harrison:
Let It Roll: Songs of George Harrison

Bowerbirds:
Upper Air

Don 'Sugar Cane' Harris:
Sugar Cane's Got the Blues

Rosanne Cash New Album:
w/ Boss, Elvis, Rufus, Tweedy