Joanna Newsom in Michigan in March (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

[Joanna Newsom] opened her 75-minute set with four songs from her ambitious recent full-length, "Have One on Me," before weaving in older titles from her previous two albums, "Ys," from 2006 (which featured arrangements by Van Dyke Parks), and her infectious 2004 debut, "The Milk-Eyed Mender." It was delivered via a singing voice that's as pure is it is dynamic, one that has matured from an at-times grating shriek early in her career into an instrument able to offer a smooth, well-tended tone with measured phrasings and octave-spanning curlicues. At this point feeding her pitch-perfect vocals into an Auto-Tune program would probably cause the software to collapse in on itself.

Newsom performed to a sold out Orpheum audience that rivaled Justin Bieber fans in their ardor. The singer had to spend an inordinate amount of time between songs affectionately swatting away random hollered compliments. A male fan raced to the stage and tossed her a bouquet, and a woman was intercepted by a security guard near the front row as she made a beeline for the musician. "We love you, Joanna!" was the richest insight the crowd had to offer when she queried her fans on their collective mood. [LA Times]

That's a review of the singer's Saturday, July 31st performance at L.A.'s Orpheum Theatre.

Joanna comes back to New York on Tuesday, November 23rd for a show at Carnegie Hall (where she plays the 2,804-seat Stern Auditorium). Tickets go on sale Monday, August 9th at 11am.

Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes has been opening for Joanna, and in Oakland on August 2nd they covered the Sheryl Crow (and Kid Rock) song "Picture" together. A video of that and Joanna's full schedule (a few more North American shows, then Europe and Israel in September) is below...

Continue reading "Joanna Newsom playing Carnegie Hall, touring & covered Sheryl Crow & Kid Rock w/ Robin Pecknold (dates)"

Slash released a special-guest-filled album solo called called "Slash" in March. Four of the five members of the Appetite for Destruction era Guns N' Roses lineup appear on the album: Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler. You can figure out who's missing. Iggy Pop, Ozzy, Lemmy, Dave Grohl, Chris Cornell, and others (even Fergie?) (but not Jack White) appear as guests on the album too. You can stream it, and download a track, below.

Slash is currently on tour in Europe. In fact, you may have heard about how he was "attacked" by a fan on stage at a recent show. That viral video is below.

Slash starts playing North American shows in September. That now includes a September 14th show at Terminal 5 in NYC. $32.50 tickets go on sale Friday at noon. All currently announced dates, the attack video, album stream/download widgets and the full "Slash" album tracklist (with guests), below...

Continue reading "Slash, recently "attacked" on stage, released a guest-filled album, touring, playing Terminal 5"

photos by Tim Griffin

"I went to Pettyfest 2009 at Bowery Ballroom [Thursday] night, which was sick. Lots of drunk and stoned people shouting along to the hits and some great performers-- Nicole Atkins, Adam Green, Steve Schiltz, Antony Ellis, members of The Strokes and The Killers.

One of my favorite performances-- and this took me by surprise -- was the dude from Augustana singing "You Got Lucky." They're not a band I generally have a strong opinion about one way or another, but his voice was sick and he had a commanding presence-- like a subdued Mick Jagger with the wrist at the hips with a dash of Joe Cocker in the vocal tone." [EYTAN]

Jesse Malin, Hymns, Teenage Prayers, The Pierces, and members of Little Joy, Love as Laughter, Longwave (Steve) and Five O'clock Heroes (Anthony) were also among those who performed Tom Petty songs at the show. Most of the Killers were there. It was a night off on their current tour with Wolfmother (who used the evening to play a show at Bowery Electric right down the avenue). Kid Rock was there too (are you scared yet?), but didn't perform. He was in town to play a benefit at Terminal 5 one night earlier. More pictures and some pictures of the setlist below...

Continue reading "PettyFest @ Bowery Ballroom - setlist & pics (Adam Green, Strokes & Killers members, Nicole Atkins, Kid Rock, more)"

Kid Rock is playing the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function benefit at Terminal 5 on September 2nd. It's the show the Beastie Boys played last year. $100 tickets are currently on AmEx presale and go on general sale Saturday at noon.

Get well soon MCA.

Insound are celebrating their 10th Anniversary with a show at Brooklyn Bowl. The August 27th party will feature sets by Cymbals Eat Guitars, These Are Powers, Suckers, The Drums and Real Estate. $10 tickets are on sale.

The Drums and Suckers are both also playing shows at Littlefield that same week as part of "After the Jump Fest '09" - three days of shows at the new Brooklyn venue::

After The Jump Fest 09 (more bands TBA)

After the Jump tickets (single day passes $10, 3 day passes $25 - ALL AGES) and tickets for other shows at Littlefield are available at Littlefield's site.

TONIGHT @ LITTLEFIELD (8/7): Kaki King's Exhibition.

THE DRUMS TONIGHT (8/7): @ the Mondo Dance Party @ Don Hill's

Tickets are on sale for the Circulatory System show at Le Poisson Rouge.

Tickets for the Ray LaMontagne show at Beacon Theatre go on sale Saturday at 10am.

Tickets are on sale for the Pelican show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple.

Chairlift play Bowery Ballroom on September 5th. Tickets are on sale.

Tickets are on sale for the David Bazan show at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale for the Mastodon/Dehtklok/Converge/High On Fire show at Hammerstein Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale for the No Age show at Le Poisson Rouge.

Tickets are on sale for the Jay Reatard show at Le Poisson Rouge.

Tickets are on sale for the King Khan Halloween show at The Bell House.

Leonard Cohen MSG tickets are currently on pre-sale.

Tickets are on sale for the Great Lake Swimmers shows coming up at Bowery and MHOW.

Tickets are on sale for the Polvo show at The Bell House.

Tickets are on sale for the Lou Barlow show at Mercury Lounge.

Tickets are on sale for the Soft Pack show at Bowery Ballroom.

Kings of Leon Izod Center tickets were released.

Tickets go on sale Saturday (@ noon) for the Sunset Rubdown show at Grand Ballroom.

Tickets are on "Radio Presale" for the Gaslight Anthem show at Terminal 5. General sale starts Saturday at noon.

Thursday, Mountain Goats, Final Fantasy, Besnard Lakes, Amy Millan, Black Heart Procession and other tickets also recently went on sale.

No tickets necessary for the Moshi Moshi show at South Street Seaport.

You know you want to get tickets Saturday for the Kid Rock show happening at the Irving Plaza (Fillmore) on October 9th. The show is part of "a series of intimate concerts" he's doing to promote his new album "Rock N Roll Jesus". All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Kid Rock playing Irving Plaza and other places"