ACL Festival 2009

Agreed. I heard an interview with the Dirtbombs recently where they too dismissed themselves from the "garage rock" category. I think that may be another case of a band just not wanting to be pigeonholed because they do seem to fall under that sound. Mostly though, they're a "rock n' roll" band, albeit one with a very raw, stripped down sound.

When I saw The Song Remains the Same back in the 70s I was amazed that Plant didn't seem to move around much. Same for Ronnie Van Zant in the Skynyrd tribute short that played before The Song Remains the Same. I may not have always shared Bangs' opinion on any artist but I did admire him for his honesty no matter how harsh the criticism.

Against Insect Plague, Nevadans Wield Ultimate Weapon: Hard Rock Tiny Tuscarora Counts on Stereos Arrayed In Desert to Repel Hungry Mormon Crickets By JIM CARLTON TUSCARORA, Nev. -- The residents of this tiny town, anticipating an imminent attack, will be ready with a perimeter defense. They'll position their best weapons at regular intervals, faced out toward the desert to repel the assault. Then they'll turn up the volume. Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way. Reno Gazette-Journal A Mormon cricket crosses a highway north of Sparks, Nev., in a recent spring. The 2-inch-long insects often carpet the arid landscape in the spring and summer, devouring vegetation and driving residents to distraction. But the crickets don't much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years ago. So next month, Tuscarorans are preparing once again to get out their extension cords, array their stereos in a quarter-circle and tune them to rock station KHIX, full blast, from dawn to dusk. "It is part of our arsenal," says Laura Moore, an unemployed college professor and one of the town's 13 residents. In flyspeck villages like Tuscarora, crickets are a serious matter. The critters hatch in April in the barren soil of northern Nevada, western Utah and other parts of the Great Basin, quickly growing into blood-red, ravenous insects more than 2 inches long. You can read the rest of the article here.

"Garage rock" isn't just a thing of the past, there's lots of good artists out these days that fall into that category such as The Reigning Sound, the Dirtbombs and others. Little Steven gives many of them airtime on his Underground Garage channel on XM/Sirius.

If you get around to buying any of them I can say without hesitation that you will absolutely love their debut, Fear Not the Obvious.

Since I never saw the pre-crash version of the band I must say I was quite excited at the prospect of their reunion tour in 1987 and attended one of those shows along with several more after that (though none that included the Hughie Thomasson/Medlocke line up). Even the best of the post-crash material has never lived up to the work they did when Ronnie Van Zant was alive but I kept buying those albums in hopes of it coming close. I simply lost interest after a while. To me, they hit rock bottom once they started using outside writers and turned out absolute crap such as Red, White and Blue. As for Johnny Van Zant and Medlocke, I love Johnny's first solo album No More Dirty Deals as well as the majority of work Melocke did with Blackfoot, especially Strikes.

I think they've been around for a while and swore they had another album out before this new one but I've been unable to track it down. I gather they're more popular overseas than in the U.S. If you haven't done so already be sure to check out the Yayhoos (they only have two albums out) as well as the albums of their respective members, all damn good stuff.

Great show this weekend. I see Dan Baird's going to be headed your way soon with his band Homemade Sin. I asked about their new record Saturday night but it's not out in the States yet. I have the live album he did with the Sofa Kings that was recorded in Sweden, that's some very kickass stuff.

It's always a good thing when Kid Rock doesn't show up.

I thought the wall from the stage shows was there because it was representative of the metaphor for the wall used on the album. It may have also been there because of Waters' relationship (or lack thereof) with Pink Floyd's audience but it also brought the conceptualization of The Wall to life.

It's actually a "bookazine", the second one since No Depression magazine stopped publication. So far, so good but I've only thumbed through it.

On the strength of seeing Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter perform during the 40th anniversary concert for Arrogance in Durham recently.

Dylan, Mellencamp and Nelson Line Up 2009 Ballpark Tour July 2 - Sauget, IL @ GCS Ballpark July 4 - South Bend, IN @ Coveleski Stadium July 8 - Louisville, KY @ Louisville Slugger Field July 10 - Dayton, OH @ Fifth Third Field July 11 - Eastlake, OH @ Classic Park July 13 - Washington, PA @ Consol Energy Park July 14 - Allentown, PA @ Coca-Cola Park July 15 - New Britain, CT @ New Britain Stadium July 19 - Syracuse, NY @ Alliance Bank Stadium July 21 - Pawtucket, RI @ McCoy Stadium July 23 - Lakewood, NJ @ FirstEnergy Park July 24 - Aberdeen, MD @ Ripken Stadium July 25 - Norfolk, VA @ Harbor Park July 28 - Durham, NC @ Durham Bulls Athletic Park July 29 - Sevierville, TN @ Smokies Park August 4 - Round Rock, TX @ The Dell Diamond August 5 - Corpus Christi, TX @ Whataburger Field August 7 - Grand Prairie, TX @ QuikTrip Park August 11 - Glendale, AZ @ Camelback Ranch August 12 - Las Vegas, NV @ Cashman Field August 14 - Fresno, CA @ Chukchansi Park August 15 - Stockton, CA @ Banner Island Ballpark More info here.

Robyn Hitchcock doesn't mind being described as a surrealist. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Robyn Hitchcock was blunt. "I'll be impressed if I'm here in any functioning way past 70, but you never know. I used to think I was only going to make it to 30," he said. "The Me Generation is heading for incontinence. We're right behind it." Hitchcock, 56, is obviously little impressed with his influence, but it's vast. The musician spent the late '70s and early '80s laying the groundwork for what would become alternative and indie music with his previous bands, the Soft Boys and the Egyptians, and you can hear echoes of his surreal lyrics and chiming chords in bands such as the Flaming Lips, the Decemberists and -- especially -- R.E.M. Indeed, Peter Buck of the legendary Athens, Georgia, group supports Hitchcock in his latest band, the Venus 3, and plays on the new album "Goodnight Oslo" (Yep Roc). The record, described as "ramshackle" by bandleader Hitchcock, contains some of the most raw and propulsive music of his career. You can read the remainder of the article here.

WARNING: The image below is not for the easily offended

I once read an article about Southern Hospitality that said the reason we're so nice is to keep from stompin' someone's ass so you're right on the money with that one.

According to this article Robert Kerns (Bottle Rockets, Cry of Love and local NC band Sidewinder) will be filling in for Skynyrd bassist Ean Evans until he's well enough to return to the band. I was looking at some old photos of Sidewinder recently and never realized Kearns and Audley Freed (Cry of Love, Black Crowes, etc.) was also in that band back in the day. I must of seen them dozens of times back in the 80s. It wasn't until years later that I became aware of Audley and Robert Kearns.

The only one I really have any respect for is Walsh who I prefer solo and with the James Gang to anything he ever did with the Eagles.

The sound quality on this leaves a lot to be desired (as do most YouTube clips, particularly audience-shot live ones) but here's the Yayhoos doing their rock n' roll cover of ABBA's Dancing Queen. A better sounding version can be found on their debut record, Fear Not the Obvious. I love the comment below the clip on the YouTube page, "The Yayhoos doing a great version of "Dancing Queen" aka "The Scandinavian Louie Louie"!" The Yayhoos are Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), Keith Christopher (Shaver, Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band), Eric "Roscoe" Ambel (Joan Jett's Blackhearts, the Del-Lords, Steve Earle's Dukes) and Terry Anderson (Fabulous Knobs, the Woods, the Backsliders, the Olympic Ass Kickin' Team and author of Battleship Chains, I Love You Period, etc.). For those interested, there's a great article on them here.