Like maybe seeing at least a glimpse of the concert itself? Believe it or not, I've never seen Iron Man. For an action flick it lived up to all the praise friends have given it. I enjoyed Man On Wire but my fellow viewers were asleep within the first 10 minutes.

Did you catch 'em on Letterman last night? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK99JCK69Ss

Click on the image for more info.

From Neil's website: DREAMIN' MAN, Neil Young Archives Performance Series #12, will be released on or about Nov. 2nd, 17 years after the original release of Harvest Moon. A closer look at Harvest Moon songs, all performed solo acoustic before the release of Harvest Moon, DREAMIN' MAN contains intimate live performances recorded in concert halls during 1992.

This was released to most outlets a day early so I snatched up a copy. There's a nice shout out to NC's Patty Hurst Shifter via some poster art on the gatefold as well as heartfelt thanks to R.E.M. (including a nod to Dead Letter Office) in the liner notes.

As long as you know going in not to expect a recounting of the performances from the concert itself, I think most everyone will enjoy it. One thing that threw me off is how people starting showing up at the main character's doorstep the moment the original concert entered it's early planning stages. It was as though as soon as it became an idea, everyone starting flocking to Bethel when I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case at all, though the movie seems to portray it that way. Otherwise I really enjoyed the film, the angle it takes does a great job of conjuring up the sights, sounds and feel of the times. I also found the psychedelic sequences to be especially well done.

The Huguenots w/ the Stars Explode Tir Na Nog Thursday, August 27th Raleigh, NC The Bottle Rockets w/ the Olympic Ass Kickin' Team Berkeley Cafe Friday, August 28th Raleigh, NC The Small Ponds Pour House Music Hall Friday, August 28th Raleigh, NC Drive-By Truckers Visulite Theatre Saturday, August 29th Charlotte, NC

One of those guitarists is North Carolina's own Brad Rice who has played in the bands of several local artists including Whiskeytown, the Backsliders, Ryan Adams and most recently, Tift Merritt. He was also in the revised lineup of Son Volt for a short period. Can't say I'm a fan of either Sugarland or Keith Urban's brand of "country" but I am very glad for Brad.

Much love to your wife. I feel pretty fortunate to be able to feed my addiction. Thing is, living up here in the midst of it is like mainlining it. If I went to all of the shows I really wanted to I'd be broke and in jail. Thanks for the info on the Hot Tuna shows, I'll look into it though I'm sure I'd be more than pleased just to see 'em in any configuration.

Pete Townshend Writing New Musical, Songs Headed for Who LP Photo: Jelonek/WireImage Pete Townshend updated his page on the Who’s official Website yesterday to alert fans that he’s currently working on a new musical titled Floss, “an ambitious new project for me, in the style of Tommy and Quadrophenia.” Townshend wrote, “In this case the songs are interspersed with surround-sound ’soundscapes’ featuring complex sound-effects and musical montages. Several of the more conventional songs from Floss will be featured on a forthcoming Who recording for release in 2010.” According to Townshend, Floss tells the story of Walter, an aging rocker who retires after one of his songs becomes the anthem of a TV commercial. Walter becomes a house-husband to his wife, the title character Floss, who is devoted to riding stables. After a 15-year break from music, Walter decides to become a rocker again, and finds that the songs he writes “evoke the ecologically rooted, apocalyptic mindset of his generation.” That and personal difficulties lead to an estrangement from Floss, but the two are reunited after an event at an emergency hospital ward. The subject matter is light years away from being the deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizard of Tommy or the schizophrenia and Mods vs. Rockers conflict of Quadrophenia, but Floss reflects where Townshend is now as he approaches age 64. Floss “touches on the current issues faced by the Boomer generation. It also addresses their uneasy relationship with their parents, children and grandchildren,” Townshend writes. “As a 19 year old — with “My Generation” — I wrote the most explicitly ageist song in rock. At 64, I now want to take on aging and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock & roll.” Townshend adds that Floss will make its debut in concert in 2011. While the date and venue have not yet been determined, Townshend says he’s already talking with producers in New York. Townshend adds that his sole focus is on Floss while Roger Daltrey is on the road for his own solo tour.

My love for music is one of several reasons I moved to Raleigh last year. This past year has been a particularly rough one for me so taking in as much music as possible (live and otherwise) is but one means of feeding my soul and keeping my spirits up. With very few exceptions most of the artists I go to see are on a national touring level or else are musicians who play locally pretty frequently (sometimes with no cover). Hot Tuna is on my long list of folks I hope to see that I never have. I finally marked the New Riders of the Purple Sage off of that list earlier this month and am about to do the same with Alice Cooper and U2 in the months to come.

Years ago, I somehow managed to lose the booklet that came with original copies of One More For From the Road. Thankfully, I found a used copy a few years ago that still had one intact.

I actually ending up giving today's thrift store find to a friend of mine who's responsible for recently turning me onto the Vaselines. This particular CD is apparently no longer in print which makes it a true "find".

If I'm not mistaken, I previously posted the one for Revolver that was being hosted on the Beatles' website. They're "making of" docs that go with each record. The one for Beatles for Sale is up now. I was reading something the other day which said that due to ongoing legal squabbles, Let It Be is not likely to be released in either Ringo Starr or Paul McCartney's lifetimes. As for Magical Mystery Tour, please clarify as to it's availability. Not to be a smartass but I've never heard of anything being "almost of of print". Either new copies are being manufactured or they're not. I can't say I'm familiar with any sort of in between.

They're playing the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC soon but I've got so many concerts on my plate lately I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it. I sure would love to though. I was practically raised on this record:

To cap off a month long celebration of birthday concerts I'll be seeing the Bottle Rockets with the Olympic Ass Kickin' Team on Friday. If time allows, I'm going to try to make it over to the Pour House that same evening for the debut of the Small Ponds, a new band featuring Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas). Saturday brings the Drive-By Truckers to Charlotte for the second night of a two night stand with no opener. Last week I bought a ticket for Alice Cooper's Theatre of Death tour which hits Durham in late September. Believe it or not, even though Killer is one of the very first records I ever bought, I've never seen Alice live. At this point, I'm more excited about seeing him than I am U2 when they play Raleigh in October (I've never seen them in concert either).

When I was growing up, one of my older brother had all of these. He still has the diecast Yellow Submarine and I have the lunchbox. I have no idea what became of the model kit, he may still have it somewhere. According to the YouTube clip below, intact boxes of the model bring a pretty penny these days (as does the lunchbox). We also had some Beatles "moptop" wigs but they all bit the dust. Strangely enough, given the love of the Beatles in my family, none of them ever saw them live (I was far too young). Same goes for solo performances. I'm far from his biggest fan but I do hope to see McCartney someday, it'll be the closest I'll ever get to seeing the Beatles.

Click on the cover below for extensive Beatles coverage from Rolling Stone:

That it does but I still prefer the full size jewel cases so you can see the label on the spine. Yeah they probably would fit just as they did for one of the many re-releases of Pets Sounds which managed to fit both mixes on one CD. Again, it just means more money into the pockets of the surviving Beatles and their families if the diehards wanna buy both collections.

While that's certainly an option I tend to still clear of CDs that are poorly packaged. Considering the amount of money that's being thrown at this particular project you'd think they'd have the average consumer in mind. It's more than evident that they dropped the ball on this one. Check the writeups on Amazon for the recently released Cheap Trick at Budokan! box as well as the M*A*S*H* DVD box. the chief complaint about both collections is how the media is stored (cardboard sleeves). Of course, that all works the label's advantage. Damaged discs means the consumer will have to buy them again.

Though I prefer jewel cases, I can deal with digipaks if they're constructed rigidly enough and have an inlay tray for the CDs. My problem here isn't with the packaging itself but with how easily CDs are scratched when they're stored within cardboard sleeves.

Have you had an opportunity to read the article about the releases I posted a link to? In the event you haven't, it posits that the entire package will fall into the hands of the public at large in one form or another. Maybe not in a way that's unprecedented since file sharing is nothing new but the potential is certainly there for it to be distributed in some very new and exciting ways. As for the actual packaging, I can't say I'm much of a fan of the cardboard sleeves. For such a pricey set it seems like they could have at least sprung for some inlay trays to house the CDs.

Alice Cooper Lifts The Curtain On 'Theatre Of Death' Tour by Gary Graff, Detroit With a revamped set list and four onstage "deaths," Alice Cooper is shaking things up a bit with his just-launched Theatre of Death North American tour. "It's Alice all the way, but the formula is totally upside down and backwards," the veteran shock-rocker tells Billboard.com. "It's a celebration of Alice stuff. There's no moral to it. It really is just sort of a celebration of different phases of Alice." Cooper credits Robert Jess Roth, who directed the original stage production of Walt Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and is a big Cooper fan, with the Theatre of Death concept. "He said, 'I want your lyrics to tell the story,' " recalls Cooper, who had to write a new verse for "Devil's Food" to accommodate Roth's script. "He said, 'I want to tell four stories -- the delinquent Alice, Alice in hell, four different acts. And at the end of each act we kill you; we kill that Alice and introduce the next Alice.' "He showed me the set list and the ideas and we started talking about what deaths would be good, this and that, and the show just stared forming. All of a sudden we had this elaborate show, new lights and props and costumes and everything, and I really liked it. To read the rest of the article click here