Live Review: Phish 12/28/19 MSG NYC

Phish 

12/28/19 NYC, MSG 

Saturday night December 28th saw jam band icons Phish kick off their annual sold out New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden. This was the first of four nights in a row for the band and fans as the Phish organization commemorates 25 years of playing at the world’s most famous arena.

Even with the band recently completing an early winter north eastern tour, there were signs of getting back into the full swing of things as the show ebbed and flowed on this night, never settling into a vibe, yet it still contained some brilliant high-points from the quartet.

The group kicked off the whole event with a brand new understated ballad; an odd choice titled “Evening Song”, but then laid into a grooving “No Men in No Man’s Land” which bopped along confidently. While the group played a few of their songs which succeed in that funky style the most (“Ghost”, “Tube”, “Gotta Jibbo”) they were the best on this night when they just got to flat-out-rocking. This was demonstrated early on with show highlight “Down with Disease” which had guitarist Trey Anastasio jumping for joy during the intro.

This performance was a blazing showcase for his dynamite riffs and the band followed behind his lead. After this intense performance the group down shifted to their first ever country rock cover of “20/20 Vision” written by Geoffrey Morgan. This juxtaposition of style/tempos was constant and kept the night from taking off, while fans love to label set lists with segues, things never flowed from song to song until the final chaotic silly run of “Ass Handed” and “Chalkdust Torture Reprise”.

However, before that ending the band delivered a few rollicking efforts that are worth highlighting. An unexpected and delicate “Dog Faced Boy” was a pleasant surprise while first set closer “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S” received by far the best crowd reaction of the night with the full arena singing along. The booming cover of The Who’s “Drowned” let Page McConnell work his keyboards with style and ended with Jon Fishman singing some “Guy Forget” lyrics around his propulsive drumming.

The second sets biggest success was a meaty take on “Free” which had all four members locked in yet exploring their own sonic causeways, Mike Gordon’s bass leads were of particular note during this adventure. While they fully stopped before digging into a ripping “Piper” the thoughts of these songs epic pairing (in reverse) twenty years ago at Big Cypress certainly came to mind.

The band musically nodded to their host city with “On Broadway” flourishes during a restrained “Set Your Soul Free” and wrapped up the first show the run with a blistering bluegrass blast of “Rocky Top”, preparing to close out 2019 and usher in 2020 in the Big Apple once again.

SETLIST: PHISH, SATURDAY 12/28/2019 MADISON SQUARE GARDEN New York, NY
SET 1: Evening Song[1], No Men In No Man's Land, Down with Disease, 20-20 Vision[2], Ghost, Gumbo > Rift, Weigh, Dog Faced Boy, Twenty Years Later > Tube > Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.

SET 2: Everything's Right > Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1 > Set Your Soul Free -> Gotta Jibboo > Free > Piper, Drowned, Ass Handed > Chalk Dust Torture Reprise[3] > Character Zero ENCORE: A Life Beyond The Dream, Rocky Top

[1] Debut.
[2] Phish debut.
[3] With lyrics changed to Ass Handed.

  

Album Review: The Stompin' Lickers - Barley Covered

The Stompin' Lickers

Barley Covered

*** out of *****

The Stompin' Lickers are seven piece ensemble from Wein, Austria who practice old-timey sounding jazz with swinging energy, playing classics in their own arraignments with clear nods to the originators. The tunes sound straight out of Storyville and a by gone era as The Stompin' Lickers go back in time for their organic acoustic jazz sound.

The band is Christiane Beinl – vocals Marc Osterer – trumpet Florian Fennes – saxophone/clarinet Jakob Mayr - trombone Philipp Jagschitz – piano Philipp Moosbrugger – bass Hubert Bründlmayer - drums and they have a clear love of the classics but are never afraid to shake things up. Take their version of Ella Fitzgerald's classic "Imagine My Frustration", they re-do the tale with a quicker drum beat and triple time horns and piano as Beinl puts a healthy vocal on top of the up beat stomp, lightening the whole mood of the downtrodden blues original.

The outfit delivers a more straight ahead version of Fats Waller's "Louisiana Fairytale" and the album opening standard "April Showers". The band puts on a solid version of the sultry "I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate" in between Betty Grable and Louis Armstrong while they slightly speed up the ballad "Smoke Rings" with rich bass and horn work.   

Other top notch versions are the grooving "Bye Bye, Blackbird", a sped up "Pick Yourself Up", and two swinging originals "Hoppedibop" and "Stinky Pinky". The group delivers the retro jazz goods keeping long time fans on their toes while executing some slight changes while also appealing to newbies as the jazzy tunes all hold up.

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Jazzy January is Back! Support the band, buy the album, stream it on bandcamp or below and peep some video:

Top 50 Albums of the 2010's

Way back in 2009 we were lucky enough to help contribute to Glide Magazine's list of Best Albums of the 2000's. Hard to believe it has been ten years since we filled out that list, but it is that time again to look back at the previous decade and put together some arbitrary rankings. Since this site has been going strong the full decade we have a lot to pull from.

Here are RtBE's picks for the top albums from the last decade, 2010-2019.

If we reviewed the album we will provide a link to that review in the title, a brief reflection on the record and a tune from it. A lot can change in ten years and a lot stays the same. Some albums were just right for their time and place, some haven't aged particularly well and others were perhaps misunderstood or even prophetic as to where the world was headed.

Just our two cents, but this decade will not be looked back at fondly when it comes to remembering music in general. Things (for the most part) are being programmed and mushed together into mellow, white bread, digestible tunes with a hip hop foundation around pop hooks, synth vibes, a few strings and nothing the least bit exciting or offensive for the majority of music out there. In an era that should be considerably ripe for protest, outrage, and individual expressionism, very little of actual substance has escaped to the masses.

Also from a practical standpoint, never before has the concept of "album" been so meaningless in our streaming/playlist curated society. While RtBE isn't completely old fashion, we still haven't bought into those ways of consuming music and the album is still our only way of listening to things, whether on vinyl or downloaded; no shuffling of singles here. This list focuses on full lengths that are played from beginning to end and deliver the goods.  

There were a ton of top notch records released over the last ten years, much more than fifty, but these are our choices. We kept our personal musical releases off the list, but feel free to listen and critique those if you would like.

As a note, Glide Magazine, the main site we contribute to, changed its rating system in the middle of the decade from 5 Stars to 10 stars, then removed it all together so if you see say #49 on our list with only 4 stars, consider it doubled to 8.

Like all of the lists RtBE have done, this is meant to start conversations, not end them. So let's kick it off...

Dylan Cover #408 Greensky Bluegrass "You Ain't Going Nowhere" Live

In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a live cover by Greensky Bluegrass performing "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" 

Thoughts on Original:
From the first time we addressed this cover:
A great song, and one that sounds so simple. It always felt to me that these are the kind of songs Dylan has seeping out of his pores, with lines like "Tailgates and Substitutes" that anywhere else would sound foolish yet here works wonders. The musical backing from the original Band version is loose and matched fantastically with the lyrics. I am sure it wasn't as easy going as it sounds on the final version, but what a gem of a track.
Cover:


Thoughts on Cover Artist:
We reviewed Greensky Bluegrass's newest album All For Money and it made our year end best of list, but we have yet to catch them live. We need to rectify that in 2020.
  
Thoughts on Cover:
A fun encore tune done in slow and solid (if not spectacular) fashion. The band was supported by Kyle Tuttle and Mimi Naja for this one.

Album Review: Malevitus - Malevitus

Malevitus

S/T

***and a 1/2 out of *****

The debut, self-titled release from the New Orleans based post-punk outfit Malevitus, delivers angular rock and spoken word lyrics, all buoyed by a dance ready beat.

The four piece (Tiana Hux: vocals, percussion, Marcus Bronson: bass, vocals, keys, percussion, Rob Cambre: guitar, fx, Mike Andrepont: drums) deliver a streamlined effort that fuses poppy tunes with warbling at the edges mayhem. "Panhandle" is a good summation of the groups powerful points as it uses deft drumming and bass around a scratchy/grooving guitar with Hux plain spoken vocals revving up to the edge of disintegration before easing back into a hip shaking ready groove.

Three numbers really capture the ear as the bands cover of X's "Universal Corner" nails Malevitus overall aesthetic perfectly while "Night of the Dog" is an engaging original that pushes more towards late night funky rock mover with excellent guitar work from Cambre and near rapping from Hux. The third standout, "Rapscallion" winningly pushes up the slamming tempo and punk rock feedback while reminding of Royal Trux scuzzy rawk and roll.   

The sparse and experimentally accentuated "Golden Toy Soldiers" buzzes to open while the bass intro and snarling lyrics of "Fire Department" moves the white noise to the distance. Two longer numbers "Sugar and Salt" and "Light Years" are expansive wandering down different paths as "Sugar and Salt" keeps the dance pulse pumping, while the more art rock direction of "Light Years" challenge the listener. 

The group seems torn between the more dance ready pop rock and jagged post punk resulting in a tension which leads to engaging results throughout. Malevitus debut displays its post rock strengths and love of the endless boogie over its eight originals and dynamite cover. _______________________________________________________
Support the band, buy the album, stream it on bandcamp or below and peep some video:

Full Show Friday: Iron Maiden - Rock in Rio 2019

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Iron Maiden!

We end the year of Full Show Friday's with Iron Maiden's set from Rock and Rio this year. Pro Shot, Pro Sound, Enjoy:

Live Holiday Cheer From The Hold Steady

The Hold Steady have released some official recordings from 2019 on their bandcamp page which you can stream and download.

The band has made 4 shows from 2019 available including one that was in the running for RtBE's show of the year. The bands March 8th show at the Electric Ballroom in London England was one of our favorites that the band has ever done and apparently they were happy with it as well, being the first show released in this series.

There are other shows from Toronto, San Francisco and Nashville to check out, but we are going to be rocking out to the London gig all weekend. Enjoy.

Album Review: Screaming Females - Singles Too

Screaming Females

Singles Too

*** out of *****

RtBE have been fans of Screaming Females since we first caught them back in 2009 and featured them heavily in our look back at the best bands of the decade. We already owned Singles making this a bit of completist pleasure, but now Singles Too adds a few more covers and unique outtakes; those new to the band could just jump on board right here and get a good sense of the group.

These songs are all on par with album cuts and were not on records for various reasons, but the band is top notch throughout the first half of this record on outtakes like the ripping "Arm Over Arm" and "Zoo of Death". These two outtakes open the record and still get played by the band live as they cook from the drop an show off what Marissa Paternoster, Mike Abbate and Jared Dougherty do best, angular power riffs, rumbling low end and soaring arena ready punk spiked rockers.

The band brought in some MC friends Sammus and Moor Mother to rhyme over a remix of "End Of My Bloodline" which shifts gears and shows how the trio's music can be reinterpreted as the genre change still produces winning results. 

The real joy of the record comes over the second half as the group dives into some covers. "Cortez The Killer" on paper should be a screaming showcase for Paternosters six string majesty but the band twists the tune, punching up the rhythmic backbone as Abbate and Doughtery lead the way; a neat switch of preconceived notions. 

A more direct Females style cover is "A Good Flying Bird" by Guided By Voices, which amps the crunchy feedback and riffage while the "No More I Love You's" cover of the Eurythmics dramatically close things. The two covers the band recorded during their A/V sessions focus on more known tracks and while the band tears into Sheryl Crowe's "If It Makes You Happy" with a vital kick ass energy, they seem to hold back a bit on Taylor Swifts "Shake It Off" which could be better with a longer solo, all though Paternosters vocals are pretty solid up and down the register.

Overall Singles Too successfully collects a bunch of odd and ends and cool covers from one of the best rock bands out there today.
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Support the band, buy the album, stream it below or on bandcamp and peep some video:

Merry Christmas from Rock The Body Electric

Have a Happy One on @RockBodyElec:

Here is our favorite Christmas song for the Holiday Season, sing it Clarence!


And a a few bonus tunes as stocking-stuffer's because we are in the giving spirit. Here is Albert King trying to get Santa the respect he deserves...


Jimmy Jule and the Nuclear Soul System let's you that "Xmas Done Got Funky":


Enjoy the holiday and as always, thanks for reading.

Album Review: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Ghosteen

***and1/2 out of *****

The short double album Ghosteen is a haunting, affecting, hopeless/hopeful album which Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds crafted after the tragic death of Cave's 15 year old son.

There is not much musical variety at work here, just the sparse synths, light pianos and mood textures as Cave expresses his poetic outpouring of emotion, but it all works as a singular effort. The opening "Spinning Song" starts with Elvis and moves throughout the process of dealing with morality as the line "time will come for us" speaks directly to the futility of it all, a them he returns to often, including the albums last lines.

However the brightness of life and hopefulness also plays a vibrant part. "Bright Horses" is one of the album highlights as female wailing begins the song but small musical enhancements like a xylophone and a shift to almost standard blues lines about babies returning on trains shifts the gears into a brighter moment.

The memory based "Night Raid" and the pianos, faith, and soul that "Waiting for You" delivers also rings of a brightness just outside the pain. There is an ethereal floating that drifts across "Galleon Ship" with voices/samples just outside of understanding as Cave paints the wave with his words or moves towards hymnal heights with "Ghosteen Speaks" while the slow building "Leviathan" surfaces eventually from the depths.

The gorgeous, almost thirteen minute, organ and string laden title track is a full musical statement in itself, distilling the artists vision for this record in symphonic and cinematic style. In a sense this title track truly says it all and while the theme is transferred throughout the rest of the tracks, it could have been released on it's own as it is so complete as Cave sings about there being nothing wrong with loving things you can't stand. Along with album closer "Hollywood" these massive musical pieces are fully formed motifs, "Hollywood" is darker and much more ominous with constant throbbing and pulsing as lyrics haunt and end with another mortality examination as he waits for peace to come. 

The humming and one note of the musical style has a tendency to drop the record into the background while weighty, poetic dealings with grief and loss of Cave's lyrics demand you pay attention. It is an tense album, seemingly cathartic for it's creator and one that everyone who has lost someone (which is all of us) can find moments of familiarity with.
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Support the artist, buy the record and peep some video below:

Live Review: Steve Earle's Fifth Annual John Henry’s Friends Benefit 12/17/19 Town Hall, NYC

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!!!

It is of Steve Earle's Fifth Annual John Henry’s Friends Benefit held on Tuesday night December 17th at the historic Town Hall in Times Square.

This was a really fun night of good music for a good cause, the Keswell School.  If people would like to donate and help out you can here:
https://www.keswellschool.org/get-involved

Fun night, good cause, great tunes. Not much more needs to be said other than that and what was in the review.  Happy Holidays.

Dylan Cover #407 Cha and Pa "Must Be Santa" Live

In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a live cover by Cha and Pa playing "Must Be Santa"

Thoughts on Original:
In 2009 Bob Dylan released Christmas In The Heart and unleashed his version of the rollicking "Must Be Santa" and it's killer video upon the world.

Based on a German drinking song, "Must Be Santa" was concocted by Hal Moore and Bill Fredericks and first released in 1960. Dylan's version is a blast in a polka style tossing in Presidents into the mix. While technically not an original for this series...who cares? 

Cover:


Thoughts on Cover Artist:
Cha and Pa are charming.

Thoughts on Cover:
Merry Christmas Everyone. 

RIP Ram Dass

Every now and then RtBE will branch out from strictly music.  Now is one of those times as we bid a fond farewell to Ram Dass.

"After all, we're just walking each other home"

Perhaps more than anyone else we have wished an RIP to, Dass whole heartily believes that his spirit is just changing forms and continuing to evolve; death means he just ditches his human space suit.  There is something very reassuring about that. 

The NY Times wrote up a piece on him for those who don't know and RtBE recently caught a documentary on him at the Rubin Museum which is worth tracking down titled Becoming Nobody.

Hopefully the next journey for Dass (and all of us) is even more interesting than this one. 

Full Show Friday: Lee Ranaldo - Barcelona March 12 2018, Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Lee Ranaldo!

This week we have a fan video of Lee Ranaldo who is playing with his Electric Trim Trio back in 2018 in Barcelona. Big fans of Lee and loved that album, this video is noisy and fluctuates but I think that is how Lee would have liked it. Full set list below. Enjoy:



“Moroccan Mountains” + “Let's Start Again” + “Circular (Right as Rain)” + “Electric Trim” + “Uncle Skeleton” + “New Thing” + “Purloined” + “Thrown Over the Wall” + “Ambulancer”

Year In Review 2019 - Favorite Albums Part 3 (#5-1)

Another great year is finishing up for @RockBodElec and we wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE Presents the Best of 2019 Top Ten Albums numbers 5-1.

In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album either on the site or somewhere else we will link to that review and just give a quick summation; click on the name and title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but full releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle or singles for us.

The number ten just works for this so this is the second part of our top ten, #5-1. You can see #10-5  and the albums that just missed this as well. Like all of our lists or best of's these are meant to start conversations more than end them...

Album Review: Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains

Purple Mountains

Purple Mountains

***and1/2 out of *****

The first release from David Berman since 2009, after the disbandment of his group Silver Jews finds the front man struggling with it all. Purple Mountains took over five years to complete and only a month after its release, Berman took his own life.

Knowing that, the lyrics take on an even more morbid sense of despair but even before knowing that about the creative force behind the album, things were far from rosy. Berman sings about his constant state of depression and the futility of it all while drinking margaritas in the mall. The record was recorded and produced by Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl members of the band Woods and the excellent sound/production can juxtapose with pain and monotone singing of Berman, as warm horns, rich bass and guitar jangles keep things moving more or less upbeat against the dour fuck it all lyrics.

Berman's mother died in the lead up to the album and he also separated from his wife of 20 years, while the songs like "I Loved Being My Mother’s Son" and "Maybe I'm he Only One For Me" are raw and honest, coming from obvious true places, they depress as well. All of this comes directly from the lead vocal delivery; pain can be transmuted in various ways, but Berman's dead pan direct sing-speak makes the hurt real and hopeless.

This is an artistic twist in itself, but while the album sounds top notch musically it is painful to return to as tracks like "All My Happiness is Gone" and "Darkness and Cold" have no subtext, bleakness is in and of itself the point. The best complete tracks here are the "Margaritas in the Mall" which contemplates life itself/futility, the warm crackling cymbals/organ work on "Snow Is Falling In Manhattan" and the country bar waltz of "She's Making Friends, I'm Turning Stranger" which Taveniere and Earl elevate above self-pity wallow with Berman singing of the scorned lover with poetic charms.

Berman's lyrics and songwriting cannot be questioned as they turn phrases, cut to the core and put fourth exactly what is meant when it is needed, combined with the musicality things are worth hearing. However his vocal approach and the extra weightiness of it all make it hard to camp in these Purple Mountains for an extended time.
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Buy the album, peep some video below:

Best Live Albums of the 2010's

Live music is religion. Capturing that in-the-moment feeling can be a tricky proposition though for every Live at The Regal or Live at The Isle of Wight, there are thousands of Love You Live's. For the majority of live albums are cash grabs meant to have people pay for shows that are not as good as their memories are. That said in the era of streaming, more live events are being captured and released so "official" album labels are starting to fade...

In looking back at this decade, it wasn't the best for albums as a whole which (we mentioned already in our Top 50 of 2010-2019), but things were much more barren when it came to live albums from the past decade. These aren't archival releases (which there were many great ones this decade), these are from current acts that recorded a live album and released it in the last ten years.

Most of these records on this list are fine, but far from life changing, however the topper is one of our favorite releases of the decade so RtBE wanted to do a post on it and needed some honorable mentions. Feel free to let us know about any we missed in the comments below.

As with all of our lists on RtBE these are meant to be conversation starters, not the be all end all final word.

New Single "Gypsy Christmas" from Zaragoza

The L.A. based singer songwriter Zaragoza has released a new tune for the season with his original composition "Gypsy Christmas".

Regarding the tune Zaragoza (real name Drew Zaragoza) stated:

"Christmas has always been my favorite Holiday and the modern commercialism of it can make it stressful which is the opposite of what its about. This song is about getting away from that modern commercialism."

It is a relaxed breathy track which you can hear below and download it as well.


Take a few minutes and slow down with this easy going, dreamy tune during this frantic time of year.

Year In Review 2019 - Favorite Albums Part 2 (#10-6)

Another great year is finishing up for @RockBodElec and we wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE Presents the Best of 2019 Favorite Albums numbers 10-6.

In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album either on the site or somewhere else we will link to that review and just give a quick summation; click on the name and title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but full releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle or singles for us.

The number ten just works for this so this is the first part of our top ten, you can see the albums that just missed as well. Like all of our lists or best of's these are meant to start conversations more than end them...

Dylan Cover #406 Andy & Renee & Hard Rain "Sweetheart Like You" Live 2015

In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a cover by Andy & Renee & Hard Rain playing "Sweetheart Like You" 

Thoughts on Original:
From the first time we tackled a cover of this song:
All of the songs on Infidels  stuck around to long in the Bards brain (which we talked about before). While "Jokerman" overwhelms as a rambling waterfall of a song the first time you hear it, "Sweetheart Like You" is clear evidence of that fact that things were left to simmer on the stove longer then needed. It is a mix of condescension, sexy, sexist, insecure and scattered. In fact those things make for an amazing Dylan tune, but in this case I don't feel it really adds up to a classic or much of a very good song at all.

Cover:


Thoughts on Cover Artist:
This is our first time coming across Andy & Renee & Hard Rain. Turns out they have a podcast on Dylan though so we may have to dig into them more.

Thoughts on Cover:
A damn fine cover of this lesser played Dylan tune. Tight, well played and sung with gusto. Excellent all around.

Also it needs to be mentioned that with the USA's current political climate more than ever this couplet from the song hits home: