Tuesday, September 30, 2008

the Super Boss, err, Bowl 2009

Announced yesterday on Billboard.com:
----------------------------------------

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will play the halftime slot at the Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., snagging the spot at the most-watched musical event of the year, according to the organizers.

This year, more than 148 million viewers in the U.S. watched Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play at the championship game of American football, the National Football League said yesterday (Sept. 28). Other recent halftime acts have included Prince, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and U2.

The most infamous performer was Janet Jackson, who bared her breast during the 2004 event, triggering a crackdown on televised smut. The Super Bowl will be televised by NBC. Springsteen and the E Street Band recently finished an extensive world tour in support of the 2007 album "Magic."

TONIGHT: The Sword

Tonight, The Sword, the Deity of Doom, brings its metal reign to Knoxville to the Valarium for a night of ear-busting, mind-blowing, face-melting rawk (similar to this). Also on the bill are Clutch, Graveyard and Never Got Caught. I don't know anything about the latter, a little about Clutch (ehh) and have only heard how badass Graveyard is. So come check it out tonight.

Graveyard is also performing in store at the Disc Exchange today at 5 fo' free if you are interested.

This isn't my first go round with The Sword. After seeing their four man assault here in town at Blue Cats about a year and a half ago, and then again at Bonnaroo this past June, I can attest to the power of The Sword. They will tear through your town with no remorse, and no quarter, like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, leaving no survivors, only smoking carcasses and the wreckage of what used to be.

Oh, and they have a gong too.

The Sword at Bonnaroo 2008
picture courtesy of C$

Thursday, September 25, 2008

TONIGHT: Dave Weckl drum clinic at UT Music Hall

Dave Weckl, a modern day drum legend, guru, composer and producer will hold a clinic tonight at the University of Tennessee's Music Hall at 7:30. Local drum shop Fork's is bringing him to town as part of the Sabian Clinic Tour. You can purchase tickets at both Fork's Drum Closet or at the door for $10.

Weckl made a name for himself playing with Paul Simon, Madonna and the infamous Chick Corea in the late 80s. I remember him because I always bought his line of Vic Firth drumsticks when I growing up and playing drums back in the days of yore. My, that seems like so long ago now.

Anyhow, check him out- I'm sure he'll pop an eardrum or two tonight, so if that interests you, I hope to see you there.

See more Weckl info here.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

TONIGHT: The Black Keys @ Valarium

Tonight the Black Keys bring their 2-man funky garage rock-blues assault to Knoxville for the first time since September 2005. To be honest, I haven't heard their new album, Attack and Release, or really anything in the last few years (I know I know...), but I remember digging what I heard back in my college radio days at WUTK when Thickfreakness came out. Either way, I'm looking forward to it and I'll let you know how it goes...Opening the show at the Valarium will be Jessica Lea Mayfield.


Against Me! - Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart video

Watch the new video from Against Me! featuring Tegan Quinn of Tegan and Sara.





Heart Burns - Artwork By Steak MTN.

In other Against Me! news, singer Tom Gabel will release his solo EP, "Heart Burns", on October 28th on Sire Records. It will be available on cd, vinyl and digital download. Tom recorded it with Billy Bush and Butch Vig. You can read Tom's studio journal here. Track listing is below:

1. Random Hearts
2. Conceptual Paths
3. Cowards Sing At Night
4. Amputations
5. Anna Is A Stool Pigeon
6. Harsh Realms
7. 100 Years Of War

Also, Tegan and Sara will be at Austin City Limits Festival this weekend and then in Atlanta on Tuesday night at the Tabernacle, so check them out if you are around.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Free Wilco...just for voting!

Wilco says,
And if you pledge to do so, they will give you a copy of the Bob Dylan classic "I Shall Be Released" from their show with the Fleet Foxes in Bend, Oregon on 8/23/08. Click here for details and don't forget to vote!

TONIGHT: Maceo Parker @ Bijou Theatre


Maceo Parker will be at the Bijou Theatre with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra's Ray Charles Birthday Celebration (it is actually today!). Maceo's show should prove to be a spectacular tribute to the Genius.

If you are unfamiliar with Maceo and his work, check his stats and his collaborations with everyone in the business over the past 40+ years with The Godfather, P-Funk, The Purple One, the Chili Peppers, De La Soul, 10,000 Maniacs, Bryan Ferry, DMB and a ton of other folks. Check him out...I bet you don't even realize that you already know Maceo. How many of the albums that he has appeared on have you heard and do you own?



Read this local article about Maceo.

Catchin' up

Busy week last week and an even busier weekend with the big ballgame in town, plenty of tailgating and more armbending (aka: drankin') than necessary (apparently, by the stories I was told on Sunday...). Here's what we missed:


Eddie Vedder has recorded a song in honor of the Chicago Cubs, after Ernie Banks asked him to write a song for the Cubbies last year. You can listen to "All the Way" below.




Neil Young announced the lineup for the his 22nd annual Bridge School Benefit in California next month. On tap for this year's show, along with himself, will be ZZ Top, Death Cab for Cutie, Norah Jones, Cat Power, Wilco, Jack Johnson, Smashing Pumpkins and Josh Groban (yea, I don't know why Groban is in this list, but whatever...musical diversity is nice, I guess). The Bridge School is

"an educational program dedicated to ensuring that children with
severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their
communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of
communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT) applications."
More on the Bridge School here.


What do Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White have in common?

A new documentary on the electric guitar from three rock lengends: It Might Get Loud. The three six-stringers were in Toronto at the Toronto International Film Festival slangin' their new rock doc.

See more here... and here and here.


In other White news, as I'm sure you've heard by now, Jack White and Alicia Keys have teamed up for "Another Way to Die", the new Bond song for this fall's 007 installment Quantum of Solace. Hear it below:



And everybody's favorite poster boy for sobriety Scott Weiland has announced a new solo record, Happy in Golashes, and tour right on the heels of his current Stone Temple Pilots reunion tour. Spin is spinning his new tune, "Paralysis", that was produced by the No Doubt fellas. Interesting, to say the least. And his MySpace has a second tune, "Missing Cleveland". See what you think. Due out on November 25th, Happy will be Weiland's first solo album since 12 Bar Blues, his solo debut from 1998.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

REVIEW: Kings of Leon - Only By the Night


The Kings of Leon's fourth studio release comes out next week on September 23, but (luckily) I have come across a copy of it already...actually about a week ago, and have been debating how to approach and handle Only By the Night. You can preview the album here for now.

After two and a half listens straight through last weekend, I was left confused about my feelings (it usually takes a couple of handfuls of listens and a few weeks to get into a new KoL album). After a few more listenings this week in the office and in the car (not the best environments when wanting to give a critical ear), I am still left confused about the Kings' latest. In what seems to be the Kings fashion on the last album and a half, bordering on really the last two and half albums, dating back to Aha Shake Heartbreak, the Kings have all but dropped their dirty garage boogie of the Holy Roller Novocaine EP and Youth and Young Manhood album by distancing themselves as far as they possibly can with their newer found and slicker atmospheric jams and spacey tunes. May be it's the big record company pushing them in this direction; or possibly the Kings pushing back out from the garage corner they were put in to begin with. I don't know.

Either way, here is where they are now. Or rather way out in the galaxy of new glam and fashion rock, minus the electronic beats and effects. Oh wait. Nevermind. Track 6 "Revelry" comes in with what sounds to me like a drum machine. I forgot about that. I also forgot that it's also my favorite track on the 11-song album that is just shy of 43 minutes. I don't know why, because I am pretty much against all drum machines and beat boxes, unless the good Doctor is on it. The album opens with some weird spooky "woo woo woo woo woo" effects before the music even starts. I should have known what I was in for right then, eight seconds into the whole album.

Caleb's vocal lines and melodies have never been boring, and have always erred this side of pretty. After nearly three albums of the same spacey, U2-esque ringing chords and riffs, I was hoping for more of the straight forward three or four chord power chord songs that got my attention five, almost six years ago with the EP and Y&YMH. "Notion", "Use Somebody" and the first single "Sex on Fire" all liken to this structure of the U2 chords: see here and here if you don't know what I'm talking about. "17" is just another rehashing Aha Shake's "Milk" and "Soft" and Because of the Times's "True Love Way" in what seems to be Kings' recurring obsession with young, young ladies.

Three things with the KoL that are bothering me as they stand today:

  • The songs are starting to run together and sound too much alike with the same melody and falsetto vocals. The guitar harmonics and U2-ism has become overwhelming and simply overplayed. The bass has retreated into hiccups it sounds like, and for god's sake, let Nathan actually play the drums- he can, I promise. I've seen it, I've heard it and I've felt it. See here.

  • What's with the 'fashionista' outfits? Yes, y'all are big in Europe, so I can understand your wardrobe lending itself to more of their style of dress, but c'mon on now. You're not that big here (you could be, if y'all played that ol' rock n roll again one day). Y'all are from Nashville, and even the little emo-mall kids are out growing the tight pants, the cutesy sweaters and the whining on their records these days. And your cool-guy haircuts have got to go. Where's the mustaches and the pageboy haircuts that I remember so well and grew to love so dearly? I was even jealous of your mustache skills and abilities.

  • Why no more rocking out? In the beginning, that's all there was: it was an hour of soaken wet, sweaty t-shirts, spilled beer and bourbon and trying to catch your breath between songs and at the end. In the middle years, there was a reasonable combination of sweat and rock mixed with lighters and swaying. Now most of the songs on the album are swayers. I feel like I'm at a love or church rally with the way they ring out and lend themselves to putting your arm around the person next to you and swaying the night away. There's not a true rocker on this album; not nary a one.

In the second track "Crawl", Caleb warns with his signature howl "You better learn to crawl before I walk away." Yep, that about sums it up. The Kings need to learn to crawl again and go back to the basics before I/we all walk away.

And that's what it all really comes down to, is that there's really just not enough cock 'n balls for me anymore. And I think that goes for alot of us, as I was left wanting more or something that simply is not there this time.

Sidenote: there are two album covers up top. One is for the UK release, the other is for us. Can you guess which one is which?


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answer: the cool-looking eagle and face one incidentally is for the fans in the Old Country, where the Kings are still Kings of something, as opposed to here. The artsy one is for us, and it look like the Aha Shake cover, which isn't helping their image in the US with all their artsy, Rorschach images. "Leon" must be some planet waaaaaayyyyyy out in the far reaches of the galaxy that the KoL are trying to conquer with their stratospheric anthems, riffs and melodies, because their sound is getting further and further away from here and from where it used to be.

Levon Helm & the Ramble on the Road @ the Ryman Auditorium 9/17/08

Levon pulls Steve Earle and wife Allison Moorer out of crowd to join them...



... for the encore performance of the Dylan classic "Forever Young" below:






More to come on this. In the meantime, dig on the list of guests at last night's show:

Robert Plant
Alison Krauss
Steve Earle
Allison Moorer
John Hiatt
Sam Bush
Buddy Miller
Sheryl Crow
Delbert McClinton
Billy Bob Thornton


The video isn't the best, as I was attempting to be somewhat discreet abot videoing in the Mother Church, and since they made a special request not to because they were taping the show for a dvd release.

But I had to do a little bit, at least. More to come...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Sony/Legacy announces plans to bring back vinyl

From Punknews.org:

After focusing on CD and digital releases for the past few years, Sony/Legacy has announced plans to begin releasing vinyl again. Beginning this month, the long-running major label will begin reissuing Columbia, Epic, and RCA releases.

The first batch of releases includes mainstream arists like Boston, Blue Oyster Cult, Jefferson Starship and Cheap Trick, but also Lou Reed's classic, Berlin, and Social Distortion's 1990 album, Social Distortion. Future releases are expected to include albums from The Clash including the forthcoming Live at Shea Stadium.


Click here for more info.

DBT Patterson Hood on Mog.com

Check out the interviews with Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood on Mog.com.

Patterson discusses:

DBT on their latest album

DBT on the Americana revival

DBT on fave sounds

DBT on fave '08 albums

DBT on Squires of Jack Daniels

AC/DC world tour

AC/DC announced the expected late last week as they mapped out their first US tour dates since 2001 as part of their 18-month 2008-2009 world tour in support of their new album, Black Ice, out on October 20 (a Monday, oddly enough) that will be available exclusively at WalMart and Sam's Club (even more odd for the Hell's Highway troubadours). Sadly, as of right now, there are only two dates anywhere near here: Atlanta and Charlotte, both during the work week, and both at least a 3+ hour drive both ways, and both the week before Christmas.

Atlanta: Tuesday, December 16
Charlotte: Thursday, December 18

Maybe they will squeeze a Nashville show in there somewhere...or who knows, maybe a Knoxville show- I think the last time they did was back in 1996 on the Ballbreaker Tour, so there's always an outside chance. Knoxville surprises us once in a while with both big rock arena shows (Motley Crue, KISS, Aerosmith, etc...) to dive bars, small clubs and theatre shows (Bon Iver, Jeff Tweedy, Morrissey). We even have the surprising upcoming Jenny Lewis, Girl Talk, Black Keys and The Sword shows (not all together on the same bill, by the way). Anyways, I reckon we'll wait and see about Angus and the boys.

Click here for US dates and tickets. Tickets go on sale this weekend. I imagine they will go quicker than you think.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

TOMORROW in NASHVILLE


This should be an amazing show tomorrow night at the Ryman. More to come as it develops. We are on the lookout for special guest appearances by who knows!

Lemmy interview

Check out this interview with Lemmy.
A review of Motorhead's latest release Motorizer coming very, very soon.


Saturday, September 6, 2008

Glossary @ Barleys 9/6/08

GLOSSARY @ Barleys 9/6/08

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

MUCH, MUCH more to come on Glossary, this show, pics and hopefully a little insight from the band on their future.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Lemmy on Motorizer

Check out Lemmy talking here on Motorhead's new album, Motorizer.

Danko's Nudie suit

Saints Don't Bother doesn't usually push items and products for sale, except to encourage our readers to buy music or tickets to shows. However, exceptions can always be made. I came across this piece of awesomeness today: Rick Danko's Nudie suit from the mid-70s for sale on eBay. ick wore this suit with Bob Dylan at the Hurricane Carter concerts. If you've got a cool $5k, and who doesn't, it can be all yours here. SDB does take Nudie suit donations, especially of the Danko persuasion.

I wear a 40L if you're buying.

Jerry Reed, 1937-2008


Jerry Reed succumbed to emphysema on Monday, while we were still on vacation, so our farewell is a little late. He was 71. Jerry was known not only as a country singer and musician, but more famously to the current generation as the actor that played antagonist Coach Red Beaulieu in Adam Sandler's The Waterboy. Reed's most popular role was his character/alter-ego The Snowman, in which he played in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy. Cletus "The Snowman" Snow was the Bandit's (Burt Reynolds) partner in crime, as they bootlegged a big rig full of the then illegal Coors beer from Texarkana across the Mississippi River back to Atlanta in less than two days with the Bandit and a young and hot Sally Field running blocker in a suped-up Trans Am (they later hauled an elephant and who knows what else in the subsequent less than par sequels). Oh yeah, and they were being chased relentlessly of course, by Smokey, played by the meticulous Jackie Gleason, in one of his career defining roles. (If you haven't seen the original Smokey, do yourself a favor and Netflix it or however you get movies, get a 12-pack of Coors Original Banquet Beer and carve out two hours this weekend to reward yourself with some awesome brew and a more awesome movie.) Reed wrote and performed his most famous song, the theme song from Smokey "Eastbound and Down".

Anyways, Reed was well known as a studio musician and a songwriter within the business, penning songs for himself, and occasionally having them picked up and covered by others such as Elvis ("Guitar Man", "U.S. Male") and even modern acts like Primus ("Amos Moses"). Reed even played on some Elvis tunes. Reed combined his talents and moved into television and film in the 70s, and even appeared in an episode of The New Scooby Doo Movies.

As for Reed's impact on the entertainment industry and culture, the Atlanta native does not receive the credit that he so deserves as a musician with his chicken-scratch guitar pickin' licks, his sometimes serious, sometimes silly, sometimes novelty but most of the time tongue-in-cheek songs, his presence in both films and tv (both live action and animated) and his all around good natured, fun-filled life and persona. If you don't know about Jerry Reed, I'm glad I could "introduce ya to the boy".



Thanks Jerry- "keep that hammer down and give'em hell!"

Levon: two weeks from today @ the Ryman

Levon Helm and the Ramble on the Road
Ryman Auditorium
Wednesday, September 17th

If you don't have your tickets yet,
get them here...if there are any left.


A few of my shots and video from Levon
at the Tennessee Theatre in April, 2008:
Levon approaching his throne



The Man!






And Bonnaroo 2008:

Levon Helm and his daughter Amy Helm