The Lonely Telecaster

It’s the annual ritual of music journalists everywhere: the end-of-year best list. My editor at liveDaily.com asked for a top ten, but the stacks of CDs in the office were too tall to limit my personal list to just that.
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Brian Setzer, in fine voice and slinging his trademark Gretch guitar, brought an old-time variety show vibe to the Universal Amphitheatre on Saturday night (12/18).
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In her return to Los Angeles, Welsh singer-songwriter Jem brought the hits but lost some of the intimacy that made her earlier visit crackle with energy.
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Working through a bout of allergy / sinus issues most of the day, I was on the fence about venturing into clubland to see Bob Schneider and opening act Aslyn. An invite from Aslyn’s publicist made the choice a lot easier - you don’t take comp tix for granted.
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On Friday (12/3), Jane Monheit winked, wiggled and used her considerable vocal talents to dazzle in a solid but short-feeling show.
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Turn this one up. Great garage-band rock out of Boston. Thanks to CMJ and Pitchfork for pointing them out. I see a lot of editorial space comparing them to early Who and Thin Lizzy and James Gang, but am I the only one who hears some early KISS knocking around in there? “100,000 Years,” anyone?
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There’s live review on this site of Joss Stone’s SXSW performance in March. I first heard her on NPR, probably late in 2003. I still hold to the belief that she’s got a very rare instrument in that incredible voice.
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Anyone who recently visited may have noticed things look very different this week. I’ve re-vamped the site and moved to a new blogging system.
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Via Online Music Blog:

Archive.org has a massive online collection of Grateful Dead live shows available to all just for the asking. The collection is said to be complete, but not being a Dead expert, I can’t confirm that.

Now, if only they’d do this for Bruce Springsteen bootlegs.

The New York Times reports that labels are getting back on the singles bandwagon. Over the past few months, labels have begun releasing singles for sale through download outlets like iTunes and Napster at the same time as they release them to radio stations.
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