This Is Book’s Music

(Original photo courtesy of Michael Bloom for Bethel Woods)
In August 1969, no one ever heard of guitarist Carlos Santana or his band, originally called the Santana Blues Band. Shortened to just Santana, they did have a small but faithful following in the Bay Area where they were welcomed into the healthy music community. With the help of concert promoter Bill Graham, they were able to get a spot at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in Bethel, New York, where they thrilled the crowd with rock, jazz, and Latin influenced sounds that did what it was meant to do: enter the consciousness of those who wanted it.

41 years later, Santana performed in a venue on the property of what was Max Yasgur’s farm, and received a lot of press because of it. Here’s an interview with him, courtesy of Goldmine magazine (click here to read the full article.)

Suicide Death Force plays Baba O’Riley from Chris Schlarb on Vimeo.

My sister calls the song “Baba Gnoosh”, others have called it “Teenage Wasteland”, but of course it’s called “Baba O’Riley”, as performed by The Who in 1971 on their Who’s Next album (a/k/a “the shishi cover”). This cover version is performed by a school band called Suicide Death Force. These music students are from Hawthorne Academy, a private non-public school, and musician/producer Chris Schlarb is their instructor (the man on guitar on the right). The students, most of whom are 15, learned the song for their graduation ceremony, and as you’ll see and hear, they did a very good job. It may have freaked out the younger children in the crowd who didn’t realize the CSI: NY theme had more to it than the 30 seconds they’re exposed to, but then again, one would hope those kids are watching Kid Nick and not CSI: NY but what do I know.

Outside of music projects he always seems to be producing, Schlarb is currently putting together a documentary film on ice cream trucks called We Scream: Voices From The Ice Cream Underground, which will add the term “director” to his impressive line of work.

We Scream Trailer from Chris Schlarb on Vimeo.

A lot of electronic musicians and 8-bit enthusiasts have been covering older music and intrepreting them as if they were made in the era of Nintendo games. So what if Pink Floyd were gamers and decided to release Dark Side Of The Moon as an 8-bit album for the NES? It would sound like this. Moon8, created by Brad Smith, can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

To hear some of Smith’s other works, head here or look over his credentials by checking out Rain Warrior

(Mahalo to Bomarr Monk for the link.)

The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing the Dark Side of the Moon received a digital release late last year to a positive reaction, and why wouldn’t it? Flaming Lips covering Dark Side Of The Moon from start to finish in their own unique way.

If you’ve avoided the digital release, or felt “one day someone will release it on vinyl, where DSOTM belongs”, you’ll now get a chance. The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing the Dark Side of the Moon will be released on vinyl in time for Record Store Day on April 17th. The artwork proofs created by the band’s “Visual Generalist” George Salisbury were approved according to Salisbury himself. This means that the artwork and design for the vinyl version should be very interesting, considering the original Pink Floyd album came with a poster, stickers, and postcards. Considering the visuals Salisbury have created for the group over the years, it will no doubt be very interesting to see. Will it become the new album to roll hash joints on? Only time will tell. The bongwater stains await.

It has been announced that John Fogerty will perform this year at Bonnaroo on the mainstage on Sunday, June 13th.

The annual music festival will be held in Manchester, Tennessee, for more information you can head to Bonnaroo.com.

If you watched yesterday’s Super Bowl XLIV, you may have caught a commercial featuring The Who‘s “My Generation” but heard in a different fashion. The co-vocals in that mix was done by none other than will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. What you may not have known was that the song also featured guitarist Slash. While the new version is sure to upset purists, it was not bad at all.

The new mix, created by will.i.am with approval from The Who themselves, has now been released as an MP3. All proceeds will be going to the Oxfam America’s Haiti Earthquake Response Fund, a charity selected by will.i.am himself.

With news of a brand new Jimi Hendrix album of previously unreleased recordings, it’s great to know that his music is still being celebrated 40 years after his passing (he died on September 18, 1970 at the age of 27).

“Valleys Of Neptune” is the title track of the new Hendrix collection, and it will be released as a 45 rpm single with picture sleeve on February 9th. The B-side is a non-LP track, as “Cat Talking To Me” (said to have been recorded in 1967) is exclusive to the single. The picture sleeve features an illustration from Hendrix himself, date unknown.

You can order it through Amazon by clicking below.

Valleys Of Neptune will be released on vinyl as a 2-record set, and you can pre-order it with the box below.

If you’re a classic rock fan, you’ll have to pick up these two newly-remastered CD’s when they are released on September 29th.

Joy Of Cooking may not have been as massively popular as some of their contemporaries, but back in their heyday that type of stardom really didn’t matter, as it wasn’t an issue. The band, fronted by singer/songwriters Terry Garthwaite and Toni Brown, combined folk, country, rock, and a bit of the blues that helped defined who they were as a band, which lead to them being signed to Capitol. In time the group would split, and each lady would go on with successful solo careers. As attention towards rootsy music, what some might call Americana, has increased in the last five years, both of them decided to unite and put together tracks for this double CD of unreleased material.

Back To Your Heart (njoy) will please many Joy Of Cooking fans who have wanted something extra from the band. Disc one consists of studio or home recordings. The studio recordings sound as powerful as those which did make it onto the album, and were probably left off because back then, an album had to have the industry standard of 10 songs. They could’ve pulled a Johnny Winter and released 3-sided albums but the songs are that good. The band, especially bassist David Garthwaite and drummer Fritz Kasten, are incredible to hear and it shows why they were a favorite among many bands throughout California.

Side 2 is an amazing unreleased live set recorded at Berkeley in 1972, as they perform in front of a home crowd. “Humpty Dumpty”, “If Some God”, and “Laugh, Don’t Laugh” show how they expanded their palette and went in for the kill, so to speak. Proof of this can be heard in the 11 minute “Brownsville/Mockingbird”, and you can sense that the crowd were on their feet the entire time (with the exception of those who were just vibing out on good times and good people). Terry Garthwaite is and has always been a powerhouse on the vocals, whether it’s a sensitive ballad or a borderline rocker, and Toni Brown always revealed herself to be someone deserving to be called a true artist. As they both show in “Brownsville/Mockingbird”, when perfect harmony happens between two people, or a band and the audience, it sounds so natural.

After hearing this, one can hear the influence they’ve had on countless bands today, whether it is female-oriented folk, country or rock, or even jam bands who are able to hear the fun and glory of the chemistry Joy Of Cooking had with each other. No mastering engineer is credited, but whoever did them did a great job in transferring the original master tapes to the digital realm. For some fans, any group who were appreciated by the Grateful Dead was more than enough reason to take them on as a personal favorite. Old and new fans can find out why with this double CD.

(Back To Your Heart) is available from CDBaby.)

Jethro Tull are one of those bands over the years that longtime fans will always find endearing. Turn on the radio, and you will generally hear the songs known for their powerful riffs, be it “Aqualung” or “Cross-Eyed Mary”. But the diehard Tull fans know that some of the best songs are the ones that don’t get much recognition, those album tracks that meant listening to an album and consuming it in full.

Tull fans also know that along with those powerful riffs, you also have the lighter, acoustic side, and this new compilation caters to those rootsier moments.

The Best Of Acoustic Jethro Tull proves that even when they lowered the electricity, Jethro Tull, or more specifically singer/songwriter Ian Anderson, were more than capable of creating powerful and intense songs. If you are a fan of the lighter side, you’ll be happy to know this features such songs as “Mother Goose”, “Wond’ring Aloud”, “Fat Man”, “Life Is A Long Song”, and “Cheap Day Return”. The full “Thick As A Brick”, in its original form, was spread over two sides (that’s vinyl speak for you non-analog types) clocking in at a little over 40 minutes. Plus the album cover unfolded to a mock-newspaper. On this CD you get a mere four minute “intro”, but this was one of many ways it received radio airplay, and is a small but nice hint of what’s to come for those who want to embrace the full song/album.

The album, compiled and selected by Ian Anderson himself, features what he calls crowd favorites, along with songs that may have been ignored over the years. These include selections from albums when Jethro Tull immersed themselves in folk music goodness, which did turn some fans off (they started out as an electric blues band, after all, with a frontman played the flute on one leg). In retrospect, not many bands could pull it off well, that’s the key word: “well“. Hard rock and progressive rock went into many different directions in the 1970′s, and while none of the bands would consider themselves as “leaders of the movement”, Jethro Tull managed to make it through the trends and changes. The CD may also work for those who feel they have matured beyond the heaviness, and may want to enjoy the band’s acoustic side instead. The Best Of Acoustic Jethro Tull is one perspective of this band’s exciting career, and a perfect primer for new fans who may want different introduction to what they’re about.