The second Fare Thee Well - Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead concert was held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on Sunday night, and with first night jitters out of the way, the band further coalesced around a batch of songs familiar to the gathered Deadheads. Forgoing the early-era approach to the setlist from the night prior, Sunday’s show was constructed from songs from throughout The Dead’s 30-year career, played with a level of comfort not as apparent during the opening night.
Read full review @ JamBase
Chris Squire, stalwart co-founder of Yes, has died, bandmate Geoff Downes confirms via Twitter. The 67 year old had announced a hiatus from the band in May, following a diagnosis of acute erythroid leukemia.
Read More @ Ultimate Classic Rock: Yes Co-Founder Chris Squire Dies
For a full review of last night's first of five Fare Thee Well shows, please follow the link to jambase.
Nilsson Schmilsson is the seventh album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released by RCA Records in November 1971. It was Nilsson's most commercially successful work, producing three of his best-known songs. Among these was the number 1 hit "Without You", written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of the group Badfinger. The album was the first of two Nilsson albums recorded in London and produced by Richard Perry.
"Jump into the Fire" and "Coconut", both written by Nilsson, also became hits. The album performed well at the 1973 Grammy Awards, earning a nomination for Album of the Year, while "Without You" won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In 2006, Nilsson Schmilsson was ranked number 84 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s".
Read more @ Wikipedia
After all these years, it hardly seems possible that the guys in Journey could have any meaningful milestones yet to cross, but on June 20, they checked another one off the list by performing their first-ever show with an orchestra.
Read More of Jeff Giles' article @ Ultimate Classic Rock: Watch Journey Perform With the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Widespread Panic and Umphrey’s McGee closed their co-bill run together this past weekend at Pittsburgh, PA’s Stage AE and once again, shared the stage together in a variety of formats.
Read more and see clips of UM and WSP @ jambands.com
Neil Peart drives like he drums. On a bright mid-April afternoon in Los Angeles, fresh from a rehearsal with his band, Rush, for what might be their last big tour, he powers his pristine, silver, Goldfinger-style 1964 Aston Martin DB5 onto an exit ramp off the 405 at highway speed, slowing not at all — speeding up, maybe — into a sharp, perilous curve. Call it the way of the Peart: daunting technical mastery paired with a penchant for the gloriously excessive.
Read more of Brian Hiatt's article @ Rolling Stone : http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/from-rush-with-love-cover-story-20150616#ixzz3dnpnwI2s
Judging from crowd reactions at last month's Faith No More concert in Toronto, the band's signature song is no longer "Epic", the star-making, stagedive-launching anthem that thrust the band's 1989 album, The Real Thing, into the Billboard Top 20...
Read more of Stuart Berman's review @ Pitchfork
Licensed to Ill is the debut studio album by the Beastie Boys. The album was released on December 1, 1986. It was the first rap LP to top the Billboard album chart. It was also one of Columbia Records' fastest-selling debut records to date and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the United States.
The full album cover, front to back, features a Boeing 727 — with "Beastie Boys" emblazoned on the tail — crashing head-on into the side of a mountain, appearing as an extinguished joint. The tail of the plane has the Def Jam logo and the tail number "3MTA3" which spells "EATME" when viewed in a mirror. The livery of the plane is based on that of American Airlines.
The group originally wanted to title the album Don't Be a Faggot, but Columbia Records refused to release the album under this title – arguing that it was homophobic – and pressured Russell Simmons, the Beastie Boys' manager and head of Def Jam Recordings at the time, into forcing them to choose another name. Adam Horovitz has since apologized for the album's earlier title.
Kerry King of Slayer made an appearance on the album playing lead guitar on "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" and appeared in the music video which is a parody of glam metal The name of the song itself is a spoof on Motörhead's No Sleep 'til Hammersmith album. King's appearance on the track came about because Rick Rubin was producing both bands simultaneously (Slayer's Reign in Blood was originally released on Def Jam).
CBS/Fox Video released a video album of the five Licensed to Ill videos, plus "She's on It" in 1987 to capitalize on the album's success. A laserdisc version was also released in Japan. All versions of the CBS/Fox release are currently out of print because the rights to the album passed from Columbia and Sony Music to Universal Music Group, and also because of the acrimonious nature of the band's departure from Def Jam Records. Until the 2005 release of the CD/DVD Solid Gold Hits, none of the Def Jam-era videos had been included on any subsequent Beastie Boys video compilations. The Solid Gold Hits DVD includes the videos for "Fight for Your Right" and "No Sleep Till Brooklyn", as well as a live version of "Brass Monkey" from a 2004 concert.
Details on Iron Maiden‘s next studio effort, a first-ever double album to be titled The Book of Souls, are emerging – including a track listing, cover art and release date. Due on Sept. 4 via Parlophone/Sanctuary-BMG, the project was recorded in Paris with long-time Maiden producer Kevin Shirley.
Read More of Nick DeRiso's Article @ Ultimate Classic Rock: Iron Maiden Announces First-Ever Double Album, 'The Book of Souls'
David Gilmour plans to tour North America in 2016. Consequence of Sound reports that the Pink Floyd guitarist revealed the news during a Q&A session at the Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas in Carlow, Ireland last weekend. The publication has pointed out that someone from the monthly Pink Floyd fan podcast Brain Damage attended the event, where Gilmour revealed that he plans to hit the road on this side of the pond next year.
Read more @ jambands.com
As a child spending his summers in New Hampshire, Steven Tyler would run a 50-foot wire from the back of his radio to the top of an apple tree in order to pick up WOWO, a Fort Wayne, Indiana, station that would play some of his favorite country songs. "I'd listen to things like Johnny Horton's 'The Battle of New Orleans,' " Tyler says. "I loved the Everly Brothers, Duane Eddy, Jerry Lee Lewis." More than half a century later, Tyler is connecting with his childhood love by cutting a country album in Nashville.
Read more of Andy Greene's interview with Steven Tyler @ Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/steven-tyler-on-going-country-idol-and-the-future-of-aerosmith-20150612#ixzz3csWLtdsR
Live at the Greek: Excess All Areas is a double live album by Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes, released by musicmaker.com on 29 February 2000 and later by TVT Records on 4 July 2000. In October 1999, Page teamed up with The Black Crowes for a two-night performance of material from the Led Zeppelin catalogue and old blues and rock standards. Due to contractual problems with their record company, The Black Crowes were unable to release any of their own songs which were played at the Greek shows. These songs, on which Jimmy Page played with the Crowes, included: "Wiser Time", "No Speak No Slave", "Remedy", and "Hard to Handle". The double CD was released in stores by TVT Records on 4 July 2000, and featured a different track running order, an extra song, an enhanced QuickTime video and photographs taken during the concert. The Japanese version of the album also features "Misty Mountain Hop" and "In the Light", recorded in 2000.
- Disc one
- "Celebration Day" (John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) – 3:42
- "Custard Pie" (Page, Plant) – 5:18
- "Sick Again" (Page, Plant) – 4:34
- "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page, Plant) – 5:26
- "Woke up This Morning" (B.B. King, Jules Taub) – 4:14
- "Shapes of Things to Come" (Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith) – 3:09
- "Sloppy Drunk" (Jimmy Rogers) – 6:05
- "Ten Years Gone" (Page, Plant) – 6:30
- "In My Time of Dying" (Traditional; arr./adap. John Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant) – 9:34
- "Your Time Is Gonna Come" (Jones, Page) – 6:02
- Disc two
- "The Lemon Song" (Bonham, Howlin' Wolf, Jones, Page, Plant) – 8:59
- "Nobody's Fault But Mine" (Page, Plant) – 6:41
- "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant) – 5:50
- "Hey Hey What Can I Do" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant) – 3:30
- "Mellow Down Easy" (Willie Dixon) – 5:20
- "Oh Well" (Peter Green) – 4:10
- "Shake Your Money Maker" (Elmore James) – 4:25
- "You Shook Me" (Dixon, J. B. Lenoir) – 8:25
- "Out on the Tiles" (Bonham, Page, Plant) – 3:39
- "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant) – 5:34
After months of speculation, Apple officially announced their long-in-the-works subscription streaming music service Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. Dubbed "Apple Music," the service is both an update to the company's iTunes Store as well as Apple's response to Spotify's industry-leading streaming service and Jay Z's fledgling, all-star Tidal. Apple Music's plan includes a "revolutionary music service curated by the leading music experts we helped handpick," a 24/7 worldwide radio station and "Connect," an "ecosystem" that allows for artists to communicate directly with fans...
Read more @ Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/apple-introduces-apple-music-streaming-service-24-7-radio-20150608#ixzz3cVUnvCRu
Warren Haynes took part in a couple of collaborations at Mountain Jam over the weekend. The guitarist sat in with Grace Potter during her evening set on the East Stage before being joined by a number of guests during Gov’t Mule’s “Dark Side of the Mule” late night set at the same location.
Read more @ jambands.com
Here’s a look at Gov’t Mule setlist:
Echoes (Part 1)* > Speak To Me > Breathe^ > On The Run, Time^^, Great Gig In The Sky^^, Money$, Us & Them$$, Any Colour You Like$$, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)$$, Welcome To The Machine%, Have A Cigar%%, Wish You Were Here+ > Echoes (Part 2)$$
Enc: Comfortably Numb^^
Notes: *with Torbjorn “T-Bone” Andersson; First Time Played
^with Torbjorn “T-Bone” Andersson & Sophia Ramos
^^with Torbjorn “T-Bone” Andersson, Elaine Caswell, Sophia Ramos & Machan Taylor
$with Torbjorn “T-Bone” Andersson, Elaine Caswell, Sophia Ramos, Machan Taylor & Ron Holloway
$$with Torbjorn “T-Bone” Andersson, Elaine Caswell, Sophia Ramos, Machan Taylor & Ron Holloway; First time played
%First Time Played
%%with Ron Holloway
+with Elaine Caswell, Sophia Ramos & Machan Taylor
Source: Mule.net
Few artists rode a creative wave like the one the Rolling Stones did between 1968-72, when they released four of rock’s most enduring albums....
Sticky Fingers may not be the Stones’ best album, but it is their tightest and most focused. And on the three-disc Super Deluxe Edition reissue of the 1971 classic, its legacy grows a little richer.
Read More of Michael Galluchi's article @ Ultimate Classic Rock: Rolling Stones, 'Sticky Fingers Super Deluxe Edition': Album Review
Over the last year, Led Zeppelin have reissued most of their discography. Now, they've announced plans to release expanded editions of their final three albums: 1976's Presence, 1979's In Through the Out Door, and 1982's Coda. The reissues will be released on July 31 via Atlantic/Swan Song.
Read more of Jeremy Gordon's article @ Picthfork
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys. Released on May 16, 1966, it initially met a lukewarm critical and commercial reception in the United States, but received immediate success abroad, where British publications declared it "the most progressive pop album ever". It charted at number two in the UK but number ten in the US, a significantly lower placement than the band's preceding albums. In later years, the album garnered enormous worldwide acclaim by critics and musicians alike, and is regarded as one of the most influential pieces in the history of popular music.
The album was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson, who also wrote and composed almost all of its music, with an unprecedented budget exceeding $70,000 (today over $510,000). Sessions were conducted several months after he had quit touring with the Beach Boys in order to focus his attention on writing and recording. Collaborating with lyricist Tony Asher, Wilson's symphonic arrangements wove elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, coupled with sound effects and unconventional instruments such as bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Electro-Theremin, dog whistles, trains, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans and barking dogs, along with the more usual keyboards and guitars. Together, they comprised Wilson's "pet sounds", incorporating elements of jazz, exotica, classical, and the avant-garde. It was led by the singles "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (b/w "God Only Knows") and "Sloop John B", while Wilson made his solo debut with "Caroline, No", issued a few months earlier. Due to its highly personal, artistic nature, Pet Sounds is sometimes considered a Brian Wilson solo album in all but name.
A heralding work in the emerging psychedelic rock style, Pet Sounds signaled an aesthetic trend within rock by transforming it from dance music into music that was made for listening to, elevating itself to the level of art rock. It was one of the first rock concept albums, and has been suggested to follow a lyrical song cycle format, although Wilson has maintained that the album's real unified theme lies within its cohesive production style. Writer Bill Martin said that within Pet Sounds, "[The Beach Boys] brought expansions in harmony, instrumentation (and therefore timbre), duration, rhythm, and the use of recording technology. Of these elements, the first and last were the most important in clearing a pathway toward the development of progressive rock." Beyond pop and rock, Pet Sounds expanded the field of music production.
In 1993, it was named the greatest album of all time by NME magazine and The Times, and in 1995 by Mojo magazine. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it second on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2004, Pet Sounds was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant." In 1997, The Pet Sounds Sessions was released containing instrumental tracks, vocals-only tracks, alternate mixes, outtakes, and edited recording session highlights, as well as the album's first true stereo mix.
Read more @ Wikipedia
Now that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have finished touring behind their Hypnotic Eye LP, he’s just about ready to get back to the studio — with his other band.
Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell tells Rolling Stone that his next order of business will likely be joining Petty and his fellow Heartbreaker Benmont Tench for a new album from Mudcrutch, the band the trio were part of with guitarist Tom Leadon and drummer Randall Marsh during their ’70s pre-fame days.
Read More of Jeff Giles' article @ Ultimate Classic Rock: Tom Petty Planning New Mudcrutch Album
Love & Mercy is a 2014 American biographical film directed by Bill Pohlad about musician and songwriter Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. The film, deriving its title from the 1988 song by Wilson, is presented in a parallel narrative covering two specific time periods of Wilson's life: the 1960s and the 1980s. Actors Paul Dano and John Cusack depict the young and old Wilson, respectively, with Elizabeth Banks as Wilson's second wife, Melinda, and Paul Giamatti as psychotherapist Dr. Eugene Landy. It will be distributed internationally by Lions Gate Entertainment and in the United States by Roadside Attractions on June 5, 2015.
The film premiered in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It received acclaim from early reviewers who variously praised the film for its unorthodox approach to biography, original film score by composer Atticus Ross, Dano's convincing performance as the increasingly unstable Wilson of the 1960s, and scenes which closely recreate Wilson's advanced studio recording methods. The real life Wilson – who had little involvement with the film's development – called it "very factual".
In the 1960s, young songwriter and recording savant Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) finds himself in the midst of extraordinary success after scoring numerous hit records with The Beach Boys. Following a panic attack, he resigns from concert touring and ventures into the studio intent on creating "the greatest album ever made", Pet Sounds. Meanwhile, his grip on reality slowly loosens once his recent psychedelic experiences give rise to scattered voices in his head. Later, in the 1980s, a now-middle-aged Wilson (John Cusack) is shown to be a broken, confused man under the pharmacological and legal thrall of therapist Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). After meeting Cadillac saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), she is determined to save Wilson from Landy's manipulation.
Read more @ Wikipedia
See Movie Reviews and Find Showtimes at Rotten Tomatoes
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Bob Weir dishes on a variety of topics including his new documentary, Jerry Garcia and the upcoming Fare Thee Well shows...
Please follow the link to read more @ jambands.com
Steely Dan will play eight nights at New York’s Beacon Theatre, each with its own theme. The run begins October 6 where the band will play Aja along with “selected hits.” Additional shows include a pair of “Greatest Hits” nights on October 7 and 14 as well as a night of Gaucho on October 9, Royal Scam on October 10, another Aja show on October 13 and “By Popular Demand” on October 16.
Read more @ jambands.com
The warmer months have finally arrived, and with them Ultimate Classic Rock’s 2015 Summer Tour Guide. This year, the slate is packed with some of the biggest names in rock, from the Rolling Stones and AC/DC to Van Halen and Robert Plant. As they all get set to take a lap around the country, click through to get up to speed with Ultimate Classic Rock’s 2015 Summer Tour Guide.
Read More @ Ultimate Classic Rock: 2015 Summer Tour Guide
Almost any day in L.A., you could find Brian Wilson pretty easily if you wanted to, sitting in a booth by the window at the Beverly Glen Deli, with a bowl of blueberries and a hamburger, or shuffling along the path of a tree-shaded park near his home in Beverly Hills.
Chris Squire, stalwart co-founder of Yes, has died, bandmate Geoff Downes confirms via Twitter. The 67 year old had announced a hiatus from the band in May, following a diagnosis of acute erythroid leukemia. 
After all these years, it hardly seems possible that the guys in Journey could have any meaningful milestones yet to cross, but on June 20, they checked another one off the list by performing their first-ever show with an orchestra. 
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell will be forced to miss the opening dates of the band's summer tour after revealing that he is once again battling cancer. "I'm saddened by the fact that my cancer has returned. However, I'm beyond consolation that its return will prevent me from being able to do my job for a while," Campbell wrote on Facebook. "I’m still working on a schedule of treatment with my doctors, but I will see you all very soon."
Neil Peart drives like he drums. On a bright mid-April afternoon in Los Angeles, fresh from a rehearsal with his band, Rush, for what might be their last big tour, he powers his pristine, silver, Goldfinger-style 1964 Aston Martin DB5 onto an exit ramp off the 405 at highway speed, slowing not at all — speeding up, maybe — into a sharp, perilous curve. Call it the way of the Peart: daunting technical mastery paired with a penchant for the gloriously excessive.
Eddie Van Halen has accused Sammy Hagar of improper depictions of his alcoholism. While the guitarist does not back away from discussing his addictions and doesn’t call him a liar, he says in a new interview that Hagar exaggerated a bit in his 2011 autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock.
For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill. 
Details on Iron Maiden‘s next studio effort, a first-ever double album to be titled The Book of Souls, are emerging – including a track listing, cover art and release date. Due on Sept. 4 via Parlophone/Sanctuary-BMG, the project was recorded in Paris with long-time Maiden producer Kevin Shirley.
David Gilmour plans to tour North America in 2016. Consequence of Sound reports that the Pink Floyd guitarist revealed the news during a Q&A session at the Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas in Carlow, Ireland last weekend. The publication has pointed out that someone from the monthly Pink Floyd fan podcast Brain Damage attended the event, where Gilmour revealed that he plans to hit the road on this side of the pond next year. 
As a child spending his summers in New Hampshire, Steven Tyler would run a 50-foot wire from the back of his radio to the top of an apple tree in order to pick up WOWO, a Fort Wayne, Indiana, station that would play some of his favorite country songs. "I'd listen to things like Johnny Horton's 'The Battle of New Orleans,' " Tyler says. "I loved the Everly Brothers, Duane Eddy, Jerry Lee Lewis." More than half a century later, Tyler is connecting with his childhood love by cutting a country album in Nashville.
After months of speculation, Apple officially announced their long-in-the-works subscription streaming music service Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. Dubbed "Apple Music," the service is both an update to the company's iTunes Store as well as Apple's response to Spotify's industry-leading streaming service and Jay Z's fledgling, all-star Tidal. Apple Music's plan includes a "revolutionary music service curated by the leading music experts we helped handpick," a 24/7 worldwide radio station and "Connect," an "ecosystem" that allows for artists to communicate directly with fans...
SiriusXM's exclusive Grateful Dead station, channel 23, will broadcast the band's final "Fare Thee Well" concerts from Soldier Field in Chicago on July 3rd, 4th and 5th starting at 9:15 p.m. ET. The shows will also be available on the SiriusXM app and website.
Bonnaroo is reliably the most eclectic of all of America's mega-festivals, and the lineup for its 14th year is no exception. In that spirit, here is a genre-hopping guide that picks essential bands, films, DJ sets and comedy for five very different kinds of fans prowling the event's Manchester grounds: classic rockers, hip-hop heads, EDM freaks, jam band devotees and arty folks...
Warren Haynes took part in a couple of collaborations at Mountain Jam over the weekend. The guitarist sat in with Grace Potter during her evening set on the East Stage before being joined by a number of guests during Gov’t Mule’s “Dark Side of the Mule” late night set at the same location. 
Bono knows how to work a room, only for decades he's been working arenas and stadiums, offering sweeping gestures on the most epic stages. Last night at the Roxy Theatre on L.A.'s Sunset Strip, U2 showed they could still dial things down to the most intimate level, playing a thrilling set for 500 ecstatic fans. 
Steely Dan will play eight nights at New York’s Beacon Theatre, each with its own theme. The run begins October 6 where the band will play Aja along with “selected hits.” Additional shows include a pair of “Greatest Hits” nights on October 7 and 14 as well as a night of Gaucho on October 9, Royal Scam on October 10, another Aja show on October 13 and “By Popular Demand” on October 16. 
