Columns Archives
Sep 5, 2008
20 Bands, 20 Nights | My End of Summer Music Tour
A month or two ago, I wrote a column forecasting some of the changes in the current state of live music and the path the industry may take over the next year or two in natural response to the......
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Apr 5, 2008
Island Tour 10 Year Anniversary | Roundup and CD Giveaway
Editor's Note: As we mentioned yesterday, we're honoring the ten-year anniversary of a legendary set of Phish shows that have become known as the Island Tour. To celebrate the anniversary, we're featuring a special four-way "group-post" and also offering up......
Jan 22, 2008
Introducing...The Union Forever
Movies and Rock & Roll have always been partners in crime, soliciting promiscuity and danger while keeping every American slightly interested in this non-sense world. Both James Dean and Jim Morrison garner the same idolatry, the same cool, but in......
Jan 3, 2008
Drymount! | Top 10 Concert Prints of 2007
We're starting today off with a new column on the site, and we're welcoming on a new blogger to the team named Sam Verrill. He approached me with an idea to do some posts on the concert posters that tons......
Apr 3, 2007
EMI/iTunes DRM Drop | Some Additional Thoughts
So because I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to all this digital music stuff, I wanted to follow-up on yesterday’s big iTunes/EMI news. If you missed it, there’s been a ton of blog chatter about it. But......
Mar 30, 2007
Live Nation Expands Fillmore 'Franchise' | Continues Trend of Corporatizing Venues
So concert giant, Live Nation, has announced that it plans to expand its Fillmore "franchise" to New York, Philadelphia, and Detroit (adding to the Fillmores currently running in Denver and San Francisco). This continues a trend by Live Nation......
Mar 13, 2007
Jazzfest 2007 is Rebuilding New Orleans
Remember the other day when I got all up on my high horse about how Jazzfest seemed to be a little more about the music and not so much the rebuilding New Orleans effort? Live Music Blog reader Matt Simpson......
Feb 15, 2007
The 'Elephant in the Room' | Concert Industry Ticket Talk
Last week I discussed concert industry giant Live Nation and its attempts to utilize the web to continue to focus its business truly on the "live music fan." My post came just days before the Concert Industry Consortium took place......
Feb 14, 2007
Online Concert Scene Going Web 2.0 | Small Changes, Big Effects?
Over the past few months I've been thinking a lot about all the new web 2.0 types of online services and how they relate to the live music world. Last week, I discussed the plans of concert industry giant Live......
My Thoughts on the Bonnaroo Lineup
Another year come and gone, and here we are at the beginning of February discussing the Bonnaroo Music Festival, just as we did in years past... Ever since I've been following this, even before I had started Live Music Blog,......
Feb 5, 2007
Live Nation Goes Web 2.0
Live Nation has really been on the Internet business rampage lately. Since the official spin-off from Clear Channel late in 2005, the concert industry giant has become much more focused on its Internet businesses with CEO Michael Rapino at......
Jan 31, 2007
Full RSS Feeds on Music Blogs and Sites
The music website/blog community has probably been the slowest in the overall, widespread adoption of RSS as a viable form of web publishing. Believe me as I'm somewhat privy to this given my day job... I'm not sure if we're......
Jan 19, 2007
The DIY Indie Band Biz Model…
….seems to be all the rage these days. But is it only news when it's the latest Indie "buzz" band who's side-stepping the major labels? This whole "digital music era" thing is bringing out a lot of great discussion about......
Jan 9, 2007
Yes, Virginia - The Dresden Dolls Are Still In Action
We leave you this evening with a post from Kathryn Vercillo, a writer and live music fan in San Francisco. You may have seen some of her work on Metroblogging San Francisco. We're fairly certain that she's going to become......
Dec 25, 2006
Merry Christmas
I'm not sure I do this enough, so I thought I'd send a hearty Merry Christmas to anyone and everyone that likes to call Live Music Blog part of their online experience. I've been in quite a bah humbug state......
Oct 31, 2006
Music Blogs-a-Plenty or Too Many Music Blogs?
To me, there's been some seriously interesting chatter in the music blog world lately. Regardless of what you're in it for, "music blogs" have now entered the gadget/celebrity blog status where advertisers are flocking and therefore (seemingly) everyone has to......
Oct 30, 2006
WankFest | Kraftwerk is psychedelic.
I've admired the music blog Here comes the flood for a long time. Hans was one of the first guys to *link* to Live Music Blog in its infancy, so I found his site, subscribed to the feed, and I've......
Oct 10, 2006
From the Road | Tire Fire Comes Home
Ed Anderson (Backyard Tire Fire) checked back in with Live Music Blog as he's quite excited to be heading back home to Illinoise this weekend for some EP release parties. Howdy folks. Just finished a run that took us from......
Sep 25, 2006
WOXY Returns (again)?
Anyone with an internet connection and a jones for indie music has probably made their way over to WOXY.com, home of the once-alive but soon-defunct internet radio station. It looks like they may have found an investor and they've published......
Sep 22, 2006
Jam in the 'Dam 2006 vs. 2007 Thoughts
Memories. The dudes behind the annual Jam in the 'Dam festival have just posted a video capsule showing some highlights from the 2006 fest. Man, this took me back. The fact that I went with a music festival in Amsterdam......
Sep 10, 2006
From the Inbox
From time to time, I'm going to dive into the Live Music Blog inbox and highlight some of the interesting items that get sent our way every single day... On the first installment of the "From the Inbox" series, I've......
Aug 28, 2006
Mute Math is Christian rock? Crap!
At Lollapalooza 2006, I caught a large portion of Mute Math's set -- a band that I had never heard of at the time -- and I friggin' loved it! Imagine my surprise when I read that they're actually a......
Aug 6, 2006
My Plan of Attack for Lollapalooza | Sunday, Day Three
Today's plan of attack is brief due to me running a little behind schedule. I've got to get moving if I'm going to make the the Duo at 2:15pm. 2:15pm // Benevento/Russo Duo 3:30pm // The New Amsterdams (maybe)......
Aug 5, 2006
My Plan of Attack for Lollapalooza | Saturday, Day Two
It's around noon on Saturday and my recap from Lollapalooza day one has just been posted. I've still got a little bit left to do around the home and household and then I'm headed down to catch the first......
Aug 4, 2006
My Plan of Attack for Lollapalooza | Friday, Day One
Photo © Lindsay B. It's around 11:30am on Friday and Lollapalooza 2006 has just gotten underway! I was originally planning on getting down there first thing to catch every single minute of the festivities -- until I realized that......
Aug 1, 2006
Trouble at McCarren Pool | Where's the beer?
"More disappointing, or rather - mind boggling, was what we'll now refer to as "the beer situation". If you have been to the pool, you know it's rather large. Large enough for, say, 5 or more beer serving stations. There......
Jun 28, 2006
Live Music @ the Taste of Chicago 2006
There's quite a long list of good music happening at the Taste of Chicago this year, and the events in bold are my emphasis on what you should hit. Fri. June 30, 2006 City of Chicago, WGCI FM & V103......
May 29, 2006
From the Road | I'm Back
Saturday and Sunday were both fantastic days! The weather was hot, the music was hotter, and I'm finally home and clean -- definitely a fantastic Memorial Day weekend for your friend Justin... There is tons to show and tell......
May 27, 2006
From the Road | Live Bloggin' from Summer Camp
The heat is on right now -- everybody at the festival is milling about, eating food, drinking water -- just trying to get ready for the day of music ahead... On Friday, I caught Backyard Tire Fire's set at 12:00pm,......
May 26, 2006
From the Road | Live Music Blog @ Summer Camp
So, I'm bloggin' this post from the ad-hoc internet cafe they have set up at Summer Camp 2006. Brendan Bayliss (Umphrey's McGee) and Michael Kang (String Cheese Incident) are ordering some food for the cafe, and I'm plenty of beers......
May 25, 2006
From the Road | Ed Anderson (Backyard Tire Fire)
Ed Anderson from Backyard Tire Fire stops by and gives us a quick update before their tour begins in Louisville on Wed., May 31. Hello friends and lovers of live music. The Tire Fire is gearing up for a 2......
May 5, 2006
My New Friend Joe
So yesterday, I'm sitting at my desk at work minding my own when I had a fellow coworker stopped by on their way back from the fridge. It was Joe Kottke, our Director of IT Operations here at FeedBurner (photo......
Apr 25, 2006
From the Road with Ed Anderson
As I mention here, I'm beginning this week with the first of a series of blog posts written by the very musicians that I try to write about myself. For some reason, I just felt that there needed to be......
From the Road
I've had an idea floating around in my head lately for a new series on the Live Music Blog, and I'm thinking that it might be one of my best ideas yet. Truth is, it really wasn't my idea first......
Apr 20, 2006
Live Bloggin' the Jammys
So, if you're like me, it's just a normal Thursday night in whatever you city you happen to be in. I'm actually going to watch Survivor in a little bit. That's right, jealous? If you're living in New York City,......
Apr 12, 2006
From the Road: A R K S
Checking in with Arks and their jaunt out East... "Number 10 with extra Hush Puppies and a side of Clam Strips"......
Apr 11, 2006
From the Road: A R K S
So, I've got these friends that are in a band called A R K S. They usually play in Chicago, and they're just getting out on the road for their first (well, first major) tour. The bassist, Mat Biscan, is......
Mar 4, 2006
Best of February Roundup
Enjoy the best of the 117 Live Music Blog posts during February.......
Feb 28, 2006
Last Chance to Dance to YMSB Live
Just a reminder that today is the day I'm drawing names on the YMSB giveaway I posted a while back. Get your names in the hat while you can... UPDATE: I'm not accepting any more emails, the drawing winner will......
Feb 15, 2006
Trey Loves Live Music Blog and Why I Need a Haircut
In case you haven't noticed, I've actually been spending a lot of time working on Live Music Blog lately. Thanks to the help of some great guest writers, we've had tons of new stuff over the past couple months. I......
Dec 31, 2005
New Year's Resolution #3 - Leap and Follow-Through
One thing that people tend to forget about new year's resolutions is that they are not the end-all be-all for self-improvement. They are set at year-end simply because it is a good time to reassess one's own life, situations, health,......
Dec 30, 2005
New Year's Resolution #2
This one is totally not music-related, but I figured I'd post it anyways... Taking notice from Kottke's recent best-of lists of links because I've been thinking of it anyways, I need to buy a new grill and start cooking more......
Dec 29, 2005
"Get ready for some botched solutions...and some New Year's Resolutions"
I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple days, and I think it's time I actually have a year where I make more than one New Year's Resolution. I figured that I would spread the risk of failure......
Dec 8, 2005
Disco Biscuits Rage (in a good way)
So, I'm driving out to the suburbs for work today and I'm trying to race like crazy to get back home before the first, major snow event hits Chicago right in time for rush hour. (Tom Skilling, the nation's highest-paid......
Dec 5, 2005
Archive.org / Grateful Dead Roundup
In case you missed it, we had some guest-bloggers stop by last week. Based on the very positive response, this is something that we're going to try and keep going as long as the words keep flowing in. Jesse Jarnow......
Nov 30, 2005
Grateful Dead vs. Archive.org and The Fans
In his first post on the Live Music Blog, Jesse Jarnow weighs in on the recent Grateful Dead / Archive.org debacle currently being picked up by many, major news/blog sites. We're glad to have him. You can find him bloggin'......
Nov 17, 2005
Unbelievably Interesting Trey Anastasio Interview
I just got an email with a link to a rather frank interview with Trey Anastasio, and I just have to run through it. Trey openly discusses the role that drugs had in Phish's breakup--I am actually shocked. I think......
Nov 3, 2005
Is Anything Sacred Anymore?
Rolling Stone just posted an article/interview about My Morning Jacket, their latest album Z, their growing pains, Jim's voice, etc. Now, it might not deserve it's own post but I just caught something that needed to be highlighted...the band does......
Oct 30, 2005
Live Bloggin' the Vegoose Webcast -- Day 2
Well, as soon as the webcast starts in CST, I'll be live-blogging it today as I did yesterday. I had a good time. I ended up eating pizza and getting drunk at Ranalli's for dinner, so my posting during Primus......
Oct 29, 2005
Live Bloggin' the Vegoose Webcast
Thank you, SBC Blueroom, for your kick-ass Vegoose webcast. Even though you're the corporate sponsor (so, by default, that makes you the enemy), you can be alright sometimes... All times in CST 3:12 p.m. -- Crap. I missed Steel Train......
Oct 21, 2005
Devendra Banhart: Long-Haired Freaky People
Picture this scene for an encore: a long-haired, bearded group of freaky musicians named Hairy Fairy, fronted by a long-haired, bearded freaky guitarist named Devendra, who's singing a song about a schizophrenic pedophile hermaphrodite that wants to marry little boys,......
Oct 18, 2005
My 9/17/00 Dog Log Story
A few years ago when I was still in college, I stumbled home from a party to my small apartment and threw on (what used to be) the best source of Phish music on the internet, Phishcast Internet Radio. I......
Jul 29, 2005
My Weekend Plans
Tonight...I'm headed to The Empty Bottle to see Parish School / Euphone / Chin Up Chin Up. Show at 10:00 p.m. Live Music Blog represent? 10:45 p.m. at the earliest. Tomorrow...The Duo and Mofro are playing at the Wicker Park......