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Rock Music News
Rolling Stone: Smoking Section by Austin Scaggs
Allman Brothers Band Return To the Beacon To Toast Skydog!!!
- Photo: Ufberg/Wireimage After the Allman Brothers Band flaked out on last year's installment of their annual residency at New York's Beacon Theatre (with a good excuse, frontman Greg Allman was recovering from Hepatitis C), the band has announced they will return to the venue in March!The ten-date run at the Beacon will kickstart March 9th. Since 1989, the Allmans have played the theater more than 175 times."I'd love to tell you what we have planned," Gregg Allman told Billboard, "but it's just kick-ass, that's all I can tell you."Well, the Smoking Section can tell you a little more. It seems that the gigs -- which celebrate the Allmans' 40 year anniversary -- will be billed as tributes to Duane "Skydog" Allman, the band's legendary guitarist, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971, weeks before his 25th birthday. Special guests like Boz Scaggs (Duane tore shit up on his 1969 epic "Loan Me A Dime") and Eric Clapton (who teamed with Skydog for Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs) will almost certainly be on hand. Also, look out for Dickey Betts to rejoin his old band!And there ya go.
Solomon Burke: The King of Procreation
- Solomon Burke is one of the greatest singers ever. His vocal performance on "Cry To Me" is one of the single greatest recordings in history, and we can't stop listening to his 2006 disc Nashville -- it's a classic.So for the last couple years it has been our pleasure to receive holiday cards from the King of Rock & Soul. This year he signed, "Greetings of the Season and best wishes for a happy New Year, SOLOMON AND ALL THE KIDS."We've never received greetings from so many.Because, of course, Solomon Burke has TWENTY-ONE children, EIGHTY-NINE grandchildren and NINETEEN grandchildren. Does he have to buy them all presents?
Love As Laughter Enter the S.S.
- Love As Laughter, the Brooklyn band fronted by rock troubador Sam Jayne, released one of our favorite albums of 2008, Holy. We were tipped off about L.A.L. early this year, after a conversation with Isaac Brock, who signed the band to his Epic imprint, Glacial Pace, and helped produce the disc.An we also got to see them perform a bunch of killer gigs around New York City.We were beyond stoked when L.A.L. joined us at the S.S. headquarters to perform our favorite song from Holy, "Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz" and their newest track, "Cats."Enjoy. Love As Laughter - "Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz" [Video: Pete Maiden, Eric Helton & Caroline Acosta] Love As Laughter - "Cats" [Video: Pete Maiden, Eric Helton & Caroline Acosta]
Zooey Gibbard? (Plus the Future of She & Him)
- This one has totally blindsided us.MTV is reporting that Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard has proposed to Zooey Deschanel -- and she accepted!When did they start doin' it?In August, Gibbard and Deschanel performed together at an Obama fundraiser in Denver, duetting on the Everly Brothers classic "Dream," but until now they've kept their relationship under wraps.Congrats!(Let us add that we miss the chubby Ben Gibbard.)In other Deschanel news, it seems that she and M. Ward are gearing up for She & Him, Vol. II. But you'll have to wait. "If I had to estimate, I'd say 2010," Ward told us. "Zooey and I are starting to talk about our next record and we've been doing some demos. We've been trying out some new songs when we did a few shows recently and they went really well. We're excited about starting up another record." This year, though, Ward will be gigging behind his solo album, Hold Time, out in February.
Lennon's Drunken Demo Earns Big Bucks!
- Another odd piece of Beatles memorabilia has sold big at auction.A one-of-a-kind John Lennon recording from 1973 fetched $30,000 last weekend at the Bonhams and Butterfields auction house in Los Angeles.Drunk off his ass, Lennon sings a cover of Lloyd Price's "Just Because." (Of course, a different version would appear on Lennon's 1975 collection of covers, Rock 'n' Roll.)The recording is "six minutes, sixteen seconds long, with John singing very drunk and John ad-libbing his own lyrics into the song -- so it's actually a fun song to listen to," auction spokeswoman Margaret Barrett said. FYI: Lloyd Price is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, famous for his blockbuster Number One 1952 hit, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." In '59, "Just Because" got Price back into the Top 40. He currently manages a food company that sells delicious Southern-style treats like Lloyd Price's Soulful 'n' Smooth Grits.