Earlier this week, Radiohead dropped another surprise on us in the form of a full length, free, downloadable concert from 2009’s show in Prague. The gig was at Prauge’s Výstaviště Holešovice Exhibition Hall on August 23, and around 50 fans had banded together to shoot the show on flip phones. The footage was later edited together to make a film called Live In Praha. The band, according to the Live at Praha website, sent their own audio masters from the show to the group to place it with the video track.

After taking a look at some of the footage, the audio sounds great, and the video surprisingly looks amazing. You can download the whole set of 25 songs in a range of formats, including for mobile phones.

Here’s a trailer for the video:

Download the video here.

Or buy song here.

The setlist of the evening:
15 Step
There There
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
All I Need
Lucky
Nude
Morning Bell
2+2=5
A Wolf At The Door
Videotape
(Nice Dream)
The Gloaming
Reckoner
Exit Music (For A Film)
Bangers + Mash
Bodysnatchers
Idioteque
Encore:
Pyramid Song
These Are My Twisted Words
Airbag
The National Anthem
How To Disappear Completely
Encore 2:
The Bends
Everything In Its Right Place

Recommended Listening:

• Enigmatic: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead
• Strung Out on Kid A: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead
• Strung Out on OK Computer: The String Tribute To Radiohead
• Vitamin String Quartet performs Radiohead’s In Rainbows

Curmudgeon music site Pitchfork Media has posted a Top 50 list of the Best Music Videos of the 1990’s. Scrolling through the lot of these videos is definitely a stroll through memory lane for me. I remember many hours staying up late to try and catch a video just to hear the song itself, as I had no money to actually buy records then. Of course the Internet basically changed all that, making the music now the secondhand result of a music video.

What’s the point of a music video now anyways really? No one’s really making money off of it, except perhaps the production team, and it seems to be purely a marketing strategy now. While the 1990’s made the music video more of an art form, the 00’s has stripped down the art and made it more about the shock value. Of course, rap videos still are primarily cash, money, hos.

Anyways, take a look through this insane list, and bring back the good times that the 90’s sort of fooled everyone into thinking they were having, back when our president could play a mean sax.

Check out the list here.

Always the innovator, Bob Dylan has decided to sell tickets for one of his upcoming West Coast shows in a slightly different way than most ticket sellers nowadays. The tickets for the August 25th show at Warfield will be sold on the day of for cash only, in order to do away with surcharges and credit card fees. Attendees won’t be allowed to line up until noon, the doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the show goes on 8 p.m., at which time every one with a ticket must enter.

Many artists have tried similar tactics in order to discourage scalpers, however this method seems pretty straightforward. The only issues, as many online have noted, is the security requirements will be heavy, as one commenter on the Consequence of Sound notes, “A couple of thousand people, each holding $60 cash in one of the worst areas of San Francisco seems like it could be a bad idea. Hopefully they’ll have a ton of security out there.”

While this method may seem pretty standard to the older generation (remember this was how tickets used to be sold pre-internet), the younger crowds may be a bit annoyed, especially if they’re employed. I’ve seen Thom Yorke’s offshoot band, Atoms For Peace, do a similar tactic at their NYC shows at Roseland Ballroom. The result was a lot of unhappy people standing in line in the rain all day to not get in, but that’s the way things used to be. Either way, I’m sure a lot of artists and promoters will be keeping an eye on how this tactic works this week for future endeavors.

What do you think? Should artists sell tickets this way to discourage scalpers and lower surcharges? Or should they continue to do it online so everyone can have a chance to get a ticket?

More Bob Dylan Tour dates are below, I’ll be at the Seattle show if you want to hang:
08/21 – Monterey, CA @ Monterey Fairgrounds
08/22 – Lake Tahoe, NV @ Harveys Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena
08/24 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
08/25 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
08/27 – Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheater
08/28 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield
08/29 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield
08/31 – Missoula, MT @ Orgen Park @ Allegiance Field
09/01 – Post Falls, ID @ Greyhound Park
09/03 – Yakima, WA @ Yakima County Stadium
09/04 – Seattle, WA @ Memorial Stadium (Bumbershoot)

Recommended Listening:

• String Quartet Tribute to Bob Dylan

Last month I wrote about a charity gig in the UK that David Gilmour and Roger Waters reunited at, playing a short, 28-minute set, that included hits like “Comfortably Numb”, “Wish You Were Here”, and more.

The Hoping Foundation, the charity that the guys were playing for, has now released a video of the full set. Again, only 200 attendees were at this gig, and it features the guys doing a cover of a Phil Spector song, “To Know Him Is To Love Him.” While the video itself isn’t exactly HD quality, it is the first time they’ve shared the stage in over five years, since the now-classic Live 8 performance where all the members played together, and were still alive.

Also, remember that Gilmour will be showing up at one of Waters’ upcoming gigs on his The Wall tour, so did you get your tickets yet?

Enjoy!

Hoping Foundation benefit performance from Hoping Foundation on Vimeo.

Weezer recently announced yet another album, entitled Hurley after revealing its album cover, which depicts the actor who played Hurley on Lost. While some older fans may not be jumping to pre-order this album yet (did you hear the single? My God…), they may be interested to hear that the band may be trekking out later this year to pay its respects to what some consider the last great Weezer album.

The 1996 cult classic Pinkerton was an album that many hold near and dear to their hearts. It will be given the reissue treatment on October 5th, and a recent interview with guitarist Brian Bell leads one to believe their may be a tour dedicated to this momentous event.

At last week’s Mile High Festival, Bell told an interviewer that the reissue will include new packaging and possibly a tour. “(It will include) I’m praying — a Pinkerton tour, where we’ll play all the songs off Pinkerton, soon.”

The possibility of that seems crazy to most fans, like me, as it’s well-known that lead man Rivers Cuomo is not a fan of breaking out tunes from that album live very often. While “Tired of Sex” and sometimes “El Scorcho” or the other single “The Good Life” are sometimes played, most of the albums’ gems are left to collect dust. This of is supposedly based on how Cuomo took the critics tearing apart the album and a number of issues that I’m sure we’ll never really get the whole story on, but was enough to put the band on hiatus until 2001’s Green Album.

The thought of Weezer actually doing a tour based on playing the album from front to back would definitely push some older fans into buying tickets. What do you think? Would you go to the show if Pinkerton was going to be played, or are you just tired of the whole Weezer story at this point?

The whole interview below:

Soulful crooner Roberta Flack is returning to the limelight with a Beatles tribute album. She has been working on the record for many months, and it was supposed to be released in April, but delays have kept the album under wraps.

Back in February, when she performed at the Grammys, she spoke about the album.

I’m doing a Beatles album for Sony, which will be out on the 21st of April. All Beatles covers — they did 1,088 songs so I’m gonna do about 14 of them. I’ve finished about eight, so we’re on our way. I have ‘Here, There and Everywhere,’ ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ ‘Come Together,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ ‘Let It Be,’ ‘Hey Jude.’

Some of the idea to do the album came from sharing a building with John Lennon and Yoko Ono many years ago.

On every holiday and every special occasion that Yoko could think of, she was always sending me little personal [gifts]. She is a lovely person, very misunderstood. I did a lot of their songs when I was starting to make the transition from being a classical pianist to playing pop tunes in a restaurant and a club. I played a lot of Beatles songs for my newfound audience because they were so melodic.

But it almost didn’t happen. Apparently on April 12th, days before the album was to be released, Flack left the record in a suitcase, in a NYC taxi cab. She became panicked and called the cab company, frantic to find her lost masterpiece.

I called 311 and got really no decent response. They connected to me to some people who hung up on me. I said, I’m going down to the Taxi and Limousine Commission before they close.

Luckily, she had saved her receipt, which had the cab’s medallion number on it, so eventually they were able to locate the cab.

It was a wonderful thing. I gave him a big, a huge tip. And he brought me back to the Dakota, and I paid him for that ride, and gave him a big, big, huge tip.

Look for the album to be released on Sony Records in the coming months.

Listen to Roberta on the 40th Anniversary show of Let it Be

Tool/Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips, recently collaborated on a cover of Elton John’s iconic track “Rocket Man” for the film The Heart Is a Drum Machine. This new film, which was released in March of this year,  poses the question: “Why do people create and listen to music?” Drozd backs up Keenan’s vocals and assists with instrumental aspects of the recording. In my humble opinion, the track is quite good and may be one of the better covers Keenan has sung on, including the well-meaning, but shaky, A Perfect Circle cover album Emotive. Although the cover song end up in the final cut, Keenan is featured throughout the film along with a wide range of guests like Jason Schwartzman, Kurt Loder, Nic Harcourt, Juliette Lewis, and Elijah Wood.

In addition to this film, Moog filmmakers Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenk also made up the team that produced a documentary called Blood Into Wine: The Arizona Stronghold about Keenan’s winery, Caduceus Cellars. The film which had a limited release earlier this year also featured an array of guests, such as Patton Oswalt, Milla Jovovich, and more.

The Heart Is A Drum Machine trailer

Listen to “Rocket Man” at Puscifer’s website or check it out here.

In the midst of touring with Them Crooked Vultures and writing new material for Queens of the Stone Age, among other projects, Josh Homme has decided to revive his record label Rekords Rekords. He has already decided on a bunch of future releases as well it seems.

A new Desert Sessions album, that will have a box set of all the recordings from the infamous recordings, will be released. Also, a solo album from QOTSA guitarist Alain Johannes is slated for arrival on shelves. Homme even has plans for DVDs and books as well.

When speaking on the revival to Rolling Stone, he said, “I want to make Rekords Rekords like the Wolfman Jack of releasing stuff. You listened to him for his taste. I want to build up a trust with the audience. Our slogan is ‘Where the “Shit” Hits the Fan’ — with the ’shit’ in quotes.”

His label, which has been around in several forms since 1997, has recently joined forces with Los Angeles-based indie label Dangerbird for a series of releases, including Johannes’ solo outing. The labels will also put out the debut album from LA-based Mini Mansions, which features QOTSA bassist Mikey “Shoes” Shuman.

When commenting on this partnership, Homme noted, “”The reason I went [to Dangerbird] in the first place was because they’re about getting things done — ’nuff said. There’s no reason to wait or belabor the point about releasing records. This is the time to focus on the consistency of your art.”

For more information on future releases visit the label’s site at www.rekordsrekords.com.

Recommended Listening:

• Strings For The Deaf: The String Quartet Tribute to Queens of the Stone Age
  
• String Quartet Tribute to Queens Of The Stone Age Vol.2

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and David Gilmour recently reunited for a charity gig in the UK several days ago. On July 10th, the dueling duo appeared at the Hoping Foundation Benefit Evening, held at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England. The last time the two were on stage was for the famous Live 8 set, where all the original members of the band came together for a mini-set, the first time the entire band had been on stage at once since the 1980’s.

The two played to about 200 people, oh, to have been in that crowd. The aim of the organization is to raise money for Palestinian children to give them a better life. Gilmour had played this same event the year before alongside Kate Moss. Waters and Gilmour played an event commemorating Syd Barrett’s death in 2007, but performed separately.

The charity show’s short set consisted of: “To Know Him is to Love Him”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Comfortably Numb”,  and “Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two)”. The band included (on bass and acoustic guitar), Harry Waters (on keyboards), Andy Newmark (on drums), Chester Kamen (on guitar) and Jonjo Grisdale (also on keyboards). Unfortunately, no video has surfaced of the event as of yet, but here’s to hoping

After the recent death of keyboardist Richard Wright, an outright reunion seems unlikely. At this point, it seems like a lot of the bad blood may have drained away, especially with the recent deaths of two old band mates, but a recent posting on Waters’ facebook page may clue fans in.

To sum up the long message, the Gilmour basically asked Waters to do the charity gig with him, and to sing with him on the Teddy Bears’ cover “To Know Him is to Love Him”, but Waters got cold feet because, as he notes it, “David, with his superior vocal skills, could sing either part standing on his head. Whilst I would have to search for a different key and then struggle through hours and hours of routining a performance that lay way outside my vocal comfort zone.”

So Gilmour made him a deal, saying that if Waters would do the song anyways, he’d show up at one of The Wall dates to play “Comfortably Numb.” So, it went, and now a lucky city will be witness to this amazing performance. But which one will it be? Want to go the show now?

The Foo Fighters’ guitarist Chris Shiflett recently released a solo album during the two-year hiatus the Foos have been on. The album, called Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants, features more of a rockabilly sound than the top grossing alternative band. The album is even a departure from the sound of his old punk band, No Use For A Name, or his part-time gig with the punk cover band Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. Speaking on how the album came about to Classic Rock magazine, Shiflett said, “I can’t say that I grew up on this music, because I’m from California and it was Aerosmith and KISS for me. But then my older brother got me into the Rolling Stones and Elvis. From there, I discovered Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, then the Replacements, X, and Wilco. I just wanted to get a record made. But now I’ve got this bunch of really good musicians together for the live dates, and I’m really enjoying what we’re doing. So, I’ll try to keep them together for the next album.”

The album attempts to replicate a more warm, analog sound, as Shiflett mentioned to Classic Rock. “I hate the way records sound these days – too much technology. To me that destroys music. Hearing the mistakes is part of what music is. We tried to maintain that philosophy throughout.”
 The Foos will be returning later this year to record their next album, says Shifflett, but he’s hoping to get some shows in beforehand. “If I hadn’t been relaxing so much I’d have gotten our debut album out a year ago, and given us a chance to tour. As it is, I’ve just done a run of dates locally (California), but we start recording the new Foos album in September and that will probably take us through the autumn. There might be time for me to do some more gigs around the end of year. But then we’ll probably be into Foo Fighters touring schedule that’ll stretch into 2012.” Hear some tunes, pick up the album, or read more, check out his Myspace page.

Recommended Listening:

• Strung Out On Foo Fighters (EP)
• Ordinary Hereos: The String Quartet Tribute to Foo Fighters (Reissue w/ 4 new tracks)
• Shape and Colour of My Heart: TheString Quartet Tribute to Foo Fighters