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Totally agree with flip - dig RAA hard notsomuch woodhands- although my buddy Roger Leavens produces both of their records.

I didn't mean to come off negative- the Bros. played a solid set, I guess I would have expected them to have worked up a new set or some new material by this point in their development. It was also pretty clear they were all still mentally and half physically in Japan, so I thought the show was as good as it could be running on fumes. Was trying to gauge the audience's reactions but couldn't get much of a read, some seemed rightly enthralled particularly the older folks.

That said the Low Anthem again was sublime. Noteworthy was that they'd been given the gift of an accordion that had been played with The Hawks, Janice and someone else- I'm guessing it must have been Richard Bell's because there's no one else whose played in both the Hawks and Big Brother. Wonder if it came from Bell personally.

I do feel like the Low Anthem is carrying on the old, weird American vibe of the Basement tapes experimentation era but the lyricism (though full of little wonders) isn't quite up to a young J.R. Robertson.

Hey Lucas are you taking a stab at the Low Anthem for a review or setlist? I don't know their material well enough and just was really trying to stay in the moment.

Truly religious like their last goround in town. Barr Bros. played their perfunctory set, solid just not over the top- Old Mythologies, Deacon's Son, Let There Be Horses (*the Mary song, 'the Mary' of the Mary song was in attendance), Can't Keep From Cryin', couple others...

The Anthem though was superb. They mic the stage so carefully and delicately and all sing aroun in an Appalachian style and have such a great sense of each other's range and the overall thrall they put the audience in. I mean it was just that good. Kept the Great Hall rapt with attention and basically dead quiet from start to finish.

I was living in Waterton Lakes National Park, AB the summer Jerry died and went up to the '95 Roadside in Okatoks outside Calgary which was the perfect place to see them. I gather that a version of my 'noodle arm' dance still exists in some soutwestern Alberta towns as a result of Blues Traveller's set.

It's not actually Chuck Lorre's name is it, I presumed it was just a slur.

I gather the Anthem set up an entire factory as a living recording space using innovative techniques to give shape to their new album. I can only imagine how it comes across live.

From the sound of it Charlie freebases - likely pure coke - I guess at those levels of use they always end up freebasing for whatever reason. Although I'm basing this on an interview with one of his porn family members who described him getting a delivery of fist sized chunks of coke and smoking in the bathroom with her present for a real long time, then him being able to get it up and over with two minutes later.

I figure the second in hopes they might vary the setlist or have different guests. I can't help but think that the consensus is that - well any chance to see Levon particularly at Massey might be his last. Also with Garth's tribute album out I wonder about his or others collaborations.

Getting really excited about The Low Anthem's imminent concert with Barr Brothers opening. Just thought I'd repost these old interviews from the last time they came through and opened for the Anthem. Sara's in particular is illuminating about her own background and the origin of Sarah Through The Walls.

Sara Page interview

Brad Barr interview

Does anyone know any good promo codes for Massey? Trying to pull a single for Levon and Lucinda. Anybody got any sense of who the guests might be?

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The whole thing sounds a little iffy and maybe WSP's in damage control mode for the family's sake.

Just bought this sight unheard.

Does anyone know anything about Laura Marling other than that she's sometimes backed by Mumford and Sons she's a brit of a mystery.

I'd be really curious to get the logic problem Watson had with connecting a title U.S. cities with a Canadian city.

I haven't had the time to research it but I'm curious what the Arcade Fire and Spaulding wins say about the Grammy voters besides what seems like an obvious backlash against youtube and twitter metrics being equated with talent. Likewise though Lady Antebellum beat out some strong contenders (almost all hip hop) for song or performance of the year in a kind of quizzical move- I'm not sure who's performance of the year that represents except maybe another bias of the voters towards New Country and successful radio outings.

It's not a bad lineup but is one of their weaker lineups in years, they've got great programming.

It's alot different than a Kasparov v. Deep Blue type thing in chess. I think it's the wording of jeopardy clues, the visual or semantic puns, the use of humour in general, the ability to draw connections between not just one piece of trivia but others, the ability to draw the answer out of the category title or vice versa. I think those are the things obviously humans would have the advantage over. Definitely anything that plays to a slight touch of humour, riddle, semantics of how the ear hears and the eye sees.

I think it's a testament to the Golden Dogs viscious live show but I didn't realize that 1984 was a cover of McCartney (okay that's boneheaded) but their version of Harry Nillson's Me and My Arrow just sounds like a Golden Dogs original.

He was the guest announcer on Jimmy Fallon last night standing next to the Roots.

For just Toronto shows I'd have to think hard on the order but definitely a handful of shows I saw the Mohawk Lodge play would definitely be up their, and the Lodge's Eamon McGrath at his first show at the Horseshoe backed by Ryder Havdale and the Lodge, definitely Young Empires opener for the surprise Japandroids show at the Dakota and also De La Soul during NXNE. I'd probably handily throw in Chris Brown and Kate Fenner at a rare Toronto gig at the Piston.

Never been into Decemberists but this is probably pretty good.

http://pitchfork.com/news/40998-decemberists-cover-grateful-dead-on-new-single/

Jer is really humble (in general) about his role in Zeus but is totally integral to their sound- they collectively call him JerBro. Collett insists on working with him (as his former bassist he knows the whole catalogue intimately) as do the Zeus guys. Since Mike O'Brien and Carlin are producers/engineers/sidemen/songwriters and their sound is highly refined they're immensely concerned with reproducing in this case the two albums they've been touring in support of (which they produced) their own and Jason's Rat A Tat. Jer's role then is to essentially mix the band/ album live off the floor so that it has as much fidelity with the recording as possible. Zeus don't 'jam' per se, they have improvisational elements for sure and might take a bit of liberty hear and there but generally they're trying to re-create the albums they produced.

If the packaging is weird I guaranfuckingtee it was done by his wife Maud. She is painful to be around (Sadies would agree), but as Kevin Breit wisely pointed out to me at one point 'if it weren't for Maud, Garth wouldn't get out of bed in the morning'.