Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons with Daniel and the LionFriday, July 16, 9pmWisconsin Memorial Union Terrace, more info
One of the greatest things about summer evenings in Madison is live music at the Memorial Union Terrace. Now pair this spectacular outdoor venue with some great homegrown Wisconsin music (and some cold delicious Wisconsin brews) and you have the makings of one fun night out in Madison, WI.
This Friday evening, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons will be rocking the stage overlooking Lake Mendota with Project M's very own Jimmie Linville and his band Daniel and the Lion.
You may remember Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons from the 2009 Madison Roots Festival. They are an Americana/folk rock band led by the one and only Cory Chisel. Cory Chisel grew up in Appleton, WI and developed his musical taste and abilities while playing music with family members from a young age along with an exposure to church gospel music. His large family is filled with guitar players who over time taught him the tricks of the trade as well as expose the young musician to artists such as Sam Cooke, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan and others. Chisel and the Wandering Sons have released a few discs including their 2009 album Death Won't Send A Letter. Head over to Chisel's site for all the information and streaming tracks you could ask for!
Opening for Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons is Baraboo based Daniel and the Lion. Daniel and the Lion is a folk/rock/pop band that features Project M's most recent champion Jimmie Linville! If you are a Project M follower you already know how talented Jimmie Linville is. Jimmie's band Daniel and the Lion fully showcases his singing and songwriting skill as well as the rest of the band's great musical talent. Daniel and the Lion list their influences as including Counting Crows, Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Wisconsin's own Bon Iver. If you tossed all these artists and the state of Wisconsin in a blender, the amalgamation would be the graceful yet powerful sound of Daniel and the Lion. Check out a couple of streaming tracks as well as snag yourself a copy of their This is Homemade EP and/or other goodies by heading to Daniel and the Lion's website.
This is an evening of music you really should not miss. Whether you are a Project M fan who can't get enough Jimmie Linville, a Wisconsin homegrown music junkie, or just a fan of fantastic music, Saturday night at the Terrace is for you! Head to the Terrace and show some love for some of Wisconsin's most promising musicians this Saturday!
Here are videos showcasing Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons as well as Daniel and the Lion's Jimmie Linville!
-Sam Ryan
One eskimO w/ Jeffrey DavidJuly 7, Majestic Theatre, Doors @7pm, Show @8pmTickets $12 adv, $14 door, more info and tickets
The 4 piece indie-rock/pop group One eskimO will be returning to Madison to play a show on July 7 at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Madison. Originally from London, England this young band has been gaining prominent following and support as they spread their music across the United States. One eskimO released a self-titled album in September of 2009 and also an EP the summer before. Be sure to check out these releases before July 7 when One eskimO rolls into town.
One eskimO was in Madison not real long ago when they opened for Guster. It is exciting to see a band who within the last year was an opening act yet now has been given the opportunity to headline their own show. Be sure to give these guys a listen and check out the upcoming show. If past performances have anything to say, missing One eskimO at the Majestic on July 7 would be a mistake.
Here is a free mp3 download of One eskimO's track Kandi.
Here is video from One eskimO's visit to Studio M earlier this year!
-Sam Ryan
Landon Pigg w/ Madi Diaz, 9pm, June 10, High Noon Saloon, 18+, $10 adv/$12 doorSinger/songwriter and Nashville native Landon Pigg will be arriving in Madison on June 10 to perform at the High Noon Saloon.
Landon Pigg is a 26 year old pop-rock musician who has released three albums and has been featured on numerous shows and films. Pigg has a backbone of great music that has influenced his sound for years.
As far as influences are concerned, Landon Pigg credits David Mead and Rufus Wainwright for instilling in him an appreciation for a beautiful melody, Radiohead for encouraging him to expel his emotions into his songwriting; and rock music icons the Beatles and Led Zeppelin for exhibiting to him the importance of catchy licks and hooks.
Landon Pigg originally reached national spotlight when one of his tracks was used in an episode of Grey's Anatomy and later One Tree Hill along with appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Pigg recently made his big-screen debut when he played Ellen Page's guitar-strumming love interest in Drew Barrymore's 2009 film Whip It.
Landon Pigg will be joined by Nashville neighbor and opening act Madi Diaz.
For more show information and tickets, visit TrueEndeavors.com.
-Sam Ryan
May 8, 9pm Majestic Theatre, w/ Locksley, $16, tickets
This Saturday evening alternative rock singer-songwriter Butch Walker will arrive in Madison to perform with his band Butch Walker and the Black Widows.
Walker's sound has been influenced by many styles of music, but maintains a clean pop-rock sound with the additional notes of harmonicas and banjos in the mix.
Originally from Cartersville, GA, Butch has spent much of the last two decades writing and performing his music to audiences across the country. This past February, Butch Walker released his fifth full length studio album I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart. Butch Walker has previously spent time with the bands SouthGang along with the Marvelous 3.
Band webpage, Band Myspace
Butch Walker - The Weight of Her
-Sam Ryan
Lollapalooza created quite a buzz this year by revealing their lineup one letter at a time. Today, the wait is finally over...the lineup is here and is shaping up to be pretty awesome! Lollapalooza takes places in Chiacgo's Grant Park Aug 6-8.
* Soundgarden
* Green Day
* Lady Gaga
* Arcade Fire
* The Strokes
* Phoenix
* Social Distortion
* MGMT
* Jimmy Cliff
* Hot Chip
* The Black Keys
* The National
* Spoon
* Devo
* Cypress Hill
* Cut Copy
* The New Pornographers
* Erykah Badu
* Slightly Stoopid
* Grizzly Bear
* Gogol Bordello
* Chromeo
* Wolfmother
* Yeasayer
* X Japan
* MUTEMATH
* Metric
* Dirty Projectors
* AFI
* Mavis Staples
* Matt & Kim
* The xx
* Drive-By Truckers
* Blues Traveler
* Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
* The Temper Trap
* Jamie Lidell
* Frightened Rabbit
* F**k Buttons
* Deer Tick
* Blitzen Trapper
* Stars
* Raphael Saadiq
* The Cribs
* Minus the Bear
* Switchfoot
* The Walkmen
* Mumford & Sons
* Wild Beasts
* Rogue Wave
* Los Amigos Invisibles
* The Big Pink
* The Dodos
* Hockey
* Cymbals Eat Guitars
* B.o.B
* Dawes
* Warpaint
* The Antlers
* The Soft Pack
* Rebelution
* Balkan Beat Box
* Wavves
* American Bang
* The Ike Reilly Assassination
* Company of Thieves
* Nneka
* Harlem
* The Constellations
* Miniature Tigers
* Mimicking Birds
* The Kissaway Trail
* HEALTH
* Javelin
* The Morning Benders
* Foxy Shazam
* Violent Soho
* Royal Bangs
* Freelance Whales
* Semi Precious Weapons
* Dan Black
* The Band of Heathens
* Dragonette
* My Dear Disco
* Shawn Fisher
* Neon Hitch
* Skybox
* The Ettes
* Jukebox the Ghost
* These United States
* MyNameIsJohnMichael
It had been a while since I had listened to my CD of Life's Rich Pageant. So when I threw the new 25th anniversary remastered CD into my Bose Wave radio, I wasn't sure how it compared to the old one.
I listened to the album A LOT when it first came out. How I even came to own it is actually kind of a funny story. I'll cut to the chase. I wanted Robert Palmer's Riptide for Christmas, but my younger brother bought me Life's Rich Pageant instead, because it was better. And what do you know, he was right!
Listening to this album again reminded me of how I listened to R.E.M. back in the day, on vinyl. I really had no idea what any of the songs were about, and for the most part couldn't understand what exactly Michael Stipe was singing.
A lot of phrases of the songs stuck in my head back then..like "this is where we walked, this is where we swam, take a picture here, take a souvenir." "My sweet hyena..." "Run and turn into butter."
After I listened to the CD I put my old one in for comparison purposes, and sonically, the new one is a big improvement. If you're just going to load it onto your iPod, I'm not sure its worth rebuying..but if you have a good stereo or even a Bose CD player like I do, it's worth it to get the upgrade. The remastering sounds great...not different, just better..less tinny, more full.
The bonus CD that came with it was a disappointment. It's made up of 19 songs from a previously unreleased concert, and for the most part sounds too much like the record..and includes early versions of some stuff that would show up on later records! The last song is kind of interesting. "Get On That Way" is an earlier version of "What if we Give It Away," so I guess it's somewhat cool to hear it with different words.
A big fan of R.E.M.? Go buy this 2 CD set. A so-so fan who already owns the CD? Keep the one you've got. Just discovering the band and want to see what the fuss was about before they started singing stuff like "Shiny Happy People?" You should go buy this. They really were quite good.
And so much better than Robert Palmer singing "Addicted to Love."
Elvis Costello writes the introduction on the liner notes to Paul Simon's new CD "So Beautiful or So What," and he promised me "rock and roll surprises." And Simon delivers. I won't detail them here or they won't be surprises to you. What I will say is that this definitely goes beyond the confines of the typical rock and roll record, without getting outlandish or silly.
Paul Simon has never been afraid to search the world over for musicians, or unique musical instrumentation and vocals. Like he did with "Graceland" and "Rhythm of the Saints," Simon takes us on a journey that takes us somewhere new..in this case..down south for a little gospel, across the ocean to India, and back home again. And he does it while still maintaining his rock and roll sensibility.
Skimming the credits, I saw quite a list of musical instruments..from glockenspiel to tuned bass djembe, conga, harmonica, harp, and celeste and angklung. (A celeste is similar to a glockenspiel, and is the instrument used in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy; an angklung is an instrument made of bamboo tubes.)Â The use of these instruments (and others) creates a very interesting record that never jumps the bridge into novelty..but just seems to work.
Simon is definitely reflective and even philosophical throughout most of the album, but he's never depressed..even in the quieter, slower ballads. As he says in the song's title tune, "Life is what we make of it, so beautiful, or so what."
Paul Simon's world is definitely beautiful, and it's a nice place to visit.
Key songs:
"The Afterlife"
"Rewrite"
Bloodshot Records is a great independent record company out of Chicago, that features a lot of music I just love! According to their website it's the "good stuff nestled in the dark, nebulous cracks where punk, country, soul, pop, bluegrass, blues and rock mix and mingle and mutate."
They recently made a whole album of that "good stuff" available for free on amazon.com. All of the songs aren't necessarily brand new, but they may be new to you!
They range from a slow ballad from Alejandro Escovedo, to rockers from the Bottle Rockets and Ha Ha Tonka to upbeat alt-country from Old 97's.
Other artists on the 12 song sampler include Rosie Flores, Exene Cervenka, and the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. >>>Get the free sampler album here. >>>Find out more about Bloodshot Records here. Right now they've got a sale going on with many albums priced at $5 or less.
--Kitty Dunn
I got a chance to listen to the new Jimi Hendrix album, Valleys of Neptune, sitting alongside one of the biggest Hendrix fans I ever met, my boyfriend Mike. We both liked it, but for different reasons.
Mike is a completionist when it comes to Hendrix. He has dozens of Hendrix CD's, albums, box sets and bootlegs. So it kind of seemed impossible to me that the archivists from the Hendrix family could find anything he hadn't heard before. And for the most part that was true.
These were studio recordings made by Jimi and the Experience shortly after Electric Ladyland, and feature a lot of songs that a lot of us have heard before, mostly in live concert recordings, or new versions of songs that appeared on other studio albums. Serious Hendrix freaks probably have a few of them on bootleg albums. But the title track and some of the other songs were new to us.
One thing we both noticed right away is that the recording quality is excellent, and that the drums are more prominent than other Hendrix recordings.
There's a beautiful melodic version of "Red House,"Â a great bluesy song called "Bleeding Heart" that was often played live, and a very strange version of "Fire" that features Noel Redding alternating vocals with Jimi. There's something just wrong about that.
Some of the songs simply fade out before the songs are finished.. probably because hey.. the songs weren't finished.  For example, even though the version of "Red House" clocks in at 8:20, it fades right as Jimi is starting the second verse.
I really liked the instrumental cover of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love." Mike had heard it before, but I hadn't. It featured a lot of different guitar effects and tones..and to me even had kind of an India feel in the middle. Very tasty.
One new song to both of us was "Ships Passing Through the Night." While the guitar playing was Jimi quality, I thought the lyrics were a bit weak. "Lay your troubles down on the chair, you gotta shake those blues outta your hair."Â Maybe the song was a work in progress.
If you buy the album at Target, you get two new songs that you don't get anywhere else. Both are instrumentals. One is called "Slower Version" and it's a slower version of the song that precedes it on the album, "Crying Blue Rain." And the last song is called "Trashman." That's the song that most impressed my guitar playing Hendrix fan boyfriend.
So what's the bottom line? If you're a huge Hendrix fan..you must buy this, and get it at Target. If you're a garden variety Hendrix fan (like me), you'd probably enjoy it, so pick it up when you get a chance. If you're a new Hendrix fan, you'd be better off buying the newly remastered Electric Ladyland or Axis Bold As Love.
If you're not a Hendrix fan, why are you reading this?
Find out what Rolling Stone had to say and preview the album here.
For the past 25 years, Neil Young has brought some of his best friends together for the Bridge School, a school in California for kids with severe developmental disabilities. The school, which Neil's children attended, specializes in helping children who don't use speech to communicate.
Now he's releasing some of the best performances, on either a 2 CD or 3 DVD set. The Bridge School Concerts has a pretty incredible lineup, with performances from Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, The Who, Elton John & Leon Russell, and more. Check out the movie trailer:
The most recent concert happened over the weekend, and it featured an amazing performance of the song "Helpless" by Neil and Arcade Fire.
More info about the concert, the school, and the new CD and DVD here.
The Broadway musical Wicked has flown back into town, thrilling fans at the Overture Center now through June 9th.
I got a chance to see the production for the 2nd time last night, and once again was blown away. Even though I saw Wicked in 2010, I had...
Today we traveled back to 1975 for a Rendezvous with The Hudson Brothers. This song didn't make it to high on the charts, but Kitty enjoyed it. Her favorite brother was Brett. She also loved their television show. We've included a skit from...
I'm not sure why Pete Yorn decided to name his new music project after a European cave dwelling aquatic salamander, but if he stops by to play us some songs in Studio M, we'll have to ask him.
The Olms is a collaboration between Pete Yorn and...
Today's song was written by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. It was inspired by the 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago. No one was inspired by the song this morning. It was rejected by almost all the listeners.
Today is World Goth Day, a day to celebrate the post-punk, anti-establishment, dark clothes-wearing subculture.
I'm pretty sure I was a Goth for at least for little while, for two reasons.
1) I almost hardly ever wear pastels.
2) I used to...
Hello to all from Nfusion. Another round of challenges has moved beyond us all. Congrats to those of us lucky enough to have survived to this point. Sad to see the others eliminated as they were all very creative and talented. Good Bye to our new friends...
This morning it seemed like just about everyone was in the mood for some Funky Cold Medina...except Kitty. This ridiculous song made it all the way to number 3 in 1989. Jonathan says any song that references advertising dogs from the 80's has got...
Madison's summer music festival season kicks off this weekend with Brat Fest at Willow Island, where there are more bands than you can shake a bratwurst at! Check out the Brat Fest website to plan your itinerary.
Next up is the Marquette...
This Friday evening, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons will be rocking the stage overlooking Lake Mendota with Project M's very own Jimmie Linville and his band Daniel and the Lion.
You may remember Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons from the 2009 Madison Roots Festival. They are an Americana/folk rock band led by the one and only Cory Chisel. Cory Chisel grew up in Appleton, WI and developed his musical taste and abilities while playing music with family members from a young age along with an exposure to church gospel music. His large family is filled with guitar players who over time taught him the tricks of the trade as well as expose the young musician to artists such as Sam Cooke, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan and others. Chisel and the Wandering Sons have released a few discs including their 2009 album Death Won't Send A Letter. Head over to 
ences as including Counting Crows, Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Wisconsin's own Bon Iver. If you tossed all these artists and the state of Wisconsin in a blender, the amalgamation would be the graceful yet powerful sound of Daniel and the Lion. Check out a couple of streaming tracks as well as snag yourself a copy of their This is Homemade EP and/or other goodies by heading to 
Singer/songwriter and Nashville native 
This Saturday evening alternative rock singer-songwriter Butch Walker will arrive in Madison to perform with his band Butch Walker and the Black Widows.
Walker's sound has been influenced by many styles of music, but maintains a clean pop-rock sound with the additional notes of harmonicas and banjos in the mix.
Originally from Cartersville, GA, Butch has spent much of the last two decades writing and performing his music to audiences across the country. This past February, Butch Walker released his fifth full length studio album I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart. Butch Walker has previously spent time with the bands SouthGang along with the Marvelous 3.
