http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog Music for Adventurous Folk Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:20:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Chatham County Line won last year’s Rockygrass band contest in part due to singer/guitarist Dave Wilson’s ability to change a guitar string mid-song without missing a lyric. The ovation after that song made the judge’s job easy. None of us that they were already signed to the excellent ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/52 I’m a sucker for a good musical scream. So when I heard some honest yelling in the sound clips on the Avett Brothers website, I knew I’d found something. The Avetts, banjo/guitar-playing brothers Scott and Seth and upright bassist Bob Crawford, are an aggressive folk trio. Like ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/51 What better summer reading than a history of the Beach Boys and the Southern California experience. Or so I thought. Timothy White’s The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern California Experience is a laborious history of everything distantly related to the title. ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/50 Okay, before I go any further, head over to Matson Jones’ website and download “A Little Bit of Arson Never Hurt Anyone.” Last Saturday we hit the 2005 Westword Music Showcase. Six stages at different venues around the Golden Triangle area of Denver - including a festival-style outdoor stage - ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/49 Oh, those Canadians are so clever. Toronto artist Brian Joseph Davis’ latest creation, Greatest Hit, is a literal mashup of six greatest-hits albums - by Whitney Houston, Kenny G., the Carpenters, the Police, the Rolling Stones and Metallica - each compressed down to a single four-or-five-minute track. No ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/48 I was trying to convince a friend to check out Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister recently. He tried several times to make it through the album, but couldn’t handle Stuart Murdoch’s vocals. I remembered a similar response the first time I heard them, so for the ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/47 Brian Wilson’s Smile was the best album of last year. Hands-down. The performance of Smile, accompanied by his 18-piece band, at Denver’s Paramount Theater last October was absolutely fantastic. So it pains me a little bit to portray Brian in anything but a genius light. But ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/45 I don’t know what to make of this. Today, Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan) took out a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune with the title “A Message to Chicago from Billy Corgan.” For over 17 years I have been proud to represent Chicago as an artist through ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/44 With all the talk about “indie rock” in the past year, Michael Azerrad’s excellent book Our Band Could Be Your Life should be required reading. Over the course of 500+ pages, Azerrad covers the birth of the American indie underground of the 1980s - a time when “indie” meant ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/38 It’s hard to know whether the debut CD from The Go! Team is good music, or if we’ve just been nurtured our entire lives to love this CD. The London buzz-band’s music is a combination of retro-hip hop, 80s dance floor vamps, and soundtracks to A-Team chase scenes. ... http://www.brianeyster.com/oldblog/archives/17