BiteTorrent, Now With 25% More Freedom

Due to blowing my entire column this week recounting the Furthur fracas, your regularly scheduled BiteTorrent has been moved to the friendly confines of this here blog. And a day early, to boot! Buckle up.

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Fourth of July weekend is generally overloaded with live music — and even though there are few things more quintessentially American than Journey cover bands, I'm not just talking about Breakwater before the fireworks. This year is no exception, highlighted by what's quickly becoming a yearly staple: The fourth annual Speaking Volumes July Third Party in the parking lot of the kooky Pine Street shop — which, incidentally, offers a nice vantage point for taking in our annual simulation of bombs bursting in air. This year, the rain-or-shine BBQ (and raffle!) features four up-and-coming, and appropriately eclectic local outfits, including Prana, Brother Through Glass, The Feverbreakers and How to Stay Alive in the Woods. Admission is a $5 suggested donation the Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation.

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Meanwhile, just a short jaunt south to Bristol, those who prefer their music a smidgen harder — and a lot louder — should check in with the second annual Screaming for Change Festival at The Hub, which gets under way on Saturday. The two-day hardcore hootenanny features a jaw-dropping array of local and regional hardcore and punk bands. Rather than mention a few, and since I'm not restricted by a word count here — and mostly because I just friggin' love hardcore band names — here's the complete breakdown, in order, from headliners to openers:

Saturday: Bane, Unrestrained, Word for Word, Mantra, Our Fight, Sacred Love, Crucial Times, Problems, Born Under A Bad Sign, As We Were

Sunday: My Revenge!, The Effort, Battle!, Dead Icons, Outlast, Under Anchor, No Love Lost, Coughing Fit, Alive and Well, The Control, Crown of Lions

A two-day pass to all the festivities is $30. Single day passes differ depending on which day you go: Saturday is $20, Sunday is $15.

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Should your tastes veer more toward the experimental, I'd suggest the post-fireworks bash at Radio Bean on Saturday. The mind-bending bill includes B-town micro-label Aether Everywhere's the le duo, B-town micro micro-label/brewery Mars Pyramid's VIKOMT and a really cool ambient psych-rock duo from Allston called 28 Degrees Taurus. For that last band, imagine if My Bloody Valentine took a fistful of uppers and got really into Jefferson Airplane and/or Burt Bacharach, and you're sort of in the ballpark. Should be a fun show.

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Happy trails to local local soul man Joshua Panda, who embarks on a summer-long busking tour following a pre-fireworks send-off show at The Skinny Pancake on Saturday. Panda will hit the left coast for a spell, busking and playing clubs across the country before returning to celebrate a new album with a big homecoming show at the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival in late August. Safe travels, Josh.

Furthur(no)more

**UPDATED FRIDAY, 4:05 PM**

The hippies are coming! The hippies are com … wait a sec. They're not?

According to their website, Grateful Dead redux Furthur have been forced to cancel their upcoming Concerts on the Green performance scheduled for 7/5 at stately — and now 99% hippie free — Shelburne Museum. Here's the announcement:

July 5th Shelburne Vermont Show CANCELLED
To All Of Our Fans Who’ve Purchased Tickets To Our July 5 Show in Shelburne, VT:

After days of meetings to address and alleviate last minute concerns being expressed by State and Local Authorities, Furthur is very disappointed to learn that today (6.24), the local authorities, citing an inability to deal with an expected influx of ticketless fans, traffic concerns, and other issues, have revoked the approved permits for the show and have decided to cancel Furthur's concert at Vermont's Shelburne Museum on July 5. As the decision was made by the local authorities so close to the event date, regrettably we are unable to find a suitable alternate venue in Vermont. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience!

Full & complete refunds will be available soon via point of purchase.
If you bought tickets online you'll automatically be refunded.

Anyone else sensing something fishy going on here? Stay tuned …

[Ed. note: This item was cross-posted at Solid State.]

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[UPDATE: Friday, 3:30 p.m.]

My goodness, what a long, strange trip this has  … ahem.

According to the statement from Furthur, the culprits of our collective mellow harshing are the "local authorities." But here's the thing, the local authorities found out about it the same way we did.

"I came in early this morning, before seven, and our town planner had a copy of the notice that Furthur posted on their website," said Shelburne town manager Paul Bohne in a phone conversation with 7D earlier today. "That was the first I had heard of it."

But surely permitting the concerts must go through the town of Shelburne, right?

"We don't permit them," says Bohne, "We don't have a process for permitting concerts at the museum."

That responsibility actually falls on the state, specifically the Department of Public Safety. And according to an article posted earlier today by Burlington Free Press staff writer Sally Pollack, they didn't cancel the show either.

From the BFP story:

The Department of Public Safety issued a permit for the Furthur concert at Shelburne Museum, but it did not cancel or revoke the permit it issued, according to Major Walt Goodell of the department.

"We did not cancel it," Goodell said. "We would take an interest in any planning if we were invited to the table to discuss additional needs. But we've had no role in canceling the permit."

OK, so if Shelburne didn't do it, and the state didn't do it … who the in the name of Jerry pulled the plug?

Shelburne Museum public relations and marketing director Leslie Wright — who earlier today responded to a 7D inquiry with a firm, "No comment" — informs us that an official statement from the museum is forthcoming shortly.

And the plot thickens …

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[UPDATE: Friday 4:05 p.m.]

And here it is, the official statement from the Shelburne Museum:

SHELBURNE MUSEUM STATEMENT ON JULY 5 CONCERT CANCELLATION

June 25, 2010
We regret that the July 5 Furthur concert at Shelburne Museum had to be canceled. We could not host this show without an adequate security plan from the concert’s organizers in place. We did not have that and so made the difficult decision to withdraw as the concert’s venue.

Ready for Bear

Happy Thursday, Solid State.

All week long I had hoped to offer some choice words on Friday's Bear in Heaven show at the Monkey. But betwixt recovering from a weekend of wedding fun (not mine, thank you), banging out this week's issue, cobbling together next week's issue, working on the next edition of our What's Good college guide, keeping tabs on the World Cup and that crazy ass epic Wimbledon match, buying a smart phone (I caved), figuring out how to use said smart phone, surviving an earthquake, getting in some exercise (for me and my half-crazy, half-pitbull Buckley) and catching up on the new season of Top Chef, frankly, I'm pooped. But enough of my problems.

Instead, I offer you the attached video from the Brooklyn band's episode of The Take Away Shows. I would also urge you to pop over to Pitchfork and dig into this remix of BIH's "Ultimate Satisfaction" by The Field that dropped yesterday. It's pretty cool in a hazy, sprawling, druggy kinda way.

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't rehash this week's column love for the debut of Daniel Munzing's (My Dearest Darling) new electro indie outfit Errands, who will open for BIH. Check 'em out here.

And last but not least, have you seen the Monkey's awesome new website yet?

Speeding Up

This just in from our old pals Waylon Speed: the promo video for the band's appearance at this year's Gathering of the Vibes.

No Music Wednesday

Hey, Burlington. I have a modest proposal for you. Ready?

Can we just all agree not to have really cool shows on Wednesday nights anymore? Maybe have that be the music scene's collective night of rest or something? (Rock 'n' roll sabbath?) Because frankly, Wednesday shows are a huge pain in my ass, logistically speaking.

Obviously, the paper hits newsstands every Wednesday. So the problem is that I never know whether it's better for me to mention a Wednesday show a full week in advance (and hope you, dear reader, either make note or remember it a week later), ORRRR if it's better to hold the mention until the day of the show  — and hope you both pick up the paper that day and flip directly to my column, which I'm sure you all do anyway, right? Ahem.

What's a music editor to do? (Complain about it on a blog, clearly.)

Anyway, I made a quick mention of the killer psych-rock show at Club Metronome tomorrow night featuring The Asteroid #4, The High Dials and the Queen City's own The Vacant Lots in my column last week. But in case you missed it (or forgot), I thought I'd highlight said show again using the magic of the Internet, where there is no such thing as a street date. So to that end, here's a video of Philly's The Asteroid #4 and their song "Here We Go." Enjoy!

I'm On A Boat: Scoop Shop Remix

Ignoring the most obvious question — which is of course, "Why?" — here's a vid from the kids at the Ben & Jerry's flagship scoop shop on Church Street. It's a, um, tasty send-up of Lonely Island's "I'm On A Boat."

Oh Dear, Abbey

According to an article in today's Times Argus, Montpelier alt-venue The Lamb Abbey has been shut down by the city's Building Inspector due to numerous code violations. Here's a snippet from TA staff writer Thatcher Moats' piece outlining the infractions:

"A broken sprinkler system, inadequate exits, no emergency lights, combustible drapery, inadequate exit signs, unlevel surfaces near the exit, inadequate handrails, and a door that opened into the building instead of out were among the code violations [Building Inspector Glenn] Moore found last Friday. There also was no valid Certificate of Occupancy for the building, which regulates how many people can be there."

Thatcher goes on to write that LA co-founder Duffy Gardner is unsure how long it will take to bring the space up to code and that "he and others will have to weigh whether to invest the money it would take to make the place code compliant for concerts and other events."

Translation: uh-oh.

We're awaiting direct word from Gardner himself on the topic. Though a brief email response characterizes the closing as "Just a minor setback." Stay tuned.

LW&OB2X … Extremely NSFW!

I have a love-hate relationship with Lawrence Welks & Our Bear to Cross. On one hand, I honestly appreciate the notion that a band so seemingly unconcerned with conforming to convention (social, musical or of any other kind, really) exists. Also, I really dig their name.

On the other hand, I genuinely despised their last album, Cam Cougar, which I found so willfully obnoxious that it lost any artistic significance it may otherwise have had. On still another hand, I sincerely doubt the band cared what I thought about the record, which really only makes me appreciate them more.

What then to make of this new video for their song "Wet," from their forthcoming "palindromic concept album," Binary Execute Now, directed by Nose Bleed Island's Joey Pizza Slice? On one (more) hand, it is about as, um, "revealing" a music video as has ever breached our local shores. On still another … well, I'll just let you decide.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is really, really, ALLCAPSFREAKINGREALLY NOT SAFE FOR WORK — or school, or church, or old folks homes or polite company of any kind. Please, if very skinny, very moustachioed and very naked dudes offend you, click here.

Everyone else, take a deep breath and click past the jump. 

Nocturnals Play on Rooftop!

What's crackin', Solid State? I trust you're all enjoying yet another edition of Jazz Fest.

Speaking of which, I caught two pretty killer shows over the weekend. I dig into both shows a little bit in tomorrow's column, but the Parker Shper-led yoUSAy Placate at Radio Bean on Friday with local sax colossus Bryan McNamara sitting in was absolutely scorching. If you've yet to catch them, I'd recommend it if only to witness the sheer awesomeness that is drummer Phil Melanson. Holy hell, that guy is good.

Saturday, I dropped by the alley at American Flatbread for an early evening set by Anna Pardenik and the Holy Smoke-Off, who might just be my current favorite local band. For the uninitiated, the group is kind of a pared down spin-off of the rambling Vermont Joy Parade that made the rounds at Bonnaroo last year. AP&HSO boast a similar vagabond aesthetic and mix vintage jazz tunes with Pardenik's own indie folk(ish) originals. Also, they have a musical saw. (BTW, I'd forgotten how much fun it is to see music at Flatbread. That alley is really cozy. And as a friend pointed out, the stage kinda looks like it belongs in a nativity scene. Nifty.)

Anyway, here's some random stuff for your Tuesday afternoon:

The big news of the day is of course that Grace Potter & the Nocturnals are playing a free show, not on a rooftop, but on the Church Street Marketplace at 5:30 p.m. to celebrate the release of their new self-titled album, which comes out today. Say what you will about GPN — and I have — but giving a free outdoor concert in your hometown is still a pretty swell thing to do for your fans.

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Less swell is how Yeasayer's recent free show at Governor's Island in NYC went. Apparently, the unprecedented deluge of hipsters descending upon the ferry to the island evolved into the seventh circle of hell, leaving those who made it stranded on the island, and thousands who didn't stuck on the shore. On the plus side, it led to this hilarious blog post from Village Voice music ed Rob Harvilla, which chronicles the experience via random Twitter posts. 

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There hasn't been much written about the eTown Radio Show at the Flynn MainStage tomorrow, which seems odd given that the lineup features Anaïs Mitchell, Allison Moorer and Steve friggin' Earle. In fact, I had a recent email exchange with a pretty savvy local musician who had no idea Earle was even coming to town. In part, I imagine that's because the show's organizers scheduled it smack in the middle of Jazz Fest, making it easy for local press to overlook. Also, I haven't been able to touch the show, press-wise, because my brother, Tyler, is in the house band. Something about conflict of interest. Whatever. I'm pretty sure Ty gets paid the same whether anyone shows up or not. And really, this is all just an opportunity for me to remind you that I interviewed Earle last year. Moving on …   

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BTW, if there's time after the eTown show, I plan to stop by Manhattan Pizza to catch The Persian Claws, The Fatal Flaws, and these guys:

Jacuzzi Boys - Smells Dead from John McSwain on Vimeo.

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Last but not least, here's a shameless plug for a 7D sponsored event, also on Wednesday: The Cooler at the Firehouse Plaza at 6 p.m. The cocktail party will feature music from Queen City indie band Villanelles, who will have just wrapped up their live recording session as part of Burlington City Arts' Jazz Lab project.

     

A Guide to Recognizing Toussaint

Last week, I had a great conversation with New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint, for the cover story of tomorrow's paper. Among other things — discussing the art of songwriting, returning to New Orleans post-Katrina, collaborating with Elvis Costello, etc. — my chat with the legendary songwriter confirmed something I've long suspected: that when I grow up, I want to be an old, black piano player from New Orleans. Dude is just one smooth cat, even at 72.

Anyway, here's an older clip from a British TV show that sort of illustrates what I mean. In it, Toussaint describes how his mentor, Professor Longhair, subtly helped shape the course of N'awlins jazz piano.