The Wheel's Still In Spin

Blitzen Trapper, Dawes & Belle Brigade – The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA – November 15, 2011

Blitzen Trapper and Dawes spent the months of October and November co-headlining a tour across the continental US. On Tuesday, November 15, the bands played San Francisco’s venerable Fillmore Auditorium to a nearly full – but not completely sold out – crowd as the penultimate show of the two-month tour.

The Great Dictator Speech

With Occupy Wall Street still going strong in many cities despite the violence in Oakland, I am reminded of Charlie Chaplin's speech at the end of The Great Dictator. Chaplin’s Jewish barber has been mistaken for a tyrannical Dictator of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel, obviously based on Adolf Hitler. The Jewish barber gives an impassioned speech calling for unity to fight for what is right, for happiness over hatred, for liberty and reason over slavery and greed. The film’s climatic 10 minute speech is beautiful and eloquent. It moved a country on the eve of entering World War II. Even today, over 70 years later, the words are still moving and inspiring and deserve revisiting. What follows is a complete text of the speech.

Do Bands Really Break Up?

Last week R.E.M. broke up. There was a lot written about it – including some of my favorite blogs (Funny Indian and the trivium of Stabbone & McGraw, Kid Shay, and West Lawn Park) – but it’s made me wonder if hugely popular bands ever really break up.

Austin City Limits Festival 2011

The tenth annual Austin City Limits music festival took place over the weekend. Approximately 70,000 people listened to 125 bands on 7 stages for 3 days. The diverse lineup featured headliners Arcade Fire, Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Kanye West, and Stevie Wonder.

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I’ll Let You Be In My Dreams If I Can Be In Yours: Dylan Fest 2011

My wife had an East Coast work trip scheduled for the week before Memorial Day, with her last meeting in New York City. So we figured this would be a good time for a short, NYC vacation. We then started searching the events that were going on that weekend. And there it was:

Dylan Fest 2011

Record Store Day 2011

Record Store Day is Saturday, April 16, 2011. This day is a celebration of the culture of over 700 independent record stores.

There will be limited edition releases, singles, and vinyl reissues including:
AC/DC, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, The Beach Boys, Big Star, Blitzen Trapper, Built to Spill, The Cars, The Civil Wars, The Decemberists, Deehoof, The Dodos, John Doe & Jill Sobule, Justin Townes Earle, Steve Earle, The Flaming Lips, Fleet Foxes, Jimi Hendrix, Kings of Leon, Ray LaMontagne, Laura Marling, Mastodon, Mumford & Sons, New York Dolls, Of Montreal, Peter Bjorn & John, R.E.M., Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pink Floyd, Sonic Youth, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Television, The Velvet Underground, and the Record Store Day Ambassador – Ozzy Osbourne.

See a full list of the hundred of Record Store Day releases in pdf form or on a webpage.

There will be over in-store performances and signings by a diverse range of artists including:
British Sea Power, Peter Buck, Deftones, Drive-By Truckers, Duran Duran, Foo Fighters, Holly Golightly, Jason Isbell, Talib Kweli, Jason Lytle, Matt & Kim, Del McCoury Band, My Morning Jacket, The Raveonettes, Henry Rollins, Todd Rundgren, Telekinesis, TV on the Radio, and Wussy.
Check your local store for details. You can also check out an incomplete list here.

Support your local independent record store. Find a participating store here.

Indie Spirit vs. Academy Awards

The Academy Award winners will be announced on Sunday. This year the critics and the professionals were split on their favorite films. The National Board of Review, the National Society of Film Critics, the Golden Globes, and the Critics Choice awards were delivered to The Social Network. But the Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild, and Directors Guild handed their honors to The King’s Speech. Since the Oscars are determined by the directors, actors, and producers that already awarded The King’s Speech with their individual prizes, the Academy Awards become predictable.

Luckily, there’s another awards show happening on Saturday.

2010 Albums T-Z

The end of the year brings a list of the year’s favorite releases. Before I list those favorites, it may be helpful to see a list of all the albums listen to at The Wheel’s Still In Spin during 2010.

# | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

2010 Albums O-S

The end of the year brings a list of the year’s favorite releases. Before I list those favorites, it may be helpful to see a list of all the albums listen to at The Wheel’s Still In Spin during 2010.

# | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S