Note :

http://www.sleater-kinney.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sleaterkinney

Sortie : 2002
Style : Rock , Punk , Garage , Inde

Tracklist :

1. One Beat

2. Far Away

3. Oh!

4. The Remainder

5. Light-Rail Coyote

6. Step Aside

7. Combat Rock

8. O2

9. Funeral Song

10. Prisstina

11. Hollywood Ending

12. Sympathy

I have issues with women in rock. Not so much the actual act of female human beings playing that rock n' roll music, but the entire media concept of in-quotes "women in rock." I'm tired of Rolling Stone double issues, the VH1 theme weeks, the Tower Records special displays. Condescending, patronizing bullshit, all of it. Now, I won't get into the issue of the built-in misogyny in the rock criticism phrasebook; partially because I wouldn't want to endorse a paranoid shift towards excessively vigilant political correctness, and partially because I myself am guilty of occasionally over-using the adjective 'sultry.'

No, at hand is a bigger fish-- namely, that far too much writing about female musicians gets caught up with the idea that the artist must be saying something about the 'female experience.' Rather than accept these acts as just plain musicians, being a woman playing rock music is automatically assumed to be a declaration of activist intentions. Other than the obvious double-standard (when was the last time you read a review about an all-guy band's songs reflecting the male experience?), this allows the Y chromosome-dominated rock press to focus on gender while still coming off as enlightened. But what of those girl bands that just want to rock, without all that role model jazz?

Consider, for example, indie-rock darlings Sleater-Kinney, just coincidentally the subject of this review! To date, Sleater-Kinney has, in my professional opinion, been a good but not great band with a solid back catalog of energetic but slightly homogenous releases. To the majority of my esteemed colleagues, however, S-K is the three-headed coming of the woman Christ, The Great Female Hope, the band that proves at long last that, hey, girls can rawk too! Never mind the fact that girls are, after all, evolutionarily engineered to have fingers for making chord shapes and strumming, just like boys.

Saddled with such a heavy label, and with unrealistic and undeserved expectations, the three women of Sleater-Kinney could just keep on making the same album over and over again, pleasing their tiny, rabid loyalists and the leather-patched elbow crowd in the press box. Hey, the life ain't too bad for a cult band these days. But, thank god, the Kill Rock Stars trio isn't content to forever meander in that habitat. With One Beat, Sleater-Kinney have turned in an album that absolutely, positively OBLITERATES the gender card, an album so colossal that all prefixes to the label 'rock band' must be immediately discarded.

From the opening, off-kilter drum pattern of the title track, One Beat takes you on a log flume ride through a forest of monumental riffs-- a log flume ride, people! Witness the fretboard slides of "Hollywood Ending", the cocky strut of "Step Aside", the mighty, fist-pumping second half of "Combat Rock" (to which I'd like to just give a premature Forkie for Best Riff of the Year right now). Also, be forewarned that the drumstick-twirling coda of "Far Away" has been shown to provoke sudden miming of snare hits and windmill strums in laboratory animals.

Now, you might be hearing a lot of crazytalk from longtime S-K supporters that the new album is their most disappointing to date. Ignore it; fanbase discomfort is a common symptom of the breakthrough album, proving that the act has tweaked their formula far enough to piss off the vets who want their pet band to stay predictable. Kinney's definitely changed up the recipe (as they had already begun to do with All Hands on the Bad One), but all changes are positive, foremost being a new understanding of how restraint and scaling back can allow for exponentially increased rockage. "Combat Rock" and "The Remainder" stutter along a single riff, teasingly refusing to explode before building to a tantric peak. "Light Rail Coyote" and "O2" both come out with all engines blazing, but retreat to valleys of uncharacteristically subdued hush.

Also helping the cause is an increased singing role for Carrie Brownstein, who sounds more confident than ever sporting a fully developed hiccupy vocal character that plays off Tucker's wail like lime flavoring on Tostitos. For anyone of the opinion that Tucker's banshee act occasionally got out of hand on older S-K material, Brownstein's participation is welcome news for your fragile eardrums. The latest model of the Janet Weiss percussion-cyborg sings a bit, too, but her main contribution is her incredibly melodic drums, strident and full-bodied as ever.

Meanwhile, the band breaks out the required fifth-album accoutrements: horn section, strings, occasional keyboards. It might be predictable timing for the band to expand their sound, but it's handled delicately by producer John Goodmanson, who never allows the spice to overwhelm the dish (er, sonically speaking, of course). The slip-and-slide Moog on "Oh!" drives home the song's oh-woah-woah playfulness, "Step Aside"'s marching band brass lends its revolution beckoning an epic quality, and Sam Coomes' theremin on "Funeral Song" fulfills the FDA requirements for any tune that mentions haunted houses, demons, and Halloween.

So except for a closing track ("Sympathy") where the bluesy over-emoting reminds me of everything I used to dislike about the Sleater, One Beat is an uncompromising, energetic monster of a record. Most of all, it's just accessible (pardon my French) enough to be exactly what the rock world needs these days: the Trail of Dead for those put off by the Danzig-esque lyrics and relentless drum-rolling. It's a dive-headfirst-into-an-empty-pool, take-the-subway-to-Queens, snap-into-a-Slim-Jim, forget-to-bring-back the-library-books, tire-pressure-dangerously-low, sneaking-fireworks-across-the-Illinois-Indiana-border kind of album. That it's performed by three persons of the female gender is entirely beside the point, to anyone who's really listening.

— Rob Mitchum
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Note :

http://www.myspace.com/bombaestereo

Sortie : 2008
Style : Alternative , Fusion , World

Tracklist :
01 – Cosita Rica
02 – Fuego
03 – La Boquilla
04 – Juana
05 – Camino Evitar
06 – Aguasal
07 – Feelin’
08 – La Niña Rica
09 – Musica Accion
10 – Palenke
11 – Pa’ Ti
12 – Raza

Note :

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Brown
http://www.myspace.com/kingtubbydub

Sortie : 2009
Style : Dub , Reggae

Tracklist :
1 - Dub Lives
2 - Big Dub Rocks
3 - Dread Dread Dub
4 - Prince On Dub
5 - The Collie Man
6 - Dub Happening
7 - Hit Me Forword
8 - Trouble Not Dub
9 - Lets Dub
10 - The Clean Dub
11 - Day After Dub
12 - Greatest Dub
13 - Good Dub
14 - Dub Special
15 - Falling Dub




The RockAShacka label out of Japan issue a compilation of dubs from the eccentric production hands of the man called Glen Brown, 15 dubs apparently from legendary lost tapes mixed by the hand of the dub master King Tubby. You will be familiar with some of the riddims, dubs to tracks like Never Too Young To Learn, Father Of The Living, Away With The Bad, Merry Up, As Long As There Is You, When I Fall In Love and more, and then there`s the few others not heard by many an ear at all ! Glen Brown utilised many of the islands greatest musicians, from the likes of the Wailers d`nb section, Sly n Robbie, Skatalites musicians and so on, they`re all there, and mightily dubbed by King Tubby, the dense reverb and shattering echoes, slicing equalisation on hihats and chops, riddims stripped down to their bare bones and brought back again, horns, flutes, keys and voices sent swirling into the musical ether...magical, and mystical...
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Note :

http://www.lenachamamyan.net

Sortie : 2007
Style : World , Jazz

Tracklist :
1- Yomma Lala (5:04 )
2- Daouny Ajoudo (8:01 )
3- Seher (4:29 )
4- Ya Msafera (5:32 )
5- Sha'am (3:20 )
6- Hawel Ya Ghannam (4:43)
7- Kabel El Easha (3:04)
8- Baly Ma'ak (5:09) *New arrangment
9- Sareery hofin merneym (4:26) * Armenian Song








Calme , serein , onctueux  l'album de Leena Shamamian s'annonce comme une douce mélopée ennivrante qui charmera les plus endurcis .
 Difficile de ne pas se faire happer par les ondes lancinantes que procure la voix hypnotique de la charmante Leena , accompagner d'une musique jazz world de qualité .
Bluffant !
by DJ DemonAngel

Note :

http://www.machinehead1.com/
http://www.myspace.com/machinehead

Sortie : 1994
Style : Trash , Metal , Hard Rock

Tracklist :

• 1/ Davidian
• 2/ Old
• 3/ A thousand lies
• 4/ None but my own
• 5/ The rage to overcome
• 6/ Death church
• 7/ A nation on fire
• 8/ Blood for blood
• 9/ I'm your god now
• 10/ Real eyes realize real lies
• 11/ Block

Il est parfois plus facile de casser un disque plutôt que de l'encenser et de s'évertuer à convaincre le lecteur que le disque dont je vous parle, est une perle comme rarement on en entend. Et oui car couvrir d'éloges "Burn my eyes", c'est un peu jeter un pavé dans la mare : tout le monde le sait, ce disque tue. Il faut dire, sortir cette bombe en 94, fallait oser. Machine Head explose littéralement, bien aidé par Roadrunner qui avait flairé le bon coup, et propose une réelle avancée en terme de thrash metal. Bien difficile de se replacer dans le contexte de l'époque, mais débarquer avec un album aussi puissant, varié, inspiré et déjà si personnel, cela relève toujours du pur exploit. Alors oui, Robb Flynn, principal responsable de la chose, n'en est pas à son coup d'essai, on le connaisait déjà via Vio-lence, un non moins excellent combo de thrash (argh "Eternal nightmare"..) typique du genre, mais on connaissait moins sa capacité à composer un album aussi maîtrisé, tant dans ses riffs surpuissants que dans ses atmosphères typiques du groupe. Mais bref, soyons plus clair pour le néophyte : "Burn my eyes" c'est la puissance incarnée. Un alliage de riffs entre thrash ultra speed (argh "Blood for blood" est incroyable, le final de "nation on fire", "Block" mega hymne power/thrash qui renvoie le "chaos Ad" de sepultura au rang de maquette démo), des breaks limites neo mais dans le bon sens du terme c'est à dire entraînant, propices au headbang, des enchaînements power metal absolument sciants d'inspiration, et des breaks atmosphériques en son clairs prenants. On retrouve d'ailleurs dès ce premier album les harmoniques typiques du genre, véritable gimmick qu'on retrouve encore sur les denriers albums. Tout coule de source ici, les hits pleuvent, "Davidian" bien sûr, chef d'oeuvre de power/thrash, "Blood for blood" qui envoie valser 90% des groupes de thrash/death, ou encore "block" et son "Fuck it all" devenu mythique... Mais ce ne serait pas rendre justice à "Old" et son refrain à hurler en live, ou les ambiances prenantes de "I'm your god now" ou "None but my own"... Et tout le reste en fait. Pas un morceau ne ressemble à un autre et pourtant tous se complètent et s'enchevêtrent. La force de ce disque est clairement sa variété : Chris Kontos ets absolument phénoménal à ce niveau, grand maître de la double et des roulements. Vous savez ces breaks où le sieur joue avec ces toms pour faire monter la sauce et amener une explosion bien apocalyptique, et bien dès ce premier album, Machine Head les maîtrise à merveille, et croyez moi on est rarement déçu lors de l'explosion. Second point fort (quel euphémisme), le son ! Ouch, attendez vous à un vrai gros mur de gratte comme rarement on en entend. Colin Richardson avraiment trouvé la prod' idéale, absolument surpuissante. Merde écoutez moi le final ultra speed de "None but my own" avec sa gratte calé dans l'enceinte droite : écoutez moi ce son ! C'est gros, c'est tranchant, c'est clair, absolument impeccable. Que dire de plus ??? Voilà un album majeur du genre metal des années 90. Le genre de disque au succès mérité, culte pour beaucoup, à juste titre à mon sens, dont les années n'ont pas terni la moindre note. 12 ans après, "Burn my eyes" se montre plus puissant que jamais et toujours si charmeur... Puissant du début à la fin.

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Note :

http://www.myspace.com/bluenotefrance

Sortie : 2004
Style : Electro Jazz , Remix

Tracklist :

1. Oriental Folk Song (La Funkmob) Wayne Shorter

2. La Malanga (Kenny Dope) Bobby Hutcherson

3. Kudu (Kyoto Jazz Massive) Eddie Henderson

4. Lansanna's Priestess (Dj Spinna) Donald Byrd

5. Won't You Open Up Your Senses (4 Hero) Horace Silver

6. Los Alamitos Latinfunklovesong (Bugz In The Attic) Gene Harris

7. Young Warrior (Madlib) Bobbi Humphrey

8. Oblighetto (J Dilla) Brother Jack Mcduff

9. The Emperor (Dj Cam;Erik Truffaz) Donald Byrd

10. Footprints (Dj Mehdi) Wayne Shorter

11. Song Of Will (Jazzanova) Eddie Gale

12. A Time To Remember (Osunlade) Grant Green

13. Caravan (Herbert) Michel Petrucciani

 

 

C'est un peu la force et la faiblesse de Blue Note France : ce réflexe devenu habituel de conjuguer le prestigieux et surtout très classe catalogue du label (internationalement connu) avec l'électronique. Façon subtile et systématique de présenter la chose : " nous revisitons l'esprit du jazz : l'improvisation, à travers les sons du futur... " Or, on a beau chercher, l'improvisation sur ce recueil est bien la dernière des préoccupations du label. Tout est effectivement calculé et formaté comme il faut, jusqu'à la pochette, brandée avec une robe de Rafael Lopez et des bottes Gucci.

Même peine concernant " les orfèvres de la scène électro actuelle " côté remixeurs : Kyoto Jazz Massive, 4 Hero, Jazzanova, Bugz In The Attic... Le risque du label est vraiment relatif ! Si Donald Byrd prend des accents sacrément "La Croisière s'amuse' quand DJ Spinna y apporte sa touche, celle de Truffaz et de Cam prend des tournures de déjà vu, gobant le morceau d'origine. Dans ce tableau sans surprises, on ne peut que saluer la performance toujours remarquable de Madlib sur Bobbi Humphrey, jubilatoire ! Reste la polémique que suscite Herbert sur un morceau que l'on peut qualifier d'intouchable : était-ce vraiment la peine de hacher "Caravan' de cette manière avant-gardiste, alors que ce morceau constamment revisité par son père était si fluide et si magique lorsqu'il était joué sur son légendaire Steinway ? De la poudre aux yeux électronique ce recueil, rien de plus...

Dude

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Note :

Sortie : 1976
Style : Soul , Funk

Tracklist :
A1 Smokin Cheeba Cheeba
A2 Fed Up (Vocal)
B1 Finger In It
B2 Ain't No Sunshine
B3 Fed Up






Holy cow! This is the monster lost funk album that features Willis Jackson, George Benson, and Dave Baby Cortez on a bunch of tripped out blunted breakin' cuts! Worth it for the price of "Smokin' Cheeba-Cheeba" alone, but also has the great breakbeat version of "Ain't No Sunshine" with a tenor solo by Willis Jackson, and the slow bluesy talking cut "Fed Up", a baaaad rap about a couple splitting up. Very dope. Plus, we've also even heard that George Benson was never even on the record, although he's listed on the cover. Even more mystery, but still great grooves, whoever the guitar player is!
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Note :

http://shatterthehotel.com/
http://www.myspace.com/shatterthehotel

Sortie : 2009
Style : Reggae , Dub , Remix

Tracklist:
01. Dubmatix - London Calling (Album Version) [feat. Don Letts & Dan Donovan] (5:27)
02. Dub Antenna - White Riot (4:17)
03. Creation Rockers - Four Horsemen (2:54)
04. Nate Wize - Rock the Casbah (feat. Ammoye) (4:54)
05. John Brown's Body - Bankrobber (4:05)
06. Chomsky Allstars - Know Your Rights (3:41)
07. Wrongtom Meets Rockers - Lost in the Supermarket (3:41)
08. DubCats - Rudie Can't Fail (5:01)
09. Citizen Sound - One More Time (feat. Prince Blanco & Ammoye) (4:21)
10. Infantry Rockers - Rebel Waltz (3:59)
11. O'Luge & Kornerstrone All-Stars - Spanish Bombs (5:19)
12. Danny Michel - Straight to Hell (4:57)
13. Creation Rockers - Complete Control (5:43)
14. Dubmatix - London Calling (Roots Rock Version) [feat. Don Letts] (3:27)



Shatter The Hotel: A Dub Inspired Tribute To Joe Strummer by Strummerville


Released by: Mojo Brand Records
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Thanks The Roots
http://www.therootslive.com

Note : ++

http://www.therootslive.com/archive/show_042605.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammy_Award

 

Date Recorded: 04/26/2005
Special Guests: Phil Lesh, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, Keller Williams, Nelly McKay

Tracklisting:		1.) I'm A Man 1 2.) Stormy Monday 1 - 8.2 MB 3.) Rock Me Baby 1 - 5.1 MB 4.) Superstitious ~ Whole Lotta Love ~ Bass Drum Jam ~ Word Up 2 - 12 MB 5.) Lively Up Yourself - 11 MB 6.) Crosstown Traffic - 11 MB
Notes:		1f/ John Mayer, Buddy Guy and Phil Lesh 2f/ Keller Williams, Nelly Mckay

As soon as we got to the venue, I had doubts about it. The Theater at Madison Square Garden is not Roseland, and it's damn sure not The Wetlands. Even though the Jammys had been held in the room on one prior occasion, it just didn't seem like a comfortable fit. There's something about the concept of guys in tuxedos walking around the room selling cans of Budweiser for six dollars apiece to guys wearing homemade hemp pants that just doesn't sit right with me.

My doubt was reinforced, as I said, as soon as we got there. The first thing I heard was one of the security guards, who all were wearing those phony old Hollywood bellhop uniforms like you see in Disney World, making an announcement to the good folks on line. The announcement was, and I assure you I'm not making this up, "Ok guys, now you know, you can't bring anything inside." No you can't bring food, or drinks, or drugs. You can't bring anything inside. I was glad I got to bring in my notebook, after the announcement, I wasn't sure if paper was a banned substance.

Following the notification that nothing was allowed, a small battalion of guards began making their way through the crowd with handheld metal detectors, screening people at random. After getting my phone, palm pilot, keys, wallet, and change out of my pockets, I was of course not wanded down. As we finally entered the theatre, I found myself wondering what all the security was about. Then I realized it made perfect sense considering the unspeakably violent crowd that is usually attracted by acts like The Grateful Dead, Mavis Staples and of course, Huey Lewis.

Anyway, we got inside and headed down to the general admission floor section. It didn't take long to make the executive decision that we would do everything in our power to obtain some type of seat for the majority of the five hour event. We walked up to the "tapers section" a.k.a. the first row of seats beyond the standing room only section, and sat down. Apparently, the deal was that if you asked if you could sit there, the usher would tell you no and kick you out, but if you just sat down, as we did, no one would bother you. So there we sat, watching people getting thrown out of the section that we shouldn't have been sitting in and waited for the show to begin.

At eight o'clock sharp, the music began with the appearance of "washboard man." Washboard man, who actually turned out to be the drummer of the North Mississippi All-Stars, was joined almost immediately on stage by North Mississippi, with Chris Myers from Umphrey's McGee on drums. They played one song in this configuration and then Myers left. Washboard man took to the drums and Mavis Staples, of The Staples Singers, joined the band on voice.

Mavis was awesome. She sang "Freedom Highway" and the whole room marched along with her down that road. This marked the first great moment of the 2005 Jammy Awards. It was followed by a slight disappointment. The disappointment was not Buddy Guy who joined North Mississippi next . . . that was actually pretty great. The disappointment was that Mavis left after only one song. My experience with Jammy's past has always been that artists would pair up and jam together for a while. I've never seen a collaboration last for just one tune. Bummer.

Buddy Guy Photo: Adam Foley

As I mentioned, Buddy Guy, the blues legend and recent inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, took the stage next. Whoa! Buddy's guitar was so raw I felt like it might cut me in half. What an incredible tone. It really tears through the bullshit and declares that this guy is the real deal. They played the Muddy Waters tune, "Got My Mojo Workin" and then, DAMN IT, Buddy Guy left the stage after just one song. It was the second time in as many songs that I wanted to see more of what was going on and it was abruptly cut short. I hoped that wasn't the new format of the show. It proved not to be.

At this point, there was a quick break in the action while producer Peter Shapiro welcomed us to the show and said he was glad that they pulled the event off with no sponsors. I'm sure the good folks at American Spirit, D'Addario, Evans, Planet Waves, Linden Travel, Red Hook, Palm Pictures, A View Of You, eMusic, Techistry and the rest of the show's sponsors which I found on the Jammys website under the heading "Sponsors," were happy to hear him say that. Anyway, he then invited Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead's bassist and host of the show, to the stage. Phil said hi, and announced the next musical performance.

Yonder Mountain String Band with Bruce Hornsby and Vince Herman, did absolutely nothing for me. It was one of only two sections of the evening that I didn't enjoy; the other, which I'll get to, was actually one step worse because not only did I not enjoy it, I found it actively irritating. I'd like to blame my dissatisfaction with Yonder/Hornsby/ Herman on the fact that the sound was terrible, complete with a constant buzz, a few gunshot-like pops, and a keyboard that was completely inaudible for an entire half of the set. But honestly, I think the lack of energy following two great high intensity performances was more to blame than anything. Onwards.

Up next was the beginning of the award show side of the Jammys. Okay, lets be honest people, up next was the beginning of the self-serving bullshit side of the Jammys that no one on earth cares about other than the people giving out the awards and the people getting them. Am I just cynical? I think not. Case in point: Phil Lesh who gave out the first award, held up the award at one point and said "This is cool, I've never seen one of these." Phil has won at least three of the awards to date, getting at least one at each of the past three Jammy Awards. EVEN THE PEOPLE WINNING THESE THINGS DON'T CARE!! But I digress, the awards are part of the show and I'll report on them accordingly. The first award was for best song. Umphrey's McGee won for their tune, "In The Kitchen."

Pigheaded Les Claypool, Mike Gordon and Phil Lesh held a bass summit at the Jammys.

Dean Budnick, editor of the Relix-owned website Jambands.com, took the podium next and announced that it was time to hand out the lifetime achievement award. A hush fell over the crowd. The recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2005 had been kept a big secret. All the press for the show would run down the line-up and then add the as yet to be announced Lifetime Achievement award winner. In the past, the announcement was made early, and for at least the past two Jammy's, the winner headlined the show. It was odd that they were not telling anyone who it was this time around. As he was in town the night of the awards, there had been much speculation that Bob Dylan was going to receive the award, and they were keeping it a secret at his request so as not to hurt ticket sales of his shows at the Beacon. Alas, this was not to be. The top secret recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award was . . . Buddy Guy. What? Buddy Guy? But he's been on the ads for this show for months, and they all said "plus the as yet to be announced Lifetime Achievement Award winner." It was simultaneously pleasing since Buddy surely deserves the award, and would more than likely now play a little bit more for us, but also disappointing because the audience was promised a surprise and wasn't given one.

In my mind, one of two things happened. Either, the Jammys were trying to secure a big name to accept the award, like Dylan, and it fell apart at the last minute so they just gave it to Guy, or they had this planned all along and just screwed over the fans in an attempt to sell out the room, which, if that was the plan, did not work. I would bet it was the former, since the Jammys seem to be fairly fan friendly, but it seems like we'll never know the truth behind the move.

Anyway, Buddy graciously accepted his award and made a great speech about how guys like Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and T-Bone Walker really deserved the award and he considered it theirs as well as his. Then he strapped on his guitar and kicked off what to me was the highlight of the show; a jam session featuring Guy and John Mayer on guitar, ?uestlove of The Roots on drums, and Phil Lesh on bass.

The quartet played as if they'd been in the same band for years and ripped through the blues classics "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Stormy Monday" and "Rock Me Baby". The biggest surprise was when Guy and Mayer started battling on guitar, and Mayer held his own with the legend! Who the hell knew that guy could do anything other than the fluff pop he's known for? Apparently, Buddy Guy did. At one point he said Mayer was "the kind of guy who could keep the blues alive." I was impressed and clearly had been underestimating John's ability.

It was also a cool little bonus to see John Mayer jamming with ?uestlove; a collaboration that hadn't to my knowledge actually existed in real life, but had occurred during a comedy sketch on the Chapelle's Show.

Two more awards came next. The Duo won the Best New Groove Award and Phish won the Best Tour award. As Mike Gordon was accepting Phish's award, I began to ponder the fact that the line-up of the show had been announced a month and a half before the fan-based internet voting for the awards concluded, yet so far everyone who had won an award, had been on the show. As the night progressed, there were only two awards which were won by artists not performing at the event, and one of those was won by Jerry Garcia. In case you didn't know, he's dead . . . but I'm sure he was grateful.

The suspicions I was harboring and will not say out loud here, were increased when Keller Williams, who was at the event, beat out Widespread Panic, who were not. When Keller Williams plays in New York, he plays in a club the holds roughly 1,000 people. The last time Panic were in town they sold about 40,000 tickets when they sold out Madison Square Garden for two consecutive nights. 40,000 fans vs. 1,000 fans, and the little guy wins. Seems a little too David and Goliath to be believable, but what do I know?

Now, I'm almost 2,000 words into this review, and I've actually only covered the first hour of what was to be a five hour concert! I think I have to pick up the pace a little. Let's get a few of the performances out of the way, chronology be damned!

Ryan Adams was the first and only act of the night not to be involved in a major collaboration. He and his band, the Cardinals, played two songs and then invited Phil Lesh to join them on a mini-Dead jam of "Wharf Rat/Bird Song". The Dead thing was interesting, the rest kinda wasn't. Oh and Adams has a new look . . . Junkie. Interestingly enough as I write this, about a month later, it was just announced that Ryan Adams would be touring as part of Phil Lesh and Friends in the coming months. I guess they hit it off.

The Roots' ?uestlove and Keller Williams jam on "Whole Lotta Love."

Keller Williams and ?uestlove did some really interesting stuff together which was quite enjoyable, until Nellie McKay joined them and provided the one moment of the entire night that I just couldn't stomach. I went to the men's room. Taking a leak proved to be much more enjoyable than listening to the next big thing absolutely butcher a Dylan song and then babble on for a few other nails on the chalkboard tunes.

Travis Tritt and the Disco Biscuits doing what Phil Lesh described as "Electronic Country" wasn't nearly as awkward as it sounds. In fact, it was pretty cool, and Travis came off great. It was no weirder than the 2004 Jammys collaboration between the Biscuits and old school rapper, Slick Rick.

Patti Smith would have been great if she showed up, as she was supposed to, but she didn't, so she wasn't.

Burning Spear and Sinead O'Connor sing about "Marcus Garvey."

Sinead O'Conner who didn't show up the first time I was supposed to see her, which was coincidentally the same day I did see Patti Smith for the first time, performed twice. Once with Huey Lewis, Mavis Staples and Umphrey's McGee which was really pleasurable - they did things like "The Weight" and "I'll Take You There" - and once later in the night with Burning Spear, Medeski Martin and Wood, and the Anti-Balas Horns which was kinda pleasurable, but way too long. The Sinead/Burning Spear thing consisted of not one, not two, but five different reggae songs, before everyone on stage along with Luther Dickenson, Les Claypool, ?uestlove and a few others, tore into the Hendrix classic "Crosstown Traffic."

Everyone's favorite pope hating skinhead did provide the most awkward moment of the night when she asked Burning Spear to begin the song "Jah No Dead" again because they were in "the wrong key". Sounded to me like he was just singing and she was just being way too full of herself. But again, what do I know?

Now, while "Crosstown Traffic" was actually the finale of the show, it wasn't the highlight. If that distinction doesn't go to the Buddy Guy/Phil Lesh/?uestlove/John Mayer jam from earlier in the night, it definitely goes to the jam between The Duo, with Mike Gordon of Phish, who were joined by Phil Lesh, Les Claypool, Gabby La La for Claypool's tune "D's Diner." If you know anything about this genre of music, you know that seeing a three way bass off between Phil Lesh, Les Claypool and Mike Gordon, is a once in a lifetime experience. It lived up to it's potential and more or less stole the show.

That's it for the music.

The other moment that I found interesting was when Headcount won the Community Service Award. Since Headcount, like many leftist organizations, failed to swing the 2004 presidential election even after giving it all their stoned little minds could muster, the "we changed the world" speech stayed in the guy's pocket and the "Headcount wasn't about the election" speech came out. He actually said that! "Headcount wasn't about the election." I have just one question for Headcount guy: Your sole purpose was registering people to VOTE and when the election ended you all but disappeared. What the hell did you think it was about? Fuckin' hippies.

Well that's about it. The show overall was fantastic, and I had a ball. The only thing I have left to mention, is an idea I had for next year's Jammy Awards. I got the idea when I noticed that one of the two guys in front of me was wearing a Woodstock jacket and the other was wearing a Slayer jacket. What the show really needs is a little metal to shake things up. Just about every other genre from Rap to Bluegrass is accounted for. How about next year you guys have the ultimate unexpected collaboration and put some Death Metal band . . . say, Morbid Angel on stage with a gospel group like the Blind Boys of Alabama! It would be incredible. You could bill it as a God vs. The Devil, then rig it so God wins, and finally - this is the kicker - give God the lifetime achievement award!! It would be the biggest thing in the history of music! Plus, it would be interesting to see who he thanked, since most people that win these corny-ass awards tend to thank him first and foremost.

But then again, what do I know?

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