By Chris Gray
It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.
BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Go
By Meredith Brody
You may have noticed that there's precious little new stuff to watch during the holidays - a period which The New York Times describes as "a profound holiday slumber of repeats and musical specials." But we can't even find any musical specials, and are reduced to re-watching A Colbert Christmas , which in a marketing stroke of genius was broadcast before Thanksgiving and available on DVD immediately thereafter. ("Remember, every time you buy a copy of A Colbert Christmas, an
Willie Nelson/Lukas Nelson & The Promise of the Real
The Fillmore
Review by Jonathan Kiefer
January, 16, 2009
Better Than: The last eight years?It happened maybe three-quarters of the way through the evening, during that one loose-vamping instrumental interlude, when the red and the blue light shone down on him from either side just so, and the tightly pressed fans on the floor gazed up at him just so, and his head had a proud outward tilt: For a brief, weird, mixed-metaphor moment, Willie
On Friday, Willie Nelson and son Lukas graced the Fillmore with their presence (they'll be doing so till tomorrow, Jan. 20, if you missed out). All Shook Down correspondent Jonathan Kiefer waxed poetic in his review of the evening, painting Nelson in red and blue lights such that he resembled Shepard Fairey's poster of Barack Obama - if you're a literalist, there's a web site you can visit to re create just that.
It's that time again. While we all hold our breaths waiting for some of that economic stimulus package to end up in our personal bank accounts (yeah right), it's all about being cheap...or, ahem, price conscious. We refuse to let you stay home this weekend to cry into your little brother's broken piggy bank. So, below, ten options for getting out of the house that'll set you back less than a ten-spot.1. Phosphorescent at Amoeba Music (Friday)You may think you're a big Willie Nelson fan, but did
Experimentalist Eugene Chadbourne reworks country and jazz, sticks it to the KKK, makes guitars out of rakes and toasters -- and dreams of working with Willie Nelson
Joe EskenaziHooray! The spinal circus is in town!In the very same AT&T Parking Lot that was last year graced by the trailers of the acrobats, clowns, and ringmaster of Circus Vargas -- the latter, Ted McRae, ended up staying alone in the lot for days after his RV broke down -- Big Top tents have once again been pitched. But this is no cotton candy and trapeze crowd. Instead it's the traveling spinal circus, if you will.
With the North American Spine Society meeting this week in Moscone C
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