Blog: Between Love & Like

The management company for Guided by Voices denies it, but word came today that sounds very much like the GbV "classic lineup" has, once again, disbanded. Nada Mucho.com posted an interview with GbV guitarist Mitch Mitchell that spoke of the reunion, generated when "Matador Records came calling in 2010, inviting the "classic" GbV line-up to perform at the label's twenty-first birthday party in Las Vegas." A year long tour was done (See our piece from the 930 Club show here ) , and the record, Let's Go Eat [...]

Glory be, the funk was on me. My piece on George Clinton and Parliment Funkadelic goes live tomorrow over at the WC Paper that is.... Update : Read all about it here . Subscribe in a reader

UK artist Jim Lockey created this amazing overview of what he envisions the insides of Tom Waits must look like. Waits' latest record, Bad As Me came out in October. It is his first record of all new material in seven years. True to form, it includes many monsters indeed, all designed to make a body shimmy and shake. Subscribe in a reader

Philly.com reported that Kathleen Edwards was joined by her beau, Bon Iver , for a few songs last night in Philly on "World Cafe." Edwards latest record, Voyageur came out last month, which Bon Iver also produced. She is playing the here tomorrow at the 930 Club. Kathleen Edwards - Wapusk (featuring Bon Iver) by Kathleen Edwards Subscribe in a reader

Part of the reason I was so excited for this year's Voodoo Experience Festival in New Orleans was because I was finally going to get to see the legendary Fishbone live. How I missed them all these years is beyond me. I'd heard their live show was non-stop energy and, as I was on three hours of sleep and no coffee when I arrived for their 1:45 PM set, it would be a good test. To set the tone, the band started crowd surfing almost immediately (as you can see, and much to the [...]

The gritty sound of Garbage will hit the streets again in May with the release of a new record, Not Your Kind of People , their first in seven years. Not Your Kind Of People will be the fifth studio record from Garbage and will be released on the band's label STUNVOLUME. "It has the same kind of adventurism that we had with the first stuff," says Garbage guitarist Duke Erikson. Europe will be toured in the spring, and US dates will follow. "Thinking about going back on the road [...]

When I was in undergrad, I was finally free as a bird to explore NYC on my own without supervision, so you can be sure that I took full advantage. One place I would always hit was Porto Rico Importing for some coffee and then Bleecker Bobs just down the street. Being a poor student, I tended to browse more than anything (the shirt above is one of the few things I could afford when I did buy). But I can't tell you the things I learned in that store about music; I felt like I'd [...]

I first saw Palomar a couple years back when they opened for The Wrens at their two-night 20th anniversary throwdown in NJ at Maxwells. Comprised of three woman and a guy drummer, they played great kick ass songs with running streams of power pop and folk, and harmonic melodies that wrap around you and hold you tight. Since their inception in 1998, Palomar has released four full-lengths and one EP. Sense & Antisense , their fifth full-length, contains contributions by the likes of [...]

A lot of bands are reuniting but Pulp 's website is one that's done it with creativity than I've seen in some time. Check it out... Pulp People . The announcement that Pulp is one of the reunited bands playing Coachella this year sent a lot of music fans into a joyous frenzy, so the additional US shows released-one on each coast thus far, with the NYC date preceding Coachella-should send them right into the stratosphere. No announcement of on-sale yet though, but it is interesting the date isn't even on [...]

Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! - fightforthefuture.org/pipa PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement." The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with [...]

NPR and its streaming of new records in their entirety is such a blessing. And a money saver! And a great way to start off a new week! Yesterday, NPR began streaming The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy , the seventh record from Nada Surf , and Clear Heart Full Eyes , the first solo record from The Hold Steady lead singer Craig Finn . Surf lead singer Matthew Caws and the boys display their signature catchy-as-hell guitar hooks ("Jules and Jim" for instance) and power pop beauty [...]

I'm not a big football fan (baseball's more my thing), and up until this past weekend, I wasn't even sure who Tim Tebow's was. But I do love a funny satire and this is one of the better ones I've seen of late. Ladies and gents, I give you Jimmy Fallon doing David Bowie 's "Major Tom" mashup of David Bowie and Tim Tebow . Of course, someone should have told Fallon that he also mashed up Bowie styles (makeup from the Aladdin Sane period, outfit from Ziggy Stardust ) [...]

Fans of Bruce Springsteen are chomping at the bit, eagerly awaiting the new E Street Band tour dates to be announced. This time out will be especially poignant, as this is the first E Street tour ever without "the Big Man," Clarence Clemons . Clemons, who passed away in June of last year, would have turned 70 today. In honor of that, we give you one of the greatest E Street Band showcases of Clemons wailing away on his horn, "Paradise by the C." [...]

The Joy Formidable announced headlining tour dates today for March 2012.The band will be supported on all dates by A Place To Bury Strangers . TJF's debut full-length, The Big Roar came out last year. The bands comes to DC on 3/26 at the 930 Club . Tickets go on pre-sale tomorrow and on general sale Friday. From TJF Facebook page, "Looking forward to seeing you again before we (briefly) disappear to finish our 2nd record." (See the rest of the photos from The Joy Formidable's [...]

I discovered At the Drive-In by accident. Jim Ward , one of ATDI's founding members, was opening for Rhett Miller a few years ago at the Black Cat (you can see the shots from it here ). It was one of those "get there early/fall in love with the opener you know nothing about" instances that I love. Ward played with this incredible combination of delicacy and metric ton of power that I was dumbfounded. I can count on one hand the number of musicians playing acoustic guitar and singing that have held [...]

"The Weight" by The Band is one of those songs that's been around so long that it's taken for granted. There is the recorded version on Music From Big Pink , and everyone and his mom has recorded it. But everyone in the music-sphere has been aflutter about it all over again today, thanks to a rehearsal video shot by Illinois photographer/videographer Zoran Orlic . Rehearsing prior to a Wilco and Nick Lowe show last month at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, the video, that includes Wilco, Lowe, and [...]

Fats Domino may be unsinkable, according to Guided by Voices , but bassist Greg Demos proved he was just as much last night during the band's performance of "The Unsinkable Fats Domino" on Late Show with David Letterman . Slipping on his butt after a usual rock star move, Demos got right back up quick and laughed it off, all without missing a beat (well sort of). At the very least, he provided good advice to all bands who wish to play on Letterman: rock out like a bad ass while playing, just be sure to [...]

Sadness on the mom and pop store-front...My some-time employer reported today that long-time Dupont Circle record store, Melody Records , here in DC, will be closing this winter after 34 years in business. Jack and Suzy Menase opened the store in 1977, and moved it to its current Connecticut Ave. NW location in 1979. "While we wish that we could continue indefinitely, technology, the internet and the economy has taken its toll, and we have concluded, unfortunately, that it is not possible to survive in this environment," the Menases wrote in their letter. Melody [...]

My piece on the 2011 best concerts, in photos went live today over at the WCP , so go check it out! Erica Bruce's Top 10 Concerts of 2011, in Photos . One shot that proved the Marginal Man show was definitely "The Show for the Best Bruises," one I didn't include in the WCP piece is below: my own bruised gams from that show, the result of being at the front of the mosh pit and repeatedly thrown against the stage. I do not really recommend it, but the street cred is nice. [...]

2011 was a great year for a variety of reasons here at BL&L HQ, more so because the whole photography portion of things really took off. We shot a whole lot of photographs for Washington City Paper , The Vinyl District , and 930 Club this year, often so much that we didn't always keep things current here. So, FYI, we are going off the grid for a few days here but plan to have a great 2011 wrap up for the Washington City Paper by the year's end, which we'll also post [...]