dvadmin – Page 12 – The Daily Vault

05 Dec

2004: Jason’s Music To Write Home About

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Two thousand and four was a year when you had to really pay attention to find the best music. Most of the stuff coming out of the major labels was eminently forgettable, with a handful of bright shiny exceptions. In one of those soul-numbing developments that seem to characterize the modern music scene, bands as good as Semisonic, Fastball and the Jayhawks found themselves on hiatus or playing clubs again, even as every belly-button-baring Britney wannabe and her sister got herself an album or two on the Target racks (please, God, tell me there aren't any more Simpson sisters... please?).…

30 Jun

The Real School Of Rock

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What is it about rock and roll drummers? Keith Moon was a genius behind the kit and a self-destructive madman everywhere else. Charlie Watts looks like your kindly uncle and plays jazz like a born master when he's not busy banging out "Satisfaction" for the 79,000th time. In the past ten years Counting Crows has had four hit albums and three drummers. And then there's Jacob Slichter, a mild-mannered, occasionally panic-attack-stricken average Joe who went in a matter of five years from being friends with musicians to drumming behind them in small clubs, to riding an exhilarating wave of success, to…

21 Oct

They’ve Got the Fire: The Return of Montrose

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Hearing the name of a legendary '70s hard rock band like Montrose mentioned in the present tense is bound to generate two emotions among its audience: hope, and fear. Hope, that it means what fans have been waiting for all these years - the chance to hear all those early classics, the ones that basically ignited the heavy metal flame in America, played again for the first time in a quarter century. Fear, that it may be what we've seen far too much of in the past few years from other '70s bands -- a quickie milk-the-audience reunion that draws…

13 Apr

The Boss Rises Again: Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band Live In Sacramento

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They tried to draft Bruce Springsteen last year. A group of New Jerseyites got it in their head that what their state really needed to turn things around was for Springsteen to represent them in the U.S. Senate. That idea only seems preposterous if you have never seen the man live in concert. For there may be no one in the history of rock and roll - hell, the history of popular music - with this man's ability to inspire.As he has throughout the 2002-2003 tour supporting his Grammy-winning album The Rising, he arrived in Sacramento, California last Wednesday night…

07 Dec

2002: Best Of

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It's hard to call 2002 a great year for music when we had no new music all year from bands ranging from old warhorses U2 to exciting newcomer Michelle Branch, and major talents like The Jayhawks and Shawn Mullins found themselves cut loose by their labels. And the best thing I can say about the whole boy-band-Britney-American Idol circus is that it appears the record-buying public may finally (praise the god of your choice) be losing its taste for pre-packaged "singers" with better asses than voices. Nonetheless, it was a solid, perhaps even promising year, especially for female artists. Since…

27 Apr

Ronnie Montrose’s Uncompromising Vision: The 33-Year Odyssey of a Guitar Legend

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One of the occupational hazards of being tagged as a guitar legend after your first album is that your reputation tends to precede you forever after.“Mercurial” is an adjective that’s been attached to guitarist Ronnie Montrose’s name so many times it’s almost a part of it. Add to that “innovative,” “enigmatic,” “technically brilliant” and most of all, “uncompromising,” and you’re closer to the complete picture. In a career spanning three decades, Montrose has confounded critics, managers, record companies and perhaps even, at times, his audience with albums that have over the years ranged far from the mainstream rock sound that…

17 Feb

Danny Federici of The E Street Band: The Daily Vault Interview

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Danny Federici is a happy man -- and he's earned it.After spending much of the last twenty-five years as an integral part of one of the great concert units in rock and roll history -- Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band -- Federici is on the brink of a new career, with a posse of old friends still lined up at his side. Almost a decade after Springsteen walked away from the band, this E Streeter is busier than ever, building his own record label and promoting his very first solo album.The album, Flemington, is named after the New Jersey town…