Phish Summer Tour First Leg Announced

Phish Summer 2011 Tour from Phish on Vimeo.

What is ostensibly the entire Phish summer tour has been announced via Phish.com after a day rife with speculation and sporadic leaks from venues and promoter Live Nation. Given that confident rumours have circulated about a 'single band festival' on the site of the historic Watkins Glen diehard Canucks are still holding out hopes for the announcement of a second leg including the possibility of a Toronto or Montreal date that dovetails with the routing of the festival.

5/27/11 Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY- $60.00 Reserved Seating and $45.00 GA Lawn

5/28/11 Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY- $60.00 Reserved Seating and $45.00 GA Lawn

5/29/11 Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY- $60.00 Reserved Seating and $45.00 GA Lawn

5/31/11 PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ - $60.00 Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/1/11 PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ - $60.00 Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/3/11 DTE Energy Center, Detroit, MI - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/4/11 Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/5/11 Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio- $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/7/11 Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA- $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 Reserved Seating and GA Lawn

6/8/11 Darien Lake Amphitheatre, Darien, NY - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/10/11 Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/11/11 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/12/11 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/14/11 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/15/11 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/17/11 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC - $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/18/11 Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion, Raleigh, NC- $60.00 GA Pit and Reserved Seating $45.00 GA Lawn

6/19/11 Ntelos Pavilion at Harbor Center, Portsmouth, VA- $60.00 General Admission

Detroit Soul legend Dennis Coffey solo album forthcoming on Strut

Original member of the Funk Brothers and Detroit session player with innumerate plates under his belt is coming out with a self-titled album April 25th on Strut. He'll be backed for a date this Friday Feb. 25 in Detroit by Will Sessions and likewise at SXSW. Here's a teaser cover of Cee-Lo's Fuck You that evidences his trademark fuzz and wah.



There's a nice cover of The Parliaments All Your Goodies Are Gone on the Bama Love Soul website backed by Mayer Hawthorne. Coffey's new record will also feature cameos by The Dirtbombs’ Mick Collins, Rachel Nagy of The Detroit Cobrasand Milwaukee’s Kings Go Forth.

Dennis Coffey's discography includes the Black Belt Jones soundtrack and the following sessions

Ryan Leslie/ Lil' Wayne Lollipop piano solo

Here Grammy nominated record producer and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Leslie performs on The Invasion Radio Show hosted by DJ Green Lantern on Sirius satellite radio. He takes a minute to find a few melody lines in Lil Wayne's ubiquitous single Lollipop from the by now seminal Tha Carter III. Some would say he's making a wretched song bearable but it's by leveraging off the melodic conceits in Weezy's drawl that he's able to improvise such a lovely piano solo on the fly.

Gene Ween wasted in Vancouver (setlist)

Word has been in Ween circles that Gene Ween (born Aaron Freeman) has been sober or working on his sobriety for the past few years.   In the summer of 2009 an uncharacteristically rotund but jolly Freeman seemed to be at very least moderating (and likely off hard drugs) in a pitch perfect solo performance at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern that delivered fan favourites, replete with hackneyed but stylish acoustic guitar solos, all culminating with a slew of encores including rarities at the electric piano like Demon Sweat.

This summer at Ween's Toronto performance at Kool Haus on July 29th (the setlist can be found on this site) he seemed at a healthy hefty weight and his voice was perfectly able to cover all of the ranges their repertoire demands from mawkish squeal, heartfelt squish, to all out wail.  With the complete lock between his partner in crime Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo) and bandmates Dave Dreiwitz, Claude Coleman and particularly keyboard wizard Glen McLelland, Ween delivered one of their trademark epic sets pulling out all the stops including covers of Let's Dance (Bowie) and Ohio (Neil Young).

Now word comes of their recent hopefully humourously abominable performance in Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (January 24th) where Gener was visibly wasted (mentally and physically), missing his cues, lyrics and generally unable to perform much to the consternation of his likely highly tolerant (to a definite point) bandmates.

The Vancouver Observer reports that shortly after Bananas and Blow "he began acting a bit strange.  He sat cross-legged on the stage as he sang."  Various accounts have Gener beginning to unravel- if not from the getgo- around Bananas and Blow, in the following tune (Buckingham Green) Gene flubbed the lyrics after Dean's solo (to his apparent visible consternation).  Sitting cross-legged seemed more comfortable than standing during Mutilated Lips which followed.  Freeman was at various points unable to tune a guitar and Dean in contempt turned down his amp while Gene wasn't looking taking the mantle for a tune from his solo repertoire In My Own Bare Hands.

Things seemed to go off (or on  as it were) the rails during Reggaejunkiejew with Gener lying down flat on his back and as the band made repeat attempts to exit the extended jam, with Freeman throwing in 'Jew!' insistently (the lyrics to the song - by Freeman who is notably of Judaic descent - admittedly are little more than 'Matzafari, Reggae Junkie Jew, Fuck You') ultimately chiding him musically with an instrumental rendition of The Carpenters Superstar.