A little sickness is nothing when you have friends by your side...Matthew Barber live @ Union Hall 5.13.2009 - Easily Bruised

So on the night I was supposed to be in Athens, GA, hearing one of my personally favorite musicians, Matthew Barber, both as singer/songwriter; and honestly as a person. He took the time out, some 15 minutes before he was about about to go on stage an perform and shoot me an email via phone to check on if I was OK and then after reading my email on what was going on wishing me, "to feel better," among other kind sentiments.

That transcends music.

I will not go into details about what ailment I have, but it causes me a lot of difficulty lately with life and doing normal activities and hopefully I will find some cure, but if not it is nice to know that people even ones famous enough to be nominated for nationally acclaimed awards. It goes to show you a lot of the stereotypes about people and fame and all that stuff you read onn those trashy sites about the debauchery and greed of stars is not all true. Matthew Barber is not one of them. He is unique, not just because he is talented, but because he is as benevolent as his songs and the vocal resonating harmonies that accompany them. When was the last time one of your musical heroes sent you an email from their phone minutes before going on stage to make sure you were OK? Does that happen, really? Clearly the answer is yes. I am grateful beyond reproach. Moments like these, no matter when or how they occur give me faith in our society and savage beast that is supposedly has become. When people put aside all that is going on around them and care for each other, what do you call that?

For me...That is humanity.

For me...That is integrity.

For me...That is hope.

Thanks Matt...indeed.

Here is a copy of Matthew live on 5.13.09, it appears I am the first viewer and you are the 2nd. I guess this just went up and I found it, again, coincidence or intervention from the powers that be, from the goodness of man that still appears to exist. Please enjoy and check out stuff from IndieCabaretNYC on YouTube. All of his stuff is top notch, enjoy! Follow this guy if you like high rez, tunes from the NYC music scene...here is:

"Easily Bruised" by Matthew Barber ~ Ghost Notes (live @ Union Hall, Brooklyn May 13, 2009)



fyi...this song is my favorite song in the world, today...it's so right on right. Tomorrow might be something else, but today this wins the contest if there was one in my riddled mind. Listen closely, please and if not here below to the track you can dl, but listen closely, it's worth it, it's deserving of it.

Boots Like These - LIVE - Video - 05.02.2009

So sorry for the miss-post, but thanks to the kind folks who were at the show and corrected me and made sure I knew this song is "Boots Like These" off of his new album WHITE LIES FOR DARK TIMES (c) 2009. That is a great album and my next post that is about to drop goes over it. I did want to point out however since I already got started.

Ben did do a cover of "HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE" ~ Standing in the Shadows of Motown [SOUNDTRACK] - 12-24-2002 HIP-O Record (this was the first time I have heard this live in my 15 years covering and seeing Ben all over in L.A., New Orleans, Atlanta, San Francisco starting off first at Lulu's in Normaltown (a Diner/Beer Bar) where we sat on the floor and he played to us acoustic (also saw Jeff Buckley in the same setting). I was shocked and awed by Ben and from that moment forth I was an insta-fan, this is the first of what I hope to be many videos on the Brasshatgroup YouTube channel, please sign-up and join us as we "Fight The Resistance", the MLK/Ghandi way:

Now For The Video, Please Enjoy!

Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 documentary film directed by Paul Justman. It recounts the story of The Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who performed on Motown Records' recordings from 1959 to 1972. The film was inspired by a 1989 bass guitar instruction book of the same name, by Allan Slutsky, which features the bass lines of James Jamerson.

The film covers the Funk Brothers' career via interviews with surviving band members, archival footage and still photos, dramatized re-enactments, and narration by actor Andre Braugher. The film also features new live performances of several Motown hit songs, with the Funk Brothers backing up Gerald Levert, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan, and Montell Jordan.

In case you haven't heard anything off of this or seen this film, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT, the soundtrack is amazing and I have it here for you to look and gawk at, once again Enjoy! I promise more on the Ben Harper & Relentless 7 show soon.

- The Brass Hat Group

Released by Hip-O Records. Can be purchased off of their official website here:

Now For The Video, Please Enjoy!

If you do decide to get it, I would recommend the double disk version with the songs seen below and some samples of those songs too, this can be bought off their website or off of Amazon in case you have one of those discount cards like I do, either way it's a must have for Birthday, Christmas, Bastille Day, whatever, whenever:

Disc: 1
1. Heat Wave
2. You've Really Got A Hold On Me
3. Do You Love Me
4. Bernadette
5. Reach Out I'll Be There
6. Ain't Too Proud To Beg
7. Shotgun
8. What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
9. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
10. You Keep Me Hanging On
11. Cool Jerk
12. Cloud Nine
13. What's Going On
14. Band Introduction / Ain't No Mountain High Enough
15. The Flick
16. Boom Boom
17. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher
18. Scorpio

Disc: 2
1. Funk Brothers In The House
2. Standing In The Shadows Of Love
3. Dialogue: Joe Hunter
4. The One Who Really Loves You
5. Pride And Joy
6. Dialogue: Robert White
7. My Girl
8. Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart
9. Don't Mess With Bill
10. The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game
11. Dialogue: Eddie Willis, Uriel Jones & Jack Ashford
12. I Second That Emotion
13. I Was Made To Love Her
14. Dialogue: Richard "Pistol" Allen
15. Heard It Through The Grapevine
16. Home Cookin'
17. For Once In My Life
18. Dialogue: Jack Ashford
19. I Can't Get Next To You
20. It's A Shame
21. Ain't No Mountain High Enough
22. Dialogue: Eddie WIllis
23. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
24. Dialogue: Lamont Dozier
25. You're My Everything

Put Down Your Wii and Tell Us What Makes A Real Life "GUITAR HERO?″

According to Chris Cornell's promotion/publicity agency (who is a combo of Sacks & Co. and Red Light Management, this from Sacks & Co. who I have to say really are awesome in keeping us at the Brass Hat Group in the loop and whom without, we would not be providing you nearly the level or attention to detail that we love and hope that you all do as well):

Wanted to send along a Chris Cornell update.

Last night Chris Cornell played a sold out show at Seattle’s Showbox. Good friend and former Soundgarden bandmate Kim Thayil was at the show with Chris
(see Chris’s tweet: http://twitter.com/chriscornell) as was Queensryche’s Chris DeGarmo.

See photo Kim, Chris, and Chris.

(click on this image to download)

Chris’s Scream Tour Live
Tour
4/28 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
4/29 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
5/1 Grand Ballroom San Francisco, CA
5/2 House of Blues Anaheim, CA
5/3 Wiltern Theatre Los Angeles, CA

Sites
www.chriscornell.com
www.myspace.com/chriscornell

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also wanted to share with you all what was so freely given to me. This is a clean download and directly from the record label. This is a live version of "Scream" acoustic off of the Scream album (2009) - available for purchase at that link.

(cover art - "cherie" 9x12 mixed media 2004 sanithna phansavanh - available at http://tinyurl.com/c69ax2 thanks to The Brass Hat Group)

In addition, I wanted to give a little shout-out to Kim Thayil who is for all practical purposes a rock guitarist G-d for those of you not familiar with his work. Rolling Stone Magazine listed him in the top 100 best guitarists of all-time. And much of that 'Seattle - Grunge Sound' you so often hear referenced comes from the styling of people like Kim and few others. Kim was not just an awesome Soundgarden guitarist, but her wrote the co-wrote lyrics, music and plenty for many tons of their songs:

• "Hunted Down" (Screaming Life) ... music
• "Nothing to Say" (Screaming Life) ... music
• "Tears To Forget" (Screaming Life) ... music (co-written)
• "Little Joe" (Screaming Life) ... music
• "Hand of God" (Screaming Life) ... music
• "Kingdom of Come" (Fopp) ... credited to Soundgarden
• "Flower" (Ultramega OK) ... music
• "All Your Lies" (Ultramega OK) ... music (co-written)
• "Circle of Power" (Ultramega OK) ... music
• "Incessant Mace" (Ultramega OK) ... music
• "Hands All Over" (Louder Than Love) ... music
• "Get on the Snake" (Louder Than Love) ... music
• "Heretic" (Loudest Love) ... music
• "Jesus Christ Pose" (Badmotorfinger) ... music (co-written)
• "Room a Thousand Years Wide" (Badmotorfinger) ... lyrics
• "New Damage" (Badmotorfinger) ... music (co-written)
• "My Wave" (Superunknown) ... music (co-written)
• "Superunknown" (Superunknown) ... music (co-written)
• "Limo Wreck" (Superunknown) ... music (co-written)
• "Kickstand" (Superunknown) ... music
• "Never the Machine Forever" (Down on the Upside) ... music and lyrics

According to much of what you find about the etymology of Soundgarden is as follows:

Although he was born in Seattle in 1960, Thayil grew up in the Chicago. Kim Thayil met Hiro Yamamoto at Rich East High School in Park Forest in Chicago. After graduation, they moved to Washington together where they went to the University of Washington (located in Seattle), where he studied philosopy. Hiro and Kim met Chris Cornell while at school at UW and in 1984 the three formed Soundgarden in 1984.

Kim is in my opinon, without the famous quotes or lists or awards, one of the best rock guitarists of all-time and a big reason I was such a huge fan of Soundgarden. His guitar and Chris's vocals and I was sold.

Here is a photo of Kim during his Soundgarden days:

(Truth be known they were all big Beatles fans, much like fellow Seattle grunger Kurt Cobain -see MSN.com Bio for this factoid)

There is Thurston Moore (see his MySpace page linked here for details of the now) of Sonic Youth:

















There is Stone Gossard (see his MySpace page for details of the now) of Pearl Jam:

Obviously there was also Kurt Cobain (see this link for his Official posthumous page) of Nirvana. They still more than anyone get the credit and the hate for the grunge sound, scene and aftermath of all that arose from those years. Kurt also, who for a variety of reasons gets most of the press regarding the guitar sound, especially by the main stream media masses. While I know this might appear blasphemous, Kurt was not nearly the technical guitarist the others listed above are. Though I have to admit I was/am as big a Nirvana fan as the rest of them - them being the people who either totally became grunge or hated it with such a passion that George Bush - the first one- made mention of it in one of his speeches.

Starting in 1993, about 2 months before 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' hit the market and Nirvana played the good ole Masquerade with its 'Heaven' - 'Hell' and 'Purgatory' levels (live music on the top floor, dance club with all kinds of debauchery on the bottom floor and a bar and billard's room as well, a real eye opener for a 16 year old suburban white kid who's idea of wild and crazy at the time consisted of shaving my head for a sign of sol
idarity for the High School soccer team.

Post Script: Had it not been for my friend Gray who used to give me rides home from school from good old Dunwoody High School and had a tape cassette player, I would never had been exposed to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Dinosaur (before they became Jr. and still had Lou Barlow in the band), Soundgarden, Shonen Knife, Sebadoh (after Dinosaur broke and became Dinosaur Jr.), Eric's Trip, Superchunk, a lot of stuff from the Raleigh music scene and lot of other bands that never seemed to catch on like Nihilist, still the angriest band I have ever seen live. as well as getting to see the the film "1991: The Year Punk Rock Broke", which opened my eyes into what I believed being real, and a true grunge slacker was about (in keeping with that it seems Amazon only sells this movie in VHS lol) .

Brett Dennen - LIVE ON CARSON DALY - TONIGHT

For those of you unaware with Brett's music it is unique. I am sure that you hear that about many artists, but Brett's vocals if nothing else are silky smooth, calming in a way that few others have or can do. He reminds me in many ways of Tracy Chapman meets Bob Dylan if music were a blender and sound came out. It does not and personally I hate making comparisons of one artist to another especially after I just called him unique, a sentiment that I strongly believe. Is that hypocrisy or what?!? Anyhow, I think it is best for Brett to talk/sing/write and for you, me, your dog and/or cat (if you own one) and whomever else is around to just listen, as the music really speaks for itself.

(I have linked his MySpace page where you can listen to a few songs, as well as his personal website where you can buy copies of all of his albums, including the latest "Hope For The Hopeless".)

http://brettdennen.net/
www.myspace.com/brettdennen

Here is a recording of one of my personal favorite songs (directed by Claire Carre) "Ain't No Reason". As Brett says in his own words about this song, and about this video are the following text seen below:

"It is our routines and our comforts that allow us to ignore social issues. For some of us, it is our privilege to be ignorant. This video tells the story of social issues challenging our privileges and entering our routines making them impossible to ignore. Social injustice cannot be ignored when you are forced to deal with them. That is the idea behind this video.

What would happen if you were forced to deal with something that you may think has nothing to do with you? If suddenly the world's problems came into your
own home? You would have to realize that you are connected to everything and everyone one earth."



Brett who also was just on Ellen and performed "Make You Crazy" off of his latest album "Hope For The Hopeless" off his latest album



I definitely will review "Hope for the Hopeless", along with a more in depth look at the CD and etymology of music in the very near future so be on the look out for that, if you are a Brett fan or are now just becoming one. Personally, I find his music to be that infectious (in a non-strep throat sort of way, but in the good sense), that one listen to a track or tune, he has so many that speak to so many different topics, that instant karma is gonna get you and you, like me are going to be a Brett Dennen fan for life. Sometimes life can be just that easy. Sometimes life can be just that simple. For me, hearing "Ain't No Reason" for the first time, I that sense of 'wow me likey,' was a case of something being just that simple and easy. I hope for all of you new to hearing Brett feel this and I promise that if you look around and check out the links posted and the show tonight (if you can) that you will get that unified feeling of the 'me likey(s)' too.

As for the coming months I personally hope to see Brett at either at Bonaroo or when he comes through Atlanta on 8/21/2009 to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater @ Encore Park. Having never seen Brett live in concert before I expect this be a real treat, definately a summer highlight. Additionally, tonight on NBC at 1:35 EST and 12:35 CST following Brett will be on the Carson Daly show following Jimmy Kimmel




Below is a copy of Brett's upcoming tour schedule, including an international tour, music Festival and venues throughout the United States that runs from 4/27 (where he initially will be supporting The Fray in Europe, before heading back home to the US for the aforementioned festivals and concerts with O.A.R. Those shows should all be awesome! I hope to see you there!

European Tour:
04/27/09 Brett Dennen in Belfast, Ireland Mandela Hall supporting the Fray
04/28/09 Brett Dennen in Dublin, Ireland Olympia supporting the Fray
04/30/09 Brett Dennen in Glasgow supporting the Fray
05/01/09 Birmingham, UK Academy supporting the Fray
05/02/09 Manchester, UK Academy supporting the Fray
05/03/09 Leeds, UK - US Leeds Academy supporting the Fray
05/05/09 London, UK Roundhouse supporting the Fray

Festival Dates:
05/29/09 Hunter Mountain, NY Mountain Jam - www.mountainjam.com/
06/11/09 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo - www.bonnaroo.com/
7/2 – 7/5 Rothbury, MI Rothbury - www.rothburyfestival.com/
8/28 - 8/30 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands - www.sfoutsidelands.com/
9/5 - 9/7 Seattle, WA Bumbershoot - www.bumbershoot.org/

Tour dates with O.A.R:
06/05/09 Morrison, CO - US Red Rocks Amphitheatre
06/06/09 Bonner Springs, KS Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone
06/07/09 Council Bluffs, IA WestFair Amphitheatre
08/13/09 Boston, MA Bank of America Pavilion
08/14/09 Boston, MA Bank of America Pavilion
08/15/09 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
08/18/09 Philadelphia, PA Penn’s Landing
08/20/09 Memphis, TN Mud Island Amphitheatre
08/21/09 Atlanta, GA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre @ Encore Park
08/23/09 Cary, NC Koka Booth Amphitheatre @ Regency Park
08/26/09 Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
08/27/09 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
08/28/09 St Augustine, FL St Augustine Amphitheatre
08/29/09 Pompano Beach, FL Pompano Beach Amphitheatre
09/03/09 Madison, WI The Coliseum at The Alliant Energy Center
09/04/09 Rochester Hills, MI MeadowBrook Music Festival
09/05/09 Toronto, ON The Kool Haus

Also here is one more recording of The Official Video of: "Make You Crazy!"...

Enjoy! Be sure to check out a post about this post (that seems a bit oxymornic, doesn't it? Sadly for me that somehow seems to fit bill today, ha! Either way the music is AMAZING) on DIGG too...and don't just look, but hit us up!





Also we at the Brass Hat Group have a special treat for you later today and no they are not 'smores', sorry kids ;p...BUT definately tune in and be sure to check back later to find out what it is! This is something I personally am very excited about and would not want anyone to miss!

Chris Cornell - Part 3 - 04.01.09 - Atlanta, GA

Just in case you enjoyed some of the earlier posting of the acoustic "Finally Forever" in Part 2 of my Chris Cornell review I am adding a pair of additional acoustic live tracks that I think you will love!
(the first courtesy of 96.1FM and the 2nd by MSN Music)Feel free to download both tracks FREE seen below.

How many times can you say rawkstar fast? 4? 7? 9? Hell I don't know or and I don't know the to answers to the "WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) Experiment" by our quantum physics pal Max Tegmark, but I do know this music track is hawt!

Enjoy and have a great Easter Weekend if you do not hear from us again!


"Chris Cornell -Fell on Black Days - LIVE - 04.01.2009 - Atlanta, GA - Center Stage"

(photo of by Ross Feingold - 04.01.2009 of Chris Cornell Live @ Center Stage - Atlanta, GA)

"Chris Cornell - Billie Jean (cover) - Stockholm, Sweden @ 0'Bar - 2006"



(cover art: Ginger Lindsey - "There She Goes..." - (c) 2009 NIKON CORPORATION D200 - Editing PS4 of CS4, Elements 7.0 )