Tom Morello To Join E Street Band's Australian Tour

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello will fill in for Little Steven Van Zandt on Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's upcoming tour of Australia. Van Zandt will be unable to participate due to prior commitments with his TV series Lilyhammer. Morello will play nine Australian shows with the Boss in March. Van Zandt will be back with the band on April 29th when Springsteen and company play Oslo, Norway.

Morello is no stranger to playing with Bruce. The former Rage Against the Machine guitarist played on a few Wrecking Ball cuts ("Jack of All Trades," "This Depression"), and has joined Springsteen and the E Street Band on multiple occasions, including Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, last year at SXSW and the 25th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebration in 2010.

Abbey Road's U.S. anniversary

Although it was released a few days earlier in Europe, the official release date for the Beatles last studio effort was October 1, 1969. We managed to collect several photo outtakes from the Abbey Road cover shoot.

What ever happened to...Jeff Lynne?

Jeff Lynne, ELO-founder and member of the Traveling Wilburys, has recorded "Long Wave", a project of songs he used to hear on the radio in his formative years.

According to Lynne, "Long Wave attempts to recreate the feeling of an old-fashioned radio, the sound of it – the soft bottom on it and the lack of top – it's just so old fashioned and evocative."

Included are such pre-rock favorites as "Smile" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing," as well as the 1964 tune recorded by Don Covay & the Goodtimers, "Mercy, Mercy" – seen here in an innovative video directed by Martyn Atkins.

Springsteen's 1st U.S. Performance Of "Jungleland" Since...

Bruce Springsteen's recent concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts featured the first U.S. performance of "Jungleland" without "The Big Man". Jake Clemens absolutely nails the sax solo.

Beach Boys' California Saga Continues

The Beach Boys family legacy is continuing in a new group. The inspiration came from the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary tour, as the sons and daughters wanted to create a fitting tribute to the band,

playing the band’s back catalog and straying from the material played by the Beach Boys themselves.
California Saga features Brian Wilson's daughters, Carnie and Wendy Wilson (of Wilson Phillips fame); Mike Love's son and daughter, Christian and Ambha Love; Carl Wilson's son, Justyn Wilson; Dennis Wilson's son, Carl B. Wilson; and Al Jardine's sons, Matt and Adam Jardine. The lineup will also include keyboard help from Billy Hinsche, Carl Wilson's brother-in-law, who toured with the Beach Boys for decades.

The group made their live debut with the Beach Boys on June 2nd, performing "Friends" backed by the Beach Boys touring band.

California Saga performed a longer set on July 10th at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. You can here an audience taping of the show here.

A Brief History of Rock

Chicago guitar salesman Alex Chadwick strums out 100 R&R riffs in twelve minutes. Did he miss anything?  Click here to view.

Where Dreams Began

In Gregg Allman's biography "My Cross to Bear", we came across some things we hadn't heard about before.  One of the stories involved Mike Finnigan (who has played with Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Etta James, Crosby Stills & Nash, Dave Mason, Buddy Guy, Manhattan Transfer, Tower of Power, Bonnie Raitt and many more). There's a great story in the book about the career-changing kindness of Mike Finnigan, and here it is:

In 1965, we (Allman Joys) played at Pepe's a Go Go, which was next store to the Whiskey a Go Go, and I was talking to this guy named Mike Finnigan who played in a band called Mike Finnigan and the Serfs.  I asked him what that big piece of wood was on the stage.  He said, "Come on up here and I'll show you."

Now, as a rule, nobody lets you play their Hammond. "Don't ride my Harley, don't mess with my wife, and no, you can't play my Hammond!" That's just it, man.  But Mike Finnigan let me sit behind his, which was very cool of him.  And man, when I heard that B3, it just melted me.  In the next day or two, he turned me on to Jimmy Smith and Groove Holmes.  That Hammond just struck me.  It was nice, round, kind of dull-ended instead of sharp, and I thought it blended with a guitar just perfect. The next time I sat down at a Hammond I would write "Dreams."