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Jack White continues to blow my mind

@ZackTeibloom A "Seven Nation Army" couldn't hold him back and two bands aren't enough to satiate the raw rock resplendence that is Jack White III. When his voice started going at the end the tour last fall, he relinquished a little of his singing duties to solo more. I wasn't complaining. Now he's pulling a reverse-Grohl and going from the frontman to the drums with his new band, The Dead Weather. So, how do they sound?



They sound like a motha fuggin' freight train. The band, fronted by Alison Mosshart includes The Raconteurs' Jack Lawrence on bass, Queens of the Stone Age member Dean Fertita on guitar and Jack White on drums and vocals. It may not be the White Stripes or Raconteurs, but from the first note, this just oozes Jack White. And lord knows I love anything that oozes Jack White.Thumping, head-nodding bass, a simple catchy guitar riff, a break in the music for vocals, echo-y drums, endless fills and guitar effects that make me think "WTF is going on in that head of his, besides pure rock madness? I've listened to this song five times in a row and I don't think I'm going to stop any time soon. Sorry SXSW preparation. It's Jack time.

Hearing J.W. tear apart a drum kit leaves me wondering why he ever let Meg record with him? Oh, yeah. They used to bang. Respect. All hail the King of Rock!

Jack White IS the King of Rock
My Racounteurs Beatles moment at Lollapalooza
Jack White was literally and figuratively sick at ACL
Review of Consolers of the Lonely

American Idol Results Show 2 of 13 Eliminated

-A.S. Two of the top 13 are going home tonight. I couldn't resist checking Twitter tonight while I was at the Blackhawks game to find out who got voted off. I'm going to blog my commentary on the episode anyways. There's not really ever any suspense anyways.

8:03 The new rule is "The Judges Save." If they feel that someone gets voted off too early, they can decide to keep them. This can happen one time during this season, prior to the top-five. I think they should call it the Daughtry Rule. That week nobody will go home, and the following week, two will be eliminated.
8:06 I think this was the worst group performance yet. Maybe because I was relieved nobody ruined "I Want You Back" last night. I've very proud of Scott McIntyre (left) for learning the choreography this week. Once again, I have to assume it's because somebody at American Idol HQ is reading Festival Crashers and saw me making fun of the chair dancing.
8:14 That montage from last night reminded me of one thing. Lil Rounds, Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert are leaps and bounds better than everybody else in the top-13.
8:15 Did American Idol really just stick us with a commercial inside the show?
8:16 Pea Break...err...Michael Sarver, is safe for this week. Let me be the first to say boo-urns.
8:17 16-year-old Allison Iraheta will be able to play the rocker chick card for a few rounds, but I see it getting played out. She's safe for tonight, though.
8:18 They brought Jasmine Murray to the center of the stage, only to tell Matt Giraud and Kris Allen and Megan Corkrey (left) that they were safe.
8:20 Jasmine Murray. You've just had your dreams shattered. Sing us a song.
8:29 Kanye West performing "Heartless" on American Idol is dumb. Just dumb. Great idea guys. Let's have a guy on that has to sing with an auto-tuner perform on our singing contest show. You know who I would rather hear than Kanye performing anything off of 808s & Heartbreak? Tatiana del Torro.
8:39 Scott McIntyre, Alexis Grace and Danny Gokey are safe. No surprises there.
8:42 Fellow Twitterer @Jebbica said it better than I could, about having Anoop Desai and Jorge Nunez up last: "Sorry Jorge and Anoop, but we can only keep one ethnic guy."
8:48 Nice singing Seacrest. Can the new rule this season be that he has to sing each episode?
8:53 I think it's pretty telling that the judges didn't stick around for Kanye, but they did for Kelly Clarkson.
8:56 Anoop Dogg is safe! Jorge Nunez is a goner. Cue the waterworks, this one's a crier.

Putting a face on Phish arrests at Hampton

@ZackTeibloom Even after everyone I know e-mailed me about the 245 Phish arrests that netted $1.2 million worth of illegal drugs and more than $68,000 cash at Hampton, I didn't feel the need to post anything.

When it was reported that a Newport News police operation at hotels and motels resulted in 73 arrests and seized about 17 grams of cocaine, about 369 grams of marijuana and small amounts of hashish, mushrooms, OxyContin, methamphetamine and Ecstasy, I still didn't feel it was worth reporting. Then the pictures came out.

Hmm, I wonder if this guy has anything on him besides a 2nd prize ribbon from a lion look-a-like contest.

Let's play: "What Drug did I get arrested for selling?

Mushrooms

Rolls

Nitrous

Heady Nuggets

Moonshine

Drunk Driving?

Acid he made in his own lab

Coke

Dude or Chick?

JP Losman got arrested and he's excited about it?

All these mugshots got me wondering how I would pose if I got busted. I decided to take a few pictures and make my best mean mug face. I think surprised is what I was going for here.

Thanks to The Smoking Gun for the pics.

Summer Camp Late Night Shows

@AndyShore Summer Camp has announced their late night line up for this year's festival. In terms of late night shows at Summer Camp, these are some of the best I've ever seen.

Thursday Late Night: Lotus and Future Rock
Friday Late Night: Dark Star Orchestra
Saturday Late Night: Keller Williams with Family Groove Company
Sunday Late Night: Bassnectar, EOTO and Easy Star All-Stars

American Idol Top 13 Finalists Compete

@AndyShore They've busted out the big stage. Apparently Simon requested a grand entrance for the judges, but it was pretty awkward. Tonight the top-13 contestants perform. Since there are 13 contestants tonight, two will be voted off the show on the results show tomorrow night. They're starting off with a whopper tonight. Everyone will have to bring their A game. It's Michael Jackson night!

7:07 Is it wrong that I would rather they play a Michael Jackson montage for the rest of the night? Even if it is narrated by Seacrest.
7:08 Lil Rounds (below) is singing "The Way You Make You Feel." This mom of three sounds awesome. I think Michael Jackson night plays right into her wheelhouse. Despite a less than stellar arrangement, she sounds great.7:11 I think Randy Jackson says "you know what's great about you" more than he says dogg.
7:12 Nice feathers Paula. Not sure if Simon thinks Lil's ruffles are worse.
7:18 Scott McIntyre singing "Keep the Faith." He sounds good, but not great. Not sure how I felt about his high note either. Like him a lot on the keys. Gotta root for this guy, and the the song's writer approved (she was in the audience).
7:23 What bet did Randy lose to have to wear those love beads on air all season long?
7:30 Danny Gokey is just being modest. He had to know he'd at get this far. He's singing "P.Y.T." Absolutely rocking it. You knew he was killing it, even before he got the standing ovation and back up vocals from Kara and Paula. Lock it up. Championship.
7:32 Simon on Danny: "You remind me of Michael McDonald. A white guy with soul. "
7:35 I'm sorry to say it, because he seems like a nice guy, but Michael Sarver has to be the favorite to get voted off. He's singing "You Are Not Alone." Seacrest dubbed it his sensitive side. This has fail written all over it. As a matter of fact. I'm dubbing you Pee Break, Michael Sarver.
7:45 I've liked Jasmine Murray (above) from the start. Tonight she's singing "I'll Be There." She sounds much better than you would expect any 17-year-old to sound. Overall, I'm pretty impressed by these Michael Jackson covers.
7:56 Kris Allen singing "Remember The Time." He seems more comfortable playing his guitar, and I'm glad to see he's not singing "Man in the Mirror" again. He doesn't sound bad, but he's not doing anything special. Definitely the worst singer so far.
8:02 Do you think it makes the judge feel old when Allison Iraheta says she knew she wanted to audition for American Idol when she was nine? Allison Iraheta is singing "Give in to Me." I think out of all the performers tonight, Allison's sound is one of the hardest to fit to Michael Jackson. Her and Megan Corkrey. The judges liked her performance, but I'm not sure how long she can play the rocker card.
8:11 It throws me off when Anoop says thinks like y'all almost as much as his singing does. Anoop Desai (below) is singing "Beat It." He's been a favorite of the Festival Crashers since his audition. This definitely isn't his best performance. Wouldn't put him in the top of the night, but he shouldn't go home from that performance.8:21 Jorge Nunez singing "Never Can Say Goodbye." He's got a good voice, but I don't think he's anything special.
8: 24 If American Idol was a drinking game, you should drink every time they cut wide and Paula is rocking out to a contestant.
8: 26 Jorge: "I wasn't going to sing "Bad" by Michael Jackson." Simon: "Well, you sorta did."
8:32 Megan has a hot mom. Megan Joy Corkrey singing "Rockin Robbin." I thought she'd have a hard time tonight, but this was the perfect song choice for her. Did she really just caw?
8:37 Gordon Ramsey is in the house!
8:37 Nice black nail polish, Adam. Tonight Adam Lambert (below) is singing "Black and White." Of all the contestants, he might be best suited to sing Michael Jackson. This song is right up his alley too. He's got the Paula Abdul Standing Ovation Seal Of Approval (I'm getting on the design for this ASAP). This performance is SO over the top.8:48 Matt Giraud is singing "Human Nature." Hilarious that they surrounded Seacrest with a whole bunch of tweens. He sounds great, but I didn't hear his keys until the last notes of the song.
8:51 They must have told them to hurry things up. Seacrest is talking a mile a minute and Paula barely said anything.
8:56 Alexis' daughter is adorable. Alexis Grace is singing "Dirty Diana." She's showing more soul tonight singing Michael Jackson than she did singing Aretha. I wasn't really a fan of hers before tonight, but this performance is winning me over. Kara: "You're a naughty girl, and I liked it."

I won't regret Hampton until Redemption Cheering is explained

@ZackTeibloom There will be times when I'll regret not going to Hampton. I'll look back and think "Oh, what was I doing that was so important I couldn't go? Didn't I buy a $10 ticket non-refundable ticket to a poster sale in the Hampton Best Western Hotel to make sure I'd go? What happened?" I needed to make this post to remind myself that it wouldn't have been worth it. For the most part.I need to remember that even if I'd manned up and driven the 1,500 miles each way to Hampton by myself this weekend, I'd still be driving back. Right now. I wouldn't even be close to home. I'd only be approaching Arkansas, and that's assuming I checked out of the hotel at 10 a.m. Monday and only stopped for gas. I'd be dead tired, alone and quite low on funds.Staying in Austin this weekend, I had to resort to covering Hampton through Twitter and Live Phish from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Friday night and sporadically Saturday and Sunday.

It was fun, but I'm not going to pretend for a second that it was anything like being there. As much as I read about the shows on Twitter, (and I read literally every Twitter about Phish. Check out TwitterFall, it's incredible) there was not one literary journalist writing anything worth a damn about the concerts and it makes me feel like I let a unique story fall through the cracks.

It turned out being good for the Festival Crashers that we didn't go. We put a ton of time into redesigning the site and we had the biggest weekend of traffic in Festival Crashers history. By a lot. No regrets. Well, not yet.

I'll regret it at some point in the roaring 20s. The 2020s. I'll be visiting my sister in Vermont or some South American country and she'll insist on putting on the first set from Friday night. She'll say she always puts it on, because she named her kid Fluffhead and he loves that the first song is about him and "he does the cutest dance" to the riff from "Jump On It" that's playing on the P.A. before Phish takes the stage. As she puts on the 3/6/09, she'll pull out her scrapbook and show him this picture she took where the trees look like Dr. Seuss's Truffula trees and she'll decide to read the kids The Lorax as the recording plays.

So, she'll be reading "The Lorax" as "Fluffhead" plays and I'll already be insanely jealous, but then it'll go into "Divided Sky" and she'll have to put the book down to drop some first-hand knowledge. She'll be doing her little long-skirt-twirl-hippie-dance and tell my son to listen carefully for the redemption cheering.

"What's redemption cheering?" he'll ask innocently.

She'll explain that you can hear it towards the end of "Fluffhead" but it really hits hardest during that glorious stretch in "Divided Sky" from 5:41 to 6:34 as the fans give all they have to the band they love for coming back. Four years of pent-up emotion unleashed, as they're finding their way into the groove. Finally reunited with the band they devoted years of their lives to. Redemption cheering. Different from band taking the stage cheering, different from recognition of the beginning of a song cheering or celebrating the end of a great song cheering. It's even different than encore cheering. This is its own beast. Redemption cheering.Suzy will make him try to hold his breath during the 53 second crowd roar to let it soak in how long it really was. She'll say "that's why I had to be there," when he exhales in a huff after 34 seconds and the crowd is still booming. "That's why I had to be there." My son will look up at me and say "Was it as good as Suz says it was?"

I'll feel the same jealousy I had when we were growing up and she'd order grilled cheese at Fuddruckers and it would always look way better than my burger as I try to explain why I wasn't there and never heard Redemption Cheering in person. I'd just moved to Austin and that drive was a nightmare, I didn't have that much money, it was so far, yadda yadda yadda and even I'll think my excuses are lame.

He'll look up at me with puppy dog eyes and say, "But, but, but daddy (my son will have a bit of a stutter) I thought you were THE Festival Crasher?" I'll have to look down at him and say, "Not every time. Not every time."

Amy Winehouse pulls out of Coachella

@ZackTeibloom Amy Winehouse couldn't get the visa she needed to get into the U.S. and has been forced to cancel her Coachella performance. Is anyone surprised? Frankly, I would have been surprised if she did show up. Andy and I are actually fans of her when she has her act together. Hopefully that day will come again.