Did they come out with a new album? Did it suck? Dr. Dog at the Wiltern Friday was sparsely packed, each song lasting shy of two minutes, and all generally sounding too reminiscent of the last, save the tunes that we know and love.

Perhaps it was the muddy sound at the Wiltern Friday night, coupled with an early showtime, 2 openers we’d never heard of, and the outnumbering of an R rated audience with an NC-17, this live show lacked all the feel we may have felt at their live show the past few years. But hey, the kids had to be home by curfew.

With lights staged by Roy G Biv, there was no thunder, no pot of gold, no kidding as the show moved through the hue cycle. And we moved because we knew what to expect, we’ve heard these albums a million times (or at least twice.) “Is this the worst trip you have ever been on?” Dog sings. When I see a live show I don’t want to feel like I’m listening to the radio, or worse, a backing track. It hurts to say it, but if the lights turned on the crowd, you’d see about 67.2% of the venue filled, in gapped groups slouching, and at song’s end, clapping emphatically because we should. Some sing to the songs they know, the rest “Shazaam” the ones they don’t. And unfortunately, find that it actually works.

This band works best not as a headliner in a large venue with high-frequency sound, but is still more of an outdoor festival act, or maybe even just a much smaller house act. In the 5 to 10 times I’ve seen this band, they’ve always put on a great show. I guess it was an an off-night.

The Oregon backwoods shepherded Blitzen Trapper to the El Rey Theater last week for a full set of rustic country mountain songs. They killed it every chord, key, smack and shake. Playing everything we all love about them and more, they  included a Bob Dylan cover and other songs that sound exactly – like Bob Dylan.

Singer Eric Earley’s softer “Lady on the Water” put you on a dark cloud covered lake in the mountains, seamlessly soft in their weathered hinterland style. “Furr” is a song Bob Dylan might have written, very Queen Jane Approximately inspired lyrics, harmonica and intonations.

There were two outstanding things about this show that must not be set to the wind. One, the red headed furtrapper who could have been easily mistaken as an extremely talented guitar player (which he was) wearing some sort of afro/pony tail that seemed more of a Civil War period colonial ‘do than anything a weird hipster might ever even know to assemble. Two, the end outburst by what seemed to be a very upset bass player.

What exactly happened is still unknown, but it appeared that a girl was giggling about how the keyboardist’s interpretive dance during the last song was truly reminiscent of the Big Lebowski’s next door neighbor’s interpretive dance, and how magnificent he looked doing it. His shirt was a bit too small, his arms up in the air, jumping,  girth fully exposed, accepting any sort of audience accolade. The bass player evidently yelled at the girl to “Shut Up” – and at the song’s end, threw his bass down to the floor and pouted offstage.

Aside from the two bandmembers who were either clearly on dodgy psilocybin mushrooms or possibly even nothing, Blitzen Trapper nonetheless supplied the place with extreme talent, ending the show after a full blitzkrieg encore.

Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio debuted his anticipated new solo project Rain Machine at the Echo in LA Friday. The Echo is a scenester’s local well, and Rain Machine continued to chip the paint off it’s charcoal walls with Kyp Malone’s  steep hiccupping intonations and bristling world class coiffure. His voice is key to TV on the Radio’s sound; it got hard to differentiate between the two, and some of the songs flowed together consequentially.

The band featured bass, backup guitar, keyboard and backup vocals, with a heavy metal drummer. When Kyp took the stage solo, you could sense a little nervousness in his posture, the vocal quiver increased. He said, “I’ve been playing these songs for years, alone, so this is…”

As everyone fell quiet, like apocalyptic-awe quiet, his soulful messy blues got louder and louder, each register reaching higher and higher, his convulsions becoming more and more discordant, the people getting a little enlightened, and even more simplified.

A little groggy on his fourth cup of coffee, clinking dishes in a New York kitchen, Matisyahu describes the incredible time difference between there, and where he just arrived from – Australia. He was out touring in support of his newest album, Light.

Matisyahu is a sprightly emcee who has been blending Hasidic Judaism with dancehall reggae since his emergence in 2004. He reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart after the release of Live at Stubb’s in 2005, with Youth reaching No. 4 on Billboard’s top 200 at its debut the following year.

Youth hit No. 1 on the Reggae Albums chart, gaining some serious critical acclaim by blending Orthodox Judaism and reggae, introducing holy purpose to music – like Bob Marley – at a time when spirituality was necessary in a hardened mainstream. Youth was nominated for a Grammy in 2007 for Best Reggae Album.

With tons of hype already in store from 2008’s Shattered EP, his extensive multi-national summer tour, Light’s high-profile collaborations and the Where’s Matis At Initiative (wheresmatis.at; his interactive social media space), his recent release should be well-received. Light is the most personal record Matisyahu has done, having a darkness to it he describes as “internal struggle and strife that comes from Jewish source, but can almost feel like it has a lot of eastern themes to it. A lot of ideals, emptiness within, allowing oneself to be with oneself.”

Light, produced by David Kahne (Paul McCartney, Regina Spektor, Sublime), has a new blend of sounds and talent, including world-class contributors like Fishbone, Sly & Robbie, Dub Trio, Good Charlotte, Ooah from the Glitch Mob and Eric Krasno of Soulive.

“I collaborated with Good Charlotte on the song ‘Darkness Into Light.’ It was a random thing, really … someone told me that they were fans and wanted to meet me, and I popped in the studio,” recalls Matisyahu.

The artist is the most regular, extremely irregular kind of individual, which can be easily noted from his calm and gentle demeanor and his brandished yarmulke, black suit and overgrown beard. The album has a story unto its own, opening up in new directions with the addition of each new fluid whim.

“We would decide on a live rhythm section, so let’s have Fishbone do this session because they’re the best at that style. Then we decided we wanted to go to Jamaica,” he notes, “so we looked up Sly & Robbie.”

That seems like the most logical move – right? Head to Jamaica – where reggae and rocksteady developed – to find one of reggae’s most prolific and long lasting production teams and also get them to collaborate on the creation of the songs themselves.

“We got Robbie to play bass on ‘I Will Be Light,’ then we worked with this kid Stephen McGregor who is a really great producer out of Jamaica, on ‘Smash Lies’ and ‘Motivate,’” he says. “It was really cool because in general I got to collaborate with people whose music I really respect and who come from different visions, different styles. There was so much variation, which I think speaks to who I am as an artist and the kind of music that I like – I like to listen to a lot of different things and hear myself doing a lot of different things.”

On tour now, the Matisyahu RV will be reaching 35 cities. They’ll be “inviting fans on board all along the way” and Twittering their locations, along with a GPS tracker and interactive map at wheresmatis.at.

Matisyahu’s latest Tweet: 08-19 1:38 p.m. “There are limited spots in the coffee house for this free performance. If you are in the area and want to come, hit me back.” Don’t let a coveted thing pass you by, take note of his coordinates.

Social media is an integral part of maintaining and building relationships with fans, increasing visibility into the “real life” of an artist, as well as providing an avenue for which to connect and understand them.

Matisyahu says, “The idea is to be able to reach people and to communicate with people. For me, Twitter has been a way for me to tap into how people feel about my music. When you’re out there playing shows every night, or doing press or traveling on planes or on the bus, sometimes you just forget that there are people that are being affected by your music. Then I’ll go and read my Twitter messages, and I’ll see that people are really touched by my music. It really affects me. It changes the way I behave because there exists a new responsibility to the people.”

With his level of self-cultivated spirituality and mental fervor, Matisyahu is heading down what was before, very uncharted territory. He’s essentially become an incredible spokesperson for his fans, representing them in society, propagating Jewish culture while making it mainstream.

His religiosity is an outstanding demonstration of faith and a testament to his mental and spiritual strength, uniquely since Matisyahu was not born into an Orthodox Jewish family. Religion was a blessing for him he later found, at age 22.

“Religion helps me stay focused – I don’t really know if I could have a music career if it wasn’t for that. It helps me go out onstage and have fun, and be with my band who is not Jewish, or religious,” he shares.

Matisyahu encourages you to keep talking, reaching out and to say “hello” when he’s coming through your town on the Matis bus.

July 18 – Devendra Banhart performs an intimate show Saturday at Space15Twenty in Hollywood, CA to celebrate the release of ³Family: Photographs by Lauren Dukoff²

Devendra Banhart, the family affair
By Anna Webber

Chronicle Books, Filter magazine and Space15Twenty kicked off  a month-long gallery event Saturday with the ³Family: Photographs by Lauren Dukoff² Book signing and celebrational gathering with special guests Devendra Banhart, Matteah Baim, Ariana Delwari, Hecuba, and others.

It’s dusk in Hollywood, the devoted arrive early, the restless in line, the new-age hippie kids of Los Angeles, Topanga, and Laurel Canyon feed in and usher through the chipped brick corridors of the open air venue. They want to reminisce and imagine what it was, and existentially adhere to the dream. They are there to sit in Lauren Dukoff’s shoes, the one lucky enough of all of us to have been there at the right time, to have high-schooled with Devendra, a few years younger. It’s the Almost Famous story of a kid who got hooked in, literally, hooked in, and mentored by the new ones. Not the Rainbow children who weave baskets and sleep in vans, no longer the sort from obsolete Woodstock communes of 50 years ago. But so much the same, yet so much more innocent.

Members of the Family include Devendra, Joanna Newsom, Bat For Lashes, Vetiver, Cibelle, Hecuba and more. Lauren, with her long black pigtailed hair, rosy cheeks and dark, purple eyes, has photographed them all. She sits behind a table of books, posters, and flyers, hugging hippie boy after hippie girl, scrawling loose signatures across each of her bound books. She hugs each and every one, each dressed in their Sunday’s best, feathers and beads. To an outsider, it really was a family affair. Most looked the same, and similarly familiar. It goes to show its not just the glam-rocker batty-eyed stilleto-ed Too-Good-For-You’s here in LA. The place was packed full, and the line outside wrapped around the corner.

The sun sets and Devendra walks through the crowd to the stage, meeting there Adam Tullie, and Angeline Rivas. The set was fine, just fine, just three songs and a half. Two were full instrumentals, there were no lights, little volume. But you could hear a pin drop. Few were satiated, but after getting past the hurried set one realizes it’s not the music everyone was there for, it was the feeling. This was Lauren’s night.

Not much has changed about the Allman Brothers since the old days except, they’ve gotten better. One of the tightest, most succinct jam-bands still alive, it was only fitting my mom would be my plus one on their 40th Anniversary Tour.

It’s clear that the Allmans are dedicated to a very real, very rich, very down home deep echoing-canyon style of backyard jam progressions. The boys had three percussionists – two drummers, one Latin percussion player wielding a full rig of congas, timbalis, bongos, chimes, ringers and tingers – added the perfect touch of trebling percussion between the two equivalently rigged drummers. And even though Derek Trucks still looks to be the age of twelve, he stands poised with calm caution and smooth precision, ripping and wailing hide off his hands. Covers of Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61″ and “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” with surprise guests Tom Petty (and his Heartbreakers) were otherworldly, save Petty’s signature nasal-rich Bob Dylan imitations. The Allman Brothers were all surprises – 15 minute drawn out jams aside. I had heard a rumor Petty would be at the show, but the spotting of Bruce Willis taking the stage with harmonica in hand made my music heart tremble with fear, until he started commanding the thing, with his whole body, during “Morning Dew.” I immediately knew that could easily have been the sexiest thing I’ve seen. The boy’s got talent.

The Doobie brother’s opening up for the Allman’s was nary the shocker, for reasons too obvious to note, but a great decision for the song “Black Water.”  No, these are not forgotten oldies. With 2 drummers, and 7 members total, the Doobie’s know how to light up a crowd – very literally. I look over at the cute mom to my side, who is persistently sneezing, who looks up at me and says, “All those doobies are making me sneeze!” You think only twenty-somethings know how to party?

She’s what Stevie Ray Vaughan would look like without a soul patch and the Texasflooder Manny Gammage hat. That was a certain likeness – and the first immediate good sign. She could have a wailing match on par with Caleb Followill, and her cracking pitchy snarling voice would surely win. If she wasn’t wearing little heels, she could probably jump around a little more, but dirty blues woman Erika Wennerstrom packs a punch and holds no mercy.

The Heartless Bastards took the stage and needless to say, the shimmery blue sequined bandstand disappeared and the crowd was slammed into what could have been Townes Van Zandt’s Hole in the Wall in Austin, TX, Wennerstrom’s hometown. Her little physique was no foolin’, and her strapping bronchial tubes tore through all the lonely ones out there saluting their Shiner Bocks dry. The Heartless Bastards are a bare-bones band, whose sound may possibly be as timeless as the music genre they’ve landed in. Keep an eye out, they’ve got a hot US tour rolling through, as well as a short bit in Europe, then back for some big shows at ACL Music Festival, Bonnaroo in Nashville, and SF Outside Lands.

Erika Wennerstom of The Heartless Bastards - photo: Anna Webber

The Viper Room and Atlantic Records supplied the Open Bar and luncheon – however – it didn’t matter how drunk they got the guests, the music was phenomenal. By the first song, enough honest sweat was flowing out of his pores to mean he would not be letting up anytime soon – he’d done this before. Paolo has got the same Johnny Lang elated, scathing, rasp and quiver, mixed with Jeff Buckley moans and lingering “ooo’s” during the sultry ballads that were to die for. The timelessness of his music would throw a smile across anyone’s face and a chill down their spine as his boyish sincerity dabbled in motown and blues, reggae and barbershop bebop. As he picked up what appeared to be a watered down whiskey, smiling, he says “It’s the first one I’ve done of these things where everybody’s listening.” Not because he’s not extraordinary, but because he can be seen most often playing at big music halls, bigger concert venues, and music festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo. And his giddy Scottish accent would sometimes sound more like a thick island one. It was adorable. In fact, all but one of the 6 piece band is from Scotland, and his 2007 record went platinum in the UK, and sold about 2 million copies. He played the single off of his last record, “New Shoes”, which Paolo is most notably known for. Keeping an eye on Paolo and awating the release of his next record out in June, he showed no deficit of talent Tuesday, no elevated ego.

Paolo Nutini @ Viper Room showcase (photo: anna webber)