Another busy week in the can, thank goodness!

First, a rock and roll recap from the week that was….

I saw quite a bit of live music this week, including:

The New Frontiers / Below Jupiter / Liza Bundy at the Beachland Tavern on Monday night (recap here.)

Wednesday night, I saw what was (believe it or not,) my first Cure show. My great friend Pat got the tickets, and was floored (as you can expect) when I told him that I’d never seen the Cure. As a longtime Cure fan, Pat was a tad disappointed with the setlist, but for me personally, it hit all of the necessary marks.

Sonically, it was one of the best sounding shows that I’ve been to – it sounded great, and Robert Smith and the Cure sounded even better. We stuck around for nearly the entire set minus the encores, and the only song I would have wanted to see them play would be “Friday I’m In Love.” And I didn’t miss anything, because surprisingly, they didn’t play it.

With the Cure show, I guess I crossed another name off of my rock and roll bucket list, which grows larger it seems, as the years pass. All I need is to stop hearing great new music, and I don’t see that happening, anytime soon!

And then there are the friends that continue to introduce me to legacy classics that I somehow missed.

What’s a guy to do? I’ll keep going to shows, that’s what I’ll do!

Check out a great review (and setlist) of the show from Plain Dealer reporter John Soeder right here.

Friday night was spontaneous – I ended up at The Matinee to watch a couple of great bands currently making the scene here in Cleveland, Red Water Rojo and The Doctor Teeeth.

The evening began with a phone call from my friend Ray, who books at The Matinee – I picked him up and we made our way over to the venue, and after trading a couple of text messages, Pat and I were hanging out for our third rock and roll experience of the week.

As the three of us drove away after an evening of great music, we reflected on the rock and roll goodness that had just been laid out by the anti-correct spelling Doctor Teeeth boys.

This was the first time that I have seen the band, and they dedicated their set and “reason we’re playing these songs tonight” to a number of people including Tim Russert and “most importantly, Bo Diddley.”

Their sound is a great dysfunctional mix of metal, blues, stoner rock and straight out guitar jams. They possess a quirkiness that is real enough, that when they introduce the next track on the setlist as “Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince,” you have reason to wonder if they are really about to play it (answer: they didn’t.)

For a music fan like myself that likes so many different musical genres, I love a band like The Doctor Teeeth (who are another great example of power trios that SMOKE,) that touch on a little bit of everything. The show wrapped up with a jam that stretched out for nearly a half hour, before slipping seamlessly into the final song of the night. The Doctor Teeeth are crazy good, and if they come anywhere near your zip code – GO!

Speaking of Red Water Rojo, they’ll be on the bill for a benefit that I’ve been asked to emcee at the Grafton Correctional Institution. Who’s going to pass up the chance to co-host a rock and roll show at a prison? Certainly not me – The show will happen in mid-July, and I’m looking forward to it.

Other Stuff:

Okay, that was a bit lengthy – Here’s the stuff that caught my eye this week….

Look at this debate I started between my pals Chris and TDavid about the new Judas Priest CD Nostradamus. I still haven’t listened to the album yet – as mentioned, the week has been busy enough, that my mind has been elsewhere for most of it. My Google Reader is feeling neglected, actually.

Burgo’s got the hookup on a tasty full set BBC broadcast from Coldplay that I’ve been meaning to grab. Great setlist, and you can grab it all right here.

Speaking of Burgo, he also emailed me about Joe Pug, and told me that as a Springsteen fan, he thought I might dig it. I’ll need to spend some more time listening to it, but I definitely dug the opening moments of the music that I heard. Burgo goes in-depth and shares some music from Pug.

Phish-heads are going to be happy to know that the band is allegedly reuniting for a new studio album with producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows.)

Lillywhite is producing a new series for NPR, appropriately titled The Lillywhite Sessions – check out a recent session featuring She & Him (so great, if you’re not hip to the project.)

Oasis inked a new three album deal with Sony BMG. I’m excited to see what the Gallagher bros will come up with when they finally release some new music!

Metallica’s new album officially has a title – Death Magnetic, which makes me think of Bloom County, Steve Dallas, and Death Tongue!

Eat Sleep Drink Music is digging The New Frontiers album.

I Am Fuel, You Are Friends have a great summer mix posted for your listening enjoyment. I support any mix that includes Springsteen….and “Girls in Their Summer Clothes,” no less. If there is a category for the most under appreciated summer song, I would like to nominate “Girls” for the honor.

I’ll leave you guys with some funny comments from people that were upset about Kanye West being tardy (among other things) at Bonnaroo.

That’s the (not so quick) Quick Hits for this week!