Friday, September 30, 2016

Mike Watt's 1995 Ring Spiel Tour Coming to LP and CD


NY-Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings have announced that they will be releasing a double album of Mike Watt's 1995 "Ring Spiel" Tour on November 11th.  The set will features Watt's May 6th, 1995 show at The Metro in Chicago, where he was backed by Eddie Vedder and Foo Fighters, David Grohl, Pat Smear, and William Goldsmith.


The album will be available in digital format, CD, double LP, and a limited edition orange colored vinyl set.  The first three formats are currently available for pre-purchase on Amazon.


Here's the endorsement of the label:

In March 1995, Columbia Records announced that Watt would be hitting the road for the first time as a solo artist. Members of opening bands Hovercraft and Foo Fighters –Vedder, Grohl, Smear and drummer William Goldsmith–joined headliner Watt on-stage as eager participants of the jaw-dropping back-up band heard on the “ring spiel” tour ’95 album.

Watt’s relentlessly energetic set at The Metro on May 6, 1995 is an astonishing sonic time machine, catapulting the listener back to that historic gig, with Watt and his fired-up and raw back-up squad, the musical lineup constantly shifting between performances to accommodate the different feel and shape of each song.

The Tracklist will include:


1. Walking the Cow (Daniel Johnson cover)
2. Brain Train (Chip + Tony Kinman cover)
3. Formal Introduction
4. Against the 70's
5. Drove Up from Pedro
6. Habit (early performance of Eddie Vedder composition)
7. Makin' the Freeway
8. Chinese Firedrill
9. Piss-Bottle Man
10. Forever ... One Reporter's Opinion

11. E-Ticket Ride
12. Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing
13. Coincidence Is Either Hit or Miss
14. The Red and the Black (Blue Öyster Cult cover)
15. Garden Song (Madonna cover)
16. Powerful Hankerin' 

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Dave Abbruzzese Working on a Solo Release


If Vs. and Vitalogy are your favorite Pearl Jam albums, you might want to head over to Dave Abbruzzese's Bandcamp page to support his solo release.
Over the last 25 plus years I've been blessed to be a part of an amazing musical tribe. Now, the time has come & I have gathered a group to help me make a record; My record. 
Musically and personally, I have a lot to say and it's time to say it. 

My friends, I need your help to make this dream come true. 

The course is charted.
If that intrigues you, head over to help fund the project and check out two unnamed solo tracks recorded in 2006 and 2015.

Backspacer Turns 7


Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Eddie Joins Concert Across America


Eddie Vedder will be joining the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence in Manhattan in two weeks.  He'll be joining Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn and Vy Higginsen's Gospel Choir of Harlem at the Beacon Theatre in New York on September 25th.

Tickets are available here.

The Beacon Theatre is among 250 venues nationwide where more than 1,000 artists will lend their voices and mobilize to make the country’s epidemic of gun violence a voting issue in the November elections. Spearheaded by Massachusetts-­based Stop Handgun Violence (SHV) partnering with Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence and dozens of other organizations, the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence will feature performances at a diverse array of venues ranging from churches and school gymnasiums to honky­tonks, theatres and hotel rooftops.

Visit www.ConcertAcrossAmerica.org for more information on this news. #ConcertAcrossAmerica to #EndGunViolence.

The Mike McCready 1959 Les Paul Standard


For those of you with an extra $11,500 laying around, Gibson is releasing a Mike McCready Les Paul.
Gibson Custom is proud to announce the Limited release of 50 signed Mike McCready 1959 Les Paul Standards in true historic spec. A 1959 Les Paul that's still in active use on tour and in the studio is a rare gem in its own right. One with a provenance that stretches from Seattle to Belfast and back, in the hands and woven into the tapestry of genre-defining music, is a bona fide once-in-a-lifetime guitar. The Mike McCready 1959 Les Paul is a hands-on replica of one of the most interesting original Les Pauls we've ever had the pleasure to collaborate on, produced with exacting analysis of the original to re-create its look, sound and feel to the Nth degree. Add to its unique backstory, a cutting, crisp and aggressive tone with a lifetime of battle on display in its well-worn finish, and a neck feel that simply says "let's play," and you have a guitar that's irresistible.


  • Binding and Plastics: True Historic plastics for total accuracy
  • Neck: Double-carved to match the original '59 profile
  • Finish: Thin, wet-sanded nitrocellulose lacquer
  • Pickup Covers: Period-correct PAF pickup covers
  • Fingerboard Binding: Rolled for a comfortable vintage-like playing feel
  • Hand Aged: Matches every detail of the original
  • Top: Double-carved top arch
  • Neck and Body: Genuine hot-hide glue construction
  • Pickups: Custom Buckers