Most Popular
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An ancient Apollo statue landed in Cleveland and touched off an international outcry
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Joe Cimperman hopes to tear down his former hero, Dennis Kucinich
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Beat Down
Cleveland teachers swap stories of school violence.
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Everybody Hates Mike
The peril of coaching an icon.
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Secret Valentines Notes from C-Town Celebs
Our I-Team uncovered the private love letters of Cleveland's biggest names. You'll be shocked by what we discovered.
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$100 Bounty on That Kid (19)
Copley-Fairlawn finds a way to keep the impostors out.
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At Indie-Rock Singles Night in Cleveland, an event for hipsters lacks one key ingredient: Hipsters (15)
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Dennis Kucinich’s brave talk about working and fighting — from the safety of the officer’s tent (10)
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Beat Down (3)
Cleveland teachers swap stories of school violence.
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Sour Notes (434)
Underneath its glossy exterior, the Cleveland Orchestra has a dark side. His name is William Preucil.
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Crazy Talk
Miranda Lambert is a lot like any other girl with a soft spot for guns and setting exes on fire.
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The Bravery's New World
New-wave revivalists discover the power of three-chord guitar rock.
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Beer, BBQ, industry schmoozing: Rounding up SXSW 2008’s local delegates
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Keep on Truckin'
Jason Isbell finds life after the Drive-By Truckers.
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It took them 10 years, but the Sadies finally craft a country-rock classic
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Carl Monday’s back, and he’s not better than ever, which makes us sad
08:14AM 03/10/08 -
A gentle proposal to Cleveland sports fans: Quit bitching and enjoy it
07:29AM 03/10/08 -
In Minnesota, smoking ban no match for local thespians. Why didn’t we think of that?!
07:01AM 03/10/08 -
Joyce Banjac may be Myers University's best hope
05:29AM 03/10/08 -
Akron mom embezzles $12,000 from PTA
05:21AM 03/10/08
What we are writing about
- Black Sabbath
- Bob Dylan
- classic rock
- Cleveland art
- Cleveland dining hotspots
- Cleveland theater
- family films
- foodie media
- Get religion!
- great video games
- hip-hop
- indie pop
- indie rock
- jazz
- legal eagles
- Metal
- murder & mayhem
- must-see movies
- Neil Young
- Ohio City
- political clap-trap
- Punk
- R&B
- racism
- read your music
- Singer-Songwriter
- sporting life
- urban crime
- weird theater
- white-collar baddies
Recent Articles By Justin F. Farrar
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It took them 10 years, but the Sadies finally craft a country-rock classic
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Blossom Toes
We Are Ever So Clean/If Only for a Moment (Sunbeam)
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Weener
Saturday, December 22, at the Jigsaw, Parma.
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The Pearlfishers
Up With the Larks (Marina)
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The Howling Hex
XI (Drag City)
National Features
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Houston Press
"It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"
For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.
By Chris Vogel -
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Flying Burrito Bros.
Gram Parsons Archives Volume One: The Flying Burrito Bros. Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 (Amoeba)
By Justin F. Farrar
Published: November 7, 2007
Gram Parsons and his band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, are are among rock and roll's great cult legends — a short-lived group of dope-smoking Californians who laid the foundation for country rock, alt-country, and even those damn Eagles. Yet most folks, including the Burritos themselves, remember them as a lousy live act: under-rehearsed and way, way too stoned. But Parsons fanatics had no way of confirming this. Since the late '60s, their only exposure to the group's cosmic vibrations came via its first two albums.
The Flying Burrito Bros. Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 fills a gaping hole in the band's history. And it's a pretty good listen to boot — featuring never-before-heard covers like "Mental Revenge" and "Long Black Limousine." Although Parsons and Chris Hillman's Everly Brothers-inspired harmonies squeeze out all kinds of sour notes (the R&B nugget "Dark End of the Street" will make alley cats howl), the Burritos possess earthy grit — something its dreamy studio work never revealed. Still, modern ears raised on remastered precision will ultimately have issues with these vintage live recordings, where fidelity is comparable to the average homegrown Grateful Dead tape, which makes sense: This Burritos show was recently discovered deep in the Dead's vaults.
