There’s always an excitement before going to see one of your favorite bands of all time! There’s an even greater anticipation when the singer, in this case Rhett Miller of the OLD 97’s asked me if I had any requests prior to the show. In full disclosure, the band needed one of my co-workers help to navigate a couple things earlier in the day, thus giving me the opportunity to make requests in the first place! (more…)

Ever wonder how an asthematic “Level-30 Alchemist” would do in a street brawl given the chance? Well, OLD 97’s had the same thoughts and put it to video for the single off their latest album, Blame It On Gravity

The hero of our story is a Seth Rogan look alike donning a “Frack Me” t-shirt who fights his way through a nightclub in search of an autograph from Number Six herself, Tricia Helfer (a Battlestar Galactica reference for those not in the guild).

Friday we got an advance of the new OLD 97’s album, Blame It On Gravity and being longtime fans of the band, we were super-eager to tear through and disect the band’s first set of new tunes in 4 years.

As if that wasn’t enough, later that night, Rhett, Murray, Ken and Philip ended up on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno performing a new song “Dance With Me”. It was almost too much Old 97’s greatness to absorb.

DOWNLOAD: 3 songs from Blame It On Gravity at Amazon.
PRE-ORDER: Blame It On Gravity | Blame It On Gravity: Deluxe Edition

Blame It On Gravity tracklisting and tour dates can be seen after the jump. (more…)

The Blue Note club doesn’t allow any photography (Not even with camera phones), so I decided not to risk being tossed out of the early show last night. Part of this was my fear of authority and part was that the seating is so packed, I couldn’t even reach into my pocket to pull the actual camera out. So instead of a kick-ass picture of RHETT MILLER on stage, I managed a goofy picture of ASCAP’s Tom DeSavia. (more…)

By this time you probably witnessed the Chili’s commercial where OLD 97’s frontman Rhett Miller performs the restaraunt chain’s famous jingle. Well when he takes his solo show on the road and if the crowd demands it hard enough he’s been known to perform the song live. And thanks to technology, we now have footage of it. He name drops The Shins and Of Montreal in the video that definitely gets a chuckle.

One of our favorite acts OLD 97’s, have announced a summer tour and it’s going to be good.

They are starting things off with a show with one Willie Nelson as they play his 4th of July picnic. We hope on this tour they will debut some new tracks for an upcoming record.

There’s no official word on a new album yet so until then we will have to listen to their awesome back catlog and the live records.

Tour dates:

July 4 - Gorge Amphitheatre, Gorge, Wash.
July 6- Flames, Calgary
July 7 - Summerfest, Milwaukee
July 9 - The Vogue, Indianapolis
July 10 - The Pageant, St. Louis
July 11 - Crossroads, Kansas City
July 13 - The Backyard, Austin
July 14 -Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Spring, Texas
July 15 - “Vodka” Music Centre, Dallas
July 24 - Southgate House, Newport, Ky.
July 25 - Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, Cleveland
July 26 - Thursday at the Square, Buffalo, N.Y.
July 27 - Rockin’ The River Cruise, New York
Aug. 3 - Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver

So I’m sitting home watching TV last night and what to my glorious ears do I hear? A commercial for Chili’s Baby Back Ribs! Now I love ribs as much as the next over beefed American but it wasn’t the ribs that made me take notice. Rather it was the one and only Rhett Miller, lead singer of the OLD 97′S singing the theme song about how he loves his baby backs with BBQ sauce! If you can love Texas for two things and two things only, it’s gotta be for their BBQ and country singers.

Watch a poor quality version of the commercial here.