Paul Shaffer to speak, play at the Grammy Museum on Wednesday night

The ever-upbeat shiny-headed sidekick and bandleader Paul Shaffer will be giving an intimate talk Wednesday at the Grammy Museum.

The pianist, who first made it big on "Saturday Night Live," will be speaking about his musical career, life working on that little late night show with David Letterman, as well as his new book, "We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga." Shaffer will take questions from the audience, perform a few songs, and sign copies of the book. Perhaps some current events will be addressed.

Shaffer's book is actually quite a delight. Lighthearted, funny, insightful and intentionally disjointed, Paul gracefully jumps from his early days playing classical pieces to the delight of his -- very hip -- parents while in Thunder Bay, Canada, to his more wild nights leading the Blues Brothers band from city to city.

After the jump peek into Shaffer's world as he explains meeting the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll, Bob Dylan. Turns out Mr. Zimmerman's agenda while being the musical act on the Letterman show was definitely not meeting the keyboardist.

Bruce Springsteen to continue exploring classic albums in concert

It was just a week ago that we raved here on Pop & Hiss at the spectacle that was the Bruce Springsteen show at Chicago's United Center. A three-hour epic rock concert with a tasty nugget lodged in the middle: a complete performance of the 1975 classic "Born To Run".

After the show, many in attendance, including yours truly, ranked the concert as their favorite from Springsteen. Apparently The Boss agreed. 

Notes from Chicago: Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' concert

Los Angeles Times blog czar Tony Pierce was in Chicago this past week to meet with the mother ship. While spending time with our Tribune brothers and sisters, Pierce also took in Bruce Springsteen's visit to the Windy City. Pop & Hiss told him to have a Goose Island and enjoy the show, but he threatened to come back to Los Angeles with a blog post. We weren't surprised when it arrived, but Pierce's rant about what constitutes an encore caught us off guard. Here are his thoughts from Springsteen's concert:  

Most Bruce Springsteen shows are special in one way or another, but Sunday night he and his E Street Band rocked the United Center in Chicago with the energy of twentysomethings.

The spirited show, which many in attendance now consider their favorite Springsteen concert (thanks to an informal exit-polling strategy), was based on a bit of the novelty but rooted in the overwhelming power of the veteran group. The concert was said to be just the second time the band has performed its classic 1975 album, "Born to Run," in its entirety. The first performance of the full collection of songs was for a 2008 benefit gig at the quaint Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, N.J.

The soon-to-be 60-year-old singer explained to the sold-out arena that "Born to Run" was the make-or-break record for him and the band. Columbia Records, he said, was unhappy with the sales of his first two records, "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J."  and "The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle," both released in 1973. 

After the explanation, he placed a harmonica to his mouth and the man who decades ago was hailed as the next Bob Dylan led his band through "Thunder Road" followed by the rest of the tracks of what many consider one of the finest rock albums of all time.

Quick takes of the stellar show after the jump.

Ozzy, Korn and more: The scene from the 2009 Sunset Strip Music Festival

For the first time ever, they shut down Sunset Boulevard between San Vicente Boulevard and Doheny Drive for a music festival, and it starred the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne. Rockers Korn and the Donnas were also on the bill, as were goofballs Kottonmouth Kings, LMFAO and Shawyze, who gave the kids something to dance to.

All the legendary Sunset Strip clubs -- the Roxy, the Whisky, the Viper Room, the Cat Club and the Key Club -- were open if you had a $40 wristband. There were vendors serving all kinds of food, beer gardens, and women who wore the exact same stilettos they would have sported if it was a Friday night instead of a Saturday afternoon. Plenty of pictures after the jump.

Fun for free at Spaceland tonight

It's really too bad that Nate Ruess got signed with his band the Format back in 2003, because if he had ended up on "American Idol," he would be the next Kelly Clarkson.

Nate has a voice that is perfect for the nation's biggest TV show and he's only gotten better over the years. His high notes soar and dart and somehow catapult to registers that make it impossible to sing along with. But the music of the Format, and now his new band, Fun, encourages singalongs. Ruess' music is the opposite of emo: it's poppy, hopeful, happy mini-epics that wander every which way and rarely end up where you expected.

The Format released an album for Elektra in 2003 ("Interventions + Lullabies") and self-released a follow-up, "Dog Problems," in 2006. At its heart the band was really a combo of Ruess' superstar vocals with Sam Means' melodic keyboards. Although relatively unplayed on local radio The Format played to sold-out shows at venues like The Avalon and The Mayan (where they filmed a live dvd).

The pair split up and late last year Ruess formed Fun with Andrew Dost of Chicago's art-pop group Anathallo and Jack Antonoff of Steel Train. Their self-released debut offering, "Aim and Ignite," is a spiraling mini-masterpiece evoking all of the best reasons to love Queen and E.L.O.

Wolfmother brings its new lineup, still-retro sound to the Roxy

The Aussie Afros were fully picked out last night on the Sunset Strip as Grammy-award winning rockers Wolfmother played a special show for an upcoming Webisode for Yahoo Music.  The Sabbath-influenced quartet ripped through mostly new material from their upcoming sophomore effort, "Cosmic Egg," due in late October.

Lead guitarist and singer Andrew Stockdale parted ways last summer with founding members Myles Heskett and Chris Ross, and replaced them with a band that still taps the sound of Wolfmother's eponymous 2005 debut  -- frenzied keyboard/bassist Ian Peres even looks a little like Stockdale with a frizzy 'fro to boot.

Whereas Wolfmother doesn't shy away from exploiting its Ozzy-friendly roots, the newer tunes go a step further and nod at Zeppelin from time to time, which didn't seem at all to anger the Roxy crowd, which banged its collective heads freely. Concertgoers really went wild when Stockdale jumped into the front row of the audience with his Gibson SG during the soulful "White Unicorn" off the band's debut.

For a band that's been around 10 years and is only just on the verge of releasing its second U.S. full-length record, it's nice to have them back.

Set list and more photos after the jump:

Pre-sale tix available now for Bob Dylan's fall Palladium dates

Now that legendary songwriter Bob Dylan is about to wrap up a unique tour with John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson in minor league baseball parks (Shea Stadium wasn't on the itinerary, and tonight the trio perform at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas), he has announced several dates for a West Coast tour in more-traditional venues.

Included with stops in Seattle, Portland and Berkeley, the 68-year-old legend will come to Los Angeles unaccompanied with other veteran headliners, but will perform a three-night stand at the Hollywood Palladium in support of his 33rd studio release, "Together Through Life," which debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart this spring.

Tickets are currently in the pre-sale state and require a password, which can easily be retrieved by going to BobDylan.com/#/tour -- or here.

After the jump, a video from the new album...

Hey! The Pixies to kick off a mini 'Doolittle' tour at the Palladium

When the Pixies remind us, as they have today, that their groundbreaking "Doolittle" album is 20 years old, does this mean we can start calling the pre-grunge alternative nation era classic rock? Call it what you will (ed. suggestion: nostalgia), but that record was brilliant and dynamic, and good enough that the Boston quartet plans on surfing that wave of mutilation on a tour across the U.S. and Europe.

Promising to play all of the tracks from the 1989 4AD/Elektra release, as well as the B-sides (think "Weird at My School," "Dancing the Manta Ray" and "Bailey's Walk"), the Pixies will kick off their tour at the recently remodeled Hollywood Palladium. "We wanted to do something special for 'Doolittle's' 20th anniversary," Black Francis said in the band's announcement of the concerts, "and we thought this was a good opportunity to play all of the songs from that album, something we don't normally do at a regular gig."

Although many credit "Doolittle" as being the vehicle that really launched the careers of the Pixies (and subsequent solo projects by Black Francis/Frank Black and Kim Deal), the album didn't spend much time on the U.S. pop charts. Not to be overlooked is the video above created by one of the first YouTube phenoms, Tasha and Dishka of Israel, whose lip-synched tribute to the Doolittle hit "Hey" has been seen more than 27 million times.

Official concert and on-sale dates of the Doolittle Tour after the jump

Rise Against, Rancid play the Forum. Questions ranted.

The Los Angeles Times' blog czar Tony Pierce went to see Rancid and Rise Against on Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood. He came home with more questions than answers, but he also had a wisdom tooth pulled in the afternoon, so take what he says with a grain of salt. We allowed him space to rant below. We're not quite sure if we were allowed to say no.

1. Why was Rancid opening for Rise Against? Sure, the Chicago quartet Rise Against is good, and put on a highly energetic, hard rockin' show. But hasn't Rancid already paid its dues? Isn't "...And Out Come the Wolves" something that will live on as one of the more perfect albums of the '90s? As good as Rise Against is -- especially live -- have they ever released anything comparable to any Rancid album?

2. Why is a punk rock show being held at the Forum in Inglewood? While it's true that the venue used to host great heavy metal shows, classic rock events and even its fair share of pop gigs, has there really been a truly successful punk show there since the Butthole Surfers opened for Nirvana in 1993? Therefore, if an arena is what this event called for, wouldn't the Sports Arena near USC have been a better choice? Hey, it might have even sold out.There were whole rows of seats empty at the Forum, as reflected in the above picture.

The three moments you need to know about in the Beck-Tom Waits conversation [UPDATE]

What do you get when two incredibly creative musical minds sit down to simply talk with no agenda and nothing to hawk? Two guys mostly talking about where they grew up, the lost works of Euripides, and performing live without proper amplification.

Silver Lake's own Beck Hansen has just launched a series on his website "featuring conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction."

Beck's fatal move was choosing Tom Waits as his first guest. Not because Waits isn't much of a conversationalist  --  just the opposite. Once you document a free spirit like Waits riffing without a net, how is Beck going to top that?

In Part 1 of their conversation together, Hansen and Waits provide so many good moments that you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading the whole thing. Beck swears in the conversation that people today are obsessed with "Best Of" lists, and we're not going to argue.

After the jump are the three best moments of their exchange.