A few weeks ago, a group calling themselves People For A Compressed Trey pooled their resources on Phantasy Tour’s message board to send Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio a vintage Ross Compressor. These folks made the decision that Trey’s tone was cutting it anymore and decided to tell the legendary guitarist what he should sound like.

Phish lyricist Tom Marshall delivered Anastasio the pedal and shared the following hand written response from Big Red…

It’s good to see Trey’s still got a sense of humor. Time will tell if the guitarist actually uses the device or continues to trust his own instincts on his sound. In all seriousness, good job PTers. Way to use that place for something positive, kinda. Here’s what Tom Marshall posted on PT…

it couldn’t have gone better!

Trey loves it, and he will use it. He was extremely appreciative as you can see by his note!

He said: “people would be hard-pressed to find an equivalent story in music history” He is excited and happy that people actually noticed the missing Ross, and is putting it back in his rig!

Check out the photos, and I will be back on tonight at 9pm for a final discussion and details.

Tom

Wow…

I’d better post before 499!

Actually, I just want to say again — Trey really is going to use it in his rig. He really was very touched by the gesture. He enjoyed the card and laughed looking at some of your PT names, and at the dinosaur on the back. We both feel that this is one of the best fan/band moments in history.

Good job PT and everyone who contributed.

What a cool day!

Tom

Meanwhile, the boards are abuzz with rumors of a Summer tour announcement coming soon. We haven’t heard anything definative but Coventry claims the band will play three nights at Denver’s Pepsi Center in April and five nights at Red Rocks during the summer. Todd from Jamtopia thinks June 26 and 27 are set for Alpine Valley. Stay tuned.

With the imminent return of Phish in March it makes sense that there would be some late-night shows popping up in the area to cash in on the scores of people that will be descending upon the greater Hampton, VA area. The first act to recognize this opportunity is guitar-slinger Steve Kimock who will play at the NorVa on Saturday, March 7 - in nearby Norfolk with a two set show starting at midnight. Kimock will be joined by Melvin Seals and other special guests to help celebrate the 5th anniversary of Passion Presents. Tickets are currently on sale with a portion of the proceeds going to the Rex Foundation.

If you’re not going to be in and around Hampton, VA that weekend, than maybe you’ll be able to make it to one of these recently announced tours…

• Nostalgia Alert: Joe Cocker heads out for a spring tour (begins: 04/17)
• Michael Franti & Spearhead will be asking “How Ya Feeling” in a city near you (begins: 01/28)
• Alt.country singer Lucinda Williams lines up an 11 city run (begins: 02/19)
• The Gaslight Anthem hit the road for a headlining tour (begins: 03/18)
• Indie-soul-rockers the Delta Spirit hit the road (begins: 02/04)
• Outlaw country singer Hank Williams III puts together a February jaunt (begins: 02/15)

Finally, with the advance sell out of their Bowery Ballroom show on the 17th, HT faves Frightened Rabbit have added a special additional NYC stop on February 2 at Le Poisson Rogue that will come at the end of their upcoming tour. The special show will be an an all request, acoustic affair - so grab your tickets now, before they’re all gone.

I love snowboarding and I love Widespread Panic, so when Panic announced they were taking New Year’s Eve on the road to play two shows at the Pepsi Center in Denver, CO I knew I had to be there. To channel the band’s famous Sit and Ski run in 1996, I headed to Breckenridge to snowboard a few days before the shows to get my adrenaline up and have a little fun. I was so close to the Mile High Room in Breckenridge, which led me to start thinking about the good old days when the boys would play every song I was familiar with and enjoyed over the course of two sets.

[All photos by Ian Rawn of Playindead.org and atlantaphotog.com]

I headed to these shows with my girlfriend and decided the most efficient way for us to see as many shows as possible, was to go with a package deal at the Crowne Plaza which included a room at the Crowne, wristbands for after-shows, a shuttle for New Year’s, and a private after-show through Sage and Spirit Travel. I couldn’t pass this up.

When we arrived at the hotel, it was obvious that no one else passed it up either. This was more than the usual hippie hotel as there were dreadlocks, vending, girls in patchworks, patchouli, dogs and a couple other familiar scents.

We got to the Crowne Plaza on the 29th, ready for the after-show party with the Everyone Orchestra at Cervantes in Denver. The show was amazing. The Colorado hospitality was like none I had experienced in a long time. During the show, three people were painting in the audience, which was very cool. Hippies were everywhere and generosity abound. The show was going strong when I left at 2:00 AM and I heard it went on until five in the morning. However, I had two more nights of shows and this 31-year-old body doesn’t quite bounce back like it used to.

READ ON for the rest of Brent’s review of Panic NYE in Denver…

Considering all of the Hidden Track staff put our blood, sweat and tears into this site for little reward it’s very nice to get some recognition. This little blog that could, has been named one of the finalists for the 2008 Weblog Awards’ Music Blog category. We’re up against the biggest names in the biz, most of which are run by full-time paid staffs including Stereogum, Idolator, I Guess I’m Floating, Electroqueer and My Mood Is Music.

If you appreciate what we do here - or just like to root for the underdog - please head over to the voting page and cast your one-click vote for Hidden Track as Best Music Blog. You can place a vote once every 24 hours so keep going back to vote everyday until January 13. We’re very lucky to have a loyal audience and we’d love if you guys can vote for HT.

As we previously declared 2009 is shaping up to be The Year Of The Boss - with his latest E Street Band backed album - Working on a Dream - hitting stores later this month, a Super Bowl halftime performance in Tampa as well as possible inauguration and Bonnaroo appearances in the works.

With the countdown to the disc at less then three weeks away The Boss has unleashed his second music video for Life Itself. The melancholy, acoustic love song features Bruce and wife Patti Scialfa performing in studio…

As an added bonus you can also download the song from Amazon for free for one week only, along with a contest for a chance to see Springsteen at Super Bowl XLIII. So what are you waiting for? Head on over now.

More Bruce:

• My Lucky Day - Music Video
• Working On A Dream NFL Highlights Video
• Bruce Springsteen Super Bowl Commercial

After a nasty case of either pneumonia or the boogie woogie flu that led to the cancellation of a number of tour dates, Ween vocalist Aaron Freeman has just announced the rescheduled dates for his Gene Ween Band project. Gener, guitarist Scott Metzger, bassist Dave Dreiwitz and drummer “Sir” Joe Russo plan to hit Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on February 7 before heading to Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live on February 12. The mini-tour concludes at NYC’s Highline Ballroom on February 26. Tickets are onsale now for the Highline Ballroom gig. Get ‘em before Gener’s Gone.

[Originally Published 07/01/2008]

We enter an intermission in our bi-weekly search for the ever elusive Hidden Flick, and look at films that were once praised but have since been somewhat forgotten. As we walk up to the ethereal snack bar and pile up on the keg-sized Popcorn, boxes of Raisinettes, Red Vines, SnoCaps, Peanut M&M’s (Jesus, take it easy, fatso), Goobers, and 99-ounce Diet Cokes (trying to cut back a little?), we ponder yesteryear’s sublime cinematic pearl.

This installment of our Intermission column—appearing every ten issues if one is either an accountant, an obsessive fan, or prone to keep track of these mathematical things—will focus on the 1979 coming-of-age film Breaking Away, based in Bloomington, Indiana, and featuring a squadron of snotty college dorks racing each other on steroid-enhanced bikes, while another quartet of less-than-privileged town folks—sons of the almighty “Cutters,” limestone quarry workers in Indiana who helped build the very university in which they occasionally drive by and mock the Richie Riches—ponder their next step as they move away from the warm comfort of high school and look ahead into the abyss that is one’s future when colleges aren’t exactly knocking on your SAT door.

Breaking Away was the little film that could as the 1970s came to a close. The film was a winner before a shot had been printed as it featured an Academy Award-winning script by Steve Tesich, ace casting of future stars-to-be Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Dennis Christopher while also amassing a stellar supporting cast of seasoned veterans: Paul Dooley—who played the coolest, most realistic dad in cinematic history—Barbara Barrie, who was humor, warmth and pathos-personified, and Bad News Bears veteran Jackie Earle Haley, the cool kid who was only 3 feet tall in that baseball film (O.K. I exaggerate. He was 2’10”), but hey, he could hit a ball 400 feet, smoke a pack of Marlboros (it WAS the 70s), date that hot chick that had the hair-wings blow-dried just right, ride a killer motorcycle, and score tickets to the Stones show at the heady age of 12.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick: Breaking Away…

Pavement - Gold Soundz (Live 1994)

We’ll be updating this list of New Year’s Eve Concert downloads throughout the week and converting some of the FLACs to MP3 files for your iPod…

Bonerama - City Limits - Delray Beach, FL

• DAUD FLACs, MP3s, STREAM

Brothers Past - The Note - West Chester, PA

• DAUD FLACs, MP3s, STREAM

Clutch - The Orbit Room - Grand Rapids, MI

• DAUD FLACs

Deep Banana Blackout - Stage One - Fairfield, CT

• DAUD FLACs

Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi’s Soul Stew Revival - Fox Theatre - Atlanta, GA

• DAUD FLACs
• DAUD FLACs, MP3s, STREAM

READ ON for New Year’s Eve concert downloads from Widespread Panic, My Morning Jacket, Gov’t Mule, New Mastersounds and over 20 other artists…

For three nights, at the end of 2008, a six piece band from Stillwater, New Jersey held court at Portland’s Aladdin Theater. The imaginative music machine that is Railroad Earth descended on the Rose City for a sold out three night stand, bringing along hundreds of fans from around the country to dance and sing along, reconnecting with other, like minded RRE fans (they refer to themselves as ‘Hobos’) in a deadhead-like, brotherly manner.

For starters, I met up with John and his new camera, from Tacoma. The camera was a Christmas present (Duh, it’s December thirtieth). Anyway, while we chat away, up comes Howie, from Brooklyn. He exchanges hugs while changing his shirt. It may be cold and rainy outside, but Howie is going to get tank top warm in the front row tonight. There was Marv and L.T. from Ventura, California, Sam from Nevada City, Nevada, Kurt from Nampa, Idaho. Frank was from outside Denver, Arvada I think he said. Jack and her boyfriend Will came all the way from Butte, Montana.

I was surrounded by visitors. Tourists. Tourists with cameras and cell phones and changes of clothing. I asked myself, “When did the Aladdin become a vacation destination?”

Apparently, it becomes a destination spot when Railroad Earth put down three days worth of roots. Known for their wizard like mastery of their instruments as well as their ability to improvise and accentuate each others talents, RRE dedicated this particular run as a New Years Celebration of Land, Sea and Air. Three themed, multi-set nights of world class Americana, roots/rock/bluegrass/jazz delivered in the cozy confines and wonderful acoustics of the Aladdin Theater.

READ ON for more of A.J.’s thoughts on RRE @ the Aladdin…