Archive: 2010

We woke up to find a fantastic Christmas present from Trey Anastasio and Live Phish under our virtual tree this morning. If you head over to LivePhish.com, you can download MP3s featuring most of Trey Anastasio and the Scorchio Quintet’s marvelous performance from November 18th at the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, NJ for free. Classic […]

If we learned anything from 2010, it was that both bands and fans still love the trend of covering classic albums in their entirety. For those that find themselves in and around the great state of Georgia over the next week and a half, we thought we’d point you in the direction of some special […]

For the first time in our history, the Hidden Track staff has put together a list of ten items for the rabid music lover in your life. These are all items with the HT stamp of approval and if we don’t own ’em, we wish we did.  So let’s get down to business, ’cause frankly – if you haven’t started shopping yet you’re going to need all the help you can get…

HT Suggests: Logitech Squeezebox Radio

Why You’d Want It: This all-in-one music player allows you to listen to SiriusXM, Pandora, Rhapsody, a whole host of other services, thousands of internet radio stations and any music files you throw at it in any room of your house – no computer required. All you need is a wi-fi connection and you’re golden.

The Squeezebox is the same size as a clock radio and is about as easy to use as it gets once you get past the annoying initial installation. We had a chance to play around with a unit and we loved being able to switch from hearing about the hot stove on sports radio station WFAN to listening to Howard Stern interview Billy Joel on Sirius to streaming Miles Davis’ All Blues over Pandora in just a few short clicks of the click wheel. There’s a handy program guide that makes finding new stations a snap and the color display tells you everything you need to know about what you’re listening to including all the track information from Sirius/XM.

Terrestrial radio might be dying, but the Squeezebox shows that internet and satellite radio are where it’s at for a ridiculously wide variety of listening options.

Grab It At: Amazon.com for $149.99

READ ON for more of HT’s First Annual Holiday Gift Guide…

Robert Platn will headline the 2011 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The lineup also features Emmylou Harris and The Decemberists. The 38th annual event takes place June 16-19 at Telluride Town Park in Telluride, Colo.  The 2011 fest will feature a group listed as the Telluride House Band featuring Sam Bush, Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, […]

R.E.M.’s new album Collapse Into Now is set for release for March 8th. Collapse Into Now, on Warner Bros., was produced by Jacknife Lee who also helmed the band’s 2008 album, Accelerate. Recorded at New Orleans’ Music Shed and Berlin’s Hansa Studios, Collapse Into Now features a few high-profile notables on the guest list, such […]

On her most recent album Ithaca, Paula Cole often sings about the process of homecoming, using the Greek myth of Odysseus and his ten-year sojourn away from home as a parallel for her album. The title, as well as the music on the album itself, is deeply personal, denoting upheaval, discord and eventual calm. While this comparison between her journey and Odysseus’ is especially apt, it can be extrapolated further to describe pretty much the way Paula Cole writes music.

Although I have never spent any considerable length of time in the South, Mike Farris all but assures me that the stories are true: The first question people often ask is “Which church do you attend?” and the second is “Which team do you root for?”’"Because up in the Northeast it’s not that big a deal. But down South? Oh my God, it’s all about your Alabama Crimson Tide fans, and then it’s NASCAR…and they eat, breathe, sleep, and die of loyalty to a jersey, you know? A lot of that—your salvation and who you root for—sometimes goes hand-in-hand. So it’s a different world down here, but it’s my home!”

Last night in San Francisco, the Black Crowes wrapped up the Say Goodbye to the Bad Guys tour at The Fillmore by treating fans to five Rolling Stones covers to end the show including a four-song encore. Fittingly, The Last Time was the final song since the band will now start an “indefinite hiatus” and […]

Prince’s Welcome 2 America tour continued over the weekend with performances in the New York City area. For Saturday’s show at MSG, Prince welcomed old collaborator Sheila E to the stage to perform U Got The Look and the percussion wiz also threw down on the Love Bizarre encore. The Purple One packed the stage […]

Today we continue our look back at the year that was with a list of 10 Great Musicians We Lost in 2010. We’ll feel the loss of these innovative artists for years to come and we wanted to pay our respects once more.

1. Captain Beefheart (1941 – 2010)

Playlist: Six-Part BBC Documentary

Don “Captain Beefheart” Van Vilet, rock legend and artist, died from complications from multiple sclerosis last Friday. Captain Beefheart was an experimental musician who never conformed to anyone’s standards except his own right up until the time he left the industry in 1982 to focus on creating visual art. High school classmate Frank Zappa saw Van Vilet’s brilliance early on and signed the Captain to his Straight Records. Zappa produced the seminal double-album Trout Mask Replica in 1969, which landed the number 58 slot on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the 500 Best Albums of All-Time.

READ ON for ten more talented musicians who we miss already…