Shut down the Internet cafes — it looks like Pete Townshend’s coming to town. In what’s become the most buried story of the new year, the former Who guitarist joined
Warning: Do not start playing with this if you have actual work to do. (SFW)
The highlight of my November in 2006 wasn’t the supple turkey breast or the Democratic takeover of Congress. Nope, that honor’s reserved for one half of The Duo: Marco Benevento set up his keyboard and toy shop for five Wednesday shows at the now-defunct Tonic, inviting a slew of superb musicians — musicians’ musicians, really — to join him for stellar improvisation and clever instrumentation.
Marco‘s at it again: Tonight, Benevento kicks off his five-Thursday Januarystand at the new and improved (paint job’d and floor wax’d) Sullivan Hall. All five shows are packed with fantastic guests, and while we can’t fluff this residency enough, the truth is that every word of anticipatory praise will show itself to be well-deserved. Benevento will be joined by members of The Slip, Sir Joe Russo, Steven Bernstein, Bobby Previte, Stanton Moore, Billy Martin and many more guests.
It all leads up to the January 31st Release Party for Marco’s new album, Invisible Baby (he’ll be joined by Andrew Barr and Reed Mathis that evening). And as part of our very special contest, we’re giving away one free pair of tickets to every single night of the residency, and a five-night pass that gets you and a loved one inside. Now, since we took our sweet-ass time with this, we’ve gotta work quickly. So the first commenter gets the tickets for tonight.
As for the five-night pass and the other shows, all you’ve gotta do is leave a comment telling us who’s your favorite keyboardist/pianist of all-time, and if your tastes match up with ours, you’ve got entry. Our favorite answer will get the (Corbin Dallas) multipass, and we’ll give out the remaining individual shows to our next favorites. Hurry up and enter now, ‘cuz we’re on borrowed time here.
Stephen Malkmus and his equal-opportunity band of Jicks will release Real Emotional Trash on March 4th (Matador Records). That, we already knew. But Pitchfork today has advanced the story, letting us know that two weeks after the release, Malkmus & Co. will be hitting the pavement, er, road. Ah fuck, I just broke my New Year’s resolution of no more bad music puns. Read on for dates…
Like Deacon Jones’ sacks and Bill Russell’s blocks, I didn’t keep my live show-going totals as an official statistic this year for the first time since the early aughts. But, conservatively, I saw probably no less than 106 and no more than 147 bands in 2007, many of which made my smile both downstairs and up, and only a few of which made me want to go home and cut myself.
We’ve already offered up our comprehensive Year in Review, and yesterday we posted our 10 Favorite Albums of 2007. So as we continue our late look-back at the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand Seven, you’ll find my 10 favorite live performances of the year after the jump. We start out with a hint of old-time nostalgia — the triumphant returns of Stevie and Levon — but I’m pretty damn thrilled by how many bands on this list I saw for the first time just last year. And only one prototypical jamband? Fuck, man, what a hipster doofus I’ve become.
But whatever your pleasure, here’s to another wonderful year of music, one that’ll consistently bring out the uncontrollable smile in you, one that’ll make you mumble to yourself while the lights blind you and the smoke gets in your eyes…
The University of Georgia absolutely crippled overmatched Hawaii in last night’s Sugar Bowl, the Bulldogs making the islanders look more like Rainbow Flag-Waving Nancy Boys than Rainbow Warriors (though that’d
Like all well-intentioned abstinence pledgers, we wanted to wait. Some call us ‘lazy,’ others call us ‘prudent,’ and our mothers call us ‘special.’
But when it comes down to it, posting any kind of Best Of list after only 11 months seems rather hasty and foolhardy — everyone would’ve been sorry had Radiohead surprisingly released another kickass, unannounced album on December 31st, after their lists had emerged. So on the heels of our comprehensive and grandstanding 2007 Year in Review, we offer up another year-end superlative for you to devour on this feels-like-a-Monday Wednesday.
After the jump you’ll find my 10 favorite albums of the past year, and at this juncture I must stress the word ‘favorite,’ which is not necessarily interchangeable with ‘best’ (though I do adore myself so much that I may have deluded myself into thinking my personal faves were indeed the best — I also masturbate exclusively in front of a mirror to videos of myself, but that’s not important right now).
Some are obvious, but some will surprise you, and I hope my explanations make more sense to you than they did to me when I wrote ’em with a wicked hangover. As always, we want to know what you think, so weigh in with your thoughts or suffer stiff backhands to the face, neck, breast, chest and head…
It’s only fitting that the band generating the biggest industry buzz in 2007 would also make the biggest splash on New Year’s Eve. Clay Aiken-Yorke and the rest of the
“Is that the guy with the old balls?” –Julian McGrath, Big Daddy
That may have been the most asked question over the last 12 months. For the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand Seven will long be remembered as the ultimate cash grab: Genesis, Van Halen, The Police, The Sex Pistols, Crowded House, and the pulse-having members of Led Fucking Zeppelin all rose from the ash(tray)s for long-coveted reunions, and we’re guessing all the little pills floating around backstage came from doctors prescriptions and licensed pharmacists instead of sketchy backstage characters.
As for your friendly Internet sherpas here at Hidden Track, we’ll look back fondly on our first full year in action, a period that saw us publish 1,127 posts — not bad for two guys draped in business casual collecting fortnightly pay-stubs. We tried to inform and entertain and stay up with the ridiculous nature of the music business that so often frustrates but makes our highs possible. Although, we really just hope that this site over the past year provided a modicum of escapism for your workaday world.
The year began ominously, with news breaking on January 3rd that former 70 Volt Parade lead singer Trey Anastasio had heroin in the car during his late-2006 arrest in Whitehall, New York. And as it continued, we had a little fun with the New Deal’s drummer being a SciUNTZologist. We attracted some serious vitriol with our Top 10 Reasons We’ll Miss String Cheese Incident. We poked a smartass stick at moe. for offering to write my company a jingle a la Full House Uncles Joey and Jesse. We asked whether Dave Clark was fucking Jann Wenner in exchange for Hall of Fame votes. But mostly we just added our voice to the growing cacophony of the world wide webosphere.
So read on after the jump for a full recap of 2007 and The Year That Was…
It’s been dead around here lately. It’s been dead everywhere lately. Scotty’s in Chicago for the Umphrey’s McGee New Year’s run, but I’m so far out of the music mindset
