Hidden Track Staff

EOTO, DJ Logic and a new supergroup, named Agents of Mayhem, made up of Steve Molitz (Phil Lesh & Friends, Particle), Jon Gutwillig (the Disco Biscuits), Michael Travis and Jason Hann (String Cheese Incident, EOTO) and DJ Logic (MMW) performed together on Sunday night at an event called Steal This Ticket. Mike Sherwood attended the gig and filed this report…

Wow! What an awesome time was had down at the Spiegeltent in South Street Seaport on Sunday night. First off, the venue was really cool. Anybody who has the chance to check out Spiegelworld when it comes to your town should definitely go. We entered to find a well-decorated big top tent with a tremendous light rig all around the venue. The music was phenomenal. The night started a little later than anticipated with doors opening almost a full hour and a half later than we were told. Oh well, I knew this was going to be a late night anyway.

DJ Logic warmed things up with about 25 minutes of scratching and house stuff before Michael Travis and Jason Hann joined him onstage. EOTO locked into a quick groove with him before taking over on their own for about 30-45 minutes. If trance is your thing then EOTO should be right up your alley. Even if it isn’t, there is no denying how much fun those two guys are having with this project. There were lots of infectious and danceable grooves from EOTO with some nice peaks to their jams.

Once Barber, Molitz, and Logic took the stage it was on like Donkey Kong. The Agents of Mayhem set was a long exercise in tension/release-untz jamming and was well received by the crowd. There were moments that were jaw dropping. Sadly there were no tapers (although I’d give my left nut to hear a SBD of this, leaked or otherwise). One of the highlights of the night was Barber getting “arrested.” Basically, the production team staged a faux arrest of Barber in the middle of an intense jam. An actual NYPD cop came on stage and demanded Barber’s guitar. He defiantly started to rip in the guys face (the rest of the band was peaking at this point too). After “finally” relinquishing his Becker, Barber gets cuffed and dragged offstage. A bunch of Bisco kids FREAK! Molitz runs around and starts talking to the crowd and telling Trav, Jason, and Logic “Keep playing, we’re not done.” A dark jam ensues prompting the crowd to chant “fuck the police.”

READ ON for more of Mike’s Spiegeltent review…

Last weekend saw the return of RANA at NYC’s Mercury Lounge. We asked our friend Neddy of of the week to share his thoughts on the first two-set RANA show in nearly two years. Without further ado, take it away Ned…

There’s this band that’s been on a “hiatus” of an undetermined length that you may have heard about. Four guys – guitar, bass, drums and keys – who spent many a night making grown men pee their pants with unabashed, blazing rock and roll. A number of their acolytes – the ones who “got it” – have anxiously been awaiting their return, gazing at the stars, charting the planetary positions and slaughtering lambs at the altar of the music gods. Without warning, the signs started popping up like easy-to-read clues in a M. Night Shyamalan movie… was the rockphecy true? Would they return? Then it appeared: a pimple on the face of the NYC music calendar; a big, fat, glorious zit that you could not ignore and that you could not make go away… August 16th, Mercury Lounge… Ph… er, Rana was back, muthafuckas!!

Well, August 16th has come and gone, let’s go and assess the damage, crime scene investigator style. That’s right, it’s an episode of CSI:LES… we’ve got our victim here, mid-30’s, male, pupils fixed and dilated; the ME lists serious pain in all joints, with especially bad swelling in his fist-pumping shoulder and head-banging neck; his shirt is just back from the lab and shows unnaturally large amounts of whiskey on it, which points to either high concentrations of Jameson in his sweat or an unnatural amount of spillage (most likely the latter, brought on by an illicit mix of drinking and dancing); the vic seems dazed and confused, muttering “It isn’t love, it isn’t life, just rock and roll every night!” over and over, better get someone down here for a psych consult; and finally this toxicology report shows incredibly strong doses of Ranarock in his bloodstream… that explains it! READ ON for more…

Last weekend we sent our newest contributor, Tim J. Nelson, to Baltimore for the Third Annual Virgin Mobile Festival. Let’s see what went down in Charm City…

Feeling festive? So many choices: Lollapalooza, now exclusively based in Chicago; Bonnaroo, in rural Tennessee; and Coachella, in the Mojave Desert – these top music festivals offer mucho musical diversity. However, a relatively new festival to the U.S., the Virgin Mobile Festival presented the entire history of rock-n-roll within the last two summers alone. For overall quality, it’s the clear choice and winner this summer.

This year’s acts included the grandfathers of rock Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, The Stooges (with Iggy Pop), and present-day rock giants Foo Fighters, STP, as well as eccentric crowd pleasers Gogol Bordello. And if you’re thinking that’s not diverse enough for your musical mojo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Latin-jazz-rock-flamenco-whatever uber-guitar duo wowed the crowd enough that at least one person (me) was thinking, “OK, that’s worth $97.50 alone.” You get the point. If not: a blistering display of flying fingers across strings plus guitar-body percussion equals WOW! The two only paused a few seconds between each offering – a real highlight. READ ON for more about the Virgin Mobile Festival…

It’s time once again to check in with irreverent mind behind Uncensored Interview’s blog The Shark for another installment of Uncensored Thursdays… Preston from Wild Sweet Orange is right –

Once again it’s time for a special guest to take the reigns of the B List. This week, guitar-maker Andrew Olson of AO Guitars discusses his favorite axes of all-time. AO Guitars makes high-quality instruments for the discerning musician…

This article first ran on January 10, but we liked it so much we’re running it again while we get up to speed this morning after seein’ Wilco last night.

I am a full-on guitar addict — there’s no denying it, and I’m okay with that. It’s cool, however, because my job is guitars. By that rationale, if your work is also your addiction, you win as far as I’m concerned. So when I got the call from Master Scotty B to do this killer column on my top 10 Favorite Guitars, I thought it was going to be a piece o’ cake. The problem is, I’ve been in love with so many guitars over the years that picking 10 is damn near impossible.

I tried to compile actual players’ guitars for this list, as opposed to off-the-wall axes, because they have that certain mojo that gets you fired up and ready to do the power-slide across the stage, ala Pete Townshend or Jables. The ordering is also debatable — depending on what I’m currently listening to, any of these guitars cold be at the top of the list, but the top four (being handmade, one-of-a-kind guitars) really stand out to me due to their inspirations on me and the building of my guitars. Enjoy, and go hug a guitar. Read on for Andrew’s Top 10…

For this week’s B-List, a Scotty/Rupert collaboration, we’ve taken the liberty of handpicking some of the world’s finest locales where the pickin’s are ripe for a hippie festival. Some places are just begging for a few stages, several thousand hippies, and our favorite jambands. Where you ask? I’ll tell you where. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I’m talking about a little place called…

Green Bay: Not only are the fans in green Bay fervid supporters of just about everything, but they are apparently quite skilled in coercing their idols out of retirement. Perhaps they can put those skills to work and convince Kang, Nershi, and crew to come out of retirement for a big festival group scream. You know those guys would be all about the Cheesehead hats.

Reykjavik: Of course the Sigur Ros headliner appeals, but also if the organizers time it right, this festival could exist entirely at night. This serves a dual function: A) the spun folk never have to feel bad for not sleeping over the course of 72 straight hours, because it would really be just one night and B) we all avoid the inevitable embarrassment of returning to work on Monday with 3rd degree sunburn.

Central Park: Self serving perhaps, but how fun would it be to camp out for the weekend in the middle of Central Park with bands set up throughout the horticultural masterpiece? Come on; throw us a bone. A lot of us poor saps in New York don’t have cars, so it’s getting tricky to make it to many of the good festivals without spending multiple thousand dollars. Besides, parking will be a snap for the rest of you.

Fallujah, Iraq: Maybe the Sunnis and Shiites can come together over a game of hacky sack while listening to the latest String Cheese Incident side project. We just want to see Michael Franti say “How ya feelin’, Fallujah?” READ ON…

It’s time once again to check in with irreverent mind behind Uncensored Interview’s blog The Shark for another installment of Uncensored Thursdays… You’d think with a name like Plants and

It’s time once again to check in with irreverent mind behind Uncensored Interview’s blog The Shark for another installment of Uncensored Thursdays… Raise your hand if you don’t have health

As we told you yesterday the Black Crowes recently completed a three-night stand at Philadelphia’s TLA that included rarities, bust outs and most of their greatest hits. We sent Jake