Hidden Track Staff

Our regular Thursday fuckfaces are back at it. So, gentlemen, please welcome back to the stage, Destiny and Chartreuse, better known as Rupert & Stan.

Today we’re bringing our ol’ One-Timers feature to Hidden Track, a piece that’s more of a bouillabaisse of rapid fire topics like album and show reviews, new bands, films and downloads. Since we only write one post a week, it’s a way to spew out a lot of what’s been on our minds and headphones in one fell swoop.

One on the Rise
Quintus – The Shape Were In

Recorded at the legendary Levon Helm Studios, this six-song debut E.P. exhibits six Quintus standards of their addictively catchy yet respectable brand of pop song. The Shape Were In demonstrates the mature songwriting of this young quartet (the keyboard player left since penning the name, Quintus) — and most of the tunes include clever sections, interesting changes and well-placed tempo shifts.

Quintus blends unabashed catchiness with a tinge of improvisation in a manner that garners a musical credibility. In terms of comparisons, it’s hard not to hear some Beatles in there, and Ben Folds also comes to mind. Curiously, Quintus’s Myspace band photo is missing frontman and primary songsmith, Reuben Chess. I hate to spread rumors, but you have to question if the suits are pushing him in a different direction. Nevertheless, a wise soothsayer can clearly foresee that big things on the horizon for this group of young, talented musicians.

Take the E.P. for a test drive here, and check out this video of the Quintus boys recording with Levon on the kit after the jump (along with much more)…

The Greyboy Allstars returned to New York’s Nokia Theatre last week for two nights, playing by all accounts much improved shows from last year’s corresponding dates. As you may remember, the 2006 GBA show left us underwhelmed and unimpressed, and our own Chilly Jackwater called it “80 percent smooth jazz.”

But of the six or seven people we’ve spoken with following this two-show run, every single one of them left raving about the band’s fantastic, triumphant return — so after a mediocre 2006, it appears the Greyboys are once again Allstars. And Chilly reported back that Karl Denson must have been named in the Mitchell Report, because his previously questionable muscular physique has dwindled.

Hidden Track’s adorable boyfriend/girlfriend team of Jeremy Gordon and Carla Danca hit the second night for us, and while he snapped some fantastic photos, she added some words, and their gallery follows after the jump…

Our Thursday run-in buddies are back for more…so here are Rupert & Stan from the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes sports blog with an important primer for you.

Congratulations, slacker, you finally formed a band. After weeks of scanning classifieds to find a drummer on Craigslist and Music Mates, the lineup is complete, the repertoire is stocked with a couple sets worth of kickass tunes, and everyone is itching to start playing gigs. Congratulations, you’ve completed the easiest part.

Now for the hard part: coming up with the name. Creating – and more importantly, agreeing upon — a good band name is no easy feat. The name must achieve a delicate balance between humor, wit, and distinct uniqueness. Like any good brand, the name has to permeate people’s brains and last in their memories. It’s gotta be something that strikes a cord, like Passive Rape for a triangle/drums duo.

Ultimately, creating the band name is a big decision, because if things go well, this moniker will be larger than the individuals in the band. In fact, the name should last for years, maybe even decades, and potentially outlive all the band members. Thus, we aim to help you in this difficult task set ahead of you. So read on after the jump, where we have concocted a failsafe three-step process for the naming of a band…

We hope everyone’s enjoying a happy holiday…but HT Grinch Chuck Myers does not. He’s kinda hoping someone falls down and sprains an ankle today. I seen ’em.

I’m not a fan of Christmas. Sure, I like the pretty lights and the attractive women in Santa outfits, but seeing yard after yard filled with glowing plastic manger scenes doesn’t fill my heart with joy. Hell, I’m not even a Christian and I find plastic mangers to be somewhat blasphemous. Maybe I can find an inflatable Lao Tzu to stick in my front yard.

Anyway. Given my tendencies towards Scroogely behavior, I like to spend the holidays surrounded by depressing music. “Fairy Tale of New York” doesn’t usually make it onto my mix CDs, because it’s just too darned happy. Yeah, I can conjure up some bitter sadness if I think of poor Kirsty MacColl getting mowed down by an asshole in a boat as she saved her son, but that’s not really specific to Christmas.

No, the songs that bring a smile to my withered lips are far bleaker than anything a drunk Pogue can conjure. “Lonely Christmas Eve” by Ben Folds is a step in the right direction, but the music isn’t very sulk-worthy. Folds’ ditty about a lubed-up Santa getting stuck in the chimney (“Bizarre Christmas Incident”) puts the “ahhhh” in my Bahhhh Humbug, but he really gets it right on “Brick,” a timeless carol about a yuletide abortion.

Mew’s Christmas rape story, “She Came Home for Christmas,” is a mainstay, even if it is overwrought and schmaltzy. Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” could be titled “Christmas Carol from the Crack Addict Hookers Who Work the Corner By My House,” and Meryn Cadell’s “Cat Carol” still makes me misty-eyed even though the neighborhood stray is living in my basement and pissing on the childhood memories I have stored down there.

These are all great songs to play as I sit in a dark room with a plate of nachos and a worn-out copy of “It’s a Wonderful Life” that plays soundlessly on my vintage VCR. But last year, I discovered* what might be the saddest Christmas song of all. It’s a song that you may have heard, a little tune called “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

No, I’m not shitting you. This is some bleak stuff. Read on to find out why…

It’s time once again to consult the 8 Ball that is Uncle Neddy for his last dabbling in mixology for the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand Seven: “Here are some live tracks from the latter half of this year. Thanks always to the tapers and others who make these great tunes readily available. As usual, these being live recordings, the quality varies, but it’s all good. Here’s to much rockin’ and rollin’ in 2008.”

01 While You Were Sleeping — Elvis Perkins in Dearland: 3 December 2007
02 Pilgrims — Widespread Panic: 29 September 2007
03 The General Specific — Band Of Horses: 6 September 2007
04 Time Travel Is Lonely — John Vanderslice: 22 September 2007
05 Fake Empire — The National: 17 August 2007
06 Trapeze Swinger — Iron and Wine: 29 November 2007

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S FRIDAY MIX TAPE

Our regular Thursday contributors Rupert and Stan from the acclaimed Ghosts of Wayne Fontes blog are back, ready to inject a sports needle into your musical ass…

What, you think we’re not gonna read the comments in our inaugural post? We are certainly not about to let a wiseass remark go unnoticed, particularly one that happens to be right in our wheelhouse. Soiled Dove, we’re granting your request to “compare epic Phish openers to epic leadoff homeruns.”

Okay, not really. That’d be a tough gig, and we’re not about to let the inmates run the asylum. So we’re opening up the parameters a bit, comparing epic openers from a variety of bands to what we’d consider to be their sporting equivalent. There really aren’t that many notable leadoff homeruns in the World Series, nor would we remember them, but hopefully our flex rules will still garner up some street cred.

Genesis Auditorium Theater, Chicago, IL, 11/20/1974 – The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (click here for full video)

The mighty Genesis opened the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour with, of course, the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. It’s the epic tale of the black cloud descending upon Manhattan, sucking the island into overwhelming doom and gloom.

We can only think of one situation suitable to play the sports equivalent of this opener, and it won’t make this blog’s proprietors very happy: the 2004 Boston Red Sox’s epic comeback in the ALCS. The Yankees laid down a colossal collapse, allowing the Red Sox to comeback from the only 3-0 deficit in playoff history. Doom and gloom indeed swept Manhattan that week, and somewhere, at the moment the Sox clinched, Phil Collins…didn’t care.

Read on after the jump for the sports equivalents of Psycho Killer, Mike’s Song, Once Upon a Time in the West and several other hot openers…

Every December our lord and savior Glide Magazine takes the “year end” shit to another level, pollsing artists across the entire music spectrum to find out which albums, performances and/or

With Peter Frampton, Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby and Bernie Worrell taking a lead role at Warren Haynes’ 19th Annual Xmas Jam in lovely Ashevegas, we were a bit unsure whether this year’s charity proceeds would be headed for the Habitat for Humanity coffers as usual or whether they’d already been spent on gallons of prune juice and Oops I Crapped My Pants for the green room.

But our man on the scene tells us the aging rockers brought their best, and combined with Grace Potter, G. Love, Jerry Joseph, Eric McFadden and the most excellent host, the Xmas Jam didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

The hometown Citizen Times has provided plenty of videos and pictures in its yearly wrap-up and in a special Smasheville section, and you can already download most of the concert (see below), but we asked frequent HT commenter and first-time contributor Frank Sturges to put a bow on the Xmas Jam proceedings, and he and his crew gave out the following awards at a ceremony that took place at the Waldorf Astoria earlier today.

Set of the night: Peter Frampton
The joke’s easy, but Frampton really came alive. We got some Humble Pie, a blues jam with Warren, a Motown tune, and most importantly, the sickest one-two punch I’ve ever seen at an Xmas Jam to close the set. A huge Do You Feel Like We Do followed by While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Read on for more awards, photos, setlists and downloads from Xmas Jam…

Our good friend Luke Sacks attended one of Neil Young’s New York concerts last Thursday, and he graciously filed the following front-line report…

Neil Young brought both halves of his genius to the United Palace Theater in New York City on Thursday night with the second of six acoustic/electric shows.

The first 11 songs of the show were just Young, surrounded by a ring of acoustic guitars and flanked by pianos on each side of the stage. He wandered between the three instruments and poured his heart into classics like Harvest and After the Gold Rush, as well as the buried treasure Ambulance Blues.

Photo by GRW95

Playing in front of a rustic-themed set-up with random letters, numbers and lights, Young wailed on his harmonica and filled the venue with his lone acoustic guitar.

Read on for more of Luke’s review, a live video of Cinnamon Girl from the run and some downloadable NYC torrents…

Today begins a regular Thursday column from our friends Rupert & Stan…

It seems Neddy’s Ye Olde Algorithm predicted the future the other day. You see, last Friday’s Mix Tape includes the tune “Welcome, Ghosts” from Explosions in the Sky. Hey, thanks for the welcome, Neddy. We’re psyched to be here.

Ace asked us, Rupert and Stan, from the sports blog, the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes, to contribute a weekly column here on Hidden Track. We’d like to think he thinks we’re kinda funny and insightful, but we think he probably just feels sorry for the readers of our own site who come to read about sports and get 2,000 words about our favorite versions of Harry Hood, Top 101 albums they have never even heard of, and why Phish is like Michael Jordan. Basically, we are a couple music fanatics trapped in a Deadspin world. And we’re here to help.

Thus, we couldn’t be happier to spend some time with y’all every Thursday to chat about some music. Obviously, we’re calling it the “The Story of the Ghosts,” or maybe “SOTG” if you’re into the whole brevity thing. We haven’t really decided the exact direction of the column, but just to give you some idea of where it’s probably headed: We like sincere analysis, dropping a lot of wise-ass comedy and incorporating some odd interview stylings, and we have a bizarre penchant for keeping lists. It’s not uncommon to spend entire workdays hashing out spreadsheets, with elaborate ranking systems, and devising complex mathematical algorithms using a concept known as “averaging” to break down our favorite catalogs of any number of topics.

So that’s us. Since it’s our first day and all, we come bearing gifts. We’re gonna talk about lesser known show, but one that we both agree is nothing short of legendary. The band is Mr. Blotto and this one comes from their annual Chicago festival, Blottopia 8. Read on for more of our first installment…