Ryan Dembinsky, Author at Glide Magazine

Tribeca Film Festival 2010 Musical Fare

Ryan Dembinsky April 28, 2010 No Comments

Perusing the handbill for the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, one can’t help but notice the degree of music related content prevalent throughout this year’s festival. From high profile documentaries, to risqué themed narratives, to films with excellent soundtrack material, the Tribeca Film festival provides music-loving film buffs with plenty to ponder seeing.

Since few folks actually have the time and energy to really dig into the festival in great depth, we thought we’d give a brief rundown of some of the compelling content to be on the lookout for as many of these films will surely find their way to wider releases over the course of the coming year.

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage – Already one of the most highly regarded films at the festival regardless of genre, this Rush documentary is garnering some serious praise. From interviews with contemporary heavyweights like Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett, and Jack Black, to heaps of rare live and behind the scenes footage, Rush fans may finally have their defining documentary. By most accounts, this is one of the highlights of the entire festival and a masterpiece for fans of either the band or music films in general.

Last Play at Shea – Set to the music of Billy Joel’s final performance at the storied ballpark in Flushing, Last Play at Shea ties together the history of the stadium, it’s Amazin’ Mets, and one of its most beloved musical performers in what sounds like a pretty touching documentary. Review

READ ON for more musical-themed flicks at the Tribeca Film Festival…

Lost Cubicle Chatter: The Last Recruit

Ryan Dembinsky April 21, 2010 6 Comments

Check in on Wednesday of every week during Season 6 of Lost to share your thoughts, theories, complaints and assessments of the previous night’s episode. Big time SPOILER alert for

Lost Cubicle Chatter: Everybody Loves Hurley

Ryan Dembinsky April 14, 2010 9 Comments

Check in on Wednesday of every week during Season 6 of Lost to share your thoughts, theories, complaints and assessments of the previous night’s episode. Big time SPOILER alert for

Scrapbook: The Grateful Dead at the NYHS

Ryan Dembinsky April 12, 2010 No Comments

Comprised of a sampling of high points from the much larger yet-to-be-opened archive housed at the University of California Santa Cruz, the new Grateful Dead installation at the New York Historical Society contains an unintended irony for its visitors, one whose magnitude multiplied exponentially for jamband fans after the past few weeks. Given the high correlation of Grateful Dead fans and the so-called heirs to their jam throne, Phish, anyone traipsing through the exhibit can’t help but notice the stark contrast in the area that has perhaps changed most (and for the worse) since the proverbial torch pass: buying tickets.

With jam fans currently experiencing the difficulties of procuring ducats to some of this summer’s toughest shows, Phish’s three night run at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, the Grateful Dead exhibit provides fans with a fond taste of how it used to be, as the smallish museum room contains an eyebrow-raising amount of Greek Theater-related swag. From hand-edited drafts of instructions for mail order requests (asking fans to simply write their name and address on a standard index card and send a money order), to a sampling of favorite hand-decorated mail order envelopes, to the letters from Deadheads offering their ideas, advice, and gratitude, the exhibit successfully paints the picture of just how close to home the band kept it.

Other highlights of the exhibit include excerpts from GD vault archivist, Dick Latvala’s notebook complete with his internal dialogue about some of the band’s most legendary shows, a blueprint diagram of the famed Wall of Sound from the ’74 tour, including a full description of its ridiculous cost to transport and maintain ($350,000 to build, $100,000 a month for upkeep), the original letter to the powers-that-be to access the rights to perform at the pyramids in Egypt, and Jerry Garcia’s Rosebud (the gorgeous guitar designed by Doug Irwin). READ ON for more…

Lost Cubicle Chatter: Happily Ever After

Ryan Dembinsky April 7, 2010 8 Comments

In an effort to focus our attention on something besides Phish for a change, we’ve decided at HT headquarters to (hopefully) drum up some good chatter about the final season of the greatest television show in the history of the idiot box. Check in on Wednesday of every week during Season 6 to share your thoughts, theories, complaints and assessments of the previous night’s episode. Big time SPOILER alert for anyone didn‘t watch yet.

Synopsis: As always, we teamed up with the Joker from Coventry for this week’s setlist and recap. Side note: Joker ran a reprint of his epic LOST/Phish Tees if anyone missed out the first time around. Check ’em out.

Geronimo Jackson, April 6, 2010
Mini Acoustic Set (On Island): Desert Island > Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits > You Must Be Out of Your Mind > Strange Powers (1)

Set w/Full Band (Off Island): Wolfman’s Brotha (2) > No Surprises (3), Whiskey In The Jar (4), Drowned (5) > Penny Lane (6), Guest List (7) > Mike’s Song (8) > Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (9) > The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face (10)

E (On Island): Help! (11) > Break Ya Neck (12),

(1) All Magnetic Fields covers; Desmond and Widmore
(2) Phish; Music only, Desmond stares into mirror
(3) Radiohead; Desmond and Claire
(4) Metallica; Desmond and Widmore, second verse Desmond and Charlie
(5) The Who, Charlie and Desmond
(6) The Beatles, Charlie and Desmond
(7) The Eels, Desmond and Eloise Hawking
(8) Phish; riff and tease, “Trapped In Time and I Don’t Know What To Do” lyrics repeated
(9) U2, Desmond and Daniel Faraday
(10) Roberta Flack; Desmond and Penny
(11) Beatles; Desmond and Widmore
(12) Busta Rhymes; Sayid

Epic One Liner of the Week: “There’s always a choice, Brotha.”

READ ON for this week’s discussion points and more…

Friday Mix Tape: Live Phish Highlights

Ryan Dembinsky April 2, 2010 10 Comments

We’re giving this week’s mix tape the treatment with an all-business mix of some of the phinest moments of the Live Phish series (Lala has the first 20). Kicking off,

Lost Cubicle Chatter: The Package

Ryan Dembinsky March 31, 2010 10 Comments

Geronimo Jackson, March 30, 2010

Set I (Off Island): Mo Money, Mo Problems (1), Hardest Button To Button (2) > Money, Love and Change (3), Money That’s What I Want (4), Tweezer > Free > Punch (Shot) You In The Eye (5) > Knocked Up (6)

Set II (On Island): Commando (7) Runnin (from) The Devil (8) > You Can’t Talk (9), Garden (10), White Room (11), War Pigs (12)

Encore: Wolfman’s Brotha (13)

(1) Notorious B.I.G; Jin and Sun, Korean Lyrics
(2) White Stripes; Jin and Sun
(3) Trey Anastasio; Jin and Sun
(4) Barrett Strong; Keamy
(5) Phish Medely; Tweezer had “Jin stepped into the freezer” lyrics, Sayid,
Sun, Jin, Mikhail
(6) Kings of Leon; Sun
(7) Ramones
(8) Van Halen; Sun and FLocke
(9) David Bowie; Sun, Korean Lyrics
(10) Pearl Jam; Sun and Jack
(11) Cream; Jin
(12) Black Sabbath; Flocke and Widmore
(13) Phish, first time Desmond performed on the island since The Economist,
38 shows ago.

READ ON for this week’s epic one liner and discussion points…

Tracks of the Trade: Peter Katis

Ryan Dembinsky March 26, 2010 6 Comments

Today, we’re kicking off a new column of occasional periodicity here at Hidden Track called Tracks of the Trade, whereby we swap stories with some of the more interesting folks in the music industry, the producers. These folks are the sonic equivalent of surgeons; charged not only with the careful dissection of dozens of tiny interactive pieces and ensuring their cohesive functionality, but also developing strong emotional bonds with their patients (often mental), offering varying degrees of bedside manner, and even sharing potentially critical advice.

To kick off the series in style, we invited one of the most prolific producers/mixers in music today, Peter Katis, to drop by to chew the fat. Peter Katis has collaborated on countless modern classics by the likes of the National, Frightened Rabbit, Interpol, Fanfarlo, Tokyo Police Club, Jonsi (Sigur Ros), and The Get Up Kids.

The “Sound” of “Music”

In thinking about our little surgeon analogy, in a likeness to the way we all go about choosing a doctor, it’s important to understand the mannerisms of a producer. After all, you have to like the person as much as the work. Specific to music, different producers take different positions as to where their role fits in with the musicians.

“I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum than say someone like a Rick Rubin. He really focuses on the songwriting aspect, the arrangements, the words, whereas to me, those things like lyrics for a band, that’s their own thing. I really don’t feel comfortable messing with that.” READ ON…

Lost Cubicle Chatter: Ab Aeterno

Ryan Dembinsky March 24, 2010 4 Comments

Geronimo Jackson, March 23, 2010

Setlist: Campfire (1), Isabella (2) > Somebody Get Me A Doctor (3) > Killing (In The Name of) (4) > Folsom Prison Blues (5) > Slave to The Traffic Light (6) > This Is Hell (7) > Cortez The Killer (8), Isabella > Unbroken Chain > Friend of the Devil (9), Red Red Wine (10) > Got a Job (11) > Live Forever (12), Ghost (13) > Unchained Melody (14)

E) Sympathy for the Devil (15)

All songs with Richard Alpert and Special Guests
(1) Wu Tang Clan
(2) Jimi Hendrix
(3) Van Halen
(4) Rage Against The Machine
(5) Johnny Cash
(6) Phish; Changed words to “Slave to Magnus Hanso”
(7) Elvis Costello
(8) Neil Young
(9) Grateful Dead; Man in Black
(10) UB40; Jacob
(11) Smokey Robinson; Jacob
(12) Oasis; Jacob with I Wouldn’t Be a Toys R Us Kid tease
(13) Phish; Hurley, Isabella & Richard
(14) Special Guests Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze
(15) The Rolling Stones; Jacob and Man In Black

READ ON for this week’s epic one liner and discussion points…

Lost Cubicle Chatter: Recon

Ryan Dembinsky March 17, 2010 4 Comments

In an effort to focus our attention on something besides Phish for a change, we’ve decided at HT headquarters to (hopefully) drum up some good chatter about the final season

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