Scott Bernstein

For the past few years, any news from the Ween camp has been few and far between. Finally, The Mighty Boognish has awoken, and we’re about to get our fill of brown. Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo published an exciting update on the band’s website. First, Deaner gave an update on Ween’s new album:

We’ve been in the studio the past couple of months with our producer Andrew Weiss recording our new album. It is going to be an amazing record. I’m very skeptical when anyone makes claims about their new music so I’ll just say that I can’t wait for the album to be released. We have a few more songs to record and we will hopefully be finished with the tracking by the time our gigs start at the end of the month. We started out with 50 or 60 demos and whittled it down to around 20 songs. We recorded the album to 24 track 2 inch tape so it sounds the way music was meant to be heard.

As if the prospect of the first Ween studio album in four years didn’t get me excited enough, news of an archival release (on DVD, too) made ‘it’ move.

Check it out after the jump, as well as summer tour plans and more pics…

The Allman Brothers Band concluded another epic run at the Beacon Theater last night. And just when you thought they had run out of possible guests, they bring out a

Major news from the Drive-By Truckers camp: Jason Isbell has left the band, and the Truckers will finish their tour with John Neff on guitar. Isbell was a big part

Umphrey’s McGee‘s Andy Farag has had quite the week. On Monday the band sang the national anthem at U.S. Cellular Field for the Chicago White Sox home opener. Tuesday UM released their latest album, The Bottom Half. Tonight and tomorrow, Andy and his bandmates head to the Murat Theater in Indianapolis to record a live album.

The Hidden Track Baseball Preview moves into the late innings as we catch up with Andy to discuss his beloved White Sox, as well as this weekend’s shows:

Scott Bernstein: How was your performance at the White Sox’s season opener?

Andy Farag: It was great man. I got there like an hour earlier than we were supposed to be there so I could take it all in. We probably sang our best anthem to date. There was a flyover, so we had to time our singing. We had to sing it at the same tempo they timed it at. It was perfect: literally two seconds after we were done this jet came screaming over our heads.

SB: The outcome wasn’t so great in that game, huh? Contreras didn’t look so hot.

AF: No, he lasted two innings and just left everything over the plate. The Indians are a good offensive team and they took advantage of us, that’s for sure.

Read on for more of Scott’s interview with Andy Farag…

Wilco has announced some North American dates in June at some of the best venues in the country. The Pines in Northampton is one of the coolest places I’ve ever

For this week’s edition of The B List, we turned to a longtime friend of Hidden Track, the man that coined our tagline “My Band Can Beat Up Your Band.” But in addition to his sloganeering prowess, our man Ginz has an eclectic taste in music, and today he shares one of those tastes with us. Take it away Ginz…

Most people know Weird Al Yankovic as the guy that parodied “Beat It” back in the ’80s. But Weird is much, much more than that: He is an artist who just completed his 13th studio album and is about to embark on a 40-plus city U.S. tour. Yes, Al’s claim to fame is his parodies — you know you hit it big when Al parodies you, even Coolio — but his real genius comes out in his original songs.

Weird will often write in a certain genre for his originals. Sometimes it may be country, polka, punk or even in the “style of an artist” to get the feel, so much so, that you may swear you have heard that song before. So without further ado, I present the Top 10 Original Weird Al songs. Enjoy these videos I unearthed, from whatever the devil that place is called that host all the videos that you put up.

Read on for Ginz’s B List of the 10 best Weird Al originals…

I was expecting to head out of town on Saturday night when my plans suddenly changed. And since I was already in Manhattan, I decided to check out Railroad Earth at Irving Plaza with a few good friends. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and some basic inquiries about the band led me to believe they were a bluegrass outfit. A bluegrass band from New Jersey sounds about as appealing as Northern Barbecue, but in both cases, seeing is truly believing.

In contrast to last week’s Tea Leaf Green concert at the same venue, Railroad Earth went on very early. I arrived at the venue at 9:40 and the band was already on stage. When I walked up the stairs at the soon-to-be renamed Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza, I quickly noticed the crowd was much bigger than I had expected and much more into the band than I expected. Many people came from out of town, and there didn’t seem to be many newbs in the crowd besides me. The energy all around me was contagious, and I started dancing along with everyone else to the grassrock sounds of Railroad Earth.

Read on for more pictures and thoughts from the RRE show…

This Internet thing is an amazing source for free music. Not only can you download sick audio of almost any live concert you want, there’s also plenty of video torrents for the taking as well. This week’s Grousing The Aisles takes a look at four great DVDs that you can download right now, free of charge…

Bob Dylan and The Band Compliation DVD:

In 1969, Bob and the boys combined forces for a gig at the Isle of Wight festival. Recently someone uploaded a compliation of rare footage from the festival, as well as some special added bonuses. The beginning of the DVD features Dylan’s performance on The Johnny Cash Show, before jumping into the Dylan/Band set from the festival. The Band plays an amazing emotional performance of The Weight before Bobby joins them to hit some of his songs. I wish the footage was a little crisper, but in this case, we takes what we can gets.

The added bonus at the end of this DVD might just be my favorite part of the disc. It features footage of The Band playing four songs from the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh from 1970 that has recently been circulating on YouTube. Video of The Band from this point in their career is rare as fuck, so it is nice to have the best quality footage available on DVD. Read on for more Grousing…

When Marc Brownstein dictated the history of Darrell Rasner’s career to me, I knew he was an extremely knowledgeable baseball fan.

The Disco Biscuits’ bass player grew up in New York City cheering on his beloved Bronx Bombers. Our Hidden Track Baseball Preview continues, as Brownie was kind enough to share some thoughts on the upcoming Yankees’ season, as well as his love for the popular rock band Phish.

Scott Bernstein: What do you think of the moves that our beloved Yankees made in this past offseason?

Marc Brownstein: Great moves. [GM Brian Cashman] had to get rid of Sheffield and Johnson, and now it’s time to get rid of A-Rod. I love A-Rod, but his head is fucked up. He is the most talented player on the team, but if he can’t deal with media circus, it’s better for him and us if he leaves.

SB: What are your thoughts on the Yankee pitching staff as we enter the season?

MB: I love having Pettitte back — you just know he is going to perform. I also love the young pitchers like Rasner, [Jeff] Karstens, and [Brian] Bruney…especially Bruney. How can you not like Bruney?

SB: Is it hard to follow the team from the road?

MB: Everytime the Yankees won the World Series I was on tour, which was tough for me. I watch pretty much every game either on MLB.TV or on television. If we are within 300 miles of New York City, I tune in to 770 and listen to the game on the radio.

Read on for more of this classic Bernstein vs. Brownstein baseball face-off…

Today is finally opening day for most of the teams in baseball, and the first pitches have been thrown. The Hidden Track Baseball Preview rolls on, and today we discuss the Boston Red Sox with the leader of the Ryan Montbleau Band.

We reached Ryan in the studio, where he is recording a new album with his five-piece band. Montbleau, a native of Peabody, Massachusetts, was initiated into Red Sox Nation upon birth. In this interview, Ryan shares his thoughts about two things that are close to his heart: his beloved Sawx and his music.

Scott Bernstein: How closely are you able to follow the Red Sox when you are on the road?

Ryan Montbleau: Not as close as I would like. I can’t follow them as closely as I used to. I think that’s one of the good things about baseball. It’s such a long season and there are so many games that I can kind of catch up every couple of days or whenever I can and still keep a general sense of what’s going on.

SB: Do you go to games often when you are home?

RM: Yeah, whenever I can, but not as much now. I grew up pretty spoiled on games. My dad had season tickets to Fenway from the time I was 9 until the time I was 24. I used to go to tons and tons of games. I’d go to games by myself and have an extra seat because I couldn’t even give away tickets. I went to a lot of games back then, but now I’m lucky if I go to a couple of games a year.

SB: Does your father still have the tickets?

RM: No…my father gave them up right before the 2003 season [collective groan]. The ticket prices were skyrocketing every year, and it just got to the point where he couldn’t afford it. He went to Florida, and I couldn’t afford to take over the tickets.

Read on for the rest of Ryan’s take on the 2007 Red Sawx and much more…