Hidden Track

Yes, I totally owe the readers a recap of the second half of Day Four on Jam Cruise 9 as well as the grand finale on Saturday, but before I go all newsy on ya, I wanted to tell the tale of my Jam Cruise performance debut.

[Photo by Tiny Rager]

At the start of the trip, one of the sets I was most excited to see was Brock Butler’s collaboration with DJ Wade “Wyllys” Wilby on the small Solar Stage at 5PM on the final day of the trip. Wyllys and Butler had teamed up back in October for a pair of gigs in the Southeast under the name AMBIENt, which gave Brock the opportunity to add textures to Wade’s music instead of the shredding that tends to happen during Perpetual Groove shows.

• Previous Jam Cruise Journals: All Aboard, Knee Deep In It, Letter to 16-Year-Old ScottyB, Nourished Soul, Day Four – Part 1,

Wade, a Hidden Track contributor and one of my BFFs, told me about an idea he had for the Wyllys/Butler set in which he’d call up to the stage a number of friends he’d met through the music of Phish to sing backup on one of that band’s early songs, Sanity. Wilby asked me to help round up some of our friends and bring them to his room at 1PM on the day of his set with Brock.

READ ON for more on my Jam Cruise debut…

Greetings from just off the coast of Cuba, my friends. We’ve awoke to another gorgeous day of weather on the high seas as we motor back to Fort Lauderdale. Everyone seems surprisingly alert for Day Five of this marathon adventure and we’ve got an intense day and night ahead that leads into the dreaded disembarkation calls over the PA at 7AM tomorrow morning.

I think we’re at the point in the trip, where I can officially declare Jam Cruise 9 better than last year’s event on a musical level. While the “mindblown” factor of my first trip can never be duplicated, the artists on JC9 have all put together amazing sit-ins and action packed sets. No one wants to be “that band” or “that guy” who plays a bad show. Trust me, word spreads fast on this boat.

When I first looked at the schedule, I thought yesterday might be my least favorite of the five days. Yet, Friday turned out to crush. We were docked in Costa Maya, Mexico from 8AM to 3PM and I’d love to tell you all about it, but I took that opportunity to sleep. Zs are at a premium with “once-in-a-lifetime” collaborations likely to bust out at any time. I heard great stories of those who either went to the beach, took part in the Positive Legacy excursion, visited the Mayan Ruins or made their own adventure.

Jam Cruise is all about making your own adventure. Each attendee has a completely different experience and trading tales the next day is part of the fun. My day started with Rock Star Karoake featuring ALO. This California band is near the top of the list of acts who left a big impression on me. Not only are their originals funky and boogie-fueled without being trite, but they can also handle cover tunes with the best of ’em.

READ ON on for more of Part 1 of Day 4 of Jam Cruise.

As NFL playoffs get underway later this afternoon with the start of Wild Card Weekend, last night new Rolling Stone cover boy Jimmy Fallon unveiled his first viral worthy video to this young year with a hilarious parody of the Chicago Bears 1985 rap masterpiece The Super Bowl Shuffle. Fallon, with the help of Will […]

Since we’ve spent the entire week recounting our favorite albums of 2010, and quite frankly you’re probably tired of reading about them, seemed like a no-brainer to end the week by giving a mix tape chocked full of tunes from these 25 HT approved albums. So sit back, enjoy and play it loud…

Day Three of Jam Cruise 9 continued the trend of sit-ins at nearly every set during a full night of music that followed our stop in Roatan, Honduras. Those cruisers who wanted to sleep took full advantage during the stop at port, while plenty of adventurous types partook in all sorts of excursions on the tiny island.

Once 5:30PM hit, everyone returned to the boat and Easy Star All-Stars kicked off the action on the Pool Deck. The band mixed Beatles songs with Pink Floyd songs with a few of their originals mixed in for good measure. A break for dinner followed, though a Moog Workshop headed by Bob Moog’s grand-daughter featuring Scott Metzger, Nigel Hall, Robert Walter and a few more musicians took place in the Disco.

Last night’s “atrium piano set” was led by Zach Gill of ALO and Jack Johnson’s band. Zach took requests throughout and performed a ridiculously fun mix of covers including Billy Joel’s My Life, Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money, Elton John’s Bennie and the Jets and I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues and Beatles medley that featured A Little Help From My Friends and Hey Jude. When Gill couldn’t remember the lyrics to Hotel California, Jam Cruise attendee JRapp stepped in and helped Gill with the words. These solo piano sets continue to be a highlight of the cruises.

Jerry Joseph, Dave Schools and Stockholm Syndrome had the plumb, prime-time spot on the Pool Deck and blasted through a few hours of heavy rock. Karl D. made his first of many sit-ins during the Stockholm set, which also featured a tribute to Vic Chesnutt in the form of Vic’s original Whoa Death. Joseph seemed to fully embrace the Jam Cruise experience this time around after he wrote a cynical song about his last trip on the boat.

READ ON for more of the recap from Jam Cruise Day 3.

We’re barely a week into 2011 and we’ve already got our first major summer festival line up announcement of the season that has us excited for the warmer months ahead. Earlier today the fine folks behind the Wakarusa Music Festival dropped a monster list of bands that will take to the variety of tents and stages over the weekend of June 2 -5 at Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Arkansas.

Now in it’s seventh year, the jam-friendly festival will be headlined by the mighty My Morning Jacket, who are joined at the top of the bill by Ben Harper & Relentless7, Thievery Corporation and STS9.

Other acts set to head to Mulberry Mountain this year will be HT faves Umphrey’s McGee, Mumford & Sons, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Galactic, Dark Star Orchestra, Perpetual Groove, Those Darlins and These United States.

A variety of ticketing options for the four day festival are currently on-sale, which include an early bird full event pass for the low price of $139.

READ ON for the full initial Wakarusa 2011 line up…

For the second consecutive year at Hidden Track, we concocted our innovative little experiment for the year-end Best Albums list. Instead of picking the old fashioned way – subjectively – we opted for something a little different: a collaborative, collective list that incorporates the opinions of everybody here at HT.

To begin, we devised an all-encompassing list of well over 100 nominees, whereby most everything our contributors recommended made the list. Then we invited our crew of writers to independently and blindly vote on the whole list on a scale of 1 to 20 (20 = five stars). We ended up with varying degrees of familiarity with the nominees as some folks voted on just about everything, while some just a few. From there, we deployed our egghead algorithm for rating albums: (two times the average rating) + (the total number of votes). At that point, we took the top 25 highest scores and presto: the Hidden Track 25 Best Albums of 2010. No bullshit, no big opinions; just the results.

We’ve come to the end of our week long countdown, let’s check out our Top Five…

5) LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

Sounds Like: Dance Yrself Clean, I Can Change

Key Tracks: Modern spacefunk, Talking Heads with an indie twist

The Skinny: James Murphy and company’s third full-length finds the eccentric front man exploring the benefits and trappings of stardom accompanied by the funky dance-pop we’ve come to know and love. Not at all a departure from the first two records, This Is Happening takes the LCD sound in a slightly more laid-back, introspective direction. Gone are some of the dancehall sounds in favor of a more organic, live band-sounding approach which brings the seemingly more personal material to life beautifully. Murphy’s impassioned vocals are direct and honest, particularly on the monstrously catchy single I Can Change. This record has all of the things we love about LCD – the Talking Heads-esque bounce, Murphy’s staccato delivery, thick, ever shifting soundscapes – but with a maturity and comfort that shows Murphy growing as an artist and a person.

READ ON for the final four albums in our countdown…

It sort of makes sense to name your band The Deep Dark Woods when you hail from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which unbeknownst to me is pretty much in the dead center of Canada. The band, who mixes country, folk and bluegrass, will release their fourth studio album sometime this year, but recently had their covers only […]

Six-time Grammy nominees the Black Keys will make their first appearance on Saturday Night Light this week. Funnyman Jim Carrey, who stars in the new flick  “I Love You Phillip Morris” will host for the second time in his career. Friday, January 7 Film: Dazed and Confused [VH1 Classic 3PM] Mary J. Blige: Storytellers [Palladia 4PM] Gnarls […]

To: Scott Bernstein
Date: June 22, 1994

Dear 16-year-old version of myself,

While I [the current, 33-year-old edition of Scott Bernstein] should probably warn you about the mistakes you will make over the next 17 years, I’d rather focus on the positive – ’cause there’s plenty of it. More specifically, I want to tell you what went down yesterday and blow your mind.

First, some bad news: God Street Wine broke up in 1999. That’s right – enjoy the next few years while you have this band because they won’t be around forever. Now, the good news: after 11 years apart GSW will get back together for six shows and you’ll get to see them all. Not only that, but you got to see Lo, Aaron, Bevo, Tomo and Dan on a huge cruise ship with 10 of your friends and other music fans from around the country.

Remember that dream you had the other night, where God Street jammed out with Bob Weir? I knew you woke up and said that would never happen, but it did! Bob Weir, of the Grateful MFing Dead sat in with the boys for four songs at a small theater on this Jam Cruise thing I was telling you about. Sometimes dreams do come true, you just might have to wait 17 years.

Speaking of dreams coming true, I should probably mention that you’re a music writer aboard Jam Cruise 9 to cover the action and that you spent 45 minutes interviewing the whole band about how they got back together. You were in all your glory as the sun went down over the Caribbean behind GSW during your chat. There was a three-minute break in the action when y’all saw a few dolphins swimming besides the ship. Tough life, I know.

READ ON for more of this unique version of a GSW review…