Hidden Track

While the first day of Jam Cruise was fun and featured some terrific music, Day Two took things to a whole new level. No matter where you looked, artists were jamming with each other in configurations that you’d never expect. The day was relentless as the MSC Poesia was motoring down to Roatan, Honduras.

Chicago’s Cornmeal kicked things off on the Pool Deck just before noon to a surprisingly large crowd. Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee provided the first sit-in of the day by joining Cornmeal for a segment that included a cover of Elton John’s Bennie and the Jets that the ensemble nailed on every level. There was even a tease of Terrapin thrown in for good measure.

[Photo by Dave Vann]

If anyone read my Jam Cruise Journals from last year, you’ll probably recall how much I enjoyed Brock Butler’s performances. Brock was all over the place yesterday starting with a solo set on the smaller Solar Stage which featured a dream setlist that started with a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s All My Friends followed by the PGroove classic It Starts Where It Ends and Tom Petty’s Wildflowers. Under sunny skies and in 80 degree weather, Butler also treated cruisers to a Phosphorescent cover and his own The Weather and the Wait as well as Paul Simon’s Diamonds on the Soles of Shoes. The PGroove front man even showed off his freestyle skills during DMX’s Crime Stories.

READ ON for much more from day two of Jam Cruise

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 got just ten albums to go on our week long countdown, let’s check out albums number 6-10…

10) Beach House – Teen Dream

Key Tracks: Zebra, 10 Mile Stereo and Norway

Sounds Like: The music a female version of Neil Young would make while fighting the effects of Ambien

The Skinny: Beach House’s Sub-Pop debut, the band’s third full-length album, showed a major progression in the band’s sound as the duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally put together an album of dreamy originals that draws you in during the first few seconds of opening track Zebra and doesn’t let you go until the final notes of the closing Take Care. In between, Legrand and Scally take us on a tour of diverse soundscapes with layer upon layer of goodness that you’d never expect from a two-some. Whether using organs, slide guitar, or lush harmonies – Beach House put together a masterpiece of atmospheric rock.

READ ON for the next four albums in our countdown…

December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.

Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.

Better Than Ezra:

The Black Keys:

READ ON for lots more New Year’s Eve Setlists

While ScottyB is soaking in the rays and the tunes on the high seas, we are going to take a final look back at Phish’s monumental three-night run at Madison Square Garden.

1. The Band Still Has “It”
Some fans have felt this way for a while now. Some fans felt the band never recovered from their first hiatus. My feeling, and most fans probably felt this way, is that there have certainly been moments. And shows. And from time to time back-to-back shows. But there has not been a three-night run of this caliber (both song selection and playing) in a long long time. Like maybe Phish 1.0 long. The band confidently tore through 71 songs over the course of the stand and delivered, in my opinion, their three best start-to-finish shows of the year. If you aren’t impressed with what the band brought at MSG then you should just stop going to shows.

2. New Year’s Run Should be at MSG Every Year
I don’t give a fuck how nice the weather is in Miami. This band belongs at Madison Square Garden every year for New Year’s Eve. Something about the mix of that building, that band and New York City makes for magic. And next year the band should clean up and jam out Round Room as a proper nod. This year’s version, while very much appreciated, was one of the few tunes that showed its rust.

READ ON for eight more things Luke Learned from the run.

At a performance at Congress Theatre in Chicago on New Year’s Day, influential Rock & Roll legend Chuck Berry collapsed on stage. According to an official statement on Berry’s website, the incident was attributed to exhaustion. The 84 year-old guitar player was coming off playing two shows the night before at B.B. King’s Blues Club […]

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 have hit the midway point of our week long countdown, let’s check out albums number 11-15…

15) Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

Key Tracks: World Sick, Sentimental X’s

Sounds Like: Music for Zooey Deschanel to act cute to in her next movie

The Skinny: Forgiveness Rock Record is absolutely not an album that should be written about in just 100 words. In fact, there’s more to say than that about the opening track alone, World Sick, which opens the record with a cathartic, seven-minute space-out that’s custom made for a montage of one’s own daydreams and could easily be considered the song of the year. And the entire album flutters along with this same airy chamber pop vibe, giving off the feeling of a Jon Brion or Polyphonic Spree production, whereby each track weaves itself in and out of the mix like instruments in an orchestra, and the whole thing comes together to form a moving piece of music. Team Canada is back.

READ ON for the next four albums in our countdown…

Editor-in-chief Scott Bernstein will recap some of his experiences on Jam Cruise 9 in journal form for Hidden Track this week as the MSC Poesia sails around the Caribbean packed to the gills with bands from around the scene and the fans who love them.

There’s a feeling of joy that overtakes you as you step off the gangplank and onto Jam Cruise that is unlike any feeling I’ve felt before – except of course last year when I stepped onto the same boat for my first Jam Cruise. Everyone boarding the MSC Poesia is ready for the time of their life and that energy is pervasive.

Attendees boarded the boat between noon and 4PM and the music didn’t start until 7PM giving fans ample time to get settled and reunite with friends both old and new. Hugs and smiles were found everywhere you looked. For me, I met so many amazing music fans last year and friendships were renewed yesterday after a year apart for plenty of those relationships.

NYC’s winter started early this year, so the warm weather was certainly appreciated and I used the hours between 3 and 6 to soak up the sun. After a quick dinner, it was off to the Pool Deck for the “Sail Away Party.” Big Sam’s Funky Nation got the plumb gig this year of kicking off the action and they were a fine choice for the role.

READ ON for more of Scotty’s thoughts on Day One of JC9…

Today we continue a tradition started last summer, where we examine a Phish run from A to Z. This time around the shows in question took place at Madison Square Garden last Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of the band’s New Year’s celebration.

[Photo by Adam Kaufman]

A is for Arena Rock – Phish harnessed the energy of the “World’s Greatest Arena” throughout all seven sets at MSG by focusing on the arena rock originals and covers in their repertoire. There were few ballads and lots of high impact moments from the Cities opener on the 30th through the Frankenstein encore on the 1st.

B is for Bust Outs – Dusting off gems from the Phish catalog which haven’t been performed in a while is a New Year’s Run tradition and this year’s run was no exception. Mike Gordon’s Round Room returned for the first time in 140 shows, the quartet’s cover of Beauty of My Dreams came back after 133 shows, and Manteca re-entered the fold after a 301 show hiatus.

C is for Caps – If you weren’t familiar with the ridiculous MSG policy of venue staff keeping the caps from water bottles before the run, you probably found out the hard way. A rock show isn’t exactly the best environment for a cap-less water bottle and many fans spilled plenty of water over the course of the three-day run, though most were wise enough to bring their own Dasani caps by Night Two.

READ ON for the rest of the Phish MSG 2010 Alphabet.

Phish was not the only band to take advantage of the fact that New Year’s Day fell on a Saturday night this year, as the Black Keys too capped off a three night run in Chicago with a big performance on the holiday. In this video for I’ll Be Your Man, guitarist Dan Auerbach professes […]

We were saddened to learn yesterday of the death of Gerry Rafferty at the age of 63. While his name is most closely associated with the saxophone-rock-hit Baker Street, Rafferty also was a member of Stealers Wheel and wrote the classic Stuck In The Middle With You. The Guardian wrote a very in-depth obituary that […]