Hidden Track

Guitarist Benjamin Curtis of the ridiculously fluffed trio The Secret Machines is calling it quits. According to his brother Brandon on the band’s message board, “After 7 and 1/2 years of playing music together Benjamin has decided to no longer be a part of the band. It is a sad day but also an exciting one as he […]

Internet radio continues to get screwed. So we’ve asked frequent HT commenter and all-around good guy makeithappen77 from Some More From The Road to break down just how badly these Internet radio stations are getting the shaft…

After learning about the decision of the Copyright Royalty Board to increase the royalty rates for music broadcast on Internet radio, I felt prompted to make a few impassioned arguments against it. But as I did more research, I learned that my initial under-informed reaction was more correct than I dared hope.

As with most far-reaching legal decisions, well, I guess I can sum it up by saying there’s a lot of information on the topic. I’ve got certain information, all right? Certain things have come to light. And, given the nature of all this new shit, you know, it’s not just, it might not be just such a simple…uh, you know?…I’ve got information man! New shit has come to light!

Leave it to me to distill all the legalese and get you to the point. The decision handed down by the Copyright Royalty Board significantly raises the per-play rate schedule for each song broadcast on an Internet radio station retroactive to January 2006. And that’s going to pose significant problems for many Internet radio stations, as well as plenty of non-mainstream artists. Read on for more of makeithappen’s in-depth analysis on why this is a bad shake…

Get the opening torch ready for a run towards Tonic: Marco Benevento and Joe Russo have announced The Duo will kick off April’s three-city Green Apple Music & Arts Festival in New York with two acoustic shows.

The Duo’s on its way back east from three recent gigs in Colorado and Chicago as half of the wonderful Zeppelin super-impersonsators, Bustle In Your Hedgerow. Marco and Joe will re-unite with Scott Metzger and Diamond Dave Dreiwitz for another gig in New Jersey on St. Patrick’s Day, then the duo will kick off the Green Apple proceedings in about six weeks on the Lower East Side:

We’ve heard the rumblings, we’ve heard the requests, and while we aren’t ready to load up the van and hit the road for an extended tour just yet, we do have a treat for the home team. We are doing our part and going GREEN to kick things off at the Second Annual Green Apple Festival. We will be playing two very intimate ACOUSTIC performances at Tonic in New York City on April 19th as part of the Official Green Apple Music Festival Kick Off! Tickets will be available through DuoTicketing beginning on Friday, March 2nd. Tickets will be $15 in advance and $20 on the day of show. There will be TWO shows, one at 8pm and one at 11pm. The shows are an 18 and over. Check out the goings on in your neck of the woods and head over to greenapplefestival.com.

Sir Joe Russo will also close out the Green Apple fest on Sunday, April 22 with his old bandmates from Fat Mama. The now-official reunion of this underappreciated jazz outfit comes on the heels of the A Big YES…and a small no quasi-Fat Mama reunion show at vibraphonist Kevin Kendrick’s 30th birthday, and if that gig is any indication of Fat Mama’s cohesiveness in the face of time off from each other, we’d all be wise to make it to this Sunday gig. In the words of The Duo’s humorous management, this festival “begins and ends when Joe Russo says.”

Read on for more on Marco’s newest live release and newish trio, plus some amazing photos from Bustle’s Chicago show on Friday…

You really gotta love The Roots. I must admit I’m not a huge fan of most of the hip hop genre in general, but how can you go wrong with a group of talented artists that actually play their own instruments, write great songs and cover all subsections of music extremely fucking well? You can’t, methinks. In […]

There seems to be no turning back now…How’s that for famous last words? The Police continue to add tour dates to their itinerary at a blistering pace. These guys are the anti-Van Halen. Today, in the latest salvo, the trio announced its first European tour in nearly 24 years. And you can also look for the band to […]

Addison Groove Project‘s 10-year career came to a close on Saturday night. The first concert I ever booked featured AGP playing in front of 50-60 people at Skidmore College in 1998. After seeing the incredible level of talent each band member possessed, I was blown away to find out most of them were still in high […]

The week begins with a whiff of giddy anticipation: The First Lieutenant and I are headed southbound for Langerado for three days of headiness in the South Florida warmth. Scotty and I will channel our inner Tricia Takanawa and do our best to bring you slutty, ethnic reports from the field. But that’s the glorious […]

Earlier today I quickly posted some videos from last night’s 20th Anniversary of the Old Knit gala event. My running mate Neddy now gives it the full treatment.

What’s that saying about how we all get the face we deserve by the age of 50?

Well, apparently, for music clubs you get the anniversary show you deserve at the age of 20. Last night the Knitting Factory — referred to lovingly as the “Old Knit” — celebrated a couple of decades, less as a jazz club and more as the genesis of the entire downtown aesthetic. Of course, in a production decision that made as little sense as holding an AA meeting at a brewery, this monstrosity of a benefit show was held smack dab in the middle of Times Square, at Town Hall, as far as you can imagine from the Tribeca/Lower East Side roots of the club and the music.

When I think of the music that grew out of that Old Knit scene I think of a messy, experimental goop, occasionally brilliant, occasionally moving, occasionally intolerable. Whether they intended it or not, that’s exactly what they delivered on Thursday night. Read on for more of Neddy’s play-by-play review…

Our friend Marc recently unearthed this music-on-the-web gem, and you’d have to be batshit crazy not to play around with this resource for a little while. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the greatness that is Musicovery.

Flanked by my esteemed colleagues Neddy and Double J, I attended last night’s benefit concert to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Old Knitting Factory. Times Square’s Town Hall hosted Michael Dorf‘s celebratory concert, with proceeds going to benefit John Zorn’s The Stone. The Knit founder offered us a slew of performances from incredible artists like Marc Ribot, Zorn, Medeski […]

One week ago in this space we launched a new regular feature: Dan Alford’s Friday Mix Tape. If you missed it, you’re dead to us. But we press on… We’ve got some gritty, rootsy, mostly early-seventies guitar rock this week. First up is a foot-stomping good cover of Back to Memphis from The Band, complete with Bill […]

I’m glad February is behind us and we’re moving onto March. This month, in addition to Langerado, I’m excited to see Levon Helm and The Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theater. And yesterday I received the good news that Steely Dan will also be appearing at the legendary venue. As we previously reported, the Beacon has […]

Every music genre and corresponding subculture has levels of cool. But until I saw this eye-opening (and eye-lining) news report, I had no clue just how cool emo kids really were. You gotta love a news report that features intentionally ironic and probably fake websites as its source materials. J-School, baby, J-school. [youtube]Ri6ySOHoDfk[/youtube] I like […]

The loud and persistent rumors that Pearl Jam would finally be playing the Bonnaroo festival never quite materialized. But Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis broke the news today that the grunge legends will headline Lollapalooza. The major headliner for year three of the retooled Lollapalooza concert will be none other than the band that became the breakout superstar […]

YouTube is an incredible source for finding rare performances (I know, I know, we landed on the moon!). Last week I was fooling around looking for Police videos when I came across an amazing clip of Alanis Morrisette performing King of Pain. Her rendition blew me away — see a further description below — and sent me searching for other crazy covers on the video-sharing site. Seek and ye shall find.

Over the next two weeks, The B List will take a look at these unique cover versions of some of my favorite songs. We’ll kick it off this week with 10 incredible covers from truly unexpected sources, like Faith No More playing War Pigs, Ween tackling Motorhead and Death Cab for Cutie channeling Devo. Read on for 10 must-watch covers you can pass onto your cool friends…

Just a little morning filler ’til you get that third cup of coffee mainlined in there… From the good people at StreamStash come these gems: The Sheik of Araby — Django Reinhardt [Live at Birdland] How High the Moon — Sarah Vaughn [Live 1957 Mister Kellys] The Letter — Joe Cocker [Live at Fillmore East 1970] […]

I don’t find many Dylan parodies particularly funny. Too easy, ya know? For me, Dylan-based high comedy was entirely contained to the recent No Direction, Period video, and that’s about it. But someone — I’m not even sure whom — put together this extremely well-produced, seven-track album of Dylan signing Dr. Seuss books, and it’s fucking […]

The best part of rock music is the incredible diversity, the oh-so-many different subgenres that fall within the category, from punk to emo to jam to pop. This week’s Grousing The Aisles features some incredible rock and/or roll bands from the past 30 years, each with its own unique style.

We’ll begin with some oldies, with punk rockers The Clash representing the ’70s and ’80s, and The Lemonheads bringing us the ’90s power pop. The other two entries are from seemingly always-on-the-road jammers RAQ and Outformation. When Bill Haley first sang Rock Around The Clock in 1954, I don’t think he realized how diverse the genre would become over the next five decades.

RAQ 02/08/07 DAUD (FLAC, MP3, STREAM):

It has been a few months since we’ve checked in on Burlington’s RAQ. The band has been out on an ambitious three-month tour that criss crosses the country, hitting 42 cities. Cleveland was the first city RAQ swept through, and unlike another Vermont quartet, this band sounded tight and heavily practiced.

The Grog Shop show featured here opens with the beginning of Carbohydrates Are The Enemy before segueing into Forget Me Not, a rockin’ little ditty that would surely have hit the top of the charts in the mid-1970s. Towards the end of the first set the band works its way back into the ending of Carbohydrates Are The Enemy — and I must say that the second segment of Carbs could be my favorite part of a RAQ song. Guitarist Chris Michetti lays down a fierce solo reminicent of Frank Zappa tearing through the middle of Inca Roads.

Other highlights from this hot RAQ show include the way the band weaves Bootch Magoo in and out of various songs throughout the second set and a ripping cover of ZZ Top’s I’m Bad I’m Nationwide. RAQ does a great job of presenting a bunch of different sounds throughout their show, always keeping it interesting.

My biggest issue with them is the lack of soundboard recordings. While I’m sure the taper (Jesse Scott) worked his ass off to pull a good tape whenever the music mellows out, all you can hear are people yapping away. Why don’t people shut the fuck up when a band is playing? Now that we’ve heard what the band sounds like at the beginning of the tour, we will check in with them in April to see what they sound like after a few months on the road. Until then…

Read on for the rest of this week’s edition of Grousing The Aisles…

It’s time to take a break from reading gossip about Britney and Anna Nicole (hell, and even Trey) to find out what’s going on in the music world. While we don’t have any nip slips, we have plenty of links to keep you entertained: Q Magazine lists 100 places to find music online Backstage with […]

There doesn’t seem much to report from Trey’s day in court in Whitehall, New York today. But the former 70 Volt Parade lead singer did plead not guilty to the multiple charges against him stemming from his December 15th arrest.

Anastasio, facing three felony charges of illegally possessing prescription painkillers and driving while impaired and misdemeanor counts of possessing heroin and an anti-anxiety medication that had been prescribed to someone else, was released on bail and scheduled to return to Washington County Court on March 27.

So, the saga continues, and previous reports that Trey would cop a plea today turned out to be wholly inaccurate.

Appearing before Judge Kelly McKeighan and a crowd of media, Anastasio agreed to a pre-plea investigation that will help the court get to know him better “and help you resolve your case,” according to the judge.

Since the anniversary’s tomorrow, I highly recommend that the judge check out 2/28/03 to get to know the real Trey better.

Anastasio’s attorney, Steve Coffey, acknowledged after the hearing that his client has a drug problem and is seeking treatment. Coffey said Anastasio attended a 28-day treatment program in January and is attempting to overcome his addiction.

“He has a problem, he knows it and is working with it,” Coffey said.

Coffey also said Anastasio instructed him not to fight the charges.

“He told me ‘I’m here to face the consequences and work it out with the court and go on with my life,’” Coffey said.

Friend of HT, The Otrane, brings up a good point: Trey’s done everything he can since the arrest. First he thanks his arresting officer, then he completes a 28-day rehab, now this lawyer quote about facing the consequences. By the time this is over they’re going to be thanking him for getting arrested in Whitehall.

Anastasio’s plea leaves the door open for a deal to be worked out with the court. Hopefully that deal will be worked out soon for Big Red so he can get back to melting our faces, and perhaps put his drug problems behind him.

• Previously on Hidden Track: Now Trey’s a Real Rock Star; The Day After; and Trey at the Y: An Audience of His Peers
• The latest TV news report from WNYT (free show?)
• Read on below for a full timeline from the December arrest to today’s plea