Hidden Track

There’s one absolute in music: When something’s free, it’s usually pretty good. Last night’s gratis performance at the Knitting Factory, however, would have been worth whatever price of admission management attached to the ticket. A little bit of Joe Russo and a lot of Scott Metzger goes a long way, especially with a full slate of ironic alt-country songs about drinking, fighting and fucking.

Armed with a brand new guitar, his octopus-like house band and a captive room full of musicians, bloggers and old standbys, Metzger set up shop in the Knit’s Old Office for a glorious evening of solo material and Danjaboots tracks. Their first show of the new year, the lowercase duo provided the same creative musical tomfoolery that which fans have grown accustomed since the band’s debut. Read on below for a full taste of the New York night, the intensity and the wholesome fun…

The Ronnie James Dio-led version of Black Sabbath has recorded an album and will embark on a world tour as Heaven and Hell. It’s a different type of H & H. The newly named band today announced the first 12 dates of the tour: Ronnie, Tony, Vinny and Geezer will play 11 Canadian dates before […]

We linked this morning to the New York Times’ review of the first performance of the two-night American Beauty Project. But we like to do things a bit differently than the Gray Lady, so we sent HT reporter Specs Toporczer down to the World Financial Center for a first-hand account of the latest Grateful Dead tribute.

Who schedules anything during the middle of the AFC championship game?

I had to put the Brady-Manning Bowl on pause to hit the second night of the American Beauty Project — a cover tribute to the Grateful Dead’s album of the same name — in the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center. The trip down to Battery Park City was extremely strange; the streets were empty, save for neglected women, Asian delivery boys and the handfuls of frozen old hippies scurrying across the West Side Highway. Everyone else was watching the NFL.

Read on for more of Specs’ review and a few photos snapped from the event…

Everyone’s favorite glorified cover band is back…for a few shows, at least. Bustle In Your Hedgerow returns for a four-night engagement in late February and March, stopping in three states to fuck your face Led Zeppelin style. The rock quartet may only play together sporadically, but every time they hit the stage they’re ready to tear […]

I sure was getting used to all those three-day weekends. This weekend just flew by, so let’s get back into the workday groove with the following tasty stories: The Police Reunion Watch: Andy Summers made a rare appearance at the NAMM 2007 trade show to perform Message In A Bottle Rage Against The Machine gets in […]

Who says God is dead? The Canadian indie rock outfit followed up its recent announcement of five February dates at Manhattan’s Judson Memorial Church by playing a semi-secret show last night at St. Michel Church in Montreal. Thanks to a miracle from the Lord and an invention by Al Gore, you can already download the […]

Welcome to the end of another working week. As usual on Fridays we try to keep you entertained with the following links: Apple Computers and The Beatles’ Apple Corps may finally put their long standing differences aside and do some business together The Live Music Blog has a nice review and great pictures from U2’s […]

Back in November I posted a B List plugging 13 of my favorite instrumentals. This week, we revisit that concept — here are 13 more great ones to debate. I tried to be a little more obscure with this list, so check out these nuggets:

1. Groove Holmes – The Beastie Boys: This great Beasties tribute to acid-jazz legend Richard “Groove” Holmes was featured on 1992’s Check Your Head.

2. Freeway Jam – Jeff Beck: Jeff Beck solos over Max Middleton’s funky keyboards on one of the best tracks from 1975’s Blow By Blow.

3. Moti Mo – Medeski, Martin, and Wood: I get chills every time I hear MMW’s arrangement of this King Sunny Ade track. Chris Wood lays down a solid bass line, allowing John Medeski, Billy Martin and the horns a chance to build the theme to multiple climaxes. Just like a woman.

4. Star Wars Theme Song – Meco: Also Sprach Zarathrustra wasn’t the only symphonic song to get the disco treatment in the late ’70s. Meco Menardo, a famous music producer, attended the Star Wars premiere and was so impressed he rushed into the studio to make a dance version of John Williams’ theme song.

5. The Happy Organ – Dave “Baby” Cortez : Cortez entered a studio in 1959 to record a song called “The Cat and the Dog.” He was struggling with his voice and decided to just jam out with his band on an old standard called Shortin’ Bread. The recording engineer pressed record as Cortez turned the song into one of the first funky grooves. The rest is history: The improvised song that was recorded in one take hit number one upon its release.

Read on for eight additional instrumental classics from The Commodores, Santana, Joe Satriani, Tea Leaf Green and more…

I’m off to Miami for two days of beach-free work, but as always you’re left in the capable and sensitive hands of Scotty B. He’ll have his usual Thursday edition of The B List up shortly, and I’m sure there’ll be some debate in the comments. In the meantime I’ll leave you with a handful […]

This week’s edition takes a look at bands as they hit their strides and delivered their best performances. Sure, determining when a band has reached its peak is totally subjective, but in this case I’m right, and there is no other correct answer.

The Police 4/7/79 FM (FLAC)

Talk around the Internets are heating up about a possible Police reunion tour this summer. In order to help you prepare, check out this incredible show from a Outlandos D’Amour tour stop in Bahston. Not many people had heard of The Police in 1979, and you can feel the energy as the band tries and succeeds in winning over the audience. By the end of the show the crowd goes nuts anytime Summers starts a solo, Copeland plays a luscious fill, or Sting steps to the mic.

Highlights of this show captured from WBCN radio include a jammed-out So Lonely and a desperate-sounding Roxanne. I’m a little confused as to why Born In The 50’s is performed twice, but I guess their repertoire was small at the time. I’m putting together my dream Police reunion setlist as we speak.

Read on for more peakariffic downloads from the likes of Alice in Chains, Jane’s Addiction, Jerry Garcia Band and Keller Willams…

Hey, look! It’s another clever name for a glorified link dump! Those two cats really know how to slip the easy ones past the goalkeeper…shut up, Richard. It took a couple weeks (who says gotta-publish-now blogs are the only game in town?), but the good people at JamBase have finally put up a super-comprehensive look […]

Check out this cool (not for them) clip of real-life bumper cars in Portland, Oregon, the incredible result of a crazy ice and snowstorm. And since this is a music blog, rock out to the title’s allusion in this instrumental version of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song by Bustle In Your Hedgerow.

So much has happened since Jack Bauer shaved his playoff beard and spoke his first word in two years…and in that time all of these videos came to my attention. Reunion rumors and innuendo — hints and allegations, notwithstanding — have captured the short attention of many music blogs, magazines and websites of late. Will The Police set aside their […]

After a slight delay, the clearly overwhelmed and oft-hounded winner of the Phish-Sirius “Live In Brooklyn” Barn Tour Contest has teamed up with the popular rock band’s management to offer the Headphones Jam on LivePhish, with the proceeds from the $9.99 FLAC track going to charity. Commendable stuff. To all the fonzanoons on Phantasy Tour, The […]

Back in November we celebrated Rhino’s decision to begin releasing great shit from the Grateful Dead archives that they acquired in a recent licensing deal.

Live at The Cow Palace: New Year’s Eve 1976 hits stores on January 23rd, but as part of our recurring Everybody Wins When I Plug Something And In Return They Offer Me Free Shit To Give Away contests, we’re riding in on our white horses with our assless chaps and giving one of these bad boys away. Yeah.

Even though I should just fake an entry and award myself the winner under an assumed non-affiliated alias, I guess we’ll just give this thing away instead. Some blogs like to throw trivia out there, but I’d rather get your creative juices flowing and allow everyone an equal opportunity to participate. We’re good like that.

So in order to win this stellar three-disc set, all you have to do is provide your answer to this thought in the comment section below: With strict parameters of 25 to 50 words, give us your most serious, headiest explanation for why anyone, however many years removed from the actual show, would ever want to listen to “Space” instead of just skipping from Drums to the next song. Convince me.

Follow these links below to stream some the tracks from the release, and read on for a full track listing and sveral YouTube teasers.

• Click here for the official Grateful Dead Live at The Cow Place E-Card
• Listening Party: Grateful Dead – Live at The Cow Palace NYE 1976 (click that link to stream Set II: Sugar Magnolia > Eyes of the World > Wharf Rat > Drums > Good Lovin’ > Samson & Delilah, Scarlet Begonias)

Welcome to another short week — as usual, we’ll kick it off with some links to interesting shit from around the information superhighway: Billboard posts a look ahead at Robert Plant’s 2007, which includes recording with Allison Krauss and a Honeydrippers reunion Here’s a cool preview of this weekend’s American Beauty Project R.I.P. Michael Brecker and Alice Coltrane […]

What a difference a week makes…Last Sunday, eight NFL teams thought they had a realistic chance to win the Super Bowl, Suzanne Somers still owned a fire-free Malibu beach house and Jack Bauer sat in a Chinese prison. Today, not so much. But strangely, our precious world of live music sat fairly idle. Here’s just […]

I spotted David Byrne in the hipster crowd at South Street Seaport in August ’05. Awaiting Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s gratis summer showcase, the former Talking Head was just a man in the throng, alone, standing there in a canary-yellow collared shirt, scarfing down a thick slice of Pizzeria Uno’s finest. And, really, how […]

You take two steps forward, I take two steps back We come together…to smoke…a little crack [youtube]Zt5-wn3fvlw[/youtube] Straight up now tell me, did you really have a full frontal lobotomy? Either Paula Abdul just got the Randall McMurphy treatment or she’s tanked like Namath. We’re no prudes, but if you’re gonna go on national television to represent a seemingly […]

The good people over at SugarMegs want you to stream away…at home, in the office, on the terlet, wherever. So make it your beeswax to hop on this growing-but-already-comprehensive list of New Year’s shows they have available. So get your ass on over there and beg those kinky files for naughty aural sex…