Hidden Track

“As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from indie purgatory springs.” –J. Tetzel The Arcade Fire announced today it will play five nights in Greenwich Village’s Judson Memorial Church from February 13th through 17th. I usually don’t pay much attention to bands that get more hype than Gabbo’s debut, but I […]

Let’s give thanks for three-day weekends. This Monday and next Monday are the only sniff of a vacation I’ll get, so I’m going to take full advantage. You should take advantage of these links here, full advantage: Great news, check out the best of the Bridge School benefits on iTunes Get this: Biff sings! There’s […]

It’s the end of another year, another revolution. So far we’ve abstained from posting the usual Best Ham & Swiss Sandwiches of 2006 type of lists that most bloggers employ this time of the year, but that all changes today.

After checking out MSNBC’s Year in Pictures, I felt a pang of motivation to scramble through my own photo archive and pick out the 10 best shots I took this year. This exercise taught me that I’ve got an unsteady hand and I’m not a great photographer by any means, but I still think there’s a bumper crop for youse.

Let’s start with the best, and nothing tops the most inconceivable happenstance of a photo I’ve ever taken in my life. I figured my first trip to San Francisco would be a smashing success after bumping into the former keyboardist for the popular rock band Phish and a former geographically excitable presidential candidate: Page McConnell and Howard Dean, Chairman of the Boards and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, standing there like tourists waiting to be photographed together like old chums. Dean likes Page’s new shirt:

You never know what you’re gonna find in Washington Square Park. Sometimes it’s the acrobatic and comedic black twins doing flips and jumps and jokes simultaneously, sometimes it’s the French juggling unicyclist in the unitard, and sometimes it’s the old hippies that all meet up to sing Teach Your Children Well and pine for the days where longhairs ruled the world. And sometimes, or maybe just one time, it’s former Spin Doctors frontman Chris Barron belting out Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong with Buzz Universe (click that link for a video):

Read on for the rest of My Year In Mostly Crappy Photos (w/ a few gems)…

Update: Click here for some video and photo sets from the Pelosi Jam Anybody got a thousand bucks for a heady heady trade, brah? The new Speaker of the House is trying to show up Uncle Bobo. Vendors get your shit together, showgoers prepare your tuxedos and classiest gowns (with shoes, folks). It sure ain’t […]

We don’t plug shit from the parent company often, so when we do youse should all probably assume it’s something special. Read the fucking book. Glide Magazine today published its 4th Annual Best of 2006: From the Artists’ Perspective, a comprehensive look at the year that was from the people you pay to entertain you. […]

Welcome back to another edition of Grousing The Aisles. There’s nothing like music to fight off the mid-week blues, so check out these fine live shows:

Gov’t Mule – December 16th, 2006 AUD (FLAC)

In quick fashion, this torrent features Mule’s headlining set from last Saturday’s Christmas Jam in Asheville. Since Warren Haynes has sat in on many a DMB version of Cortez The Killez, Dave returns the favor here by sitting in on a stellar version of the Neil Young classic. Branford Marsalis came out as well for Watchtower and a reggaefied Soulshine. The Mule only played two songs from their new album, and they even broke out old favorites Sco-Mule and Mule. While the link above is for an audience recording, I plan on buying the Mule Tracks soundboard version as soon as it becomes available later this week.

Read on for some Johnny Cash, MMW, kickass bluegrass and the old standbys…

By now I’m guessing Jerry Garcia’s corpse is pretty well decomposed. But his skeletal remains must be rolling over in the grave today. His famous “When we’re done with it, you can have it” quip isn’t penetrating the Dead’s remaining organization like it should, nor has his advice been shared by the folks from Led […]

As we previously reported last week, Phish’s 12/29/97 concert is indeed the next show to be released as part of the Live Phish download series. For whatever reason the original link became inactive for awhile, but today, both the audio and video are now available for download. Get to it. If the free audio clips […]

Let’s pull right into the interstate weigh station with this heavy haul of videos… I spent almost every summer from 1986-2001 up at one of those Northeastern sleepaway Jewcamps. As a staff member in some capacity for six of them, my cohorts and I would find ourselves in one of the area’s local watering holes […]

Talk about flying totally under the radar. Last year at this time the Noodling Community was abuzz with pre- and post-show chatter about the Warren Haynes Xmas Jam. And maybe it’s strictly the result of the lack of an exotic and limitless Serialpod debut, but this year’s event didn’t even register on most Google calendars, message boards or any of those newfangled “blogs.”

Did a subpar lineup keep the avalanche of buzz at bay? Was it Warren’s refusal to add any acts to the bill after the initial announcement? Or have people grown a bit weary of Haynes’ overexposure? No matter the reason, the 18th Annual Xmas Jam still managed to sell out 7,200 seats and provided the paying audience with hours of music. The Asheville Citizen-Times, not surprisingly, wrote a glowing recap of the event, the only media outlet to cover it apparently.

Branford Marsalis joins a strange balding dude and some homeless guy on stage on the 18th Annual Xmas Jam — credit: Paul Balicky (Asheville Citizen-Times)

Make sure to check out the Citizen-Times article, which contains a ton of multimedia from the show and the first ever Xmas Jam podcast. And read on below for the setlists from each band, many of which include Marsalis, middle-aged American Idol winner Taylor Hicks and Umphrey’s McGee geetarist Brendan Bayliss…

I’ve always been a big fan of incorporating mainstream popular culture into the not-so-mainstream culture, counter- or otherwise. In fact, I thought it was a grave misstep when every so-called jamband in the country passed on covering the This Is Budweiser song, perhaps sandwiching it in between an original anthem. Most of them have made […]

It’s synonymous with summer. And either you’ve got fond memories of a fucking awesome veggie burrito you bought in the lot or you’re making grand plans to see a show there when the popular rock band Phish inevitably returns.

Whichever camp you’re camping in, it seems like Live Nation’s about to pave paradise and put up a parking lot. Or a shopping mall. Or a Wal-Mart. Harsh buds.

First they sullied the glorious Deer Creek name when the venue became the Verizon Wireless Music Center, now it looks like the lights may go down forever. Hey, at least it’s for a good reason, reports the Indianapolis Star:

The area around the music center has become one of the Indianapolis area’s hottest sites for new commercial development and Live Nation wants to take advantage of rising property values in the area…

Sweet, it’s all in the name of profit-taking…that’s great news. Here I thought there was gonna be an explanation people would be pissed about. Nick Arterburn of CB Richard Ellis, the real estate company listing the property, apparently doesn’t believe in sugar-coating nor subtlety, so he clarifies the Live Nation position:

“We’re not against selling it to another entertainment group…as long as they are the entity that pays us the most money.”

And we all know that entertainment groups outside of Live Nation and its former parent Clear Channel have plenty of money with which to win a bidding war. So I’m guessing this spells the end of one of the most famous outdoor amphitheaters in the country. Deer Creek, we hardly knew ye…or we knew ye too well.

Read on for an impromptu edition of The B List and links to some of the best Dead and Phish shows in the rich history of the venue…

I sure wish it were next Monday; then I’d be off from work for Christmas. Since I’m not, though, here are a handful of links to keep you entertained: Diane Schnier, wife of moe. guitarist Al, has a track available for download for which the proceeds will benefit Multiple Sclerosis Double J Jesse Jarnow reviews […]

This week we finally learned the answer to that age-old lot question “Who’s got my pharmies?” Apparently they’re in a black 2004 Audi sedan piloted by a bearded redhead all hopped up on goofballs. Driving is no time for improvisation, Trey. But there was a far more underreported story this week. It’s with my humble […]

Ya know, for all the dreck on Saturday Night Live this season, the show is actually producing at least one quality sketch almost every week. Between the “Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother” Awkward Carpool piece with Alec Baldwin and the new chick and the “Raps, raps, doin’ raps” MC Blizzard skit featuring Andy Samberg and […]

It’s been two weeks since Tenacious D rocked New York City with its patented brand of fuck-your-face acoustic rock. But since the vibration of death that The D left behind is still reverberating throughout Manhattan, our buddy Hal Hansen decided to retroactively inform you of what you’ve been feeling for a fortnight…

Overheard in New York, December 1^st, 2006

“I check my dipstick, you need lubrication”
“Twas I who fucked the dragon, fuckalize sing-fuckaloo”
“Burrito supreme and a Chicken supreme and a Cutlass supreme”
“When I’m snackin’ on a tasty boosh, right after the show”
“I’m shooting my juice right in your caboose”
“Have you ever been worked on by two guys who are hot for your snatch”
“And then I’ll fuckin’ fuck you discreetly”
—34^th Street & 7^th Avenue

If any of the exclamations above seem a little out of place for a show review, or even the aforementioned and awesome Overheard in New York, please do not fret. They were all majestically sung at the most famous venue in the world, Madison Square Garden, by the greatest band in the world, Tenacious D — an incredibly rare combination of forces that left few asses intact.

Before we continue with the review, it should be painfully obvious by now that this is all just a big joke. Kyle Gass (KG, Kage, Rage Kage) and Jack Black (JB, Jables), who first met more than a dozen years ago as members of the Actor’s Gang troupe in Los Angeles, are undoubtedly actors first and musicians second.

Although Gass does have some serious chops on the acoustic guitar, and Black is arguably the closest thing to a rock star I’ve ever seen live, Tenacious D as the “greatest band in history” cannot be taken seriously. The key to thoroughly enjoying one of these ridiculous spectacles is to just go along with the joke: Accept that they are in fact the greatest band ever and indeed were born from Satan and slayed dragons on their way to this achievement. If you can tweak your sense of humor enough to get this far, you are ready for The D…

Much has been written over the past 30 hours aside from our commentary about the roadside arrest of former 70 Volt Parade lead singer Trey Anastasio:

• WCAX TV went right to the people and got the “Phish mom” perspective
• The AP story had Trey’s written statement, which read: “I feel terrible about what happened last night, and I am deeply sorry for any embarrassment I have caused my friends, family and fans”
• Phish still couldn’t get any respect from MTV — Trey’s arrest only garnered a brief mention
• Oddly enough, the best news story came from E! Online’s Josh Grossberg, who must be a Phish fan — he managed to work “flubbed” and Antelope lyrics into his piece
• The Rutland Herald’s Alan Keays disclosed that Trey was driving from NYC to Burlington
• Even the gossip blogs got in on the act: Gawker’s Idolator and Perez Hilton snarked away
• Check out this video from Albany TV station WNYT
• And front-page stories ran in the Burlington Free Press, The Post-Star, and the Times-Union in Albany

Deep down I always knew Trey could be front-page material:

Trey’s loving fan base also got their shots in, Photoshopping his image to show their care and concern for the man (via Pheesh and other places):

Read on for more well-crafted Trey images from around the world wide web…

It’s always nice to walk into the office after a long day and a half on the road to read the news you’ve been waiting to see forever: Your favorite rock star finally has the street cred he’s been lacking. By now you’ve heard the news a hundred times: Former frontman for the popular rock […]

There has been a bunch of chatter on the message boards lately about an announcement from the Phish organization. We seem to have our answer, as today the band has put up a show from December 29th, 1997 for download on Live Phish. This terrific show from Madison Square Garden features amazing versions of classics […]

Today is Friday, which means it’s time for another helping of Leftovers: The Top 10 Grateful Deadest Moments as picked by Boomsalon Porcupine Tree will be joined by Rush’s Alex Lifeson and King Crimson’s Robert Fripp on their next album Tucker Carlson goes to Dark Star Orchestra concerts and doesn’t really oppose gay marriage. The […]