Hidden Track

When you hear the word “acoustic” associated with a concert, it conjures up visions of acoustic guitars and bar stools on stage. The drummer becomes a percussionist; everyone sits on the stools and plays their music without all the decibels and hot dogging. It’s more about the music than the show.

MTV made sure we were all familiar with the concept with their “Unplugged” series. Everyone from Sting to Nirvana to 10,000 Maniacs has played that venue. When your favorite band adds and acoustic set to their show, the tunes are approached differently by the musicians. Sometimes the results are wonderful, ala Springsteen’s Born To Run on the Chimes Of Freedom EP. Other times, not so much, like Motley Crue trying to pull off Girls, Girls, Girls with Tommy Lee on congas. Just can’t get behind that one. Truth in advertising laws aside, inserting the word Semi- between the first two words appearing on the ticket would be closer to what we were treated to at the Aladdin Theater on Friday night.

Los Lobos put a slightly different spin on the acoustic label tonight. They started on time, all five members fanning out at the front of the stage with, true to their word, acoustic instruments. Like a mariachi on steroids, they strummed and harmonized their way through a first set that consisted of mostly Spanish vocals and joyous interplay. When Louie Perez stepped to the mike to sing Saint Behind The Glass four songs in, they were already sweating. From the front row, they looked like they were having the time of their lives. Even Cesar Rosas, the epitome of cool behind his ever present dark shades, was grinning ear to ear.

READ ON for more of A.J.’s review of Los Lobos @ The Aladdin…

The boys at Shitbagz put together the Diamond Dave Edition of Asteroidz. Now THAT’s what we call a crotch rocket. You’ve gotta love a game where you get to shoot

Sirius XM Radio are launching Sirius XMU Sessions, a series of in-studio performances from ground-breaking artists. Sirius XMU Sessions will debut on Wednesday, January 28th on Sirius XMU (Sirius channel

The Boss and The E Street Band head out for a lengthy spring tour starting in San Jose, CA on April 1. READ ON for a full list of tour dates…

Now that The Dead and Phish have announced plans to tour, we’d like to turn our attention to the next band on our “these motherfuckers need to reunite” list: God Street Wine. GSW came out of the same Princeton, NJ scene that led to the formation of Blues Traveler and Phish in the early ’80s.

[Setlist scan shared by Joe Madonna]

Guitarist Lo Faber and drummer Tom “Tomo” Osander met in 1980 and went on to play in a number of bands together before forming God Street Wine in 1988 with guitarist Aaron Maxwell, bassist Dan Pifer and keyboardist Jon Bevo. GSW played the New York City bar circuit for a number of years, becoming a favorite at the Nightengale Lounge and the Bitter End. The original lineup recorded five albums from 1992 – 1997, a period in which the popularity of the band propelled them into much bigger venues. Bevo and Tomo left the band in 1998 and they called it a career in 1999.

Since that time they’ve only played one show together and they’ve been missed by all the jam fans that loved their Steely Dan meets the Grateful Dead sound. These guys would’ve loved the festival circuit the current generation of jambands enjoy. Each Wednesday, we plan to bring you either a discussion, audio or video from our favorite moments in GSW history. We’re on the lookout for any stories, music or memorabilia from the band’s run, so be sure to leave us a comment if you can help!

Let’s kickoff our first God Street Wednesday column with audio from August 20, 1992 at the legendary Bogie’s in Albany.

READ ON to stream this fantastic GSW show…

While the surviving members of The Dead were down in D.C. for President Obama’s inauguration they took the time to sign a gorgeous Les Paul for our friends at HeadCount

Keller Williams won last week’s Cover Wars, where we looked at covers of Don’t You (Forget About Me). Ha Ha The Moose was a close second.

Moving on to this week, we look at a song The Beatles recorded during the Let It Be sessions, but didn’t make the album. Don’t Let Me Down was featured as the b-side of the single Get Back. I keep coming back to The Beatles because so many great artists have covered their tunes. Instead of copying and pasting a lot of fun facts and quotes about the song, I recommend just checking out the entry over at The Beatles Bible. For me, it’s all about the measure of 5/4 to start every verse.

As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below to ensure you listen to full-length tracks.

Go ahead and click this link to launch the playlist in a new window.

READ ON after the jump for more information, the voting, and for entries that are only embedded with video and are not available on the playlist…

Supported by openers Bob, Future and Scotty Don’t – Badfish’s alter ego- the premiere Sublime cover band took the stage to a relatively crowded 9:30 club in Washington D.C. last Thursday night.

As cover bands go, life can be tough. These tribute bands will forever face the stigma of perfection, which is inherently impossible to overcome. That said, the four computer science majors from Rhode Island can draw a crowd for good reason – they are the best at what they do.

Opening with Smoke Two Joints it was immediately clear how Badfish nearly packed D.C.’s premiere music club. Lead singer, Pat Downes, has an impressively comparable voice to Sublime’s lead singer and figurehead, Bradley Nowell. The uncanny similarity is the backbone of Badfish and is arguably the closest point of perfection within the band’s effort to recreate the Sublime experience. READ ON for the rest of Kevin Smallwood’s Badfish review…