Hidden Track

Forget about the buzz that has surrounded Vampire Weekend, because if music blogs had existed back in the mid-90s Radish would have become a household name rather then a footnote in the career of Ben Kweller. At the tender age of 15, Kweller and his grunge-based trio found themselves at the center of a major label bidding war – all of whom were looking to sign the next Nirvana (a band they were heavily influenced by, check their video for Pink Little Stars).

Radish eventually landed on Mercury Records, appeared on Conan, Letterman and even The Weird Al Show, but hype doesn’t necessarily led to success and their debut album Restraining Bolt was a commercial flop. The band’s sophomore effort was recorded, but never released and Kweller fled to New York City to pursue a solo career – all this by the age of 19. While many could have easily faded in obscurity, Ben decided to do things his own way and slowly built his solo career from the ground up. Read on to hear more about his slacker-infused indie-pop…

It’s been a long while since Stormy Monday has featured a single, long track, so this week we have a special treat I’ve been hanging on to for a while.

On again, off again, on again funk-groovesters the Greyboy Allstars have been in the midst of a career renaissance – touring relentlessly and even releasing their first new studio album

It’s been more than a month since I abdicated my daily editorial responsibilities at the helm of this here rag, and in many ways I miss it terribly, as I miss you all terribly down in my loins. But these days I’ve been busier than an indie rock band’s PR team, and I can’t have you right nobs bringing me down (Brrrrruuuuce).

Hidden Track has sprung me to great heights since my disappearance. In the past month I’ve won a Tony for writing and producing roles on my off-Broadway one-man show called Once Upon a Belding: From Principal to Vice President, a 237-minute comic romp starring acting and karaoke genius Dennis Haskins; I’ve written the world’s only known social commentary on Vampire Weekend’s education, appearance and historical significance (seriously, haven’t seen anything like this out there); I’ve gnarfled the garthog; I’ve played stellar goalkeeper for second-division Barnsley FC in their giant-killing victories over Liverpool and Chelsea on the way to the FA Cup semifinals; and just last night I had my head exploded by the series finale of The Wire. Busy as fuck, mang.

So there hasn’t been much time for love, Doctah Jones. I managed to catch a power poppy short set from Favours For Sailors at a cool little East London rock club that had Pete Doherty on the docket. It then hit me that I have never heard a note of this supposedly famous rock star’s music in my life. I can’t even name the genre of music he plays. Is it me? Have I just missed it? Fuck it; I’m ’bout to start smoking crack rock on video, possibly on a sex tape. It’ll be hot, I pinky swear. Then I’m putting drugs in your drinking water.

I also managed to catch up with Levon Helm and his friends at the Beacon Theatre on Friday night. It wasn’t nearly as good as last St. Patrick’s Day’s unbelievable throwdown hoedown, but it still had its world-class moments (horn section = total sickness!). Among my observations: Jimmy Vivino came dressed as Stevie Ray Vaughan in the Hamburglar’s get-up, and Levon at this point in his life could probably pass for Willem Defoe’s great aunt. One thing is for sure-as-shit — it doesn’t get better than The Band’s catalog.

I’ve not got a point to all this. But Scotty’s returning from Langerado and I’ve been called upon to stall you lot until he lands safely and securely. So after the jump I’ve embedded some fantastic videos, and I urge you to take a few moments and check out the pickings while they’re still going good…

Another day, another festival rumor involving none other than Radiohead. This time word on the street has the ubiquitous band headlining the fourth installment Lollapalooza alongside another band that gave

We’re down at Langerado this weekend, where we should have been seeing Vampire Weekend right about now. Of course the afro-pop specialists are in NYC preparing for tomorrow night’s episode

“I swear, if I new it was going to be this good, I would have broken down and dropped mescaline!” – Paul Rappaport via Lefsetz

Monday night at the Bowery Ballroom saw two of the more publicized up and coming youngsters in music split a bill in Johnathan Rice and Matt Costa. Both Costa and Rice are associated with the indie music scene, but neither really fit the categorization in either a musical sense or a commercial sense. Both of these artists, while drastically different musically are capable of some serious mass appeal and are touring in front of a wave of major label support, Costa with Universal and Rice with Warner Brothers. The night was an easy sellout and then some and both Rice and Costa clearly had a solid number of fans in attendance.

I remember the first time I saw Matt Costa perform, thinking to myself, “If I had a record label, this might be the first musician I would try to sign.” Perhaps more apropos today would be, “If I were one of these private equity, Wall Street guys interested in running a record label, I would start loading up on high yield debt to prepare for a Matt Costa hostile takeover.”

Regardless, the Matt Costa story is pretty straightforward. It’s pretty much come time for Costa to decide how big he wants to become. Costa and his band are airtight and it is clear that his fan base of Costasheads is growing quickly. For good reason, Costa doesn’t have a bad song in the repertoire and can weave in and out of more solemn ballads and rocking crowd pleasers with ease. Read on for more…

While this summer is overloaded with music festivals, there is one festival to promises bands that you won’t be seeing at the rest – since most of the acts playing

One of the bright spots of 2007 in the blog world was when Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein started Monitor Mix for NPR. Brownstein offers insightful looks at the music world on