Hidden Track

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 away their latest album for free online – Nine Inch Nails. The official lineup won’t be made official for another few weeks, but what we […]

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 of Saturday Night Live. Our loss is your gain, so tune in tomorrow night at around 12:15 AM to see the boys proper introduction to […]

“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 it peaked sometime in the mid-80s. Earlier this week the initial line-up for the second installment of Rocklahoma was revealed boasting the likes of Warrant, […]

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 both a micro and macro level. I’m usually a big fan of her writing, but her latest entry is disappointing as fuck. Brownstein offered a […]

One of the cooler venues near my hometown is the historic Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. The Count Basie offers the only chance Bayshore residents have to see nationally touring acts year round, but the theater was starting to fall into a state of disrepair. The situation looked dim for a while. […]

While I travel down to Langerado our good friend Sleepy Floyd will keep you occupied with an extra super special edition of The B List:

March 10th will see the evening that Leonard Cohen, the Dave Clark Five, Madonna,John Mellencamp, the Ventures, Little Walter and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff get inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame. Who you might ask? Yes, Little Walter, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.

Each year there are a few Burt Blylevens in the bunch, artists who contributions to rock and roll are indistinguishable, yet their credentials are always a “bat decapitation via the mouth” or a lengthy “2112/Overture/Temples of Syrinx” from being considered rock and roll royalty.

According to the Hall’s website to be nominated as a performer…

Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll. The Foundation’s nominating committee, composed of rock and roll historians, selects nominees each year in the Performer category. Ballots are then sent to an international voting body of more than 500 rock experts. Those performers who receive the highest number of votes – and more than 50 percent of the vote – are inducted. The Foundation generally inducts five to seven performers each year.

So, forget the Clive Davis’ and the Grammy Award stuffy music industry crowd, who defines rock and roll immortality strictly be album sales. Here we go with Glide/Hidden Track’s Ten most overlooked eligible artists for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Read on to find out which bands made Sleepy Floyd’s list…

We’ve all come to love those befuddling, obscure album referencing reviews from the folks at Pitchfork – you know the ones that reference things like 1980s Italian New Wave B-Sides. Well come this April those very same folks will branch out by launching their very own online music channel aptly named Pitchfork.tv – and insult […]