Hidden Track

After working hard on recording and then touring behind his first album, Page McConnell is ready to unwind a bit this fall. While McConnell doesn’t have any tour dates booked, he will be making his Carnegie Hall debut during an Elton John and Bernie Taupin tribute on October 10th.

Photo by Adam Kaufman

Page was kind enough to speak with us about the Elton/Bernie tribute, personal highlights of this past year, and what’s next for the Chairman of the Boards…

Scott Bernstein: How did you get involved with the Elton John tribute?

Page McConnell: Initially Michael Dorf, who runs the series, asked Mike Gordon or maybe even Mike and Leo to do the benefit, but it isn’t something that he is doing right now. Through (Mike’s) people, I was turned onto it.

SB: Have you prepared for the performance at all? Do you know what you are gonna play?

PM: I do know what I’m gonna play…and you know what they say about trying to get to Carnegie Hall. Yes, I have been practicing. Practice, Practice, Practice. I’ll be playing Amoreena. Also I suppose there is the possibility for collaborations. I jumped at the opportunity because I’ve never played Carnegie Hall, and I’ve been an Elton John fan for my whole life. One of my very first concerts was Elton John at the Garden in ’82. Read on for more of Scotty’s interview with Page…

Growing up, my family only had three options for non-radio music in my father’s automobile: some homemade Doo-wop mix, Kool & the Gang’s Celebrate!, and Heart’s self-titled album. The last

I grew up with nothing but respect for Rush‘s music. But that’s not to say I ever really opened up to the trio’s material outside of the radio hits that were considered required listening at my high school.

Photo by Chad Johnson

I never got a chance to see them live, so when they announced their North American tour, I knew this might be my last chance to see Geddy, Neil and Alex play Tom Sawyer. While I’m That Guy who came for the hits, Rush impressed me with nearly every tune they played at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

When Rush took the stage and opened with Limelight I was taken back to the days when rock bands put on shows instead of just concerts. Rush isn’t one of those bands that “focuses on the music” by eschewing the use of an elaborate stage setup; they give their audience a full multimedia presentation, complete with the arena rock staples of a crazy stage, prerecorded skits, lasers and pyro.

Read on after the jump for the rest of Scotty’s review of Rush at MSG…

You may know Dane Cook for his shitty movies and jokes that appeal to the insanely stupid. But now Cook has stepped onto our turf with the release of his

I’ve been trapped in a little bit of a bubble for the past five days, so I really have no clue what’s going on in the music world. As such,

When The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, they entered the studio intent on making an album that couldn’t be reproduced live. Forty years after the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Faux flawlessly recreated the legendary “unrecreateable” album at the Beacon Theater on Saturday.

From the time Del Shannon covered From Me To You in 1963, artists have been trying to re-interpret the work of The Beatles. What made The Fab Faux’s performance standout is that these guys believe in the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”: They played nearly every song exactly like the originals.

Since there were double-tracked vocals on Getting Better, there were two members of the band singing the same exact melody. Since Within You Without You features two different percussive instruments, so two members of the band played percussive instruments. While some cover bands don’t strive for accuracy, The Fab Faux have built their reputation on playing the songs exactly as The Beatles had recorded them. Read on after the jump for much more…

Alright, now we’re just getting silly. The reunion rush continues, and another aging group of rockers is back for a quick cash grab — how very punk rock. The Sex

“Scholars, fans, artists, performers and members of the extended Grateful Dead family will gather at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in November for the first major university conference on the

I just went to the freezer to pull out some ice cubes for the Pepsi cola I intended to pour. Ever since I got my own place, I’ve started talking

We’ve got another answer to the Where’s Cactus query? Former Phish bassist Mike Gordon returned to the stage on Saturday night to sit in with Gov’t Mule at Burlington’s Memorial Auditorium. The artist formerly known as Cactus played a crazy looking bass during covers of the Grateful Dead’s Loser and JJ Cale’s After Midnight with Warren and the boys. You can buy the official audio recording of the show shortly over at Mule Tracks.

Ace provided us with plenty of coverage from the Austin City Limits festival this weekend, but a few other stories came our way…behold:

• Beirut’s second album is due to be released next month
• What’s up with all the moe. references on SportsCenter?
• Listen up, Deer Creek gate-crashers: A man was impaled on a fence while trying to sneak into a concert to avoid the $5 admission fee
• The members of Animal Collective may live separate lives off the road, but on stage they come together as one
• Ultimate Guitar lists 8 guitar solos that turned a song into a classic
  
• Sony’s Legacy imprint has put together some amazing podcasts featuring the likes of Elvis Presley and Sly & The Family Stone
• Sales of music DVDs fell an alarming 16 percent over the past year
• The Guardian lists 50 songs for 50 states
• David Lee Roth looks really old in these high-quality photos from Van Halen’s rehearsal
• Peter Bogdanovich’s four-hour documentary on Tom Petty will make its broadcast debut October 29th on Sundance

And as always on Mondays, read on after the jump for a full slate of setlists from the weekend in music…and hit us up with any cool links we didn’t see.