House Mixologist Dan Alford is away this week, so we’ve turned to our ol’ pal Neddy for some downloadin’ love. Neddy’s offering for us features a “little roots music focusing
Umphrey’s McGee‘s Andy Farag has had quite the week. On Monday the band sang the national anthem at U.S. Cellular Field for the Chicago White Sox home opener. Tuesday UM released their latest album, The Bottom Half. Tonight and tomorrow, Andy and his bandmates head to the Murat Theater in Indianapolis to record a live album.
The Hidden Track Baseball Preview moves into the late innings as we catch up with Andy to discuss his beloved White Sox, as well as this weekend’s shows:
Scott Bernstein: How was your performance at the White Sox’s season opener?
Andy Farag: It was great man. I got there like an hour earlier than we were supposed to be there so I could take it all in. We probably sang our best anthem to date. There was a flyover, so we had to time our singing. We had to sing it at the same tempo they timed it at. It was perfect: literally two seconds after we were done this jet came screaming over our heads.
SB: The outcome wasn’t so great in that game, huh? Contreras didn’t look so hot.
AF: No, he lasted two innings and just left everything over the plate. The Indians are a good offensive team and they took advantage of us, that’s for sure.
Read on for more of Scott’s interview with Andy Farag…
**Click here to download this show (thanks to PT’s PhishyPhishPhan)**
It just felt right. No place we’d rather be on a random Wednesday night in April than the 499-capacity Gramercy Theater to watch the former keyboardist for the popular rock band Phish sit down at his rightful place behind a new set-up, Chris Kuroda bathing him in the familiar tones of the light rig.
So you can imagine that even before the music began in earnest, we’d been sold our bill of goods. Thankfully, though, the same genuine enthusiasm for Page’s new band and material left with us on the way out of the theater.
Our Page Permagrins emerged the minute the concert started, with McConnell busting out a solid instrumental called Back in the Basement. From there he played the entire album, and we loved nearly every minute of it. Songs that were five minutes on the debut solo disc became 15-minute jam sessions. And save a few exceptions on either side, the jamming of this band is infinitely more palatable than the improvisations of a certain red-haired guitar player’s recent bands.
Read on for more thoughts on the show and amazing pictures from Coach…
Rumors have been flying fast and furious about which musicians will round out Phil Lesh’s lineup of Friends at the two stealth SOBs shows in New York next week. Trey
Mike Gordon is still missing. Ever since his buddy Trey informed us of Gordo’s supposed one-year hiatus from playing during his interview at the Y, Cactus has been noticebaly incommunicado.
Wilco has announced some North American dates in June at some of the best venues in the country. The Pines in Northampton is one of the coolest places I’ve ever
It’s almost official: Concert-promoting heady overlord Live Nation is one step closer to pulling off the…completely unnecessary. The good people at Idolator ran a clever post today with the following
I’m leaving the office in about five minutes, so I thought I’d throw up some filler for no good reason. I mean, does a man need a reason to post
It’s a strange time for New York music fans. While new rooms like the Gramercy Theater, Highline Ballroom and Fontana’s are sprouting up, legendary havens like Tonic, Sin-E and possibly the Knitting Factory are shutting down as rising real estate prices and property taxes combine to squeeze out “the little guy.”
I’m all for new venues, but this “out with the old” shit is garbage. It’s Roberto Garbaggio. Tonic is one of the best dressed-down rooms in the country with some of the best acoustics taboot. Everyone that’s been there has a great story they can one day tell their illegitimate kids. But such is life, such is gentrification.
Tonic’s April 13th closure comes six days before the Benevento/Russo Duo was slated to kick off the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival with two acoustic performances. Rest assured, the shows will still go off as planned, only they’ve moved to the Knitting Factory, which remains open for at least the foreseeable future (or until the building is actually sold and it predictably gets kicked to the curb, despite the current lease). Apparently neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor club closures will stop the best duo in music history from melting faces.
Read on for the full press release about The Duo’s new GAMF spot…
For this week’s edition of The B List, we turned to a longtime friend of Hidden Track, the man that coined our tagline “My Band Can Beat Up Your Band.” But in addition to his sloganeering prowess, our man Ginz has an eclectic taste in music, and today he shares one of those tastes with us. Take it away Ginz…
Most people know Weird Al Yankovic as the guy that parodied “Beat It” back in the ’80s. But Weird is much, much more than that: He is an artist who just completed his 13th studio album and is about to embark on a 40-plus city U.S. tour. Yes, Al’s claim to fame is his parodies — you know you hit it big when Al parodies you, even Coolio — but his real genius comes out in his original songs.
Weird will often write in a certain genre for his originals. Sometimes it may be country, polka, punk or even in the “style of an artist” to get the feel, so much so, that you may swear you have heard that song before. So without further ado, I present the Top 10 Original Weird Al songs. Enjoy these videos I unearthed, from whatever the devil that place is called that host all the videos that you put up.
Read on for Ginz’s B List of the 10 best Weird Al originals…
