November 2007

NPR has completely outdone itself this time: The media folks yesterday launched a new website promoting the best of public radio music. The diverse new site contains free streams and features on a wide variety of artists ranging from classical violin player Joshua Bell to alt-rockers The New Pornographers. But it’s Monitor Mix — a blog written by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein — that wins the award for coolest feature on the new website. Check it.

• The Week Daily addresses the state of the music industry
• Legendary house DJ/producer Kenny Dope remixes Sharon Jones and the Dap-kings’ Keep On Looking
• Now you can finally buy your own Ghostface Killa doll [via tds]
• Done deal: Universal Pictures secured the rights to use Nirvana’s music in a forthcoming biopic about Kurt Cobain
• Prince fansites fight back against the purple one’s litigious ways
• A little exhaustion is good for creativity: The White Stripes used their time off the road to record some new songs and film a video
• Gothamist interviews Pitchfork faves Tokyo Police Club
• Marco Benevento announced a January residency at Sullivan Hall in NYC
• Derek Trucks balances life between families
• HeadCount plans to register 200,000 voters at concerts
• Gogol Bordello brought Gypsy Punk to Terminal 5
• Gene Ween documented the recording of La Cucaracha [via Wilson]

And, finally, try your luck at Rolling Stone’s Almost-Impossible Rock & Roll Quiz to see if you could beat Neeko’s high score of 39…it really is almost impossible.

Explain yourselves, you thieving punters, right nobs and tosspots: “Some 62 percent of the people who downloaded ‘In Rainbows’ in a four-week period last month opted not to pay the British alt-rockers a cent. But the remaining 38 percent voluntarily paid an average of $6, according to the study by comScore Inc.”

New Jersey’s Railroad Earth returned to The Fillmore Brand Stapled To Irving Plaza on Saturday night, and the band kept most of the crowd dancing throughout two sets of folky bluegrass tinged with rock n’ roll. The band played an epic gig at Irving back in March, but Saturday’s affair was more toned down, both in the size of the crowd and the level of energy the band displayed.

All photos by Adam Kaufman

The first set started out extremely slow, with Railroad Earth playing some of their more mellow songs before loading the second set with rockers. Neal Casal of Ryan Adams’ Cardinals joined the band at the end of the first set for a run through Dandelion Wine. Casal returned to the stage in the middle of the second set to add vocals and electric guitar for a cover of Neil Young’s Powderfinger.

RRE doesn’t play that many covers, so the crowd was appreciative of seeing the band break out a new one for the occasion. Finally, Casal rejoined the band for a fantastic rendition of Walls of Time, which followed the crowd-pleasing Ragtime Annie Lee during the encore. Read on for more great photos from the show…

The Hidden Track staff last night headed to the Anthology Film Archives to attend the New York premiere of Les Claypool’s directorial debut, a mockumentary send-up of the jamband scene

It looks like someone at Rhino finally woke up and remembered they have to recoup some money from its landmark deal with the Grateful Dead.

So Rhino has announced a unique new series of archival releases called Road Trips. Road Trips Vol. 1 features musical highlights from the Dead’s legendary Fall 1979 tour. Unlike the single-show Dick’s Picks series, which is officially dunzo by the way, Road Trips contains a mix of material from a number of related shows. Each Road Trips release will come with a handy booklet containing never-before-seen photos and an essay on where those shows fit into the history of the band.

Road Trips seems to be the tip of the iceberg, with Rhino promising “a tidal wave of releases.” We’re not surprised — shit, Rhino didn’t pay the Dead millions of dollars to release one show from the vault each year. Fall ’79 contains some of the most potent setlists and intense playing of that time period with the addition of Brent Mydland. The November 9th show from Buffalo epitomizes the brand of potent rock ‘n roll the boys were playing during this transitional period, so I’m glad a bunch of material from that show made the cut.

We all hoped Rhino would leverage its large Dead collection in creative ways, so kudos to them for starting this series so strongly. Read on for the full press release including a FAQ about Rhino’s intentions with the Dead’s vault, as well a number of links to some interesting Dead related stories from around the world wide web…