Archive: 2007

The posts have been coming fast and furious, like Tony Romo’s tears. So here’s a recap of what you may or may not have missed ’round these here parts this week: The reviews from New Year’s Eve were rolling in all week: We continued the Trey Anastasio overload with a recap of his Atlantic City […]

Back when Neil was better known as the “Young” in Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Neil delivered his pre-grunge outfit, Crazy Horse in all their earnest glory at New York City’s Fillmore East on March 6 & 7, 1970. Released as Live at the Fillmore East, this marks first release of the Young archives series.

"Here’s comes the razor of doubt, here comes the falling out,” Matthew Ryan sang on the opening track of his first album, May Day, released seven years ago. That particular song, “Guilty,” has summed up the majority of his feelings he has touched on since: living with the doubts that life deals you. Matthew Ryan isn’t a happy songwriter. He’s a human being.

Concerted Comic – week of 1.7.06

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation has announced its inductees for 2007. The inductees are: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (Kid Creole, Cowboy, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Mr. Ness, Raheim) R.E.M. (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe) The Ronettes (Estelle Bennett, Ronnie Spector, Nedra Talley) Patti Smith Van Halen (Michael […]

The good people over at Weir Freaking have uncovered a set of pictures and video footage of Thursday night’s Nancy Pelosi Presents show in Washington: [youtube]-TALMvGTAGk[/youtube] Ain’t it just wonderful to see the liberals back in power, using their compassionate guilt to take a homeless man off the streets, dress him up in a suit […]

Sometimes in life everything comes together and you find yourself at the place you most want to be. This past weekend, I was That Guy.

That was me, experiencing the gamut of emotions at the Aragon Ballroom, where Umphrey’s McGee played three shows leading up to New Year’s Eve. I’ve fallen head over heels for UM over the past two years, and I’m thankfully still at the point where I enjoy each successive show more and more. When the band announced they were playing three year-end shows in its hometown, I just couldn’t resist and gathered 15 of my closest friends to join me for a trip to the Midwest.

Each night the band left nothing in the tank as they explored their huge repertoire, even adding a few covers to the mix. When you tear through your own songs for two hours it must be nice to play two or three amazing new covers each night. Who doesn’t like seeing their favorite band switch it up and play something new, like say, Dick In A Box?

The pairing of The Fuzz > Dear Lord that opened the second show was the musical highlight of the three shows that were chock full of musicial highlights. The rock groove found in The Fuzz was a major contrast to the beautiful tones on Dear Lord, a rarity that was one of the first songs the band ever wrote. For me the beauty of Umphrey’s is the diversity of their catalog — one minute the band would be grooving out to a reggae number when all of the sudden a heavy rocker would develop. The other non-musical highlight was the light show. Both the lasers (last seen on Pink Floyd’s Divsion Bell Tour) and the light show were top notch and really added to my enjoyment of the festivities.

Now that I’ve used every positive adjective in the blogging handbook in gushing over Umphrey’s, let’s check out some snapshots. Adam Kaufman shot the middle show on December 30th, and the pictures came out so good I thought I’d let the images do the talking and present a gallery of his incredible photos…

After a couple of three-day weekends we’re back to the old-fashioned two-day version. Whatevs, Fridays are awesome. It’s been a busy week at Hidden Track Headquarters, yet believe it or not we still have plenty to tell you about. Forget about your job and relax with some linkage: Guitar Magazine presents a list of the top […]

The New Year’s reviews and Trey overload continue: Our friend Ashley Griffin left for Atlantic City with a Trey Anastasio ticket, a set of loaded dice and a giant sack of cash. She returned with this review and a shiny new Cadillac.

New Year’s Eve has always provided Phish fans a window of time bathed in the light of hippie mysticism. Dysfunctional holiday family fun traditionally left one longing for a stronger drink than a mug of eggnog, and a holiday run of shows was the festive cocktail of choice for improvisational junkies. Hmm, maybe “junkies” was a poor choice of words there given recent events.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com

Anticipation of the tidal wave of cheers as the lights dimmed at MSG made suffering through painful conversations with distant relatives over turkey almost enjoyable. A New Year’s run was more than a string of shows. It was a celebration of the potential of the new year, both musically and communally.

Sadly those days are over now, but Trey still offered the promise of a new beginning this year with a string of holiday shows, culminating in a two-night run in the crown jewel of the Jersey shore. Atlantic City may be a cubic zirconium when compared to the debaucherous glitz of the Vega, but it sparkles nonetheless, shining brighter than ever on this evening as the newest incarnation of Trey’s horn-driven solo outfit tore through three sets to bring in the new year…

Radiohead’s lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, indulges his passion for reggae music by compiling his favorite tracks onto one album, Jonny Greenwood is the Controller.  Coming out on March 6th, 2007, this one of a kind collection digs deep into rich Jamaican sounds and styles covering soul, roots and dub. As a fervent fan of reggae music, […]

Emerging from the rubble of two of Seattle, Washington's most celebrated bands, Tuffy and Floyds Ranch, The Mellors surfaced in late 2004. Led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Jamie Lane, the band’s self-titled debut was uncharacteristic from the majority of groups in the Emerald City as it embraced a Mid-Western sound that is organic with just a touch of Southern twanginess.

On his fourth solo album, Put Your Ghost to Rest,  former Miracle of 86 front man Kevin Devine has done a good job of creating an album that is listenable, somehow familiar, yet creative enough to avoid being boring.

The Shins have unveiled the first leg of their tour in support of their upcoming Sub Pop album, "Wincing the Night Away." The trek will begin Feb. 8 in Minneapolis and continue through Feb. 25 in London, with more shows to be announced. Also on tap is a Jan. 13 appearance on "Saturday Night Live," […]

I had the genuine pleasure this past holiday weekend of attending Umphrey’s McGee’s three-night run at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom. One of the cooler aspects of these shows was that UM handpicked three great bands to open each night of the run. The North Mississippi Allstars opened the show on the 29th, followed by Los Lobos on the 30th and Taj Mahal on New Year’s Eve. It was incredible to get a taste of all of those bands before Umphrey’s owned my face.

Of the three opening acts, the band I most enjoyed was East L.A.’s Los Lobos, a Mexican-American rock band that has been going strong for more 30 years.

I was mostly familiar with Los Lobos’ music, but I had never gotten a chance to experience them live. You can surely color me impressed now…

As we mentioned in this space a few weeks ago, newly inducted Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the new Bill Graham. Aunt Bobo, if you will. Pelosi’s put together a House band of Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Bruce Hornsby, Warren Haynes and Mike Gordon for tonight’s heady fundraiser, and I think […]

Here’s why I think some of us obsess so much over both live music and sports: In themselves, there’s a natural beauty in watching something incredible and unscripted unfold in real time. But in addition to the ability to reflect upon a trove of both memorable and forgettable experiences, we also get to quantify those experiences through sheer statistics. After all, how often did you find yourself updating your Phish Stats after a nice run and smiling at the latest Notable Gap?

I’m always been a fan of keeping track of show stats, and I think ZZYZX probably created the best derivative form of entertainment in the music industry. Well, the accounting firm for Ace Cowboy & Associates has now officially crunched the numbers for this year’s annual report to the shareholders, and the results for 2006 are in: In all, I caught 86 live performances by 59 different bands at 60 ticketed shows in 37 separate venues. Not bad for my soul, not good for my wallet.

Most sites are done with all the Let’s Look Back at Last Year exercises, but I wanted to wait until every show was given a puncher’s chance to make the list. I’m not gonna break out into a rousing rendition of Mr. Kellerman’s “Let’s join in with one last chorus, visitors, staff and guests…” routine, but join me in taking one last peak at the best performances of the year, as I saw it.

I grew up in the days of Hair Metal, even staying up ever Saturday night to watch Headbanger’s Ball on MTV. At first Motley Crue, Def Leppard and Quiet Riot were my thing. Then as the ’80s turned into the ’90s I was more of a Poison, Guns N’ Roses, and Metallica guy. And while I loved the heavy shit, I also enjoyed when bands showed a completely different side and busted out the power ballad.

An ingenious formula was established in the late ’80s for a band releasing a heavy yet catchy single and following it up with a slow song to show the emerging artists’ more sensitive side. Examples of this major phenomenon include Firehouse (Don’t Treat Me Bad > Love of a Lifetime), Warrant (Down Boys > Heaven) and Europe (The Final Countdown > Carrie).

At first I was going to list the most popular and successful power ballads, but screw that. Even though Don’t Treat Me Bad and More Than Words sold the most records, songs such as Love Song and November Rain still hold up 13 years after Headbanger’s Ball went off the air. So this edition of The B List features my 10 favorite power ballads from the Hair Metal band era (1984 – 1993) — make sure to click on the song title to see the classic video for each of these songs:

10. Love Song – Tesla: Many Hair Metal bands sucked musically and were basically productions of record companies. Tesla broke that mold by combining honest songwriting with five truly talented musicians. Love Song provides an excellent example of the power-ballad formula of instrumental opening > sappy lyrics > powerful guitar solo that was a hallmark of many songs on this list.

9. Here I Go Again – Whitesnake: Tawny Kitaen introduced herself as the “girl from the Whitesnake video” to her castmates on VH1’s Surreal Life 6. That speaks volumes about the power of the music video, as well as the power of a hot chick rolling around on a Jaguar in a white negligee. Whitesnake’s singer David Coverdale was a lucky man, as he dated Tawny Kitaen during her best years, well before she started beating up baseball players and doing tons of coke. Oh, there was a song that we were talking about, right? That happens.

Read on for the rest of this week’s edition of The B List: Hair-Metal Power Ballads…

This album follows 2004’s The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered – a higher profile tribute that featured the likes of Beck and Tom Waits – but it captures Johnston’s essence more gracefully than its hat-tipping predecessor.

Bonnaroo, the outdoor music festival, is moving in.  Sam McAllister, owner of the 500-plus acres where up to 90,000 music fans have camped each year since summer 2002, said he hopes to wrap up the deal as early as next week. "Well, there’s a few little things that has got to take place before it […]

stellastarr* will take a break in February from writing their next album to  play some intimate shows for their fans along the east and west coasts. The  band has been demoing their new songs to tape in Philadelphia and have begun  to post them on their myspace page.  In line with how and why they […]