Archive: 2007

Drive by Truckers have announced plans for their Home Front World Tour. The tour, which will be previewed in Athens GA on Jan. 10-13 begins in Anaheim CA on Feb. 11th. The Feb. dates will be supported by The Felice Brothers. The first two shows (Anaheim and LA on the 12th) will also feature support […]

Rising out of the ashes of New Year’s Eve, Perpetual Groove [PG] breaks in to the  new year to kick off the "Save 41 Tour" which will carry the band through four months of touring coast to  coast, with stops at some of the world’s best festivals including Jam Cruise, Langerado, and Jam  in the […]

Velour Music Group is proud to announce that guitarist/songwriter Kaki King has been nominated for a Best Original Score Golden Globe Award for her contributions to Sean Penn’s film "Into the Wild." King was nominated for this award alongside her collaborators on the film’s soundtrack, Eddie Vedder and Michael Brook. This marks the first time […]

The writer’s strike is starting to seriously cramp our style. How many times can you watch the same reruns from Dave and Jay over and over? We love watching new acts make their late-night debuts, but now rockers are forced to book appearances on such fluff as The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. It’s […]

It’s a brazenly slow Friday at the oficina, so let’s check in with The Whitest Kids U’Know for a semi-old but totally hilarious short sketch. Why not, right? [youtube]BkgMbU-we1o[/youtube] Good lord, that is hysterics personified. But, Ace, what’s that gotta do with music? Not a thing, and someone should push you down a flight of […]

My non-outsourced Mix Tape posts make me sad…and a little hungry, and partially tired, and dangerously randy. You see, somewhere along the way I completely lost the ability to produce creatively themed and cleverly segued downloads. In college, back in the days when we still listened to actual tapes, I’d put all kinds of love […]

Just in case it wasn’t obvious, now is probably not a good time to be working for a record company. Geffen and Interscope gave 15 employees quite the holiday present when they were unceremoniously laid off yesterday, following similar cuts by Def Jam and Sony BMG earlier this month. The major labels aren’t going to […]

The recently announced late 2007 New York appearances of Sly and the Family Stone will no doubt focus attention on the re-mastered limited-edition catalog titles released earlier in the year.

"5 Times Out of 100" should please longtime fans and while it would easy to point out several other standout tracks, it may just be easier to go ahead and recommend Happiness as the best of Hot Hot Heat's career.

Some bands cover songs, others rename songs, but Magnet School has made an album out of a song.

Tom Waits has announced that he will make a rare Los Angeles stage appearance next month. The legendary songwriter is set to perform a handful of songs at a benefit concert for Bet Tzedek Legal Services—House of Justice on January 22 at the Century Plaza Hotel. The law firm provides legal services for impoverished, elderly, […]

The Police reunion trek led all tours in 2007 with a gross that has passed $212 million and is still climbing. The global tour few thought would ever happen moved more than 1.8 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore, prior to the Boxscore cutoff date of Nov. 13. The Police tour was produced by TNA […]

 Galactic is gearing up for a busy couple of months on the road. The band will kick off a new run of shows December 30 at Soul Kitchen in Mobile, Ala., and has dates on the books through the end of March. A highlight on the schedule is the Jam Cruise, which departs from Fort […]

Welsh alt-rockers Super Furry Animals will mount a North American trek early in 2008 behind their latest album, August’s "Hey Venus!" The trek kicks off Jan. 23 in Hoboken, NJ, covering 24 cities in just over a month. The schedule includes a few co-headlining dates with indie rockers The Fiery Furnaces, and the trek will […]

So apparently my elders tell me this Bob Plant character used to be dripping with sex appeal, with all kinds of smokin’ hot chicks and heterosexual men alike wishing to strip him of those unimaginatively tight pants. But doesn’t this raggedy current installment of 2007 Robert Plant look more like a subway beggar? And so […]

The closest I’ve ever come to being ‘punk rock’ was when I played guitar in a one-off performance of the Grateful Dead Nixons. We played a four-minute set of Dead tunes done with the tempo, brevity and angst of a visit to CBGB’s bathroom.

I’m not shitting you when I say that we played four albums worth of Dead songs in four minutes. Our version of Dark Star took more time to count out than it took to actually play. But that’s the closest I ever came to being punk rock. We did not break anything or topple amplifiers, and we didn’t even spit on the audience. Although, I think my shirt may have had a tiny alligator on the left breast…

While I’m obviously not a punk rocker in any sense, I once had a decent collection of seven-inches and a couple of cool patches for my backpack. I’ve long since moved on from my “Gabba-Gabba-heyday(s),” until last week, when the iPod Shuffle Gods dropped a perfectly timed Sonic Reducer by The Deadboys on me.

I’ve spent the last seven days brushing up on my favorite two-minute power-chord cures for disco. At the request of B-List patriarch Scotty Bernstein, it’s time to present my personal Top 10 punk bands of all time. To make things interesting, I’ve decided to make it omit any bands with names that start with the word “The.” So, pierce your nose with a safety pin, and let’s dig in after the jump…

Today begins a regular Thursday column from our friends Rupert & Stan…

It seems Neddy’s Ye Olde Algorithm predicted the future the other day. You see, last Friday’s Mix Tape includes the tune “Welcome, Ghosts” from Explosions in the Sky. Hey, thanks for the welcome, Neddy. We’re psyched to be here.

Ace asked us, Rupert and Stan, from the sports blog, the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes, to contribute a weekly column here on Hidden Track. We’d like to think he thinks we’re kinda funny and insightful, but we think he probably just feels sorry for the readers of our own site who come to read about sports and get 2,000 words about our favorite versions of Harry Hood, Top 101 albums they have never even heard of, and why Phish is like Michael Jordan. Basically, we are a couple music fanatics trapped in a Deadspin world. And we’re here to help.

Thus, we couldn’t be happier to spend some time with y’all every Thursday to chat about some music. Obviously, we’re calling it the “The Story of the Ghosts,” or maybe “SOTG” if you’re into the whole brevity thing. We haven’t really decided the exact direction of the column, but just to give you some idea of where it’s probably headed: We like sincere analysis, dropping a lot of wise-ass comedy and incorporating some odd interview stylings, and we have a bizarre penchant for keeping lists. It’s not uncommon to spend entire workdays hashing out spreadsheets, with elaborate ranking systems, and devising complex mathematical algorithms using a concept known as “averaging” to break down our favorite catalogs of any number of topics.

So that’s us. Since it’s our first day and all, we come bearing gifts. We’re gonna talk about lesser known show, but one that we both agree is nothing short of legendary. The band is Mr. Blotto and this one comes from their annual Chicago festival, Blottopia 8. Read on for more of our first installment…

It’s clear that someone needs to define two terms: “rock and roll” and “legendary performer.” Rolling Stone reports that Madonna and John Mellencamp will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year, leading a group that includes Leonard Cohen, the Ventures, the Dave Clark Five and several others. The Rock and […]

It’s a little weird that Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers has given me a better holiday gift than anyone in my family. [The Better] Bruce offers up a mix of the best tracks from this past summer’s tour freely available for download for a limited time through through his website. This amazing compilation features some of Bruce’s best originals, as well as killer covers like Standing On The Moon.

• The Ultimate Bootleg Experience found the best Led Zep aud recording
• Umphrey’s McGee gets by with a little help from their friends on the 56th edition of their long-running podcast series
• My Jazz World kicks down Herbie Mann’s Live at the Whisky A Go Go
• The Roadhouse presents this recording of VH-1’s Storytellers featuring the original lineup of Smashing Pumpkins
• Nazz Nomad pays tribute to John Lennon over at Bleedin’ Out
• Smuggled Sounds looks back on one of Faith No More’s best
• Bootleg Friday makes a strong return with a Little Feat boot from 1973

Finally, the always-on NYCTaper shares his fine lossless recordings of Yo La Tengo, Fiery Furnaces and a band we’re hearing tons about, MGMT…

Pictures by Kenny Pusey of Neil Young at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia, PA on 12/9/07.