September 22, 2008

“Shitty day, people. It’s been a shitty day.” So spoke Fareed Haque to open the first set from Garaj Mahal at the Fez Ballroom on Thursday. He went on to explain that a certain unnamed airline had lost his six thousand dollar jazz guitar earlier that day. What did he get in return for his six thousand dollar guitar, you might ask? “Three hundred dollars and a phone number,” he said. “That’s all I got from them, and that is what makes it a shitty day!”

Of course, that meant Haque had to play his Moog guitar, the only other guitar he had brought with him. The Moog is a beautiful instrument that doubles as one of the most versatile guitars in the world. In the hands of one of the most versatile guitarists in the land, it seemed a win-win situation. That seemed okay with the rest of the band as well. They proceeded to tear the Fez to pieces and the next few hours flew by.

Garaj Mahal hits the stage with no set list. They play a game of round robin, songs are chosen by each member of the band when it’s their turn. They will call it out or start the song and the rest join in. Everyone in the room sits back and enjoys the vibe. Well, not exactly sitting back. In fact, the dance floor was awash with an audience that truly danced like no one was watching, lost in the jamming excellence in front of them.

READ ON for more of A.J.’s review…

For those of you who missed WXRT’s broadcast of a portion of My Morning Jacket’s mind-blowing performance at Radio City Music Hall from June, you’ve got another chance to catch

Over the last few years, the Southern-fried soul, rock and blues outfit MOFRO has given Wilco a run for its money in the lineup change department. With the 2007 release

This week, we have the opening suite from the famed 1967 Paris concert of the Miles Davis Quintet’s fall tour. The show takes place at the end of the line

We’d like to welcome yet another new member to our ever-growing Hidden Track staff, Jack Spilberg. Jack’s a longtime contributor to Glide’s main site where he’s written about Lyrics Born, Brett Dennen and Jack Johnson among others. Enough with the prelims, here’s Jack’s first column…

As a part of last summer’s Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through the Static Tour, a series of really slick-looking, limited edition concert posters were drawn up by select artists. According to Johnson’s site, the posters were printed up in numbered editions of only 300, and sold during the concert stops. You were lucky if you happened to score one of them during the tour, as they are not available for sale anywhere else right now. A full set of signed posters will supposedly be auctioned off sometime soon- check back on the site for a chance to place a bid.

It is not surprising that many of the artists involved with this concert poster art project are tied to the surf scene. While many of the designs have an organic, surfer-art vibe, there is a nice mix or urban and underground artists who give the poster series a more eclectic vibe.

Here’s a look at 12 of the 15 posters in the full set and links to the artists’ sites…

Chivo: http://www.mybrowncoat.com/

READ ON for more Sleep Through The Static tour posters…

There’s nothing like downloading free legal music from the internet and you’ve got plenty of options to choose from. But determining which free download portals rock and which aren’t worth