Archive: 2008

Rupert and Stan from the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes blog are fine Americans, and on this glorious Thursday they’re back to explain their experience…

This week, it’s time to stir the pot a little bit. We decided to take a crack at breaking down the Top 10 Weekapaug Grooves of all time, ranked in order.

It’s kind of a crapshoot, but worth a shot. Anyway, the focus here is on the actual Weekapaug as opposed to the full Mike’s Groove in its entirety — that’s a whole different animal altogether and deserves its own list. As always, we welcome your recommendations and expletives in the comments.

Let it be known that these picks are solely the views of Stan and Rupert and do not reflect the views of the HT brass, unless specified. Also, you’re on the honor system here, as a few of these are available on Live Phish (so go buy the newly uploaded Dayton and Durham soundboards, particularly the Amazing Grace jam). We’re providing the songs, except for a few, which are official releases and only samples. Okay, enough yapping from us, here’s goes nothing…

10. 12/31/1998, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Paying homage to everyone’s favorite nymphomaniac Minneapolite, this particular Weekapaug follows up the obvious show opener with a little more 1999 teases to open the song. This is where this New Years show really starts heating up. After a quick, fast funk groove, the energy in MSG swells when Trey gets the machine gun out about two-thirds of the way through. Pound for pound, this probably isn’t the mightiest of all Weekapaugs, but it’s solid from beginning to end, and it’s one where you can feel the floor of the Garden bouncing through your headphones.

Read on for as we count down the 10 best Weekapaugs of all-time…

Digging Deep is one of our favorite B List features. We initiated it almost by accident last March with two separate columns, and in each of those editions we scoured YouTube to bring you some interesting and unique cover versions of cool songs. This week we continue this tradition, as we present Digging Deep: Part V.

1. We just can’t get enough of the Felice Brothers, who make their first headlining appearance in NYC at a sold out Mercury Lounge on February 1. The Felice Brothers recently toured with Bright Eyes, leading to a number of incredible collaborations including stellar covers of Neil Young’s Walk On and Tom Petty’s Walls. Have you ever seen Conor Oberst so animated and genuinely excited? Read on for the Walls video and nine other incredible clips from the likes of Arcade Fire, the Flaming Lips, Widespread Panic, Beck and many more…

You’d be hard-pressed to find many people who know more about the music of the late Elliott Smith than Dave of The Rawking Refuses to Stop. Now Dave’s done us all a great service by compiling the best of Smith’s unreleased material. Part one of the collection focuses on songs Elliot played live but never […]

It’s official, so get ready for The Neville Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Santana, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic, Dr. John, Al Green, Diana Krall, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, The Raconteurs, Irma Thomas and thousands more. So The Raconteurs land on two festival bills in the span of a week — be careful, Young Jack, don’t step all over Franti/Keller Festival Territory.

Make sure to check out last year’s full JazzFest gallery from our man Danfun, and read on after the jump for the full release…ahhh, full release.

Tickets for the THE BLACK CROWES’ special "One Night Only" shows in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta all sold out within minutes, with some of the venues reporting record sell-outs. For the first time in their 18-year career, THE BLACK CROWES are performing an album of theirs in […]

The New York City based jam-rockers U-Melt have announced an extensive tour ranging from the east coast to the mountain west and back again. The four-piece will be performing in new and un-touched markets as they spread their sonic assault beyond their northeast roots. Working around a never-ending tour schedule, U-Melt has built a reputation […]

 A landmark year for the Ghostland camp, 2007 found the group gaining notoriety for both their electrifying live shows and their acclaimed albums delete.delete.i.eat.meat. and Paparazzi Lightning, both self-released on their Trashy Moped imprint.  Their 3rd full-length following up their breakout album Paparazzi Lightning, Robotique Majestique finds Ghostland Observatory staying on course of their electro-rock/soul […]

She & Him is a story of musical serendipity. Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward first met in 2006 for a movie soundtrack project in which they recorded a version of Richard and Linda Thompson’s “When I Get To The Border”. While in the studio, they were immediately struck by one another’s talents and found an […]

Can Ringo Starr do anything without seeming like a goof? He was the comic relief for The Beatles and he's continued in that role during his solo career, including his latest release, Liverpool 8. It's a bit of a sentimental journey for Ringo it seems, but not one with a lot of depth.

Sticks and Stones may not be their best effort, but it’s a good addition to moe.’s well-rounded discography, which makes a great case for best on the jam scene.

will release its new album, christened "Third," on April 14 internationally via Island (U.S. details are pending). The 11-track set will be the British trip-hop act’s first studio release since a 1997 self-titled set. The band will co-headliner the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in late April, which will be the trio’s first show […]

Amy Winehouse has entered a rehabilitation clinic to treat her drug addiction problem, it was announced today (January 24). The singer, who was captured on video last week allegedly smoking crack, has cancelled her appearance at France’s NRJ Awards on Saturday (January 26) in order to enter the clinic. Winehouse‘s label Universal Music Group issued […]

Former 70 Volt Parade lead singer and Hidden Track Flufftarget Trey Anastasio recently spent two days in jail after violating the conditions of his participation in the Washington County Drug Treatment Court.

None of the early reports indicate the nature of Big Red’s violation, but we can’t help but fear the worst (of course, it might very well be a missed court date). According to the Post Star, Anastasio spent his time locked up with the general population of Washington County Jail. No word yet on if he was anyone’s bitch.

If you’ll allow us to be lame and fanboyish, this latest chapter of the Trey Anastasio saga certainly sucks — it really seemed like he was turning things around. Trey seemed to successfully insulate himself within the friendly confines of Saratoga Springs over the past 10 months, flying as far below the radar as humanly possible.

Things were looking up for the return Big Red in October when he returned to the stage with some inspired playing during a Phil and Friends concert in Glens Falls. After this latest incident, it’s anyone’s guess as to when he will return to the road. Read on after the jump for a full timeline of Trey’s travails…

Our good friend and longtime long-winded scribe Neddy has been reviewing each night of Marco Benevento‘s Sullivan Hall residency. Here’s the latest…

I won’t go into crazy note-by-note detail (at least I’ll try not to), but Thursday was more of the same…which is to say completely different than the first two nights of the residency. The line-up had a “can’t miss” quality to it with Stanton Moore on the drums and Marc Friedman on bass. (Marco will complete The Slip Trifecta on 1/31 when Andrew Barr gets behind the kit). The crowd returned, although I think it might have been a slightly different crowd. There were definitely some expectations in Sullivan Hall, and I’m not sure they were met. In fact, in perfect form, when everyone leaned in, foreseeing things going one way, Benevento went in quite the opposite direction.

All Photos by Greg Aiello

For one thing, for the first time this month, you could actually say that songs were being played. If you wanted to, you could probably sit down and write an actual setlist…at least for the 1st set. There was an “Atari” and a “The Real Morning Party” off of his new album, Invisible Baby, as well as the oft-played cover of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There.” Yes, the songs were there, in neatly contained packages, but those packages were like eggs in a carton: thin and fragile, easily broken into runny, messy things.

The unexpected thing was that when things got out of the shell, they did not tend toward the funky not at all. You’d think, by sheer presence alone, that Stanton would will the music into a dance-happy groove-fest. Rather, the opposite path was taken. So when “The Real Morning Party” — a tune that’s got an inherent, addictive funkiness to it — split open, it oozed into something much more slow, cerebral and simmering. I personally thought it was a fantastic romp, but the crowd seemed amped for a different kind of show. Read on…

The promoters of Coachella on Monday night unveiled a lineup that’s actually much more diverse than any of the previous seven festivals they’ve thrown in the deserts of Indio, California. Instead of featuring the typical mixture of indie flavors of the month and reunited bands from the alt-rock dynasty, the 2008 festival will feature a number of artists you wouldn’t typically hear in the hipster havens. Roger Waters? Jack Johnson? Of course, there are still plenty of acts like The Breeders and Cold War Kids on the bill to satiate the Pitchfork crowd.

So let’s preview this year’s Coachella by checking out some amazing recordings from eight of the bands that are scheduled to rock the desert on April 25-27, including Roger Waters, Sharon Jones and My Morning Jacket…

Roger Waters 03/14/2007 Pre-FM [FLAC, MP3]

Roger Waters isn’t exactly the first person that comes to mind when you think of Coachella, but festival-goers will be in for a quite a treat when he headlines that Sunday night — Waters has spent the last two years on the road perfecting his band’s performance of Dark Side of the Moon. Everyone who saw one of these shows had nothing but glowing things to say, including Ace, who ranked Waters’ MSG gig as his second favorite concert of 2006. The best-sounding bootleg to emerge from the tour comes from a radio broadcast of a March 2007 gig in Chile.

Roger’s backing band is in fine form throughout their performance in Santiago, especially during Dark Side of the Moon. Carol Kenyon delivers the booming high notes that are so essential to a well-played Great Gig In The Sky, while guitarists Andy Fairweather-Low and Snowy White both rip it up during Money. Even Roger’s usually ragged voice sounds perfect throughout the evening. Waters doesn’t spare any expense, recreating every aspect of the album both visually and aurally. Those Coachella attendees who are thinking about beating the traffic should just take a hit of acid and enjoy a mind-blowing set that will make you remember why Dark Side of the Moon is the fifth highest-selling album of all time. Read on for more…

Lead Belly was born on January 23 1888, or January 20 1889, or maybe some other day sometime in the late 19th century. Here’s a possible 120th birthday wish from Resident Curmudgeon Chuck Myers and his total bastardness…

I like to think of myself as musically omnipotent. I know music, I know it well, and I certainly know more about it than you. I mean, c’mon. You probably don’t even know that Jim Steinman, the man behind Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Total Eclipse of the Hear, was responsible for those annoying Sisters of Mercy goth anthems like This Corrosion. When it comes to self-righteous rock snobbery, I could beat you with my left ear tied behind my back.

Alas, last year I learned that I’m ignorant. I learned that I’m flawed. I learned that my musical omnipotence is more like impotence.

I’ve always heard people talk about Lead Belly, but I’ve dismissed them as wannabe snobs who are trying to impress those of us who know music. So what if Kurt Cobain said that Lead Belly was his favorite? Kurt was probably just trying to score points with that chick from Hole so she’d sit on his cock. And yeah, Led Zeppelin’s Gallow’s Pole was (ahem) borrowed from Lead Belly’s Gallis Pole, but Zeppelin borrowed stuff from pretty much everybody. Read on for more…

Festivals, they’re fucking everywhere these days, so you’d think we would be opposed to any new festies entering the overcrowded fray. For the most part that’s true, but we’d make one exception upon seeing Dean Ween’s latest entry on his Brownie Troop 666 blog. Deaner drops the news that Ween is considering a festival of […]

Fantastic news for fans of that lovely brooding baritone emanating from the mouth of Leonard Cohen. The legendary Québécois songwriter “will tour with his band in Canada and the U.S. in May and in Europe in the summer, according to leonardcohenforum.com. Details will be announced in February.” Fucking awesome, considering I was like 14 the […]

The so-called ‘east coast Coachella’ festival has been named ‘All Points West’ it is being reported. The event, scheduled to be held in Liberty State Park an island between New York City and New Jersey, is being held by organisers of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, New Jersey-based Liberty Event Management and New […]

 Rush are preparing to hit the road hard again this spring. The extended "Snakes & Arrows World Tour" will launch April 11 with Rush’s first-ever appearance in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and then trek through more than 45 cities across the US and Canada. The itinerary is listed below. The outing will bring the band […]