After landing themselves on many of their peers’ and critics’ 2008 "best of" lists with Skeleton, Abe Vigoda returns to the wild with an incredible gem named Reviver. The followup to
Son Volt will venture to the road early in 2009 for a slate of headlining shows behind the band’s most recent studio set, 2007’s "The Search."the mid-west and east coast.
After two "acoustic" shows which you already read about on Hidden Track, Gov't Mule played the first of their annual year-end shows at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom on December 30th. Of course, this was a new venue for Gov’t Mule with the Beacon Theatre being recently renovated, however Warren Haynes immediately made the room his own by opening with “Blind Man In The Dark.”
Jason Collett’s latest record, the 2008 release Here’s To Being Here (Arts & Crafts) is a marvelous thing; it’s personal enough to put on when drinking with friends becomes an option. It begs for authenticity through conversation. He pens lyrics like “The perennial fatigue of the times/when you’re long in the tooth/short in the sleeve/there’s nowhere left to hide” which let you into a world you only feel like sharing with your best friend. All this coming from a guy with three children. And when he’s not getting personal, he’s still littering his albums with references to joints and cigarettes.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1-AJS1k4P0 SNL Digital Short – Doogie Howser
Considering all of the Hidden Track staff put our blood, sweat and tears into this site for little reward it’s very nice to get some recognition. This little blog that could, has been named one of the finalists for the 2008 Weblog Awards’ Music Blog category. We’re up against the biggest names in the biz, most of which are run by full-time paid staffs including Stereogum, Idolator, I Guess I’m Floating, Electroqueer and My Mood Is Music.
If you appreciate what we do here – or just like to root for the underdog – please head over to the voting page and cast your one-click vote for Hidden Track as Best Music Blog. You can place a vote once every 24 hours so keep going back to vote everyday until January 13. We’re very lucky to have a loyal audience and we’d love if you guys can vote for HT.
READ ON to place your vote for Hidden Track…
[Editor’s note – This was supposed to be published yesterday, but wasn’t thanks to some sort of quirk with WordPress. We’re running the piece as is but please note the
Back in mid-November Van Morrison scheduled a special three-night run at the Hollywood Bowl in California with the promise of a full performance of arguably his best work, Astral Weeks.
Someone once said that History becomes Fiction in the very act of writing it down. When the Phish tour dates were finally announced I thought a lot about that quote and my recent position in life.
I find myself almost 30 and well on the path that Phish themselves sent me on almost 14 years ago. The upside is my career is everything I’ve ever wanted and I couldn’t be happier. The downside is I won’t be able to just run off and follow the impetus for my career in the music business like I use to. A new, younger touring generation will be filling the aisles this summer and that brings up, dare I say… bittersweet feelings. I feel there is a need for the veterans to address the new rats with where we went wrong in order to hopefully not make this Era of Phishtory as destructive as the last.
To You, the New Class of Phishtorians I offer these words of warning and encouragement. It’s great to see that Phish is still scoring young in the demographics and you will be finding a way to tell your parents you won’t be a camp counselor this year, but rather, discarding the trappings of The Machine and getting in your car to cruise the land of the brave and free (thank you Ween).
Here are some pointers from a guy who has been in the trenches, learned from said trenches, and now, am getting paid to live on a tour bus and see great music night in and night out. In short: These words come road tested.
READ ON for Wade’s three tips for post-Breakup Phish fans…
Head to Jambands.com to check out our industry insider’s – including our fearless leader Scotty B – choices for the best of 2008 and what to expect from 2009 as
