Archive: 2009

DJ Danger Mouse has revealed he is to release an album with London-born folk singer Helena Costas. Working under the name Joker’s Daughter, the duo are set to release an album, ‘The Last Laugh’, on June 15. The album also features the horns of Neutral Milk Hotel‘s Scott Spillane and string arrangements by frequent Danger […]

Even though the ticket scene was at near give-away proportions, the lot was full at Jones Beach for Phish’s return to the New York area, even spilling over into auxiliary lots. And even though the fuzz were out in force, lurking around the outskirts and pouncing on the less subtle, there was also a fair sized Shakedown Street with all its ancillary sights and sounds.

[All Photos by Dave Vann for Glide/HT]

Inside, the venue had filled up by the time Phish hit the stage a bit after 8 and hopped into a nice Runaway Jim followed by Foam, and then a new tune, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan – it’s a rocker, kind of 46 Days in mood and groove, with the instantly classic line “I got a blank space where my mind should be.” The boys on stage seem to be enjoying themselves, but then they’ve always enjoyed playing their new material, and thereafter they seemed to relax a bit, settle in.

Great, rolling drums and that slow, staccato rhythm guitar marked the opening of Timber, and Fishman carried his beat through the song, adding cymbal crashes and egging Trey on. A short series of distinct lead licks ensued, and the whole band pounded back into the final verse. It was a good song made better by the following Cities. The first mid-song jam was cooking down the tune, sparse with piano accents, and everyone was all locked up and rocking – I’m pretty sure that the unavoidable shaking of limbs here was my body returning to its natural movements, to the way it’s supposed to move.

READ ON for more of Dan’s words and Dave’s photos…

While the idea of a Phish documentary is not necessarily a new one, Maybe So, Maybe Not (“MSMN”) certainly incorporates a unique approach; raising the bulk of the funding from fellow fans, enlisting crew support from fans, and basing a large part of the material on anecdotal and visual contributions from fans – a true grassroots-and-boots effort if you will.

Having heard a bit about the project but curious to know more, we hooked up with Washington D.C. native, Noah Wilderman, the film’s director and producer to do just that. A movie about the Phish scene could go in any of a thousand directions – opting to paint the picture like a flock of fanatical music-lovers, a communal junta of like-minded friends, an insane posse of hyper-critical internet nerds, or a tribe of morons and drug-addled children. Which way will it go? Given the fan-friendly nature, we safely assumed this one is not that latter two, but the following interview should give a deeper sense of what to expect in terms of plot, budget, motivation, scheduling, and of course, vision.

Hidden Track: Could you describe the moment you had the epiphany whereby you realized that you were going to make a movie about Phish?

Noah Wilderman: My decision to make a movie about the Phish experience was quite a surprise, even to myself. Like many others I’ve encountered since this journey began, the swell of emotion of emotions hit me like a ton of bricks when I discovered that Phish was coming back to the stage. After graduating college, finishing grad school and “growing up (a.k.a.,getting a job),” I wholeheartedly embraced my career as a broadcast television professional for several years and had long ago taken my own exit as Phish followed their evolving sound into the late 90’s. I thought I was over Phish, that it was a phase I associated with the freedom of my youth. I was wrong.

READ ON for more of Ryan’s interview with Noah…

Nearly 44 years after The Beatles played the first concert at Shea Stadium, Yankee fan and bass player – Sir Paul McCartney – will break in Citi Field, the new home of the NY Mets, with two concerts this summer. Macca will take the stage at Citi Field for a pair of shows on July […]

Last Week’s Sauce is a recurring column featuring recordings of shows that took place the previous week. Thanks to tgakidis for this week’s photo.

When I started writing this weekly feature, I had the goal of showcasing new bands each week that had not previously appeared on Last Week’s Sauce. Well that’s officially over. There were just too many HT favorites out on the road last week for me to continue that trend…

Artist & Title: The Disco Biscuits – Uber Glue > Sabre Dance
Date & Venue: 2009-05-30 – Red Rocks, Morrison CO
Taper & Show Download: Matt Quinn

The Disco Biscuits crossed a venue off their “to play” list this past weekend when they packed over 6000 fans into Red Rocks for an event they dubbed Bisco Inferno. This song combination features one of tDB’s newer instrumental compositions paired with an Aram Khachaturian’s composition from 1942 (an instrumental that had not been played by tDB in 5+ years). Sabre Dance has been used in many television shows, movies, etc…but the image it always conjures up in my mind is that of the 1985 flick Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. tDB play tonight in Providence.

READ ON for more entries from the likes of Phish and Umphrey’s McGee…

Longtime HT contributor Hal Hansen attended Saturday’s memorial service for original GSW taper and superfan Paul Ducharme and filed this report…

The opening song of Stranger was an appropriate one for God Street Wine’s triumphant return on Saturday, the first time all five original members performed together since a 2001 reunion for the closing of The Wetlands. I had never met Paul Ducharme, a fixture in the New York area music scene whose tragic passing in April was the inspiration for the New York City band’s 75 minute set on the lawn outside the Westside Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ. However, it did not take long to see that this community of friends and family lost a caring, funny & intriguing soul. After a mix of various musical artists and emotional speeches by those closest to Paul, it was time for GSW to play.

The set list featured an even mix of classics from several different albums, unrecorded live staples and even a one-two Beatles punch of Blackbird & Dear Prudence. Each song was a joy to hear again and other than a few moments of understandable rustiness, including a restart on Waiting for the Tide, the band was very impressive for not playing together in nearly eight years. Driving West & 6:15 reached their familiar & powerful climaxes while Imogene featured some blistering guitar work by Aaron. The creative ending segue of Borderline > Swing Low, Sweet Chariot > Borderline showed that GSW can also still have some fun on the fly.

READ ON for more on GSW’s performance in Ridgewood…

Photos by Kristin Locurto of Kings of Leon at Time Warner Ampitheater, Cleveland, OH on 5/13/09

The first Phish show at Jones Beach in nearly 14 years was worth the wait. From the monster Timber, Cities segment to the beautiful improv in Harry Hood and Reba the band was back in full force this evening. Let’s take a look at the setlist… Phish 06/02/2009 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, New […]

If you know anything about Tim Easton, it’s that the man can write a song. 2006’s Ammunition displayed all of the Ohio native’s songwriting talents; among the highlights were the delicate tunes,  “Oh People” and “Next to You,” the political tunes, “News Blackout” and “Before the Revolution”, and the fun tunes, “Dear Old Song & Dance” and “C-Dub.” Easton’s newest album, Porcupine, is a different animal, but it bites just as fierce—mainly by rocking the night away.

Nearly 44 years after the Beatles performed the first concert held at New York’s historic Shea Stadium, Paul McCartney is set to christen the new home of the New York Mets – the Citi Field stadium in Queens, New York – with concerts on July 17 and July 18, it was announced today. The two-night […]

The Hidden Track staff is headed out to Jones Beach for the first of three Phish concerts in Wantagh. I’ll be tweeting live from the venue so be sure to follow along @YEMblog. Don’t miss our review of Fenway and head to YEMblog for tons of torrents, videos and reviews of Sunday night’s show. [Youk […]

We’ve already extolled the virtues of former BtN act and NPR’s favorite “smart-rock” band Okkervil River numerous times here on HT. Will Sheff & Co. put on my very favorite performances at this year’s SXSW destroying the stage at The Parish well past 2 AM. After making their debut appearance at Bonnaroo. the Austin-based act […]

Here are the aforementioned photos from Jeremy Gordon of the second day of Mountain Jam. Be sure to check out Jeremy and Carla’s Day 1 recap.

In honor of Phish’s Fenway bust out, we’re re-running our The Ballad of Curtis Loew Cover Wars which was originally published on May 5th, 2009

The Ballad Of Curtis Loew was originally released on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s aptly titled sophomore effort Second Helping. There is a FAQ section on Skynrd’s website that asks if there was a real Curtis Loew. Here’s the answer…

The inspiration for Curtis Loew was loosely based around the characters that lived near Ronnie’s home on Jacksonville’s Westside. The corner store in the song is based on Claude’s Midway Grocery on the corner of Plymouth and Lakeshore in Jacksonville. While there wasn’t a ‘real’ Curtis Loew, there were many Curtis Loews in the neighborhood. The actual spelling of the name came when Ed was writing the liner notes for the Second Helping album in 1974. He thought it would be funny to name this old Florida black bluesman after the Jewish Loew’s Theatre.

The Contestants:

Keller Williams: Leading off this week we’ve got a short rendition from the early years of Keller Williams. Source: 1-25-1998
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/kw.mp3]

READ ON for the rest of this week’s Cover Wars contestants…

Get Some – Pearl Jam (live on Conan)

Photos by Dave Vann of Phish at Fenway Park in Boston, MA on 5/31/09.

Ever heard of phenomenology? Me either; this one just fell in my lap. In the early chapters of Muriel Barbery’s relatively recent bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog which just so happened to be in my lap on the train this weekend, she put forth this idea of phenomenology, “the science of what appears to our conscious.” As she so aptly puts, “For millennia now, by way of ‘I know thyself’ to ‘I think therefore I am,’ mankind has been rambling on about the ridiculous human prerogative that is our consciousness.”

[All Photos by Dave Vann]

Some segments of this group known as “mankind” may focus their attention on their conscious perceptions of their favorite bagel or pizza joints, films or works of literature by the masters, or perhaps means of transportation (Amtrak baby). We, on the other hand, choose to focus on our perceptions on Phish shows and the detailsl of every note, and then subsequently comparing all those details to all the other details we have previously compared, turning out these databases of critical information to compile such useful diatribes as the all-time ten best Harry Hoods ever played. Well, it may be as she says “ridiculous human prerogative,” but like the great Bobby Brown always says, it is ours.

Phish fans are divided like chocolate lovers. Some like it dark (70%), bitter and potent, with emphasis on the sinister Down With Diseases and smoggy funky Ghosts. Other palates prefer the sweeter, yet still complex milk chocolate (Swiss) like a Fluffhead opener, a nice Reba, a Hood, or a long-awaited If I Could. Lots of folks will simply eat it all. And then of course, there are those who like the mass market Hersheys. Well, at least they like the flavor in general.

Anyway, getting to the point, finally. Very rarely can you please them all, but Phish’s tour opener at the historic Fenway Park in Boston served up Homer’s Chocolate Town, complete with flavors for everyone. With the anticipation nearly reaching Hampton levels, with heaps of fans out for their first show since the breakup, Phish swung for the fences. READ ON for more…

Multi-platinum rock band Cheap Trick announce the pre-order of the new album The Latest, currently available exclusively through the band’s official website- www.cheaptrick.com- and on Amazon.com. The Latest, produced by Julian Raymond & Howard Willing, continues Cheap Trick’s reign as power-pop progenitors as they celebrate their 35th anniversary together. Julian Raymond says, “Cheap Trick are […]

In July, acclaimed singer and songwriter Pete Yorn will kick off a headlining tour in support of his anticipated new album ‘Back And Fourth’ (June 23, Columbia).  Backed by his new band – a well-credentialed group of musicians including guitarist Jonny Polonsky who also played on the album, Joey Kennedy on keys, Scott Seiver on […]

According to a press release.Assembly of Dust is offering fans free downloads of seven tracks from its upcoming release, "Some Assembly Required," exclusively at its website,  Beginning June 2, a new track will be available for free download every Tuesday leading up to the album’s July 21 release. Each download will be available for a […]