Yeah, yeah, yeah, Phish opened summer tour a few weeks back, but it’s time to move on to something new: Furthur opens its summer tour this week, and to celebrate
After a successful and storied tenure (ten-year) establishing the editorial department at one of our most respected peers, JamBase, the site’s longtime, esteemed Editor-in-Chief, Aaron Kayce (aka Kayceman), recently announced his decision to step down from that position.
As everyone here at Hidden Track can attest, we’re saddened to see him leave JamBase, but meanwhile impressed by how long he managed such a stressful role. From coordinating the gigantic team of contributors and responding to hundreds of emails daily to scheduling a massive amount of content and somehow finding time to write, the task seems nothing short of monumental. Hence, we’re excited both for Kayceman to embark on the next phase of his writing career as well as to keep tabs on what’s next for JamBase.
Hidden Track: To the extent you feel comfortable talking about it; what led to your decision to part ways with JamBase after ten years?
Aaron Kayce: For starters, as you mentioned, I had been at JamBase for almost ten years. I built the editorial department from the ground up and I more or less had done all that I could there. Things change a great deal over the course of a decade and as my life and dreams evolved it became clear that I needed a new set of challenges. It was the right time for me to enter the next stage of my career.
HT: What did a day in the life as Editor-in-Chief of JamBase typically entail from start to finish?
AK: A lot of emailing and content creation. I had a very small editorial team, myself and the wonderful Dennis Cook, but we pumped out a ton of content. A lot went into making that happen and it wasn’t the same every day. But there were certainly some consistencies.
My day generally began by publishing fresh news on the site and scouring the web to be sure I wasn’t missing any breaking stories that would be pertinent to JamBase users. Then I’d be in touch with Dennis to be sure the schedule (show reviews, features etc) I set was still on track for the day. Sooner or later I’d have to start dealing with emails, of which I’d get between 100-200 a day from publicists, bands, writers, and photographers about various things.
READ ON for more of our Writer’s Workshop with Kayceman…
My Morning Jacket will headline this year’s Voodoo Experience held once again on Halloween weekend in New Orleans’ City Park. Kicking off on Friday, October 29 and running through All
Some two and a half years ago my very first post as a full time HT blogger centered around legendary keyboardist Herbie Hancock, who the night before had unexpectedly took
After months of delays The Roots will finally drop their ninth studio album, How I Got Over, tomorrow via Def Jam. Last week the Philly hip-hop group, pulled double duty
In the music world it seems the younger artists always get the lion’s share of attention on the summer festival circuit. So it’s nice to see a few of the older acts at this year’s Bonnaroo get some well-deserved attention: John Fogerty, Jeff Beck, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Cliff and Stevie Wonder
John Hiatt's latest release The Open Road is a loose, very spontaneous affair, much like its predecessor Same Old Man. But unlike that prior album, where the focus remained on the songs, the material on this new album is the means to the end of making music, during the course of which Hiatt himself is an integral member of highly-skilled band.
It's been two years since MGMT breezed through Kansas City's Uptown Theater in support of Beck on his Modern Guilt tour. The crowd at the sold-out venue that night was greeted by the fledgling, Brooklyn-based band, and many were introduced for the first time to the band's synth sound heard on their full-length debut, Oracular Spectacular. The intervening two years have seen MGMT's stature, and style, grow considerably, and their headlining stop on June 13 at one of Kansas City's finer venues showed them deliver on their high expectations.
Phish celebrated Father’s Day this evening with their followers at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, AKA SPAC, in Saratoga Springs, NY. The show opened with Brother and during the middle
Phish was all business for the first 2:45 of Friday’s show in Hartford, the second of two nights at the Comcast Theatre. But the encore, which featured a strange dedication and the same song played twice is probably what will be remembered most about this night.
Fee was an interesting choice for an opener on a Friday, when the crowd seemed ready for something with more energy. The song is fairly rare these days – it was played only once in 2009 – but doesn’t do much to get the crowd going and this version wasn’t really any exception. Rift was close and had some good moments but was not quite as tight as it should be as Trey struggled with the “darkness the light from above could not reach” lyric and several of the licks in the buildup and peak. The set got cooking briefly with a very strong Wolfman’s Brother that started funky but turned into more of a straight ahead rock and roll jam and the energy began to rise in the venue.
New Phish songs always sound strange the first time you hear them live. Everyone sort of looks around and shrugs and has that “I have no clue what this is” look on their faces. Summer of ’89 certainly drew those looks on Friday night. I can’t say I enjoyed the song all that much but I’ll reserve full judgment until it’s been worked out a bit. The beginning struck me as a Water in the Sky/Driver hybrid that tried to gain steam with a jam segment that didn’t go very far. But we’ll see how the song develops if it remains in the rotation.
READ ON for more from Luke on Night Two of Hartford…
