Archive: 2010

RANDOM STABBINGS & ARTLESS CRITIQUE – January 2010 Maxfield Gast, Eat Your Beats (Militia Hill Records) Philly-based acid-jazz trio incorporating hip-hop, breakbeat and drum n bass into a 70s/80s sound… wait, it’s not as sloppy and convoluted as I just made it sound.  It’s compartmentalized – songs for generic asphalt Jay-Z beats, songs for generic […]

Trey Anastasio will hit the road in February for a month-long tour with Classic TAB, featuring the same lineup from last fall, with the addition of horns back into the mix. Russell Remington (tenor saxophone and flute) and Jen Hartswick (trumpet and vocals) once again join Russ Lawton (drums), Tony Markellis (bass) and Ray Paczkowski […]

Within about ten minutes of boarding the MSC Poesia, I knew I’d be in for the experience of a lifetime. I’m on Jam Cruise 8 with about three thousand like-minded music fans who couldn’t be happier to be where they are. Outside of my favorite five bands, my music tastes are fairly eclectic and ADD. Jam Cruise gives you the opportunity to bounce around to any of the six stages in comfort allowing you to take in a little of each band easily.

[All photos by Dave Vann]

The day started around noon when the Poesia opened its gates. Embarkation couldn’t have been easier and I was having a frozen drink on the Pool Deck by 1. The look on fellow Jam Cruise Virgins’ faces was priceless as they took their first stroll around this humongous boat. We had plenty of time to settle in; the music didn’t start until 7PM. I took this opportunity to grab some grub. I had heard the food was awful, but that just isn’t the case.

Around 6:45, JC Cruise Director Julie McCoy took to the stage for a celebratory toast. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave. kicked things off playing their first notes as the ship left the dock. There were people getting down on every crevice of the Pool Deck, yet there was plenty of space and if you wanted to watch from the rail you could. Trombone Shorty has a much harder sound than I had imagined performing a solid mix of funk and hard rock. TS took control of the crowd early on and having a band with a animated front man open the festivities was a terrific call.

READ ON for more from Scotty about Jam Cruise 8…

All week we’re going to be taking a quick look at some of HT’s favorite bands and just what they had up their sleeve this past New Year’s Eve. In this era of High Speed Internet and ever-evolving digital camera technology, the media available on YouTube, bt.etree.org, and the Live Music Archive really makes this job quite easy.

Gov’t Mule recruited the vocal stylings of Dana Fuchs as well as a three-piece horn section to work their way through a whole bunch of first-time-covers from the likes of Santana, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Sly & The Family Stone, and Crosby Stills & Nash to name just a few of the artists, many of which performed at the original Woodstock Festival.

Click here to download the audience recording courtesy of Freddie G.

READ ON for the full setlist and more videos.

This year at Hidden Track, we concocted a little experiment for our year-end Best Albums of 2009 list. Instead of picking the old fashioned way – subjectively – we opted for something a little different: a collaborative, collective list that incorporates the opinions of everybody here at HT.

To begin, we devised an all-encompassing list of around 100 nominees and populated it in a Google spreadsheet – essentially anything that anybody who writes for Hidden Track liked at all, made the list. Then we invited our crew of writers to independently vote on the whole list (omitting anything unfamiliar) on a scale of 1 to 20 (20 = five stars). We ended up with 33 voters with varying degrees of familiarity with the nominees; some folks voted on just about everything, while some just a few. From there, we eliminated anything that did not receive at least three votes, calculated the average scores, and sorted it. We took the top 25 scores and presto: the Hidden Track 25 Best Albums of 2009. No bullshit, no big opinions; just the results.

Let’s kick things off with numbers 25 through 21…

25) M. Ward – Hold Time

Key Tracks: Stars Of Leo, Rave On, Never Had Nobody Like You

Sounds Like: An old antique photo

Skinny: In 2008 M. Ward seemed to take a backseat to doe-eyed actress Zooey Deschanel as the Him in vintage indie-pop act She & Him, but he was back in 2009 with his latest solo release, Hold Time. The album is full of everything we’ve come to expect from Matt over the years – modern indie-rock that is completely bathed in the patina of the last fifty-plus years of pop music. Combining his sepia-drenched vocals and open tuning guitar work with guest appearances from the aforementioned Deschanel, Lucinda Williams and Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle.

READ ON for the next four albums in our countdown…

Wilco had those of us on the east coast worried we wouldn’t get any love this year when they announced some random midwest dates, a full-blown tour of Canada and nine shows combined in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But Jeff Tweedy and company are not ignoring the Northeast in 2010 as they just announced […]

We’ll kick off the new year at Stormy Mondays with a quick listen to a few bands you should watch in the coming months. First is Surprise Me, Mr. Davis comprised of The Slip and Nathan Moore, although nowadays it’s actually more accurate to say 3/4ths of SMMD sometimes plays as The Slip. Regardless, SMMD […]

Elvis Costello does an outstanding job with his weekly Sundance show Spectacle. But this week, the tables will turn on the host when actress Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds, The West Wing) interviews Costello about his career and life. Check out the unique episode on Wednesday at 10PM. Monday, January 4 Michael Jackson: Devotion [Fuse 5PM] Gnarls […]

es, it was Christmas with the Tweedys as the now beloved Wilco front-man travelled to the Grand Canyon with his wife Susie, sons Sam and Spencer to spend the holidays with Tweedy’s sister.  So for us lucky Arizona residents Tweedy decided to book a single gig at Phoenix’s Orpheum Theatre, for a reason he explained as “a way to pay for his family's visit to his sister's house for the holidays.”  Whether or not that is true, it doesn’t matter – it is sure as hell beats The Nutcracker. 

Rogue Wave have lined up a winter/spring headlining tour to support their forthcoming studio album, "Permalight," which is due in stores in March. Tour Dates February 201026 – Toronto, Ontario – Mod Club March 20101 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club2 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg3 – New York, NY – […]

Of course, the 48-year-old singer of the Flaming Lips doesn’t feel very comfortable discussing art.  In fact, every time he uses the word, he makes sure you know that he knows that it’s all just a bunch of bullshit.  But, the fact remains:  Coyne and the Lips are responsible for elevating pop music to the status of art – whether it be an album that requires the listener to play four discs on four stereos at the same time (Zaireeka), or one of the greatest musical creations of the 20th century (The Soft Bulletin).

The Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson and wife Allison Bridges welcomed a baby girl on Saturday (26.12.09) and both mother and daughter are doing well. The baby – who was born at the couple’s Californian home – has been named Cheyenne Genevieve and weighed in at 6lbs 3oz. Chris’ representative said: "Chris Robinson and his […]

Just as the new year gets into swing, Wilco has announced their spring tour schedule with a majority of the dates taking place on the east coast this time around. Shows of note will include two nights in Montclair, NJ at the Wellmont Theatre and a rare rock show at Harford CT’s The Bushnell. Wilco […]

On the same day that Vampire Weekend streamed their second-full length Contra on their MySpace site, they mapped out dates for a North American tour.    The “Contra Tour,” begins  in mid-March, following a series of previously announced warm-up U.S. gigs in January and an extensive European leg in February.  Pre-sale tickets will go on sale […]

Chris Cornell announced early Friday  on his Twitter feed that "The 12 year break is over & school is back in session," directing fans to www.soundgardenworld.com for future updates. The band has not performed live together since announcing its breakup in the spring of 1997, but it appears that will change in 2010. Soundgarden was […]

“Let’s get the show on the road”

Last night in Miami, we reached the conclusion of an important year in the history of Phish. The quartet worked up their skills and dug deep through their repertoire all year long. Quite often the band was successful at satiating their notoriously hard-to-please fanbase while aiming to stay clear of the dreaded “nostalgia act” tag. For the fourth show of four at the American Airlines Arena, Phish didn’t disappoint offering the typical NYE fare of a few hearty jams, plenty of classics, a few bust outs and the “gimmick” which this year revolved around a little known female drummer named Sarah.

Unlike on the 30th, the quartet kicked things off with a fairly standard opening sequence of AC/DC Bag, 46 Days and Water In The Sky before stretching it out a bit for Bathtub Gin. There was so much energy floating around the venue – which was way more crowded for New Year’s than any other night – that the band would receive big cheers any time they dropped a familiar lyric or an impressive musical phrase. I’d love to say the boys were extremely tight last night, but there were plenty of clams and missed transitions, although that’s somewhat to be expected on New Year’s Eve.

The first set continued with more high-energy standard fare such as The Moma Dance and Guyute before the band pulled out a few more lost gems. First up was Swept Away > Steep which hadn’t been played since July 1, 2000 followed by Demand which hadn’t been played since November 14, 1996. Both songs got huge reactions and we’re played pretty well. Steep didn’t feature “the scream” of 1996 versions and the Demand was sans Split Open and Melt jam. It became clear the band had purposely looked for the most obscure songs in their catalog to bust out at these shows and it was extremely appreciated.

READ ON for more from Scotty on Phish New Year’s Eve ’09-’10…

I was about to put together a list of all the New Year’s Eve setlists from around the scene when I came across Jambase’s article doing the exact same thing. Rather than duplicate their efforts, be sure to check out their New Year’s Eve Setlist Roundup for setlists from the likes of Furthur, Widespread Panic, […]