2010

We’re honored to welcome journalist Bob Doda to Team HT. Today, Bob makes his Hidden Track debut with an extensive profile on one of our favorite bands – The McLovins…

On a sunny afternoon in Brooklyn, all three members of The McLovins stand with their backs to a retro-style bowling alley and watch a video of a seal & penguin fight to the death, in some sort of psychedelic nature video.

[All photos courtesy of Carol Huffman]

“That seal kicked that penguin’s ass,” says Jake Huffman, 16, the band’s lead singer and drummer. Obviously, this isn’t your average bowling alley.

The Brooklyn Bowl is half bowling alley, fitted with leather couches and half staging area complete with flashing lights and dance floor. On this particular Sunday, the Bowling Alley is hosting their first Bar Mitzvah. Upon first glance, it would appear that Jake, Jason Ott (bass) and Jeff Howard (guitar) would be there to bowl a few games and down a few cold coca-cola classics, not melt one face at a time with catchy riffs and jams that could only be classified as organized chaos.

Entering their second year as “the band that killed YEM on YouTube,” The McLovins are poised to stay busy in 2010. They will be opening for legendary jam rockers, Max Creek, who are on the verge of their 40th anniversary, in May. They are also on the Snoe.Down bill scheduled for a lunchtime set in Killington, Vermont, and the StrangeCreek Festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts Memorial Day Weekend. Another huge milestone for The McLovins is their own show at Infinity Hall in Norfolk, Connecticut on May 7th. Most recently, they played a gig at the celebrated club, Nectar’s, in Burlington, when a local piano player walked through the door.

READ ON for more of Bob’s interview with The McLovins…

Due to Monday’s GSW fluff-a-thon, we’re running Stormy Mondays today. I’m on a serious jazz/groove bender lately, so this week’s Stormy Monday follows hot on the heels of episodes featuring

Soulive @ Brooklyn Bowl – Friday, March 5, 2010

Words – Carla Danca
Photos – Jeremy Gordon

No one out there that can deny the energy that Eric Krasno and Alan and Neal Evans have as the trio Soulive, but when you add in a rotating casts of special guests, a giant disco ball, all night bowling and fried chicken you end up with so much more.

Many have spoken about how Pete Shapiro’s Brooklyn Bowl complex has changed the way people go to shows. With the Blue Ribbon kitchen cooking up tasty food till after the show is done, the only thing that you need to worry about is if you should go for the white or the dark meat. Bowlive on Friday night exemplified exactly how well this concept can work, a total carnival for the senses, creating an adult playground at its finest.

Scanning the crowd, there was interesting mix of people, young and old, hippie and hipster but everyone was in it together when Soulive started up a set that included their originals and some jaw dropping covers. As the first notes of the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby and I Want You (She’s So Heavy) rang out, everyone was looking around in disbelief. But before most people even realized, they were part of it, singing along and acting as one as Krasno broke out into the biggest smile.

READ ON for more from Carla & Jeremy’s fantastic photos…

The BIO network offers a quintuple shot of juicy musical profiles on Thursday with in-depth looks at Buddy Holly (2pm), David Crosby (3pm), The Rolling Stones (8pm), Fleetwood Mac (9pm) and

Welcome to the 2010 edition of Cover Wars – March Madness. We are taking our efforts from last year and doubling them: this year we’ve got 32 covers in the running for the Championship. Over the past year, we’ve had six different artists win Cover Wars more than once. For these winners, we have paired them up against each other in the first round. For example, if you were going to vote for Trey Anastasio because of your loyalty to him – now you have to decide if he plays a better O-o-h Child or Sultans Of Swing. We have also paired up original artists whenever possible – Did Joan Baez or The Grateful Dead do better justice to their Bob Dylan cover?

All of the winners’ audio/video has been embedded for you and we have linked back to the corresponding Cover Wars that led to each artist’s victory. We have enjoyed running this piece for you every week (or maybe, three times per month?) and hope you enjoy Cover Wars March Madness. My personal highlight would have to be us running The Ballad Of Curtis Loew edition in early May and seeing Phish pull the cover from deep off the shelf three weeks later at Fenway Park. Let’s look at the first eight matchups…

1) Cortez The Killer (Built To Spill) vs. The Maker (DMB)
2) Sultans of Swing (Trey) vs. O-o-h Child (Trey)
3) Will It Go Round In Circles (The Bridge) vs. Godzilla (GUTML)
4) Ballad Of A Thin Man (GD) vs. A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (Joan Baez)
5) Sweet Virginia (Phish) vs. Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Clare & The Reasons)
6) You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Max Creek) vs. Eminence Front (MC)
7) Naive Melody (Perpetual Groove) vs. Time (Flaming Lips)
8) Lenny (Umphrey’s McGee) vs. Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ (UM)

For bout number one, we’ve got Built To Spill covering Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer vs. DMB’s cover of Daniel Lanois’ The Maker…

Built To Spill – Cortez The Killer
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/builtcortez.mp3]
Dave Matthews Band – The Maker
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dmbmaker.mp3]

READ ON to place your vote in this matchup and to check out and vote on the other seven March Madness bouts in this part one of our Round of 32…