2010

With opening night and opening day behind us, we’ve got one more installment of our Baseball Preview to share. Ryan Montbleau of the Ryan Montbleau Band participated in our first Baseball Preview back in 2007 and we’re delighted to have him back. We spoke with Ryan about his beloved Red Sox, his predictions for the upcoming season and much more…

Hidden Track: What team do you think will win the World Series and what team will they beat in that final series?

Ryan Montbleau: I cannot not think that the Red Sox will win the world series. And they will beat Hurricane Ditka. No, the Phillies. Let’s say Red Sox beat the Phillies.

HT: Which pitchers do you think will win the AL and NL Cy Young awards?

RM: I’ll go with Jon Lester in the AL, although I bet Greinke could repeat. And Halladay could do it in the NL this year.

Hidden Track Baseball Preview: JoJo Hermann, Jeff Prystowski, Joel Cummins, Scott Rager,

HT: Which players do you think will win the AL and NL MVP awards?

RM: I’ll go with the young bucks here: Evan Longoria and Hanley Ramirez.

READ ON for more of our Baseball Preview with Ryan Montbleau…

Just as the college basketball tournament came to a close around midnight last night, so too did our Cover Wars March Madness tournament. But unlike the basketball game, which came

[Originally Published: October 27, 2009]

This week’s edition was not written by a Wolfman. He’ll deny it, but…

The Eight Legged Beast moves as one brain-twisted entity like a Group Mind flailing around in the dark until all is silent—terrified, befuddled, looped, and not alone in these sinister thoughts. Suddenly, a voice, a series of whispered voices, echo through the cavernous depths. A Wolfman jogs Loaded up ahead, a pied Piper has some worm-y legs, and a Ghost appears and disappears—run asunder by bad acid, or a sign near the cave entrance that reads: “Turn Back! Beware! This is the Beginning of the End!”

Meanwhile, I direct my eyes forward, and turn down the Brother from Another Planet. How can I feel stoned, high, drunk, and out in deep ecstatic space even though I’m clean?

Saw IT & Esther again, and a Sleeping Monkey with 8 legs & 4 heads eating 1 PHISH!

Ahhh…yes, Vegas. We were somewhere outside Lemonwheel when the chaos took hold. In the Court of the Crimson King as Big Red bends our collective noodles, I turn down:

Wolfman’s Brother> – 10/31/98 – and the LAST Halloween show until…

Yes, until now. I had no great need for the almighty Bug to Come. But here, HERE, I find it appropriate to nod at Halloween as we check out this week’s Hidden Flick, Eight Legged Freaks, and an homage to all that is unholy about old school horror cinema.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick – Eight Legged Freaks…

A few weeks back we told you about Crimson, White & Indigo – the latest archival release from the Grateful Dead featuring every note recorded at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia

Drive-By Truckers @ HOB Boston – April 2, 2010

On Saturday morning I was trying to shake the fog from my brain & poke around Drive-By Truckers sites to confirm a setlist. I was greeted on the NineBullets board with the type of exhausted, post-visceral reactions one comes to expect following great shows. “Boston was left a smoldering wreck,” said one. “Awesome, awesome, awesomeness!” read another.

As a paid observer, I’m asked to articulate those types of feelings in a more sophisticated fashion (or something), but really, why overdo it? The Drive-By Truckers were off the fucking chain at Boston’s House of Blues on Friday. They rocked, ripsnorted, ran ragged and swashbuckled their way through two hours, 20 minutes of positively nasty, shaggily soulful rock ‘n’ roll and alt-country. Are they at this moment the country’s best live rock band? Well, leave that to the wags that decide such things. But, hell, they’re in the conversation.

My Truckers affections go back more than a decade at this point, and like many in the Truckers faithful, I agree that the departure of Jason Isbell in 2007 meant the departure of the band’s best songwriter. (Isbell’s own 400 Unit, a more R&B-flavored quartet, is coming on strong and with a bit more seasoning may end up the equal of his former band.) And yet, the Truckers sound like a fully formed unit again, with co-founders Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood as fierce as ever. The Big To-Do, the band’s ninth album, doesn’t have the polish of its predecessor, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, but there’s strength – a hardiness – in the new songs, too, that makes them more heavy and immediate.

READ ON for more of Chad’s thoughts on the Truckers in Boston…