March 2, 2011

Sample Upcoming Releases: R.E.M. / Robbie Robertson / Strokes / Death Cab / Paul Simon

This year has already gotten off to a good start where studio albums from our favorite artists are concerned, but as we enter the third month of 2011 samples from a number of releases we’ve had our eyes on are now available. We wanted to take this opportunity to point our readers in the direction of places to check out these new LPs.

R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now


Head to NPR’s First Look to listen to what the band and some reviewers consider a “return to form” for the seminal alt-rock band.

Robbie Robertson – How to Become Clairvoyant


I’ve had a chance to listen to the whole album and it’s by far my favorite of 2011 thus far. You can sample He Don’t Live Here No More and When The Night Was Young through Robertson’s Facebook Page.

READ ON for tastes of a few more new releases…

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Review: The Bridge / Galactic @ Park West

The Bridge/Galactic, February 18 @ Park West

On Friday, February 18, Chicago’s Park West developed a nasty case of funk-soul boogie thanks to heated performances by The Bridge and Galactic. Symptoms began to surface around 8:30PM when The Bridge opened the evening with an original set of high spirited Americana roots rock. The Baltimore sextet offered plenty of selections off the band’s fifth studio album, National Bohemian.


For such an early set, The Bridge attracted a medium-sized gathering on the dance floor, with fans twisting and swaying to the band’s genre blending blues. The music was solid and proud with a clear connection between the musicians. Initially the delivery sounded too tight and rehearsed, as if they were playing National Bohemian verbatim. As The Bridge played on, they slowly eased its grip and let the music breathe and flow while preserving its strength. The band danced and sweated onstage as the members toyed with bursts of improvisational energy.

The Bridge featured two vocalists, Cris Jacobs (guitar) and Dave Markowitz (bass). Each voice directly affected the feelings and flavors of songs. Jacobs had a fervid blues-rock soul carried by the right amount of bearded rasp. His leads rode like a lone car down an open stretch of road. Markowitz’s chords took on a more southern-roots attitude, emitting a ring of bayou twang. Then there was Kenny Liner (mandolin) a master beatboxer, who added hints of hip-hop. Liner had an incredible talent of spitting out rhythms spun into webs of vocal beats and tongue clicks, matched with syncopated rock and roll. Joined by Patrick Rainey (saxophone), Mike Gambone (drums) and Mark Brown (keyboards) The Bridge were the perfect spice for a pre-Galactic party.

READ ON for Allison’s take on Galactic’s set…

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The B List: Ten Tall Tales – The Stories Behind Jeremy Gordon’s Best Photos, Pt. 1

For this week’s B List, we present a two-part series penned by HT photo editor Jeremy Gordon in which he shares his ten best photos and more importantly the stories behind those photos.


Someone once said, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and perhaps it is.  But often a photo without context conceals the greater story behind it.  A couple of months ago, my editor at Hidden Track, Scott Bernstein, asked me if I would like to share the stories behind 10 of my favorite photos.  I jumped at the chance, hoping to impart my tale and perhaps a little wisdom to our readers and my friends.  What you’ll find below is mostly true and mostly accurate,  so take it all with a grain of salt.

1. 15 Minutes of Fury

[The Flaming Lips at Central Park SummerStage]


Generally, three songs or 15 minutes is all you’re going to get in front of the band.  In that time you’ve got to get close-ups of each member of the band and hopefully shots of them together, interacting with energy and excitement.  Sometimes the lighting just plain sucks – there’s actually a joke that the bands purposely under light the first three songs because they hate photographers – or the bands are uninteresting to watch and it becomes a frustrating mess. But then you get to shoot The Flaming Lips.

The show begins with the band being born out of a giant light – or a replica of a vagina – on stage before the lead singer jumps into a  hamster ball to crowd surf the venue. Dancing girls are dressed in alien costumes (if dressed at all), giant bears and fishes join in on the fun, and confetti streams down from the rafters as 20 to 30 photographers push, shove, and run around trying to get a photo of anything they can think of. It truly is 15 minutes of fury and, except for almost going berserk on a fellow photographer, I loved every minute of it.

READ ON for four more exquisite photos and interesting stories…

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3GM: The Underdogs, Scene and Heard

The proper use of popular music in films is a delicate thing. Good music makes everything better and movies are no exception. It’s the reason why a subway ride or walk in the park seems almost cinematic when our headphones are in. However, a good song can easily be a crutch for a bad scene to lean on. The best placements of recognizable songs will supplement a visually arresting moment in a plot rather than distract the audience from it.

We enlisted the help of 3GM friend Kevin Coyle and started compiling a list of our all-time favorite “popular music + movie scene” combinations. We quickly noticed that two names kept popping up: Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson. These two men have become masters of cinema by drawing heavily on pop culture to create poignant moments. Having acknowledged that, we decided to leave them off our list entirely to make room for some of the more forgotten scenes that we love. Here is our list…

Movie: Boogie Nights (1997)
Song: Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield/99 Luft Balloons – Nena


This is, plain and simple, one of the best movie scenes of all time. It was the moment where Paul Thomas Anderson became an original filmmaker with distinctive style. The performances are all spot-on and the tension is palpable. PTA’s choice to use these ’80s pop classics instead of a traditional film score during this overwrought drug-deal-gone-wrong is the key ingredient in creating the scene’s uneasy yet engaging feeling.

READ ON for 14 more perfectly placed tunes in movies…

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MP3 Boot Camp: Patagonia Music Benefit

The clothing company Patagonia has teamed up with some of our favorite bands to launch the Patagonia Music Collective with proceeds to benefit non-profit environmental groups. Acts such as moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson and Medeski, Martin and Wood are participating by making an exclusive track available for purchase ($.99 each) through the Patagonia Music Website.


For this week’s Boot Camp column, we wanted to point you in the direction of five Patagonia Music Collective tracks that are well worth the buck…

Umphrey’s finally offers a studio version of a track that predates the band.

Pearl Jam kicks down a live version of this classic track from its debut LP.

moe. share a Chuck Garvey-written original called One Life that the band debuted at Summer Camp last year. Back on January 31st, moe. performed One Life and seven other originals at the Patagonia World Headquarters in Ventura, CA. Head over to Jambands.com to read Garvey’s take on the genesis of One Life. [HT – Kahlil Katool]

California rockers Toad The Wet Sprocket have made an exclusive acoustic take from 1991’s Fear LP available for purchase.

Jazz guitarist John Scofield shares a previously unreleased studio track.

READ ON for a complete list of bands, tracks and charities that benefit…

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Chi McClean

Chi McClean’s music style, which finds itself deeply rooted in Americana, could not come at a better time.  In an industry that still makes the majority of its profits from popular music, music fans are finding themselves turning back to their roots.

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