March 8, 2011

Cover Wars: March Madness Play-In-Game

DaveO March 8, 2011 3 Comments

Well, Selection Sunday is this weekend and we here at Hidden Track are gearing up for our third annual Cover Wars: March Madness tournament. What we do is we take the winners of selected weekly Cover Wars throughout the past 12 months and put them up against each other with the winner being crowned Cover Wars Champion of the Year.

The first year’s winner was Mr. Blotto with its cover of 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon. Last year, Perpetual Groove emerged victorious with its cover of the Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody). We are going to have 32 entries this year, but so far only 29 tickets have been punched. We need your help to select three more covers to make it into the brackets – so starting now through the rest of the week the battle is on for the final three slots among these ten covers.

2D featuring Nathain Haines performing FM by Steely Dan.

READ ON to see the other nine covers vying for the three play-in spots…

Langerado Returns: October 8 – 9

Scott Bernstein March 8, 2011 2 Comments

When the calendar turned to March that used to mean it was time for the Langerado Music Festival. From 2003 until 2008, Langerado brought top jam and indie acts to

Marc’s Musings: Pandora Mardi Gras

Marc Millman March 8, 2011 1 Comment

The crowd requested “Mardi Gras.” Pandora provided the “playlist” – Sullivan Hall, March 3

The music industry is lost. The labels really have no clue as to how they can turn things around. And realistically, they probably can’t. At least not in terms of putting it back to where it was. After all, when you can purchase the one good song an artist puts out on a new album for about a buck, why would anybody spend even $9.99 for an album worth of filler material? And even more importantly, with the days of records stores all but over, people have no connection to the music anymore. It’s simply a digital file.

[Photos by Marc Millman]

And this now leads to the next problem for the industry. Why even buy that track when you can stream it from endless sites? And since you no longer have the Robs, Dicks & Barrys of High Fidelity or the staff of places like Smash on St. Marks to ask for recommendations, how can you find new music? Are you really going to put all of your faith into everything Apple and listen exclusively to what the “Genius” tells you?

Pandora Radio has been making music recommendations since being founded by the Music Genome Project 11 years ago. It’s not perfect. It doesn’t have an endless library. However, it does continue to expand. And it’s nice to be able to plug in the name of an artist (The Meters) or a song title (Bennie & The Jets) or a genre (Funk) and just let it go. And besides, nothing is perfect and none of us can own every song no matter how many blogs we may scour. And when it comes to the music biz, it’s ideas like Pandora and live concerts that actually work.

READ ON for Marc’s take on the Pandora Radio party…

Hidden Flick: The Ocean Learns To Sway

Randy Ray March 8, 2011 No Comments

Love is a hell of a drug. It can also be a trap. Mix a little time into the potion and one can start longing for something that cannot be duplicated. Yes, time is an ocean, and if one swims around long enough, one can find the same wave to ride, or dwell within depending upon the dreams of those searching for something lost but soon to be found.

Pondering a return from whence love originated is also a dead-end loop that circles back upon oneself, encircling the soul like an invisible blanket of reliability that never seems to fit just right, always relinquishing its hold on the fantastical elements of what could be, and replacing them with the way things really are. And that central notion of love as a moment in space bereft of repeat visits, and time as an ocean of indifference to the dreams of man are at the heart of this edition of Hidden Flick, Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046.

The 2004 film, which took four years to produce for various apocalyptic reasons, is the third in a series spanning nearly twenty-five years in the Hong Kong filmmaker’s career after 1991’s Days of Being Wild and 2000’s In the Mood for Love. 2046 requires no information from either of the two films as it can be regarded as a stand alone experience. Well, at least it did to me, but I am not always looking for all the linear, plot-driven strands; I am looking for something different, something offbeat, something mysterious and hidden beneath the surface of what is known, speculated upon, and perceived to be. READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick…

Announcement: STS9’s RE:GENERATION

Scott Bernstein March 8, 2011 3 Comments

After a four-year layoff, STS9 will bring back its RE:GENERATION festival on June 23 – June 26 at Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, Oregon. According to the announcement on STS9.com,

Video: Yellowbirds – The Rest of My Life

Scott Bernstein March 8, 2011 No Comments

If you dig HT faves Apollo Sunshine’s psych-rock sound, odds are you’ll enjoy the group’s guitarist/singer/songwriter Sam Cohen’s Alter Ego, Yellowbirds. Yellowbirds’ debut release, The Color, has been getting plenty of play at HT headquarters (i.e. – my subway ride to work) and one of the LP’s best tracks is the ’60s throwback tune The Rest of My Life. Cohen made a video for the song between October and December 2010, using a digital still camera and a program for arranging stills into stop motion called istopmotion. Check it out…

Yellowbirds – The Rest of My Life

READ ON for a full list of upcoming Yellowbirds’ performances…

Tour Dates: The Roots Picnic

Jeffrey Greenblatt March 8, 2011 No Comments

In our continuing effort to keep you up to date on the summer festival season, we bring you news about The Roots Picnic. The one-day fest, hosted by The Roots,

Public Enemy, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe: Ogden Theater, Denver, CO 2/19/11

Todd Radunsky March 8, 2011 No Comments

Karl Denson and Public Enemy crushed the the 94 year old Ogden Theater with hours of thumpin' bass, funk and hip hop that forced even the most introverted members of the audience to shake a leg.It's just not that often you'll see a classic, dare I say iconic hip hop group on a double bill with a funk and jazz saxophonist/flutist and his band.

Fatback Circus: Fatback Circus

Shawn Donohue March 8, 2011 No Comments

This Austin four piece has released its fourth full length self titled album and it opens with rising guitar lines and vocals just as high on “Angel-ess”. The group is fronted by twin brothers Nathan Campbell on vocals/guitar and Aaron Campbell on lead guitar; think of them as a humor removed Dean and Gene Ween.

Loudon Wainwright III: Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Berkeley, CA 2/2/11

Peter Zimmerman March 8, 2011 No Comments

Joined by daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche (an up-and-coming folk singer in her own right), Loudon Wainwright’s show at Freight & Salvage reminded audience young and old why he continues to be such a great entertainer and social commentator.

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