Over the Rhine is ready to make waves in 2011 with a new release and spring tour dates that will take them to theaters throughout the Midwest and the East
Despite incessant howls from the largely intoxicated audience (calling for staple Cold War Kids tracks like "Saint John"), the band remained undeterred in their forward thinking approach, bathing the Bijou audience (including a few rowdy members determined to traverse the stage barrier) in spaced-out arena-pop warmth.
With hundreds of multi-colored balloons waiting at bay near the ceiling of the Tower Theatre, fans patiently awaited the arrival of the Disco Biscuits as they returned to Philadelphia the night before New Year’s Eve to close out what has been a fantastic 2010, and a hectic final week, with back to back nights in their hometown. To complicate matters in a time of great celebration, the band experienced a devastating blow when drummer Allen Aucoin was treated and hospitalized earlier in the week for a serious asthma attack thus being sidelined for the New York and Philadelphia string of shows.
On his debut solo album, Mikey James rebrands himself under the pseudonym Mikey Jukebox and reinvents himself by packaging a disparate collection of influences. It’s not surprising, given the artist’s background. James cut his teeth as a drummer for post-punk band Longwave and a frontman for punk rockers The Blood. That work is contrasted by endeavors as far from punk as possible – fronting DJ Dick James/Footage and power pop band The Mercies.
The Roots, completing all of this and more while performing night after night on NBC as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a successful role to which they celebrated their one year anniversary of in March. So what better a way to celebrate 2010 and ring in a new year than an all-night three set marathon Roots show at the Brooklyn Bowl?
For the second consecutive year, we concocted an innovative little experiment for our year-end Best Albums list. Instead of picking the old fashioned way, 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 well over 100 nominees, whereby most everything our contributors recommended made this list. Then, we invited our crew of writers to independently and blindly vote on each album within the list on a scale of 1 to 20 (20 = epic). We ended up with varying degrees of familiarity for the nominees as some folks voted on just about everything, while some ranked just a few. From there, we deployed our egghead algorithm for rating albums: (two times the average rating) + (the total number of votes). At that point, we took the top 25 highest scores and presto: Hidden Track’s 25 Best Albums of 2010. No bullshit, no big opinions; just the results.
Let’s kick off our week long countdown of our favorite albums of 2010 with numbers 25 through 21…
25) Sleigh Bells – Treats
Key Tracks: Tell ‘Em, Infinity Guitars
Sounds Like: Electric Guitars and Cheerleaders
The Skinny: Sleigh Bells came out of nowhere in 2010 to emerge as a break out of the highest order. Despite being a just a duo, the boy-girl tandem of Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss manage to slug out bombs with their stomping beats, cutting guitar attacks and anthemic vocal hooks. With Treats, Sleigh Bells have created a genuinely unique twist on amped-up party music.
READ ON for the next four albums in our countdown…
Jam titans Widespread Panic will celebrate 25 years together in 2011. The group starts the year with three shows billed as 25th Anniversary Shows. On February 10th and 11th, Widespread
Given their well documented dislike for each other, and public bickering, it’s pretty remarkable that Liam and Noel Gallagher managed to make Oasis last as long as it did. Over
Glide’s Eric Ward penned a review of Phish’s insane New Year’s Show for Hidden Track and the main site. Check out the beginning of Eric’s review here and then click
As we do every year at Stormy Mondays, we celebrate the arrival of the new year with the music of John Coltrane. This time around we’re looking back to Trane’s
