Archive: 2011

Come on, baby don’t you want to go
Come on, baby don’t you want to go
To the same old place, sweet home Chicago

Robert Johnson may have written the lyrics, but most of us remember the Blues Brothers version of Sweet Home Chicago. As a former Chicago native, I sing the lyrics every time I return to the Windy City.

As mentioned in last week’s article about Hot Doug’s and The Purple Pig, Chris and I spent multiple nights in Chicago, Illinois, recently to see Phish at the UIC Pavilion. While planning for this trip, our friends Mindy and Patterson insisted that we eat at Girl and the Goat with them. This restaurant is so popular, we had to book a reservation more than two months in advance. It turned out to be an excellent choice for our “farewell to Chicago” meal with our friends. I would like to thank Mindy for her help as guest photographer for some of the pictures posted in this article.

The “Girl” from Girl and the Goat is Stephanie Izard–she won the illustrious title of Top Chef in Season Four when the show was hosted in Chicago. She opened Girl and the Goat in Summer 2010, and the restaurant has developed a cult following since. I am always curious when a restaurant gains this much buzz. Is it because they have a good Public Relations firm? Is it because the chef is popular? Is it because the food is actually that good? In the case of Girl and the Goat, the food is that good.

We started off with two types of oysters. I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of oysters by nature. Raw shellfish has never been my thing. However, these were lightly roasted in a wood-burning oven and prepared in unique ways I had not experienced previously.

READ ON for more on Girl and the Goat…

Fuse airs the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ August 22 private performance from The Roxy nightclub tonight at 10PM ET. The hometown heroes play their greatest hits along with tunes from their new album, I’m With You. Friday, September 2 [All times EDT] David Gilmour – Live in Gdansk [Palladia 2PM] Tina Turner – Live in […]

For a band that has been gaining momentum over the past several releases, Blitzen Trapper’s latest, American Goldwing finds the Portland group pausing a bit to catch their breath. 

It was three days of nonstop music at the fourth annual Sunset Strip Music Festival.  From the tribute to Motley Crue, to various venues showcasing local and national acts, Los Angeles’s famous boulevard played host to an endless amount of joyous partying. 

Dave Matthews Band Caravan’s stop in New York City has been rescheduled for September 16th, 17th and 18th. The festival, which will feature a diverse lineup of musical talent performing during the day and a full set by headliners Dave Matthews Band each night, will now take place at Randall’s Island, locatedon the East River […]

Domino is to release Mount Wittenberg Orca, the collaborative album from Dirty Projectors and Björk, on physical formats for the first time on October 25th. Previously only available digitally, Mount Wittenberg Orca will be made available on LP and on CD. The hand numbered, limited edition LP version will feature a deluxe three-dimensional lenticular sleeve, […]

Following yesterday’s stunning announcement that Jack White had collaborated with Insane Clown Posse our thoughts turned to other oddball musical pairings. For this week’s B List, we polled the Hidden Track staff and compiled a list of ten of the oddest musical collaborations.

Here’s what we came up with…

10. Phish and Jay-Z

It’s well documented that Phish loves to cross genres and play with guests, but when Trey Anastasio introduced Jay-Z to the stage in Coney Island in 2004 – jaws dropped. Can you imagine the Notorious B.I.G. stepping on stage with the Grateful Dead? As live collaborations go, 99 Problems / Big Pimpin’ was a big risk and a great success. And we think it’s safe to say Jay-Z never expected 8,000 Phish-heads belting his lyrics back at him – and neither did they. READ ON for nine more oddball musical pairings…

While Cover Wars enjoys the end of its summer vacation, we thought it was fitting that we re-ran a Cover Wars post from September 28, 2010 where we looked at seven covers of Neil Young’s Like a Hurricane. Many Northeast residents are still without power or are dealing with other repercussions of Hurricane Irene. We also want to point you in the direction of Dave Matthews’ cover of Like A Hurricane, which he debuted last Friday night.

Like a Hurricane was released on the 1977 Neil Young album American Stars ‘N Bars. Denise Sullivan over at Crawdaddy Magazine does a good job of compiling a few facts and quotes about the origins of Like a Hurricane. The highlights: It’s written about a female that Neil didn’t get to sleep with and he wrote the tune while really high, in more ways than one.

The Contestants:

Adam Sandler: Last year to celebrate their 50th year as a record label, Warner Bros. put out a tribute album with currently signed artists covering classics from the Warner Bros. catalog. In addition to Sandler, The Black Keys, Stardeath & White Dwarfs, and nine other artists contributed tracks. Source: Covered, A Revolution In Sound: Warner Bros. Records

The studio cut is good and Sandler did a great job on Letterman as well:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

This New Year’s Eve seems to be a tradition-breaking holiday as not only have Umphrey’s McGee moved their usual celebration from Chicago to St. Louis, but now comes word that the Disco Biscuits are heading to Chicago for December 30 and 31 performances at the historic Auditorium Theatre. [Photo of tDB @ the Aud 10/31/09 […]

It’s easy to forget that Pearl Jam was ahead of their time with the creation of the group’s Official Bootleg series. Within months of completing the Binaural Tour in 2000, the Seattle rockers made 72 complete shows available for purchase on CD in three waves. As recently as 2010 Pearl Jam made most shows available […]

Yesterday, the blogosphere was shocked when the news broke that Jack White had teamed with Insane Clown Posse to collaborate on a new single which puts a modern spin on a song composed by Mozart. We asked HT’s writing collective Three Grown Men to weigh in on the track…

Kevin Smallwood

This combo makes perfect sense. If there is anyone on this planet that gives less of a shit about what you think then Jack White, it’s the Insane Clown Posse. Once you get past the third grade level lyrics, you might find that this is groundbreaking work.

First of all, the song is about Mozart getting his asshole licked. Now, whether the great musical genius of the 18th Century was the happy recipient of a regular rump trumpet is beside the point. This is new material. Scholars will now investigate this conjecture the same way that they tried to figure out if William Shakespeare smoked pot.

Secondly, Jack White is dropping beats. And not only is he dropping beats, he’s doing it all over Mozart’s public domain. Does anyone else realize how dangerous that is? Jack White is going to be the DJ Danger Mouse of the Van’s, Brahms’ and Bach’s.

READ ON for more of 3GM’s take on this controversial track…

In less than two weeks, Umphrey’s McGee will release Death By Stereo – the group’s long-awaited sixth studio album which features a mix of road-tested material and never-before-heard tunes. The Chicago-based prog-jammers have come up with another inventive pre-order program for DBS as if sales of the album hit certain figures, fans will collectively unlock […]

Back in early May, HT faves the Felice Brothers released their latest studio album, Celebration Florida, the group’s first LP for Fat Possum Records. The ramshackle folk-rockers aren’t wasting any time in getting fans even more new music, as they are offering up their new EP – Poughkeepsie Princess – which they recorded at home, for […]

Earlier this week, we told you about Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe teaming up with guitarist Anders Osborne to cover the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers in its entirety at shows in Boulder and San Francisco. This great on paper combo has added five more Sticky Fingers gigs including a special evening at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium on […]

The North Coast Music Festival (@northcoastfest) takes place this weekend in Chicago’s Union Park featuring an impressive and eclectic lineup of artists. For those of us unable to attend the fest, one of the great ways to get real-time updates and information about the happenings at Union Park is via the performers’ Twitter feeds. We’ll be closely monitoring the @Hidden_Track account for updates from all of the bands, rappers and DJs we’re following on Twitter.

We’ve made a Twitter list featuring every North Coast Music Fest artist with a Twitter account and have compiled the Twitter feeds from the lineup below for your following pleasure.

David Guetta @davidguetta

Bassnectar @bassnectar

STS9 @sts9

Wiz Khalifa @REALWIZKHALIFA

Thievery Corporation @thieverycorpDC

Fatboy Slim @fatboyslimnews

Common @common

Rusko @RUSKOOFFICIAL

READ ON for the rest of North Coast Music Festival’s twittering acts…

Sting has opened up his address book and invited a slew of his famous friends to help him celebrate 25 years as a solo artist as well as his 60th birthday at the Beacon Theatre on October 1. The list of guests expected to collaborate with the bassist at the Beacon includes Bruce Springsteen, Lady […]

HT’s Three Grown Men writing collective attended the Equifunk festival on August 19 and 20 at Eastern Pennsylvania’s Camp Equinunk and have filed some letters describing this one-of-a-kind event. To follow up on Kevin Smallwood’s thoughts posted yesterday, here are the recaps from Conor Kelley and Jonathan Kosakow…

Dear Reality,

I’ve been at Camp Equifunk for almost a day now and I’m having a really swell time! The kids are treating me nice and I’m making tons of friends. We had swim lessons all day and it was really neat. The lake is super and…I…

Actually listen up Reality, I’m gonna cut the shit. I don’t miss you at all. You told me to write you while I was away so here it is, and I’m going to say some things that need to be said. I walked through the Equifunk camp gates 18 hours ago and I feel like I’ve forgotten every lie you’ve ever told me. I just went down a 30-foot water slide backwards with a beer in my hand. You ever do anything like that, Reality? God, you’re so lame bro.

[Photo by Dino Perrucci]

I woke up today to the sounds of my friends sitting around, laughing about the night before. Do you have any idea how refreshing that is? You always wake me up with a face-slapping alarm clock. Thirty lazy minutes and 40 yards later we were poolside, and about to experience the most adrenaline-fueled, carefree hours I’ve had since Manorlu Swim Club in the summer of ‘97. I’m so glad no one invited you, Reality. You probably would have been telling people to slow down and not to swim for a half hour after eating, nerd. The BBQ was hot, the beer was flowing, and the beach balls were being inflated to the point of passing out. It was the best party I’ve ever seen, and the bands hadn’t even taken the stage.

READ ON for more Letters From Equifunk…

Not only has NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon seemingly cornered the market on great musical guests, but they’ve started a trend of having artists perform an extra tune for the web audience and for that we are thankful. In many cases, Fallon’s guests just tackle another tune off the album they’re promoting or one […]

Back on January 19, Rolling Stone broke the news that Rhino Records would be putting out every note the Grateful Dead played on their landmark tour of Europe in 1972 as part of a limited-edition box set. The limited-edition set sold out quicker than anyone imagine and now, a mere seven months later, these Europe ’72 box sets have started arriving.

[All photos via Sunshine Daydream FB Page]

All in all, Europe ’72 wound up as 22 digi-packs featuring three or four discs for most shows giving purchasers a grand total of 73 discs worth of music. The digi-packs and two accompanying books are all included in a replica steamer trunk with a latch and a handle. Early reviews of the remastered music are glowing with most complaints focusing on the flimsy cardboard sleeves that protect the discs themselves.

Chicago’s Sunshine Daydream Hippie Shop has shared some photos of the Europe ’72 box, so READ ON to view ’em all…

In the latest installment of the A.V. Club’s perpetually delightful Undercover series, The Hold Steady tackled the Huey Lewis and the News classic, Power of Love. Instead of opting for a straightforward approach to the tune, Craig Finn and company took a bit of surf rock angle at it, and yielded some mighty fine results. Based on the commentary, the band doesn’t seem to have much of a relationship with the song, but for yours truly, this was one of my very first favorite songs. READ ON to watch…