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HeadCount Takes To The Phones

Jeffrey Greenblatt October 26, 2010 1 Comment

In an age of Facebook, Twitter and any number of social media outlets capable of documenting the minutia of your day to day life, sometimes something as simple as the lost art of the phone call serves as the best way to connect with someone on a personal level. For their latest social activism campaign, HeadCount is doing just that by taking a back to basics approach in order to remind people to head to the polls to exercise the Constitutional right to vote in next Tuesday’s mid-term elections.

The non-partisan organization, that was founded in 2004 by Andy Bernstein and Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein, and has helped register over 175,000 people, has enlisted a impressive roster of musicians from the indie to jam world, that includes Jim James (MMJ), Willie Nelson, ?uestlove, Matt Berninger (The National), Jon Fishman (Phish) and Warren Haynes (ABB, Gov’t Mule) to not only pre-record reminder messages, but also make live personal calls to a select number of the approximately 25,000 people who have made a “Pledge to Vote” via HeadCount.

In a media conference call yesterday to talk about the inventive initiative, HeadCount board member Bob Weir (Grateful Dead/Furthur) stressed the importance of a “Vote For You” mentality, saying that young people need to take the future into consideration and participate instead of letting a bunch of “crusty old folks” made the decisions that have direct impact on their lives and those of future generations. Weir, who joked that his call list was so large he better get to work on it immediately, said that would seize the opportunity to talk to people to help figure out where the organization’s efforts will be centered in the future.

READ ON for more from HeadCount’s conference call…

At The Barbecue: Constructive Summer – The HT Staff’s Favorite Shows of the Season

Hidden Track Staff September 22, 2010 3 Comments

Wow, I can’t believe we’ve made almost three-quarters of the way through the year and we’ve haven’t had the time to get the HT Crew together for a solid hang to talk music, while chowing down on a tasty spread of burgers, dogs, kebabs and whatnot. With summer officially coming to an end yesterday, we thought we’d invite the gang over to HT Headquarters to enjoy the quickly disappearing last warm days of the year, throw some large hunks of meat on the grill and crack open a few Long Trail Harvest Ales for another rousing edition of At The Barbecue.

muscle-car-bbq-grill-3

This time around we’re having everyone share with the class what they did on their summer vacation by discussing their favorite show of the summer – which we’ve roughly defined as anything seen between Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends. So with that in mind let’s get to it…

Scott Bernstein – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers / MMJ – August 24 – Izod Center – East Rutherford, NJ

Picking my favorite concert of the summer wasn’t easy as there were about five concerts that all could’ve easily been my choice. While Phish’s second Camden show was fairly epic, God Street Wine’s reunion shows were a blast and catching Squeeze in the middle of Bryant Park was sublime, I’ve decided that the My Morning Jacket/Tom Petty show I saw at the Izod Center on August 24th was my favorite concert of the season. MMJ tore through all of their classics and didn’t hold anything back in tackling their best material, while Petty did a great job of presenting a mini-set of songs from his latest album smack dab in the middle of a flawless greatest hits set.

Not only was the music great but I was very surprised by the enthusiasm displayed by the concertgoers in my section. I expected a crowd of folks who were content to sit all night and instead most stood and danced with joy and excitement. I took great pleasure in watching MMJ win over Petty fans and I do believe The Heartbreakers are extremely underrated as musicians, especially keyboardist Benmont Tench. I tend to focus on the details and watching Tench come up with innovative fills on a variety of vintage keyboards was a revelation. I would’ve never guessed going into the show that MMJ/Petty would be my favorite gig of the summer, but perhaps the lack of expectations and a full, rocking arena led this night to a special place in my heart. Plus, I’m just a sucker for arena rock.

Scotty’s Review: Tom Petty & MMJ

READ ON for more of the HT Staff’s favorite shows of the summer…

Review: Camp Bisco 9 @ ILCC

Jeremy Gordon July 19, 2010 2 Comments

Camp Bisco 9 @ Indian Lookout Country Club – July 15-17

It seems that every year the Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein starts the last set of the weekend by commenting, “This Was The Best Camp Bisco Yet!” and yes, this year it rings truer than ever.

[All Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

From the eclectic artists who kept the music flowing – about 48 hours in total – all weekend long to the new art installations which dazzled and entranced attendees, there was more action at Camp Bisco 9 than ever. While the Biscuits were only able to complete five of their six sets scheduled for the weekend – one set was lost due to safety concerns from heavy lightning – there was no shortage of music to keep you moving all day and night long. While the main focus of the festival seems to be turning to more of an electronic mix, there was much more than just DJs spinning over the weekend.

There were a few major changes that dramatically increased the amount of music that you could see over the weekend. Following the catastrophic rains that left last year’s Dance Tent anything but functional, the tent, which showcases DJs all weekend long and provides late night music till 4AM, was moved to a better location closer to the road up the path from the main stage. Also, a second stage was added adjacent to the Main Stage allowing bigger acts to play back to back without breaking for set changes. The Silent Disco debuted this year giving fans another great late night option that ran just short of sunrise. Other fun additions to the landscape at the Indian Lookout Country Club included performances each night by the Philadelphia Experiment – a dance troupe that included fire dancers, fire hoopers and poi spinners.

Thursday, July 15

On Thursday afternoon, Rubblebucket’s Kalmia Traver rocked a sax that was about the same size as her and the band brought a funky Jazz vibe to Camp Bisco. Many fans soon pushed on to the Dance Tent to dance with Orchard Lounge, who showed that no matter what time it is if you are ready to throw down some hot tracks, people will be there to hear it. Even with a five hour wait to enter the venue, there was no shortage of fans checking out what was their first set of the weekend. Never an act to rest on their laurels, OL also played the VIP tent vs. Magner and the Silent Disco. Pretty Lights took the stage after the Biscuits’ first set of the weekend with their Finally Moving Remix featuring an Etta James sample that had the whole crowd singing along. LCD Soundsystem closed the main stage on Night One by giving props to New York with a combination of New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down and Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind.

READ ON for more from Jeremy and Carla on Camp Bisco 9…

Cover Wars Revisited: Killing In The Name

DaveO July 7, 2010 7 Comments

Originally Published February 3rd, 2009

I’m sure your first thought when you got the news that Phish played Killing In The Name at their July 4th tour closer was, “Hey, didn’t they do that for Cover Wars?” – Well – you’re right we did, back in February of ’09. A lot has changed in the last 17 months, including the audio playlists we used to use don’t work anymore thanks to the death of IMEEM. I’ve been meaning to go back through our old editions & fix the audio, & well – this is as good a start as any. There will be no voting this week, we’ve closed the poll as the Disco Biscuits won fair & square the first time around and even made it pretty far in the first annual March Madness Cover Wars Madness if you recall.

Cover Wars

This track is from Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 debut self-titled album. The album topped out at #45 on The Billboard Top 200 in 1994. With this week’s artists covering the tune, it’s hard to determine if the bands are going for a legitimate angry performance or are going for a more satirical approach. Well, in some cases it’s clearer than others. Regardless of the intent, it’s always a crowd-pleaser.

The Contestants:

Audioslave: Since three of the four members that recorded the original version are in this group, I have decided not to include Audioslave as an available choice in the voting, ’cause that just wouldn’t be fair. But check below for an Audioslave performance from the Quart Festival in 2005. For those that might not know, that’s Chris Cornell of Soundgarden on lead vocals.

READ ON after the jump for the scoop on this week’s competitors…

Joker’s Wakarusa Report: Day One

Hidden Track Staff June 4, 2010 No Comments

Our pal The Joker from the Coventry Music blog has made his way to Arkansas to cover this weekend’s Wakarusa for HT. He’ll be sending reports each day – on both the scene and the music – and hopefully we’ll get some photos from longtime HT contributor John Schulze who is also on the scene. Here’s The Joker’s report on the first day of the festival…

To start this trip a few friends and I flew from Denver to Tulsa and rented a car to make the trip from Tulsa to Mulberry Mountain for Wakarusa. As we were waiting to board our planes I got a couple of stories from friends who had run into some bad luck on the way there – the Basics Fund Bus got pulled over in Hayes, KS after a State Trooper stopped to question the driver and noticed a stray nugget at his feet. Oops. They were “detained” for several hours while the Troopers ripped apart the bus, but they were eventually allowed to continue on to Wakarusa.

My group got to the festival grounds and finished setting up camp about 8pm. We started a little late in the evening as compared to most of the festivalgoers. The first taste of music I caught was after sundown – Robert Randolph. Robert Randolph always puts on a danceable show, but his setlists lack variety. Randolph brought up Ivan Neville for a strong version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone, but other than that it was a high energy yet standard show.

Next up was Railroad Earth in the Revival Tent. Railroad started off by ripping through jammy, psychedelic versions of Cold Water and Birds of America. The crowd in the tent was so into it and Tim Carbone’s fiddle seemed to breathe new life into an audience who was happy the sun had gone away and could dance under the lights. I was into Railroad Earth’s set and wish I could seen all of it. Since they play again today, and I had a Disco Ball on my head once again, I left early to head to see what madness Bisco would bring.

READ ON for more about Neil’s experience on Day 1 of Wakarusa…

Review: Bisco Inferno Weekend

Hidden Track Staff June 4, 2010 No Comments

Disco Biscuits – Bisco Inferno Weekend, May 27 – 30

Words: Alexander Wolff
Images: Jason Woodside

Colorado is a funny place for music these days. This beautiful area has been taking the rest of the country’s bands and turning The Centennial State into their biggest market. The Disco Biscuits appear to be to be the latest victim of what is surely one of the more pleasurable trends of the last few years to develop in this scene. Late May’s Bisco Inferno Weekend would indeed make this point clear to all of those in attendance. While many were nervous about Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig’s guitar playing, as he has been absent from live performance for some time due to a fractured wrist, by the end of the weekend it was as though he’d never broken the damned thing.

With little warning, a fair number of would-be attendees for Thursday’s show at the Boulder Theater found themselves observing a strange phenomenon: Marc Brownstein, responsible for the low end rumble of The Disco Biscuits’ electric pulse, announced to the world via Twitter that the band would play an acoustic set at the Pearl St. Mall, across the way from the theater. Several hundred gathered to watch: I say watch because very few were able to hear the performance, with the exception of a few lucky photographers and the rest of us who could hear Allen Aucoin’s dynamic dance drum beat. Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig’s voice could certainly be heard, but his guitar as well as Brownstein’s bass were both drowned out by the conversations of the crowd. Alas, fun was had by all. The best part for those in attendance seemed to be that the Biscuits themselves were having a ball.

Boulder Theater proved to be the weakest of the three Bisco shows this weekend, but it wasn’t without its moments. The first set was relatively uneventful, with Rivers seeing the first exploration of the night; a short, rocking jam that never got going quite as well as it could have. The Story Of The World segment would have been far more interesting if Aceetobee didn’t have the wet blanket of a Boom Shanker dropped in the middle. The second set was a big improvement, with great improvisations showing up in both Save The Robots and Digital Buddha, and Lunar Pursuit was well placed in the Buddha sandwich. The Spy encore got the crowd going, and was a good choice, displaying several angles of the Biscuits’ sound before wrapping up a night that could have been a better showing.

READ ON for more on Bisco Inferno Weekend in Colorado…

Last Week’s Sauce: May 24th – 30th

DaveO June 3, 2010 No Comments

In the world of live music, you may as well call Memorial Day Weekend the official opening of Festival Season. With our glance back at the previous week via audio and video we will be featuring tracks from Delfest in Maryland, Colorado’s Bisco Inferno, Furthur Festival in California, and Summercamp which hails from Chillicothe, IL.

[Thanks to willndmb for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: David Grisman Bluegrass Experience – Dog Bite Your Hide, Down in the Willow Garden, I’ll Love Nobody But You
Date & Venue: 2010-05-30 Delfest – Cumberland, MD
Taper & Show Download: Timothy Brown

Not to be confused with the David Grisman Quintet, this lineup featured: David Grisman (mandolin & vocals), Keith Little (banjo, guitar & vocals), Jim Nunally (guitar & vocals), Chad Manning (fiddle), and Samson Grisman (bass). In addition to that, the ensemble welcomed three different McCoury’s and Darol Anger during their lively set. The three tunes selected for the audio all feature Del McCoury, for whom the festival is named. The David Grisman Quintet next plays June 18th at Napa Opera House in Napa, CA.

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Video from the set with guests Darol Anger plus Del & Ronnie McCoury:

READ ON for tracks from the Disco Biscuits, Furthur, and Gov’t Mule…

Summer Camp Recap and Setlists

Scott Bernstein May 31, 2010 2 Comments

The summer festival season kicked off in earnest this past weekend with moe., Umphrey’s and friends throwing down at Summer Camp, the Biscuits invading Colorado, Furthur headlining a three-day fest and the indie world coming together at The Gorge for Sasquatch! We’ll have more detailed accounts of Bisco Inferno and Summer Camp later this week, but for now we wanted to start recapping the major moments from Memorial Day Weekend.

At Summer Camp in Chillicothe, IL, moe. peppered their sets with the debut of five originals and plenty of guest spots throughout the weekend. Ivan Neville, Danny Barnes and Brendan Bayliss all sat in at one time or another during moe.’s six sets and Zappa Plays Zappa was the latest participant in moe.’s full band segue tradition on Sunday. Umphrey’s also welcomed plenty of friends to the stage all weekend including pedal steel guitarist Mike Rackey, Brainchild’s Roy Ponce and Jesse Clayton of The Macpodz. Mad Dog’s Dirty Little Secret horn section – featuring trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick, saxophonist Chris Neal, trombonist Brent Sanders and trumpeter Mike “Mad Dog” Mavridoglou – joined the band at various points during Saturday’s sets.

Videos: G-Love – Booty Call, Slightly Stoopid – Collie Man, Avett Brothers w/ G-Love – The Fall, The Macpodz w/ Jake Cinninger – School Days, The Avett Brothers – Paranoia in B Major, Umphrey’s McGee – Glory, Slightly Stoopid – Wiseman,

Never ones to miss an opportunity for a sit-in, Gov’t Mule brought out Chuck Garvey for a cover of Traffic’s Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, Al Schnier for a take on Loser by the Grateful Dead as well as Danny Barnes and Jeff Austin for the Stones’ ballad Wild Horses. Other guest spot highlights were G Love on harmonica with The Avett Brothers for The Fall and Jake Cinninger making the rounds by sitting in with both Dumpstaphunk and The Macpodz.

READ ON for a batch of Summer Camp Festival setlists…

Disco Biscuits Start Inferno Weekend Early

Scott Bernstein May 27, 2010 2 Comments

Late last night, Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein took to his Twitter feed to spew a bunch of hashtags that signaled the band would start Bisco Inferno Weekend early at

Video: Barber’s Back at Bisco Inferno

Scott Bernstein May 21, 2010 No Comments

You couldn’t blame Disco Biscuits fans for thinking the worst when the news came out that Jon “Barber” Gutwillig broke his wrist back in March, but two months later the

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