Hidden Track

I know we promised a moratorium on baseball stories here, but we couldn’t pass on telling you about The Baseball Project - the all-star collaboration between R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey (Minus 5), Steve Wynn and Linda Pittman. The group’s debut (and cleverly titled) album Volume 1: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails will hit stores on July 8th and will feature tracks like: Ted Fucking Williams, Satchel Paige Said and The Yankee Flipper.

• Gimme Tinnitus kicks down The Best 23 Downloadables Of ‘08 (So Far)
• Music Snobbery rattles off the Reunions They’d Like To See Happen
• Party Tunes Tuesday features roots-rockers Heathen Party
• Newmradio declares MAN the best band that you’ve never heard of
• Jambase gives the Woodstock soundtrack a Sunday Spin
• List time: 11 Best Roots Songs via The Good, The Bad & The Unknown

Finally, the Library of Congress has added 25 songs to the National Recording Registry - which is responsible for preserving “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” recordings. Among the additions that met the criteria are Micheal Jackson’s Thriller, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and Joni Mitchell’s For The Roses; which will sit alongside Harry Truman’s speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention and the first trans-Atlantic broadcast. We’re hoping next year they add a heady Dark Star from ‘72 and Trey’s legendary speech from Coventry.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve wanted to write something about a growing obsession, which is The National’s May 2007 release, Boxer. The question was “what is relevant about writing about an album that came out an entire year ago that most people already know all about?”

Well, nothing really, but I revisited some reviews - in particular, the original May 2007 review on Pitchfork - and it struck a chord. This review by Steve Deusner, among about a million others, deemed the album, like its predecessor Alligator, a “grower” - meaning it grows on the listener as they embrace the quirky lyrical stylings and subtle nuances of the instrumentation. It’s kind of a bunk term, but whatever.

Boxer is the album equivalent to the Cable Guy, or as I like to call it, the “Mustache Movie.” It gets more powerful every time you see it. Anyway, this disc not only reels in the listener over time, but it continues to develop a new fan base as well, because it hooks people in like junkies and coverts them into passionate devotees who make it their mission to spread the word.

Thus, I suppose it is somewhat relevant to revisit the album a year later, because at least in this case, it really is a grower. So, what is it about Boxer and the National in general that has this effect on people?

READ ON for Rupert’s seven reasons why Boxer rules…

Last week, Some Dude mentioned the crazy spreadsheet goin’ round with links to downloads of hundreds of Phish shows. Our friend Bizarro Jerry is the guy behind the uploads, and he’s taking his act to MySpace. Add BizArchive as a friend on MySpace to keep informed about all of his future Phishy uploads.

• Beastie Boys 05/22/1992 SBD MP3s [via T.U.B.E.]
• MMW 04/04/2008 FM FLACs [via bt.etree]
• The Kinks 02/19/1977 SBD FLACs [via The Trader’s Den]
• Editors 2007 Acoustic MP3s [via T.U.B.E.]
• Umphrey’s McGee Podcast #64 (February 2008)
• Jesse Jarnow’s Frow Show Podcast #44
• Cornmeal 03/28/2008 SBD [via Bands That Jam]
• New Monsoon 05/06/2008 DAUD FLACs, MP3, STREAM

We don’t even know where to begin:

[Photo via Cele/bitchy]

Come on, give it your best shot by leaving a comment below…

Phil Lesh and his friends treated fans at the Warfield to another double-header of entire album covers. For their first set they played all of Aoxomoxa before busting out Live Dead in the second set. We’re pumped for a potential Money Honey.

[Photo by J.C. Juanis]

Here’s the setlist thanks to Coventry:

5/14/08 Phil Lesh and Friends, Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA

Set 1: St Stephen, Dupree’s Diamond Blues, Rosemary, Doin’ That Rag, Mountains of the Moon, China Cat Sunflower, What’s Become of the Baby, Cosmic Charlie

Set 2: Dark Star > St Stephen > The Eleven, Turn On Your Love Light, Death Don’t Have No Mercy, Feedback, We Bid You Goonight

Encore: King Bee

If the trend continues, Phil and the boys will perform the gorgeous tunes from Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. Rumors are flying that Sunday’s show will be an all night affair. Will that allow Lesh to play every album before the run comes to a close? Certainly Europe ‘72 would be a show by itself. Stay tuned!

• If you’re in Chicago tonight, you should head down to Martyr’s for what’s sure to be a good time at the USTORM Benefit/Party at Martyr’s. Mike Rakie and Friends kick things off with an acoustic set, before Jack Straw takes the stage for the best Dead covers this side of the DSO. Then strap on your funkiest shoes to dance the night away with Lubriphonic, before the always entertaining SuperJam featuring members of UM, Jack Straw, Mr. Blotto, Family Groove Company, DSO, Jennifer Hartswick and Cornmeal.

• I don’t know what’s more surprising - that Neil Diamond had never scored a number one album before, or that he finally reached the top this late in his career. That’s right, Home Before Dark took the top spot on this week’s Billboard 200. It’s nice to see that Jewish Mothers everywhere came out in force to support their boy.

• If you happened to catch the traveling Sumer of Love exhibit last year, then you’re probably familiar with the magnificent psychedelic art from the collection of Peter Golding. Golding’s collection includes works from Rick Griffin, considered the genre’s grand master, Gary Grimshaw, Alton Kelley, Dennis Larkins and Stanley (Mouse) Miller. For those heady brahs with deep pockets head to Bonham’s Auction Site right now for your chance to buy some of the best shit in Golding’s collection. And please buy me this poster.

Last one. We promise.*

[Thanks to Rambo for the submission]

• HT Exclusive: 12/06/1996 Simple Video
• Previously on HT: Reba, Gotta Jibboo and Inspiration!,

And here’s one of my favorite GraphJamz:

[Created by Jane Jumble for GraphJam]

* - No

There are so many Wilco videos of various quality at YouTube that it’s hard to sort through the schwag to find the glorious gems. We’ve asked our resident Wilco expert Luke Sacks to share his favorite Wilco vids with the rest of the class.

5. Remember the Mountain Bed with Andrew Bird - 2/18/08

Andrew Bird joins the band on stage at the Riv and infuses a class Mermaid Avenue song with some elegant violin.

4. California Stars

From the now defunct Sessions on W. 54th and featuring the old old old Wilco lineup with Jay Bennett and Ken Coomer. Bennett, as much as he looks like Drexel from True Romance, deserves at least one mention on this list. Bennett may have been an asshole but he was a key part of Wilco for a long time. He twangs it up a bit on this version.

READ ON for three more killer Wilco videos available at YouTube…

My Phil-Dar was going off this morning, then I realized www.genesis-music.com announced its plans for the US Release of When In Rome, a live DVD shot in Rome at the grandiose Circo Massimo. This particular show was the tour closer for the European leg of the widely successful “Turn It On Again” Tour.

Having seen two of the American dates I can assure you this DVD will be legit. As I previously gushed, Mark Fisher is the man with the plan here, conjuring a plethora of high tech looks and set design, with the band tight as they have ever been. Read here for the official press release and track listing.

In an interesting and Eagles-like move, the DVD will be available exclusively at Wal Mart. Now, I know you’ve hocked some cars. Shit, you even did a Disney soundtrack and that awful movie Buster…but fucking Wal Mart!?!?! This Genesis die hard is a bit nauseous, but with the current state of the music industry, who can judge…oh that’s right…THE FANS. Terrible Phil. Just terrible.

Phil Lesh and Friends started their sure-to-be-epic five show run at the Warfield with a bang last night when they played all of the Grateful Dead’s self-titled debut album in the first set. As if that wasn’t enough they played all of the Dead’s second album, Anthem of the Sun, during the second set.

Never one to miss out on a good time, Bob Weir joined his former bandmate for a few tunes in each set. Phil and Friends still have four shows left at the Warfield, so we can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves.

• You can win VIP passes for your crew if you carpool to the ‘Roo
• More details about Beck’s new album are starting to emerge
• Andrew Bird blogs about recording at Wilco’s loft for the NYT
• The Raconteurs create and launch their own YouTube channel
• Stereogum’s OldStand looks at Spin Magazine from April 1992
• The New Yorker’s David Remnick lists 100 Essential Jazz Albums
• STP’s Scott Weiland entered and was released from jail yesterday
• Arcade Fire are working on the score for a new Cameron Diaz flick

Finally, we got the sad news yesterday that founding Rush drummer John Rutsey, aka the Canadian Pete Best, passed away this weekend. Most people don’t even know that Rush had a drummer before Neil Peart, but Rutsey actually left the band on his own due to complications from diabetes.

We’ve got less than a month to go before the release of Trey Anastasio’s Original Boardwalk Style on June 10, but you don’t need to wait for a taste of the album. Feast your ears on this dark and dirty Plasma from Original Boardwalk Style:

You just gotta love the part of the jam that sounds like Sly’s Thank You (Fallentime Be Mice Elf Again) meets the Fat Man Jam for a fist fight in a dark alley, complete with the trippy bubbling effect that surfaced in 2006 Plasmas. Plus, the mix on the track sounds fan-fucking-tastic. Now I’m starting to get excited.

The album is now available for pre-order as CD and Vinyl at Trey’s online store as well as digital audio downloads (in both MP3 and FLAC formats) at LivePhish.com. All pre-orders will automatically be entered to win a professionally printed photo - signed by Trey and esteemed photographer Jeff Kravitz - of the band on stage at the House of Blues. Color corrected by Jennifer Brown, it will be framed in barn board crafted by Lars Fisk, a creative contributor to The Barn’s Artist-in-Residence program. Ten runners-up will receive autographed copies of the vinyl.

• FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD OF PLASMA

Neeko gets in on the HT GraphJam action:

[CLICK IMAGE FOR FULLSIZE GRAPH]

• Widespread Panic: Makes Sense To Me (Live 09/30/2006)
• Give Us The Money Lebowski: Makes Sense To Me (Live 10/27/2007)
• GraphJam: I Want My…
• Previously on HT: Reba, Gotta Jibboo and Inspiration!,

I’m happy to report that The Mother Hips are walking away with the trophy from last week’s Everybody Knows This is Nowhwere Cover [Album] Wars. They did a great job with the two tracks used for last week as well as covering the entire album in it’s entirety. Congrats Mother Hips.

Moving on to this week, we’ve got ourselves another classic album from a different legendary songwriter (with an equally unique singing voice) and that’s Bob Dylan’s 1965 release Highway 61 Revisited. This album was Dylan’s fifth and his first recorded entirely with a full rock band.

As always, to ensure that you can listen to the entire track and not just 30-second clips, please register/login with Imeem.

Like a Rolling Stone (Zero): This gentle rendition of perhaps the most popular tune on the album clocks in at 15 minutes. The entire track is full of the tasteful guitar work you would expect from Steve Kimock as well as some beautiful sax solos from Martin Fierro. Check out this great on-stage tape of the whole show on The Archive.

READ ON for more on this week’s contestants…

Just as I was chugging my morning cup of tea, Ace sent over a shocking piece from the LA Times’ blog about Carrie Brownstein and the Grateful Dead. Brownstein claims that she wanted to stream a Grateful Dead song in today’s Monitor Mix post, but was told the band refused unless NPR promised to do a piece on them on All Things Considered. In addition, NPR would need to run a feature on The Dead on the site. Are you kidding me?

But before we start throwing around blame, we must note that GD Publicist Dennis McNally told the Times that he “knows nothing about it.” McNally is extremely well-respected in the biz, and has always been extremely forthcoming with us; so we’ll wait before we start throwing stones. Meanwhile Brownstein gets her point across after describing the Grateful diss:

Here’s a sentence I’ve never written: Someone needs to take a bong hit and chill out. Just a simple “no thanks” would have sufficed. Are The Dead really in need of publicity? Because I swear there’s a dancing bear sticker on every third car I see in Portland. And now I’ve written a paragraph on them anyway, for free, not even in exchange for a song. Doesn’t that count?!

I really hope this is all a major misunderstanding, because the Dead were finally getting the respect they deserved from the Fader crowd. Getting a song on Monitor Mix, among the likes of Television, Wire and The Small Faces would have been a nice score for the Dead, too bad it looks like they didn’t see it that way.

A week ago today the internets were abuzz with all sorts of rumors about what would go down at the Jammy Awards. Would a reunited Phish play an epic Y.E.M.? Would Grace Potter suffer yet another nip slip? Or would all of the expectations thrust upon the show lead to a complete trainwreck?

None of those things did happen, but what we did get was a unique show that featured a slew of highlights. For my money the best part of the show was seeing The Fab Faux and Trey Anastasio tear Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey a new asshole. Trey looked happy and healthy, and his guitar playing didn’t disappoint. But don’t take my word for it, here’s a ridiculously clear video from YouTube user SpottedStripers that Ace hipped me to:

Good ol’ SpottedStripers must work for Relix or something, because he uploaded extremely high quality videos of most of the highlights from the Jammys:

• HeadCount All Stars: Maze Pt. 1 Pt. 2
• Chevy Chase and Keller Williams: You Make Me Feel
• Page’s Jazz Supergroup: Cars Trucks Buses Pt. 1 Pt. 2
• Glenn Tillbrook, Allie Kral and TLG: Tempted
• Haynes/Potter/Russo/T./Lee: Gold Dust Woman