This here online rag launched softly about a fortnight before the Rolling Stones played two intimate shows at The Beacon Theater, and our first foray into the world of live (old) music begot constant coverage of the Shine A Light concerts. Jagger, Richards, Scorsese? Can it possibly get any better than this? Feel free to refresh your memory of the near-Halloween gig with our comprehensive review from HT’s Is That the Guy With The Old Balls? Correspondent, Hal Hansen.

It took Martin Scorsese two years and piles and piles of blow to get The Last Waltz ready for consumption, but Shine A Light took less than a year (no word on any Tony Montana imitations this time). The finished product will hit theaters — or theatres, if you’re overseas — on September 21st. Awesomeness.

Now comes word that Shine A Light will be shown on IMAX screens all across the country. To borrow a line from Internet culture: That’s gonna be fucking epic. Now we’re left wondering whose equilibrium will be more off, Keith Richards on screen or the average IMAX viewer in their chair? Seriously, though, awesomeness.

• Previously on Hidden Track: Our man’s review of the Shine A Light shows at The Beacon; Surveying the Beacon scene days before

Everyone has that one friend who lined up early at the venue. Only this friend wasn’t hunting for incredible general admission seats — they were looking for souvenirs. At Phish shows, these were the people that darted inside early to secure a Pollock print, a poster serving as both rare collectible and future asset.

Jim Pollock has been creating vibrant linoleum prints for the popular rock band Phish, among others, for decades. And as Phish grew, so did Pollock’s relationship with the band, and the artist lent his talent to fliers, albums, T-shirts and tour posters. You can see his work all over eBay, where his limited edition posters sell for insane amounts of money.

Willy Wonka, be damned, the artist opened his PollockPrints Studio to the public recently, and our poster-geek friend Phil could find himself nowhere else in the world than that Chicago abode. Read on after the jump for some of Phil’s photos from a once-in-a-lifetime event for lovers of the Stock…

Attention Georgia recycling plants: Come mid-October, fields worth of empty tallboys are headed your way. Prepare the big bins.

The inaugural Echo Project announced its initial artist lineup today, and the promoters of the new environmentally friendly event appear poised to jump on the crowd Vegoose left behind when it veered into the Coachella skid.

The Echo Project breaks its cherry about 20 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta in Fairburn on October 12-14 — many more artists are expected to be announced, but the initial roster includes Phil & Friends, The Killers, The Roots, Umphrey’s McGee, moe., Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Disco Biscuits, Cypress Hill, Cat Power & the Dirty Blues Band, ALO, the Avett Brothers, Stephen Marley, Perpetual Groove, The Polyphonic Spree, Brazilian Girls and, whoa, this is unexpected…Michael Franti & Spearhead!

This festival’s only got one big problem: Lineup disparities aside, it’ll still compete mainly with the Vegoose clientele, and The Echo Project doesn’t have, um, Las fucking Vegas as a backdrop. Regardless, early-bird tickets go on sale at 10 am tomorrow — see the official website for more details.

I just got a spam e-mail from a “Mohammed Shaver,” a strangely paradoxical moniker considering many Muslims grow their beards to phenomenal lengths. And, hmm, all this beard talk has me thinking about our favorite southern rockers, and wouldn’t you know it, Widespread Panic announced its extensive fall tour today.

• Read on after the jump for a full list of tour dates…
• Previously on HT: Havin’ a Bad Time: Girl Talk Opens For Panic

Late-night talk show pioneer Tom Snyder passed away yesterday at the age of 71 from complications associated with leukemia.

The world’s lost a visionary, a dynamic personality, a man with a great laugh and, most importantly, a long-storied friend of good music. To celebrate the memory of a good man, here’s an interesting clip of Tom Snyder telling Barbara Walters about a party they were both at where he smoked the pot.

• Related: Tom Snyder’s unofficial official Greatest Hits 
• Related: Grateful Dead play Cassidy on Snyder’s show in 1981
• More Related: Snyder takes on Howard Stern, Ken Kesey and Jerry Garcia, The Clash in 1981, and some Star Trek dudes

The 14-year run of MTV’s 120 Minutes introduced alternative rock to the masses. But the show’s heyday was the early ’90s, when it was the only place to see videos by Radiohead, Jane’s Addiction and The Sugarcubes. Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit debuted on 120 Minutes before it broke into heavy MTV rotation.

It was late on a Sunday night when I turned on 120 Minutes and had my mind blown by Pavement’s video for Gold Soundz — the quirky video and catchy tune immediately caught my attention. The next day I went out and bought Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, an album that didn’t leave my Discman for the next few weeks. Pavement went on to record three more terrific studio albums before calling it quits in 1999, and they leave behind legions of fans waiting for a reunion. Anyway, let’s all flash back to the goofy video for Gold Soundz:

• Related YouTube: Check out Pavement’s Cut Your Hair video
• Related Website: The 120 Minutes Tumblr aggregates many of the videos that were shown on 120 minutes

Next week Marco Benevento releases his first solo album on Ropeadope, Live at Tonic, which chronicles his month-long residency at New York’s now-defunct home for the musical avant-garde earier this year.

This week, however, we have different look at the madman of keys outside of The Duo (although Sir Joe Russo does play on the opening and closing tracks). First is the transcendent The Beltless Buckler from GRaB on New Year’s Eve in 2004 at BB King’s — it’s space funk perfected. It’s a shame to hear this version and then the one released by GRAB last year — you figure out what’s unnecessary.

The following jam comes from Marco’s first session with Boston’s best groove unit, Club d’Elf, at The Knitting Factory. The whole show was very tribal-rhythmic, and there’s a sense of that here as Marco plays a sideman’s role. The next one comes from the very next night in Providence, when Marco joined forces with Marc Friedman and Andrew Barr of The Slip to create a truly inspired trio, one that has played all too few dates since. This improv has everyone playing at his peak, but it particularly shows off all Marco’s varied faces, from barroom boogie piano, to pattering acid-jazz organ, to freeform freak out.

This Monday’s stormy soundtrack finishes with an incredibly tight and potent version of The Duo’s Abduction Pose from Jay Rodriguez’s Live at Fez on Kufala, with Marco and Joe serving as the reedman’s band. Enjoy!

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S STORMY MONDAYS

The show went on last night for Bustle In Your Hedgerow, even though bassist Dave Dreiwitz ran into plane troubles while traveling to the Chicago show.

Umphrey’s McGee’s Brendan Bayliss filled in admirably on bass for the first portion of the show before Dreiwitz took over. Bayliss, who normally sticks to six-string guitars, had just finished a three-night run on Saturday in Hampton Beach, NH, and spent most of his day on a bus before heading to the Bustle gig. Last night wasn’t the first time Bayliss filled in for the Led Zep cover band. Brendan subbed on guitar for Scott Metzger about a year ago for a Lollapalooza late-night gig.

But let’s also take a look at what else went down this weekend…

• Led Zeppelin (the real Bustle!) readies some re-issues for the fall
• Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival was a major success
• Pearl Jam is releasing a live concert DVD culled from last year’s Italian tour
• Stylus lists the top ten obscure Steely Dan lyrics
• Apollo Sunshine and Dr. Dog team up for a bunch of tour dates in October
• Neddy lists the shows of the week in NYC
• Promoters of a Rolling Stones’ show sold VIP seats that didn’t exist
• Dweezil Zappa talks about the release of Classic Albums: Overnite Sensation/Apostrophe
• There aren’t enough festivals for Michael Franti, so he started his own
• KISS played as a trio when Paul Stanley was unable to perform
• Galactic is hitting the West Coast in October
• Best Week Ever compiles all the best of the Simpsons lists

And as always on Monday, read on after the jump for a full slate of setlists from the weekend…and don’t forget to enter our Zappa Plays Zappa ticket giveaway.

It’s difficult to be a cover band without also being a nostalgia act. And while there is an inherent hint of nostalgia when Zappa Plays Zappa performs an evening’s worth of Frank Zappa’s rock compositions, this band breaks the mold because they also break new musical ground with the original material. This isn’t sheer mimicry here; this is evolution. They’re [for] real, and they’re spectacular.

Frank’s son Dweezil is currently leading the group on a mammoth world tour, and as part of our recurring Everybody Wins When I Plug Something And In Return We’re Offered Free Shit To Give Away contests, we’re happy to offer a pair of tickets to any show between August 4th and August 23rd to one lucky winner.

All you’ve gotta do to enter is leave a comment with your answer to the following question: Dweezil Zappa is clearly one of the cooler names in music, and he gets bonus points for it being his real name. But there are better: Which musician has the all-time greatest name in music, given or otherwise? My vote’s for J. Geils Band harmonica player, Magic Dick, but we want to hear your thoughts. The contest ends Wednesday, so get your answers in now.

Zappa Plays Zappa is also releasing a DVD of the 2006 tour, and you can click this link for the full trailer. Then jump over here if you want to check out some videos from the upcoming disc, which features Steve Vai on Zombie Wolf. Read on after the jump for the band’s tour dates…now go out there and win some free tickets.

Allow me to begin this week’s recap with an unrelated plug for those of youse in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tristate area (yeah, more East Coast bias). We caught a preview of a provocative new play on Friday night, an incredibly well-performed one-man show from fellow Northwestern alum Dan Hoyle.

Tings Dey Happen vividly portrays Hoyle’s account of his year as a Fulbright scholar in the Niger Delta researching oil politics — and it’s so well-done you’ll get over the fact that it’s a one-man show very quickly. The show sold out six months worth of shows in San Francisco, and it’s playing in SoHo for at least six weeks. Check it.

Alright, now let’s take a look back at the week that was ’round these parts…

• Awww, that’s really cute: Vegoose thinks it’s Coachella
• Girl Talk brings out the drunken vomit in Widespead Panic fans
• ?uestlove gets the “Not Now, Friend” from his high school alma mater
• ACL announces (already sold-out) late-night shows
• Starbucks will release an album called Shine (no, not that Shine)
• Crowded House makes its triumphant return to New York
• Get your saliva glands ready for The Darjeeling Limited
• Improve your iPod: MP3 Boot Camp and Grousing The Aisles
• And don’t neglect the sweetness of the Pullin’ ‘Tubes archives