“Is that the guy with the old balls?” –Julian McGrath, Big Daddy

That may have been the most asked question over the last 12 months. For the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand Seven will long be remembered as the ultimate cash grab: Genesis, Van Halen, The Police, The Sex Pistols, Crowded House, and the pulse-having members of Led Fucking Zeppelin all rose from the ash(tray)s for long-coveted reunions, and we’re guessing all the little pills floating around backstage came from doctors prescriptions and licensed pharmacists instead of sketchy backstage characters.

As for your friendly Internet sherpas here at Hidden Track, we’ll look back fondly on our first full year in action, a period that saw us publish 1,127 posts — not bad for two guys draped in business casual collecting fortnightly pay-stubs. We tried to inform and entertain and stay up with the ridiculous nature of the music business that so often frustrates but makes our highs possible. Although, we really just hope that this site over the past year provided a modicum of escapism for your workaday world.

The year began ominously, with news breaking on January 3rd that former 70 Volt Parade lead singer Trey Anastasio had heroin in the car during his late-2006 arrest in Whitehall, New York. And as it continued, we had a little fun with the New Deal’s drummer being a SciUNTZologist. We attracted some serious vitriol with our Top 10 Reasons We’ll Miss String Cheese Incident. We poked a smartass stick at moe. for offering to write my company a jingle a la Full House Uncles Joey and Jesse. We asked whether Dave Clark was fucking Jann Wenner in exchange for Hall of Fame votes. But mostly we just added our voice to the growing cacophony of the world wide webosphere.

So read on after the jump for a full recap of 2007 and The Year That Was…

It’s been dead around here lately. It’s been dead everywhere lately. Scotty’s in Chicago for the Umphrey’s McGee New Year’s run, but I’m so far out of the music mindset right now that I’ve been using YouTube less for epic live performances and new videos and more for old-school commercials I once enjoyed. So let’s check out Robert Loggia endorsing Minute Maid orange-tangerine juice before moving on to our weekly sample of HT Nonsense…

• Radiohead will be working on NYE — In Rainbows Lang Syne
• Dave Vann threw down some sick photos from Caribbean Holidaze
• The B List counts off the 10 Best Music DVDs of 2007
• STS9 and iClips team up to stream the band’s NYE shows in ATL
• Merry Christmas — now here’s some sad shit to bring you down
• Speaking of sad, the world lost a great: RIP Oscar Peterson
• Our Story of the Ghosts friends teach you how to name your band
• Stop being dicks: Frank Zappa’s kin continues to sue people
• The NYC Freaks announce most of the Freaks Ball VIII lineup

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and we’ll see what’s what on Monday morning…

People seem to either love or hate the film adaptation of The Who’s Tommy, but you can consider us in the former. Roger Daltrey gives a brilliant performance as the deaf, dumb and blind kid who sure plays a mean pinball; and we love Elton John’s turn as the Wizard. And, hey, at least this flick isn’t as bad as the film version of Quadrophenia.

Friday [all times Eastern]:

• Catch Umphrey’s McGee in Hi-Def on Soundstage [Rave HD 9:00 PM]
• Henry Rollins: Uncut From Israel chronicles the former rockers trip to the Holy Land [IFC 11:00 PM]
• John Mayer is Conan’s musical guest on an encore showing of Late Night [NBC 12:35 AM]

Saturday:

• Herbie Hancock plays with Trey Anastasio, Damien Rice, Christina Aguilera and others on Possibilities [TMC 12:25 PM]
• Gorillaz bring their faux show to Harlem’s Apollo Theater [MHD 3:30 PM]
• Bloc Party and Ghostland are featured on this week’s episode of Austin City Limits [PBS Check Local Listings]

Sunday:

• Check out the best mockumentary of all-time: This Is Spinal Tap [VH-1 Classic 1:00 PM]
• Made In Sheffield examines the music scene that formed in the British town during the late ’70s [TMC 3:15 PM]
• Roger Daltrey and Elton John star in the film adaptation of The Who’s Tommy [TCM 6:00 PM]

Only three and a half days remain in a year that flew by, so this will obviously constitute the 52nd and final installment of the Friday Mix Tape for this revolution, the year of our lord two-thousand and seven. We’ve got a baker’s sixpack for this one, which starts off with my favorite track of the year: Frankie’s Gun by The Felice Brothers. If there’s one band to keep an eye on this year, mine eye shall be focused on them motherfuckers.

Six beauties accompany that one, and they’re listed here for your labeling pleasure:

Frankie’s Gun: The Felice Brothers — 11/18/07 — Worcester, MA
Also Sprach Zarathustra: The Popular Rock Band Phish — 11/19/97
Papa Don’t Take No Mess: James Brown — Papa Don’t Take No Mess
The Way It Is: Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers — Hornsby’s Xmas Download
1952 Vincent Black Lightning: Del McCoury Band — Del and the Boys
Armageddon It: Def Leppard — Hysteria
That’s What Love Will Make You Do: Gov’t Mule w/ Luther Dickinson — Bonnaroo 2007

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S FRIDAY MIX TAPE

If you’re working this New Year’s Eve, you can take solace in the fact that Radiohead will be doing the same exact thing — only they’ll be playing songs off of In Rainbows for a worldwide webcast and television broadcast. Those of you who have Al Gore’s Current network on your cable systems will be able to watch the broadcast on your television, while everyone else can follow along on Al Gore’s Internet.

• London’s Mirror reports that The Kinks will reform with their original lineup
• Amazon adds Warner Music tunes to the DRM-free Amazon MP3 Service
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones paid tribute to Desmond Dekker at the Hometown Throwdown in Boston
• Dark Star Orchestra carries the legacy for Deadheads young and old
• RAQ prepares to rock Knoxville on New Year’s Eve
• Greg Kot lists his ten favorite concerts of 2007
• What’s up with the marriage between indie rock and world music?
• Another stomping bass player takes over the Mingus family business
• Billy Joel will play with the Philadelphia Orchestra for a special engagement

And for my final link of 2007, let’s turn our attention to Fiery Furnaces’ new video for Duplexes of the Dead…the linkage will see you in ’08.

Everyone has been focusing on naming their favorite albums of 2007, but I’m more of a visually oriented guy. Each week I browse Amazon and Netflix to find out what rock-related concerts and documentaries are coming down the pike, and I do my best to check out any that seem worthwhile. There were many flicks both good and bad that made their way into either my DVD player or DVR this past year. This week’s B List focuses on the 10 Best Music DVDs of 2007:

10. The Other Side of the Mirror – Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival

Bob Dylan changed folk music forever when he took the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with some bona fide electrified rockers. The Other Side of the Mirror examines not only Dylan’s 1965 performance, but also his more straightforward turns at the ’63 and ’64 festivals. Murray Lerner’s fantastic documentary gives us 20 songs from Dylan’s three appearances, most of which haven’t been released before.

Read on after the jump for the remaining best music DVDs of the year…

Our Thursday run-in buddies are back for more…so here are Rupert & Stan from the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes sports blog with an important primer for you.

Congratulations, slacker, you finally formed a band. After weeks of scanning classifieds to find a drummer on Craigslist and Music Mates, the lineup is complete, the repertoire is stocked with a couple sets worth of kickass tunes, and everyone is itching to start playing gigs. Congratulations, you’ve completed the easiest part.

Now for the hard part: coming up with the name. Creating – and more importantly, agreeing upon — a good band name is no easy feat. The name must achieve a delicate balance between humor, wit, and distinct uniqueness. Like any good brand, the name has to permeate people’s brains and last in their memories. It’s gotta be something that strikes a cord, like Passive Rape for a triangle/drums duo.

Ultimately, creating the band name is a big decision, because if things go well, this moniker will be larger than the individuals in the band. In fact, the name should last for years, maybe even decades, and potentially outlive all the band members. Thus, we aim to help you in this difficult task set ahead of you. So read on after the jump, where we have concocted a failsafe three-step process for the naming of a band…

Frank Zappa bootlegs will become much harder to come by in 2008 thanks to Gail Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust. The ZFT spent the holiday season sending out cease and desist letters to a slew of non-profit fansites, non-profit tribute bands and even a non-profit festival celebrating Frank’s life.

We understand that the Zappa family wants to protect Frank’s copyrights, but there’s just no need for using such heavy-handed tactics towards a bunch of organizations that have a done a fine job celebrating the Maestro’s life and times. If Gail wants to make some more money, we’d suggest releasing more shit. We’re still waiting for another batch of Beat The Boots to come out.

• Damien Rice celebrates his birthday by getting sloshed during a performance in Ireland
• NYCTaper offers a lossless download of a recent Neil Young concert
• Smuggled Sounds shares a rare Mark Lanegan Band bootleg
• Hear one of Winehouse’s last lucid performances at London’s iTunes Festival
• Nargo kicks down a The Jam FM recording from 1982
• If you prefer Van Hagar to Van Halen, go check out The Roadhouse
• Soundaboard offers guitar master Roy Buchanan tearing things up in 1978
• Score some classic reggae: Yellowman Live at Reggae Sunsplash 1983
• Blog Stoned shares a fabulous recording of this year’s Bonnaroo Superjam featuring Ben Harper and John Paul Jones

And finally, we’ve stumbled across a Led Zeppelin reunion recording that puts all the other sources that have surfaced so far to shame. Check it out.

As you’ve no doubt noticed, we’ve taken our foot slightly off the accelerator. It’s tough to post a full slate of nonsense when there’s very little in the way of news coming from the music industry. It’s like Europe in August out there.

Also, I’m in the middle of an English football marathon on the Fox Soccer Channel. It’s Boxing Day, and there’s a full slate of matches taking place in our old mercantile motherland — so I’ve been watching nonstop action from 8 am ’til this very second, on through the next few hours. It’s endurance, really. So to honor my love of all things English and all things Couch, let’s turn to Watford Football Club’s biggest fan to serenade us this afternoon. Man, I fookin’ love this performance…ladies and gentleman, Elton John.

Also, I’m pretty sure that’s the third time I’ve posted this video in this site’s history…

Each year the taste makers of a Yahoo! group named NYC-Freaks come together to throw a party featuring some of their favorite “just about to break” bands. Freaks Ball VIII continues the trend on February 9 at Brooklyn’s Southpaw with a lineup featuring Bustle In Your Hedgerow, American Babies and a mystery band currently labeled The Bearded Ones.

Bustle members and Babies’ Scott Metzger and Sir Joe Russo will both be making their sixth consecutive Freaks Ball appearance, leading us to question whether anyone in the history of rock has been in more up-and-coming bands than those two. We’re still holding onto our Metzger rookie cards, just in case Go Home Hippie finally achieves Soulja Boy status.

Let’s see what else happened while you unwrapped gifts or ate Moo Shu Pork:

• Wired looks for Live Music Webcasting to start making sense in 2008
• Rush’s Neil Peart wins a Drummer of the Year awards for a change
• Jay-Z stepped down from his post of President at Def Jam
• The Lemonheads squeeze out a tasty show in Boston
• Screw Guitar Hero, try your hand at Heroin Hero
• James Brown’s family continues to fight over his estate a year after his death
• Uncle Neddy fills us in on the remaining shows of (the rest of) the year

Finally, we’d like to congratulate David Pirkle, Butch Weiss and Dean for winning our JamCam Episode 14: Wanee 2007 giveaway. It looks like Boxing Day picked up where Christmas left off for that lot.

We hope everyone’s enjoying a happy holiday…but HT Grinch Chuck Myers does not. He’s kinda hoping someone falls down and sprains an ankle today. I seen ‘em.

I’m not a fan of Christmas. Sure, I like the pretty lights and the attractive women in Santa outfits, but seeing yard after yard filled with glowing plastic manger scenes doesn’t fill my heart with joy. Hell, I’m not even a Christian and I find plastic mangers to be somewhat blasphemous. Maybe I can find an inflatable Lao Tzu to stick in my front yard.

Anyway. Given my tendencies towards Scroogely behavior, I like to spend the holidays surrounded by depressing music. “Fairy Tale of New York” doesn’t usually make it onto my mix CDs, because it’s just too darned happy. Yeah, I can conjure up some bitter sadness if I think of poor Kirsty MacColl getting mowed down by an asshole in a boat as she saved her son, but that’s not really specific to Christmas.

No, the songs that bring a smile to my withered lips are far bleaker than anything a drunk Pogue can conjure. “Lonely Christmas Eve” by Ben Folds is a step in the right direction, but the music isn’t very sulk-worthy. Folds’ ditty about a lubed-up Santa getting stuck in the chimney (“Bizarre Christmas Incident”) puts the “ahhhh” in my Bahhhh Humbug, but he really gets it right on “Brick,” a timeless carol about a yuletide abortion.

Mew’s Christmas rape story, “She Came Home for Christmas,” is a mainstay, even if it is overwrought and schmaltzy. Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” could be titled “Christmas Carol from the Crack Addict Hookers Who Work the Corner By My House,” and Meryn Cadell’s “Cat Carol” still makes me misty-eyed even though the neighborhood stray is living in my basement and pissing on the childhood memories I have stored down there.

These are all great songs to play as I sit in a dark room with a plate of nachos and a worn-out copy of “It’s a Wonderful Life” that plays soundlessly on my vintage VCR. But last year, I discovered* what might be the saddest Christmas song of all. It’s a song that you may have heard, a little tune called “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

No, I’m not shitting you. This is some bleak stuff. Read on to find out why…

Some days they giveth gifts, and sometimes, on that same day they taketh, too.

If Oscar Peterson wasn’t the greatest piano player, he’s certainly on the short list.

Like most other secular Semitic folk, the neurotic Jews that run Hidden Track typically associate the Christmas holiday with Chinese food, blockbuster movies, casino trips with the Asians and beach-dominated Caribbean vacations. Sadly we’re not publishing this post with the sand ‘neath our feet, so we’re loading up the molester-white van and taking you all to Jamaica, to a musical resort that Dave Chappelle tells me is “right near ‘da beach.” Boooyeeee.

Mid-December brought the respective and crossover fanbases of Umphrey’s McGee and the Disco Biscuits down to the Greater Antilles for an all-inclusive Caribbean Holidaze music vacation. Fans shuttled back and forth between the Hedonism III and Breezes resorts, the former of which featured early afternoon and evening sets from the two aforementioned bands, plus the stellar Benevento/Russo Duo, Keller Williams, Mad Professor, Tom Hamilton and the Beatles-Floyd supergroup known as Brain-Damaged Eggmen.

Our friend Dave Vann knows his way around an f-Stop, and he agreed to snap some photographic evidence of bands melting faces and fans raging their tits off. So read on after the jump for a full photo gallery from Caribbean Holidaze, featuring pictures and YouTube videos of all the live acts, the gorgeous scenery and a climate many of us long for at this very moment. And since we weren’t there ourselves, feel free to leave a first-hand report or observation in the comments…

We’ve been pretty harsh on STS9 in the past, so on the day before Christmas, it’s only fair we recognize a cool thing they’re doing for their fans. STS9 is teaming up with iClips to offer free webcasts of their upcoming shows at The Tabernacle in Atlanta on December 28-31.

Fans that weren’t able to score tickets to the nearly sold out run will be able to surround their screens with heady crystals while watching a five-camera feed from the shows. We’d usually throw in a joke about feeding Phipps’ daughter here, but we’ll move on since these guys are also donating $12,000 from this year’s NYE shows to Rock Against Cancer. Good stuff.

Now let’s start the abbreviated holiday week off right with some linkage:

• Levon Helm, Bruce Hornsby and Bela Fleck head the MerleFest lineup
• Mike Gordon, Luther Dickinson and others look back on 2007 for the third installment of Jambands.com’s Auld Lang Syne
• Take Live Nation’s 50 Moments That Revolutionized Music quiz
• Stereogum previews studio albums due for release next year
• Despite a slew of reunions, the concert industry slumps into 2008
• VH-1 teams with CBS to offer Classic 60 Minutes
• Tom Waits returns in August to cities he hasn’t played in decades
• Are The Paradise’s days as Boston’s top rock club numbered?
• Ickmusic remembers Joe Strummer five years after his death

Finally, read on after the jump for a very special Christmas Eve video treat…

We’ve twice discussed the unexpected gifts that some of our favorite musicians are proffering for Christmas, and now we can add Phil Lesh’s name to the growing list: The best bomb-dropper outside the U.S. military kicked down seven soundboards from his 10-night stand at the Nokia Theatre in New York. Ten crazy nights, like a Baker’s Hannukah.

Go unwrap those presents after you check out the week that was at Hidden Track…

• Glide Magazine publishes its Best of 2007: Artists’ Perspective
• Live Phish celebrates five years of quick-as-shit soundboard downloads
• Something Something Soulshine: Xmas Jam goes off without a hitch
• Long live jazz fusion: Return To Forever returns to the present
• The Police reunion generates only a quarter-billion dollars in revenue
• No flies on Shakey as Neil Young comes back to New York
• Self-promotion wins the day — Hey, my name’s elsewhere!
• Ever see Jimmy Herring as a quick-fingered 23-year-old? Yahtzee.
• American Babies throw down Abbey Road and run for 8th Grade Treasurer
• So, hey, what are you doing on New Year’s Eve this year?
• And don’t forget to cup the balls with these downloads: Grousing The Aisles, MP3 Boot Camp, Stormy Mondays and the Friday Mix Tape