We’re getting closer and closer to the highly anticipated June 10th release of My Morning Jacket’s new album, and if I were any more excited I’d be humping Jim James’ leg. This weekend we learned that the follow-up to 2005′s Z will be titled Evil Urges. In other MMJ news, Current TV will air All Eyes on My Morning Jacket tomorrow at 10PM — it features footage of the band’s performance at Lollapalooza where they were accompanied by the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Let’s start the week off with enough linkage to keep you busy this morning:

• The writers of Across The Universe set their sights on the Rolling Stones
• Eddie and Wolfgang appear on Guitar World’s first-ever Father/Son cover
• We’ve run out of good ones: Look for the Stone Temple Pilots to reunite
• MGMT debuts a terrific video for Time To Pretend
• The New Pornographers stop by World Cafe for a brief performance
• Popdose’s Chart Attack goes all the way back to 1/24/1976
• Read the latest from the PAF (prolific as fuck) Jesse Jarnow
• Neddy runs down the shows of the week in New York City

Finally, I was surprised that Crowded House’s Time On Earth was nowhere to be found on most critic’s Best Of 2007 lists. Time On Earth contains 14 infectious gems brilliantly crafted by Neil Finn. Dw. Dunphy tries to figure out why Crowded House can’t match the success they’ve achieved in Europe and Australia here in the States. I’ve been kissing this album’s ring since July, so don’t blame me.

The theft-endorsing version of Napster’s gone. The white-collar pigs shut down OiNK, presumably for good. Fuck, it’s a bad time to be a music freeloader.

But all that [supposedly] changes today. Qtrax, a five-year-old startup that claims to have struck deals with three of the big four record labels, will begin offering free and unlimited downloads from its 25 million-song catalog to music fans that have shown themselves unwilling to pay for them.

Sounds great, but this thing’s got more deceptive catches than Larry Centers. The downloaded songs are not yet compatible with Apple’s iPods, they all contain Digital Rights Management software, and you’ll likely be bombarded with a serious amount of advertising. Oh, and there’s one more issue: EMI, Warner Music and Universal are all denying they’ve inked deals with the peer-to-peer network.

Still, while it may not be as revolutionary as the company believes, keep an eye on Qtrax to see whether they can pull off something new. And, shit, we’ll be thrilled if we can just download Phish’s ‘Gin and Juice’, or their great ‘Marijuana’ song.

Ringo Starr recently kicked off his hometown Liverpool’s year as the European Capital of Culture with a live performance of Liverpool 8 in front of 20,000 people. Coincidentally, this week I booked a nine-day trip to England and Amsterdam for next month that’ll take me to the Capital to see Liverpool host Inter Milan in a crucial Champions League fixture. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime trip, the best team in Italy against the most historic in England; and the two clubs haven’t met since a controversial two-leg affair in the same tournament in 1965. Color me Scouse.

I imagine you don’t care terribly about this information, but as you look back at the week that was here at Hidden Track, know that your ol’ pal Ace is looking forward…

• Trey only a missed meeting, but for two days, Ernest Goes To Jail
• Now we know what David Lee Roth passing a kidney stone sounds like
• Leonard Cohen to tour? Great, so now we can be depressed in public
• A truce in the Jersey Festival Turf War — Vineland, we hardly knew ye
• And the real Coachella nabs MMJ > Waters’ Dark Side of the Moon
• The B List goes Digging Deep for more great covers on The YouTube
• The Story of the Ghosts boys rank the Top 10 Weekapaugs of all time
  
• JazzFest announces its initial lineup — watch out for Billy Joel’s car
• Neddy chronicles the increasingly crowded Benevento residency
• Chuck Myers wishes a happy birthday to the giant they call Lead Belly
• And give your iPod a golden shower with these downloads: Grousing The Aisles, MP3 Boot Camp and the Friday Mix Tape

And just take a look at what Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres can do…

New York Doll brilliantly tells the story of legendary New York Dolls bass player Arthur “Killer” Kane from his days as a genre-bending rocker to his conversion to Mormonism to his unlikely return to the stage in 2004. There are many twists and turns along the way that make Kane’s story interesting as fuck. So set your DVR to record Showtime Next at 7:35 AM on Saturday morning, and thank us later.

Friday [all times Eastern]:

• Classic in Concert presents Heaven and Hell’s incredible live show from Radio City Music Hall [VH-1 Classic 8:00 PM]
• Wilco appears on an encore presentation of Late Night with Conan O’Brien [NBC 12:35 AM]
• Talib Kweli brings Later with Carson Daly some ghetto cred [NBC 1:35 AM]

Saturday:

• The documentary New York Doll tells the inside story of the punk pioneers [Showtime Next 7:35 AM]
• Autopsy with Michael Baden looks at facts behind Sid Vicious’ suicide [HBO 3:30 PM]
• Standing at the Shadows tells the tale of the musicians who made gave Motown records their distinctive sound [FLIX 4:25 PM]

Sunday:

• BET Jazz gets Bootsy Collins to sit for a wide ranging interview [BET Jazz 6:00 PM]
• The Hives, Kathleen Edwards and Ne-Yo all perform at the NHL All-Star Game [VS. 6:00 PM]
• Mick Jones talks about his time in The Clash and his new project on Sound Off with Matt Pinfield [HDNet 8:00 PM]

We’ve been closely following the New Jersey Festival Turf War between the promoters of Coachella (All Points West) and ACL/Lollapalooza (Vineland). Well, it appears Vineland folks have blinked. Our favorite scenesterscribe Mike Greenhaus reports that “co-producers Festival Republic and C3 Presents have decided to step back and launch Vineland in 2009.” We guess they ain’t goin’ to tha mattresses.

(Oh, and by the way, this makes me think APW really does have Radiohead…) 

We just came across possibly the best thing on the Internet this year: an isolated vocal track of David Lee Roth screeching, yelling and singing Runnin’ With The Devil. You just gotta love his falsetto riffs and heady kazoo playing. But don’t take our word for it, listen for yourselves (that means you Sammy Hagar):

Seriously, if you don’t enjoy this week’s installment of the Friday Mix Tape, I’ll be reporting you to the authorities on suspicion of Communism and/or terrorism.

Just try me, motherbitches. Try to stream this 46-minute masterpiece and not enjoy it. Like my failing English, it’s just unpossible. We start you off with the unheralded geniuses of Cymande, move right into some rhythmic clapping from Dave Brubeck and then follow it up with six more dastardly deft tunes that’ll shake your kidneys so hard you’ll piss blood for a month. And you’ll thank me for it.

Note: Due to time constraints, there will be no mediafire download for this one.

We didn’t take Tom Petty seriously in 2006 when he announced that he was done touring. Petty proved us (and virtually everyone else) right yesterday when he announced a major summer tour with Steve Winwood as the opening act. Petty also swears that he and the Heartbreakers won’t do a medley at the Super Bowl next weekend, but we’ll also believe that when we see it.

Let’s all take a look at what’s goin’ on before you head out for the weekend:

• Get the lowdown on Last FM’s new free service that lets fans listen to their favorite songs on-demand
• The show will go on: the writers guild won’t picket the Grammys
• Phil Lesh talks about his mancrush on Jackie Greene
• Bands and fans find a new way to connect thanks to PluggedIn
• The initial lineups for the McDowell Mountain Music Festival and the Northwest String Summit have been announced
• Bob Lefsetz lists the ten most powerful people in the music industry
• Girl Talk’s Greg Gillis speaks with Greg Kot about life after Night Ripper
• Portishead aims to release a new 11-song set named Third on April 14
• Legacy Recordings will celebrate Willie Nelson’s 75th birthday by releasing a wide-ranging box set
• Gothamist asks if pricey rehearsal spaces are driving bands out of NYC

And as has become custom around these parts, let’s finish the week by checking out a new video. Spinner brings us Galactic’s new animated video for From The Corner to the Block, featuring Juvenille and Soul Rebels Brass Band. Well played.

Rupert and Stan from the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes blog are fine Americans, and on this glorious Thursday they’re back to explain their experience…

This week, it’s time to stir the pot a little bit. We decided to take a crack at breaking down the Top 10 Weekapaug Grooves of all time, ranked in order.

It’s kind of a crapshoot, but worth a shot. Anyway, the focus here is on the actual Weekapaug as opposed to the full Mike’s Groove in its entirety — that’s a whole different animal altogether and deserves its own list. As always, we welcome your recommendations and expletives in the comments.

Let it be known that these picks are solely the views of Stan and Rupert and do not reflect the views of the HT brass, unless specified. Also, you’re on the honor system here, as a few of these are available on Live Phish (so go buy the newly uploaded Dayton and Durham soundboards, particularly the Amazing Grace jam). We’re providing the songs, except for a few, which are official releases and only samples. Okay, enough yapping from us, here’s goes nothing…

10. 12/31/1998, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Paying homage to everyone’s favorite nymphomaniac Minneapolite, this particular Weekapaug follows up the obvious show opener with a little more 1999 teases to open the song. This is where this New Years show really starts heating up. After a quick, fast funk groove, the energy in MSG swells when Trey gets the machine gun out about two-thirds of the way through. Pound for pound, this probably isn’t the mightiest of all Weekapaugs, but it’s solid from beginning to end, and it’s one where you can feel the floor of the Garden bouncing through your headphones.

Read on for as we count down the 10 best Weekapaugs of all-time…

Digging Deep is one of our favorite B List features. We initiated it almost by accident last March with two separate columns, and in each of those editions we scoured YouTube to bring you some interesting and unique cover versions of cool songs. This week we continue this tradition, as we present Digging Deep: Part V.

1. We just can’t get enough of the Felice Brothers, who make their first headlining appearance in NYC at a sold out Mercury Lounge on February 1. The Felice Brothers recently toured with Bright Eyes, leading to a number of incredible collaborations including stellar covers of Neil Young’s Walk On and Tom Petty’s Walls. Have you ever seen Conor Oberst so animated and genuinely excited? Read on for the Walls video and nine other incredible clips from the likes of Arcade Fire, the Flaming Lips, Widespread Panic, Beck and many more…

You’d be hard-pressed to find many people who know more about the music of the late Elliott Smith than Dave of The Rawking Refuses to Stop. Now Dave’s done us all a great service by compiling the best of Smith’s unreleased material. Part one of the collection focuses on songs Elliot played live but never recorded — so if you’re an Elliott Smith fan, make sure to check out what Dave’s put together.

• Robert Plant mixes solo material with classic Zep in Amsterdam in 1993
• Brian Wilson tears through Pet Sounds at 2005′s Roskilde Festival
• Check out Feist from before she was the chick from the Apple commercial
• The Music-hole is back with another megapost featuring Black Sabbath, The Police, Blondie, Elvis and more…
• Bands That Jam brings us the latest from the Brain Damaged Eggmen
• NYCTaper shares his recording of Mission of Burma from Williamsburg
• Jesse Jarnow’s latest Frow Show podcast contains tracks by Cornelius, Sinatra, Sam Champion and others
• My Jazz World hips us to a collection of Wes Montgomery classics

And Smuggled Sounds unearths a killer Beck show from 1996 with material from Odelay and Mellow Gold. The funky Debra alone is worth the download.

It’s official, so get ready for The Neville Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Santana, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic, Dr. John, Al Green, Diana Krall, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, The Raconteurs, Irma Thomas and thousands more. So The Raconteurs land on two festival bills in the span of a week — be careful, Young Jack, don’t step all over Franti/Keller Festival Territory.

Make sure to check out last year’s full JazzFest gallery from our man Danfun, and read on after the jump for the full release…ahhh, full release.

Former 70 Volt Parade lead singer and Hidden Track Flufftarget Trey Anastasio recently spent two days in jail after violating the conditions of his participation in the Washington County Drug Treatment Court.

None of the early reports indicate the nature of Big Red’s violation, but we can’t help but fear the worst (of course, it might very well be a missed court date). According to the Post Star, Anastasio spent his time locked up with the general population of Washington County Jail. No word yet on if he was anyone’s bitch.

If you’ll allow us to be lame and fanboyish, this latest chapter of the Trey Anastasio saga certainly sucks — it really seemed like he was turning things around. Trey seemed to successfully insulate himself within the friendly confines of Saratoga Springs over the past 10 months, flying as far below the radar as humanly possible.

Things were looking up for the return Big Red in October when he returned to the stage with some inspired playing during a Phil and Friends concert in Glens Falls. After this latest incident, it’s anyone’s guess as to when he will return to the road. Read on after the jump for a full timeline of Trey’s travails…

Our good friend and longtime long-winded scribe Neddy has been reviewing each night of Marco Benevento‘s Sullivan Hall residency. Here’s the latest…

I won’t go into crazy note-by-note detail (at least I’ll try not to), but Thursday was more of the same…which is to say completely different than the first two nights of the residency. The line-up had a “can’t miss” quality to it with Stanton Moore on the drums and Marc Friedman on bass. (Marco will complete The Slip Trifecta on 1/31 when Andrew Barr gets behind the kit). The crowd returned, although I think it might have been a slightly different crowd. There were definitely some expectations in Sullivan Hall, and I’m not sure they were met. In fact, in perfect form, when everyone leaned in, foreseeing things going one way, Benevento went in quite the opposite direction.

All Photos by Greg Aiello

For one thing, for the first time this month, you could actually say that songs were being played. If you wanted to, you could probably sit down and write an actual setlist…at least for the 1st set. There was an “Atari” and a “The Real Morning Party” off of his new album, Invisible Baby, as well as the oft-played cover of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There.” Yes, the songs were there, in neatly contained packages, but those packages were like eggs in a carton: thin and fragile, easily broken into runny, messy things.

The unexpected thing was that when things got out of the shell, they did not tend toward the funky not at all. You’d think, by sheer presence alone, that Stanton would will the music into a dance-happy groove-fest. Rather, the opposite path was taken. So when “The Real Morning Party” — a tune that’s got an inherent, addictive funkiness to it — split open, it oozed into something much more slow, cerebral and simmering. I personally thought it was a fantastic romp, but the crowd seemed amped for a different kind of show. Read on…

The promoters of Coachella on Monday night unveiled a lineup that’s actually much more diverse than any of the previous seven festivals they’ve thrown in the deserts of Indio, California. Instead of featuring the typical mixture of indie flavors of the month and reunited bands from the alt-rock dynasty, the 2008 festival will feature a number of artists you wouldn’t typically hear in the hipster havens. Roger Waters? Jack Johnson? Of course, there are still plenty of acts like The Breeders and Cold War Kids on the bill to satiate the Pitchfork crowd.

So let’s preview this year’s Coachella by checking out some amazing recordings from eight of the bands that are scheduled to rock the desert on April 25-27, including Roger Waters, Sharon Jones and My Morning Jacket…

Roger Waters 03/14/2007 Pre-FM [FLAC, MP3]

Roger Waters isn’t exactly the first person that comes to mind when you think of Coachella, but festival-goers will be in for a quite a treat when he headlines that Sunday night — Waters has spent the last two years on the road perfecting his band’s performance of Dark Side of the Moon. Everyone who saw one of these shows had nothing but glowing things to say, including Ace, who ranked Waters’ MSG gig as his second favorite concert of 2006. The best-sounding bootleg to emerge from the tour comes from a radio broadcast of a March 2007 gig in Chile.

Roger’s backing band is in fine form throughout their performance in Santiago, especially during Dark Side of the Moon. Carol Kenyon delivers the booming high notes that are so essential to a well-played Great Gig In The Sky, while guitarists Andy Fairweather-Low and Snowy White both rip it up during Money. Even Roger’s usually ragged voice sounds perfect throughout the evening. Waters doesn’t spare any expense, recreating every aspect of the album both visually and aurally. Those Coachella attendees who are thinking about beating the traffic should just take a hit of acid and enjoy a mind-blowing set that will make you remember why Dark Side of the Moon is the fifth highest-selling album of all time. Read on for more…