The Beatles – Revolution (Take 20): MP3, FLAC

Recently, a magnificent studio outtake from The Beatles’ White Album sessions has surfaced of Revolution. There are three well-known variations of the song already including the laid back #1 which is featured on the album, the heavier single known as Revolution #2 and the rambling sound collage called Revolution #9. The track that has recently surfaced seems like the missing link between #1 and #9. As amazing as this track sounds, I’m more interested in how this “holy grail” of a track came out of the woodwork.

The Beatles’ PR people have yet to confirm if the track that surfaced is the genuine artifact that the quartet recorded recorded on May 30 and 31, and June 4, 1968, but if this is a fake the person that put it together should be commended. More likely, this track likely leaked from an employee at EMI, who have for years been rumored to be putting out The Beatles’ catalog on iTunes. Perhaps this was a bonus track they have ready for when The White Album hits the download portal. Or maybe it comes from Yoko Ono’s closet.

The tempo of Take 20 of Revolution is more laid-back than #1 and contains the “shoo-be-doo-wop” backing vocals found in #1. At about the five minute mark the song veers off into #9 territory with plenty of tape loops, siren-sounding guitar overdubs and spoken word from what sounds like Yoko Ono. Personally, I love this version until about the eight minute mark. Download it for yourself and let us know what you think.

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD REVOLUTION (TAKE 20)

Does anyone else find it curious that Phish hasn’t started selling downloads of their upcoming Hampton Coliseum reunion shows on LivePhish.com yet? Does this mean the band – who pioneered selling downloads of their shows within hours of the shows ending – won’t be continuing the beloved Live Phish program? I wouldn’t bank on it. In fact, I’m hoping they have something exciting up their sleeves that they’ll announce shortly.

For those of you who don’t have the patience to wait for Phish to post the official versions of the shows, Mr. Miner of Phish Thoughts has been working on a mind-blowing concept called No Spoiler downloads. Miner promises that he’ll be serving up unlabeled MP3 downloads of each show within an hour of the band walking off the stage with the help of a team of longtime tapers. Sounds like an incredible idea to us.

Finally, the promoters of Bonnaroo have announced that Phish will perform a late night set on Friday and close the festival on Sunday with Bruce Springsteen headlining on Saturday night. Hopefully this will lead to some sick sit-ins during the weekend involving members of Phish.

• Previously on Hampton Countdown: A Local’s Guide, Posters

With Give Us The Money Lebowski guitarist and HT contributor Nick Setteducato currently living and working in New Zealand, GUTML wasn’t included in the initial lineup announcement for this year’s Awesometown Festival. But we’re happy to report that Nick will be returning to the States for a few weeks allowing GUTML to rock the fuck out during both nights of Awesometown: The Second Frame on May 8 and 9 in Morrisville, PA.

The producers of Awesometown also announced that HT favorite Tim Palmieri of The Breakfast will play a rare acoustic set outside of Connecticut at Snipes Farm. The $40 early bird tickets go on sale March 14. [Twitter]

Let’s take a look at what we’ve missed the past few days…

• The Daily Swarm breaks down the LN/TM merger hearings
• Eddie Van Halen discusses his new line of Fender guitars
• Rock Town Hall picks their fav non-Byrne Talking Head
• Pitchfork Editor Scott Plagenhoef sits for a Wired interview
• Download Tombstone – The Band’s unfinished lost album
• Smashing Pumpkins Freaks interview Nugs.net’s Brad Serling

Finally, if you’re a musician interested in collaborating with the Derek Trucks Band, now’s your chance. The band has made source files of the four instrument parts available from their latest single Get What You Deserve off of the new disc, Already Free. “Sit-in” by replacing an existing instrument part, add an entirely new instrument part, or (if you’re so inclined) you can even remix the song. Share your creation with the Indaba Music community for a chance to win free gear and a meet and greet with the band.

Music lovers are inherently prone to making lists. We do it all the time. Our mental instincts tell us to compare frequently. Learn which is better, rank whatever is on your mind in comparison to the last time you had a similar experience. Be the judge, it’s your opinion, after all, so it cannot be incorrect. Sports fans are of a similar ilk, albeit more obvious and statistic driven. List makers, the lot of them.

Ask a music lover to name three guitar players with real talent and you will get back as many answers as you think you will. Depending on the genre that happens to be their favorite, you may hear answers as diverse as Jimi Hendrix or Carlos Santana to B.B. King or Chuck Berry. Satriani, Clapton, Page. Trey, Muddy, Warren. First name, last name, it makes no difference. Everybody has their favorite player in each genre. So let’s narrow the playing field, shall we?

Ask the same music lover to name three jazz guitarists with the most talent still making music and you’re fishing in a much shallower pool. Pat Metheney belongs on the list, that’s a given. A very strong case could be made for Bill Frisell to be sure. Al Dimeola, Robben Ford, Les Paul, where do you start?

I’ll tell you where you start: John Scofield. Note for note, Scofield has been atop that list for decades. An imaginative composer and innovative improviser, his legacy has continued to build with each new release; 33 of them since 1977. And that’s just as the main artist. He has collaborated on more cuts than I care to count and made every one of them a better song in the process.

READ ON for AJ’s review of John Scofield at the Portland Jazz Fest…

When it comes to God Street Wine, I’ve had the same favorite song since I first heard Bag in 1993 – Goodnight Gretchen. The combination of Lo Faber’s lyrics, Aaron Maxwell’s incidenary slide playing and the rhythm section’s tight groove always gets me going. The song became a staple of God Street’s repertoire and offered plenty of room for improvisation over the years.

On December 26, 1996 God Street Wine descended upon Irving Plaza to deliver the first of two amazing shows to the New York City faithful. While I remember the second show as the scorcher, the first show was memorable for an incident during Goodnight Gretchen when all of the sudden a bunch of schwilled out wooks climbed on stage and danced around for a bit during Bevo’s solo before stage diving. You’d expect that kind of shit at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones show not a jamband gig. Let’s look at the video the band shot from the balcony of that Goodnight Gretchen…

• Previously on HT: God Street Wednesday

Rilo Kiley - With Arms Outstretched (Live Bonnaroo ’08)

In a totally objective and almost too close to call race, Phish fans placed second in Spike TV’s assessment of the worst fans in all of music just behind fans of Screwdriver, a white supremacy themed punk band from the U.K. in the ’70s. Normally, I would probably take offense to such ridiculous claims (while quietly wondering if we wholeheartedly agree), but I’m pretty sure this guy’s balls are hanging out of his gym shorts and he is holding a ventriloquist doll, so i’ll just shake it off and just piggy back off his idea.

So, instead of letting loose with a defensive Phish tirade, let’s take a look at more crappy fanbases in music. To up the stakes a bit (and refrain from a pointless list about Clay Aiken), i’ll stick to music I actually quite like, but do not always share the same affection for the other concert goers.

Dave Matthews Band – Let’s just get this one out in the open real quick and move on. Dave Matthews’ fans suck the joy out of otherwise good music like a pack of Dementers. And no, Harry Potter references do not detract from our credibility in evaluating the tolerability of music fans. Drunk meatheads, incessant clapping, high school girls and loud yapping are simply not my idea of a good time.

String Cheese Incident – Here’s another one that pains me a bit to throw under the bus, but ever since I met this feller in Denver who told me verbatim, “You don’t know the first thing about the space funk. Why don’t you go back to Michigan you cow f*cker? String Cheese rules the space funk,” I’ve been a little salty on the fan base. Plus, I do not like screaming, be it group or otherwise.

READ ON for more of Ryan’s least favorite fanbases including REM…

There haven’t been many bands over the last few years that have consistently hit the road as hard and as often as the Dave Matthews Band. The perennial road warriors will be at it again this summer with another massive North American tour. This 63-date beast of a tour kicks off on April 14 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden and runs until October 2 where the band will wrap things up at the BOK Center in Tulsa, OK.

Joining DMB will be a diverse and impressive group of opening acts that includes The Roots, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Avett Brothers, Femi Kuti & the Positive Force, The Hold Steady, Hill Country Review, Donovan Frankenreiter and Robert Randolph and the Family Band.

If you’re not into the acoustic-jam-pop of DMB, than maybe you’ll be into seeing one of these recently announced tours…

• ’80s Yacht rockers Hall & Oates head out for a 12 date run
• Vetiver will spend the majority of the next four months on the road
• Electronic music duo MSTRKRFT line up a NA run
• Indie-rockers TVOTR hit the road for a month long trek
• The Thermals put together a cross-country jaunt
• Noise rockers Mogwai schedule a lengthy world tour

Finally, coming on the heels of his first US performance in over fifteen years legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen has announced a full fledged North American spring tour. The 74 year-old Cohen will kick off his two-month, 28 date tour on April 2 in Austin, TX with a notable appearance at the Coachella Festival, as well as a stop at New York’s Radio CIty Music Hall and a tour ending show at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

Longtime Phish fan David Paul Kleinman lives in Hampton and has put together a kickass list of restaurants, bars, liquor stores and points of interest for those attending the shows next weekend. The crab cakes from the Surf Rider look particularly tasty, but alas with no car I’ll be stuck on the Coliseum / W. Mercury Blvd. strip all weekend. Anyone have any suggestions for restaurants, bars or liquor stores within walking distance of the venue?

Last week, we presented DaveO’s series of articles about what the members of Phish have been up to for the past five years called Coventry To Hampton. Within each column were comprehensive playlists featuring each member’s solo material as well as the Phish tunes they played since the band broke up. By popular demand, we’ve got links to downloads of MP3 files of every song from every playlist in the Coventry to Hampton series.

We’re still on the lookout for the McGrupp and Catapult that Trey played back on November 10, 2005 in Buffalo and any other tracks we may have missed last week, so leave us a comment if you’ve got a lead on those tracks. Also, a number of additions have been made to the playlists since the articles initially ran. Be sure to check out the articles again for the full playlists.

• Jon Fishman – Playlist
  
• Mike Gordon – Covers and Sit-ins
• Mike Gordon - Originals Pt. 1, Pt. 2
• Phish – Playlist Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3
• Page McConnell – Covers and Sit-ins
• Page McConnell – Originals
• Trey Anastasio – Covers and Sit-ins Pt. 1, Pt. 2
• Trey Anastasio – Originals Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3

We’re celebrating Fat Tuesday with the video debut of New Orleans funksters Bonerama. This video for Big Fine Woman comes from PartyGras2009.com – a site anchored by PBS and Bonerama that will feature new music in the form of live shows, a single of a brand new song, or an archival release from back in the day every Tuesday in 2009…

Bonerama – Big Fine Woman

• CLICK HERE TO BUY THE FULL-LENGTH VERSION

I’ve been writing for a Hidden Track for a little over a year now, but it wasn’t until just last week that I finally had my William Miller moment. I had the opportunity to flex my journalism degree by interviewing ATO recording artist and former Better Than Noodling subject Ben Kweller.

The unbelievably likable and laid back singer-songwriter took some time last week to chat with Hidden Track from Omaha, NE – where he was kicking off his 17 city tour – about his new indie-twang-pop album Changing Horses…

Jeffrey Greenblatt: The title of the album is Changing Horses, it seems like it’s a nod to the new sound. Did you set out to make a country-inspired record?

Ben Kweller: I did. I came up with the album back in 2004, I came up with the album title and stuff and I wrote the song Hurtin’ You and that’s the one I was like “oh, I should make an album of songs like this called Changing Horses.” I’ve been working on the songs ever since and I just decided to record ‘em.

JG: Did you grow up listening to a lot of country music?

BK: Oh yeah

JG: Who did you grow up listening to?

BK: Well you know in the beginning it was like everything that was on the radio like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson and stuff like that. [I listened to] country, pop-country in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s and then I got into the older stuff when I got older, learned more about the roots of things, got into Johnny Cash and Hank. So sort of the same way with rock n’ roll you know like when Nirvana came out, and all those bands, all the grunge bands I was really into that stuff. And then you start to learn about the Velvet Underground and punk rock and the roots of it all.

READ ON for more of ATO recording artist Ben Kweller’s thoughts on producing albums, summer festivals and his son’s love of Guns N’ Roses…

After an incredibly successful election season that saw the non-partisan group register 105,697 voter registration, you couldn’t blame the folks at HeadCount for taking a break before gearing up for the 2010 midterm elections. Yet, that’s not what happened. As soon as last year’s election was over the HeadCount team started putting together a plan to step up its efforts to engage the political arena beyond voter registration.

The HeadCount organization has offered the first glimpse of its post-election gameplan, launching a poll to ask music fans what political issues should be the highest priority for Congress and the Obama administration. The poll can be found at www.HeadCount.org or by clicking here. The organization will then “stage letter-writing and awareness campaigns based on the results of this survey,” according to the website.

“We have a lot of big plans for 2009,” said HeadCount’s Executive Director Andy Bernstein. “Registering voters is just the first step. There are many ways for our community to be socially and politically active. That’s what we’re trying to achieve.”

The letter-writing campaign will debut at the Phish shows in Hampton. Anyone who stops by the HeadCount table will be able to pick any issue and complete a pre-printed letter to their Congressional representative, adding their own comments. This will extend to other concerts in the Spring and Summer, including the upcoming Dead Tour. “Government works for us,” Bernstein said. “We put them in office. Now it’s time for some hands-on management.” Make your voice heard by filling out HeadCount’s survey.

Willfully walking into a wild and wacky situation is one thing. To do so in the pursuit of some sort of lofty man-made goal, and hope to pull through with all of one’s senses intact is quite another thing entirely. What is it one is really looking for? How to get it done? Does it really matter in the end? When has one truly gone over the edge? A case by case basis, to be sure, and The Edge, as Hunter S. Thompson would have said, is in the mind of the beholder as we commence on our little journey down the rabbit hole of madness.

A murder has been committed, and there are three witnesses. Unfortunately, the crime occurred in an insane asylum, and the witnesses aren’t speaking, so the main character, a journalist in a gravely misguided pursuit of a Pulitzer Prize for solving the mystery, decides to have himself committed into the institution in this week’s Hidden Flick, a sharp, haunting, and sometimes completely bonkers film, Samuel Fuller’s 1963 cautionary tale of moral destiny and mental destitution, Shock Corridor.

Peter Breck plays Johnny Barrett, the ambitious scribe, who is so confident in his own intellect and talent that he concocts a weird back-story to get himself inside the mental hospital as a patient with a lecherous edge. His girlfriend, Cathy, a stripper with the proverbial heart of gold, played by Constance Towers, would pretend to be his sister, and complain to the authorities that her brother was molesting her, and should be committed because of his pending mental breakdown and dangerous threat to society. Barrett would simply pose as a patient, investigate the other patients and guards, eventually interview the three witnesses to the murder, solve the case, identify the murderer, write his glorious story, and win the Pulitzer Prize. Such a brilliant and easy enough idea, right?

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick – Shock Corridor…

This week’s Stormy Monday celebrates the music of The Band – potentially the greatest music ever made. The covers begin with Ohio’s own ekoostik hookah killing Don’t Do It, a regular set opener for the Woodstock collective, but a tune that this group uses as a closer, and this version will make clear why. Next is the Zen Tricksters with WS Wolcott Medicine Show, a staple in their sets for years, although they’re the only band I know who covers the tune, and then a David Nelson led 4:20 All Stars performance of The Shape I’m In – that’s Bobby Vega busting out the bass lines.

Back in the fall, Wilco released a great version of I Shall Be Released with help from Fleet Foxes as part of Headcount’s voter registration campaign, and then the Phil Lesh Quintet gives a nice long take on Acadian Driftwood on spring tour in 2001. To close it all out is WSP with Chest Fever, but we’ve only just scratched the surface here and we’ll be back with a second installment before too long. As always, enjoy.

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S MIX