If you saw Peter Bogdanovich’s brilliant documentary on Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers odds are you remember the 20 minutes he spent talking about Mudcrutch. Mudcrutch was Petty’s first band, which laid the groundwork for the Heartbreakers. 30 years later Tommy P has put the band back together to record a new album. The band hits the road next month for a tour of intimate venues in California next month. Is a Space Antelope reunion next?

Here’s a fresh batch of links in honor of Good Friday:

• Apple resumes talks to start an iTunes subscription service
• Black Mountain resurrects an era when the Mellotron was king
• Rick Wakeman quits Yes, only to be replaced by his son
• Ryan Adams, Sam Bush and Ani DiFranco will headline this year’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 19 - 22 in the gorgeous mountain town
• Uncensored Interview offers a slew of videos with indie artists
• ZZ Top gets busy on their first studio album in five years
• Lou Reed, David Byrne and others team up for a Speak Up! benefit
• Did Elvis Costello really name his new album after a NYC restaurant?
• Philly fans speak up in defense of the Disco Biscuits, who are the main attraction at Jam On The River along with the Flaming Lips
  

Finally, if you’re like us you’ll probably be watching the NCAA basketball tourny this weekend. The New York Times offers a fascinating look at how each school’s band chooses the music that they play.

After nearly a year on the road, Nickel Creek’s farewell tour comes to a close on November 29th. If you haven’t had a chance to see them before they go their separate ways, be sure to check out NPR’s webcast of Friday night’s show live from the 9:30 club in Washington D.C. Although, we’d really prefer to instead say goodbye to Nickelback from the public consciousness, not the Creek.

• Power User Trent Reznor calls OiNK “the greatest music store of all-time”
• Today we all mourn the loss of Robert Goulet — Goooolay!
• The mid-November Bear Creek Music and Arts Festival has been moved to The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL
• Van Halen extends their highly regarded reunion tour into 2008
• Elvis Presley ($49 mil) and John Lennon ($44 mil) head up Forbes.com’s list of the Top Earning Dead Celebrities
• Torrentfreak takes you inside the mind of a 9-year-old file sharer
• Heavy Mideast Metal: Baghdad’s Acrassicauda is truly a band on the run
• Die-hard fans of The Who will be offered access to a massive library of audio and video files for $50 a month
• Will Butler of Arcade Fire responds to Sasha Frere-Jones criticisms
• Check out the latest edition of Nedstalgia to find out how Neddy wound up in Dave Schools’ hotel room listening to the Dead

Finally, the full song list for the upcoming Rock Band video game looks absolutely incredible. We can’t wait to drum along with Epic or to sing Mississippi Queen when the game comes out on November 20th. Thanksgiving fun.

NBC tonight will be showing a special called Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live at 8 pm. While we’re sure there will be plenty of hilarious clips from the likes of John Belushi and Bill Murray, we’re far more excited for the musical performances they’ll be dredging up.

SNL was one of the first shows on television that gave artists an opportunity to play without a net on live television. Not only that, the bookers at SNL were always willing to feature bands that weren’t exactly in line with the mainstream. Who else at the time would have let Frank Zappa borrow Don Pardo to perform an edgy satirical song like I Am The Slime?

Many of the best musical performances in SNL’s history occurred during the first five years of the show’s run. Featured on tonight’s special will be clips of The Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello and George Harrison accompanying Paul Simon. If you can’t catch tonight’s show, check out the YouTube’z below:

• The Grateful Dead perform Casey Jones in 1978
• George Harrison accompanies Paul Simon on Homeward Bound
• A classic: Elvis Costello and the Attractions play Radio Radio after aborting Less Than Zero in 1977
• Previously on HT: The B List: It’s Saturday Night

Well then, you’re in luck: New fall tour dates are rolling in to Hidden Track Headquarters faster than a Joba fastball, and many of these tours are requiring hefty amounts of your free cash flow. Plan accordingly, folks…get involved.

• Bob Dylan with Elvis Costello and Amos Lee (kickoff: 9/16)
• Gov’t Mule with Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (kickoff: 9/3)
• Jesus and Mary Chain adds five West Coast dates (kickoff: 10/20)
• The Hold Steady and Art Brut plan a massive tour (kickoff: 10/21)
• The same goes for Toubab Krewe — huge tour (kickoff: 9/8)
• Regina Spektor announces a 26-show tour (kickoff: 9/19)
• Morrissey unveils a U.S. tour of multi-show residencies (kickoff: 9/21)
• Umphrey’s McGee adds some dates after Echo Project (kickoff: 10/16)
• No joke, Tesla reveals a full slate of dates (kickoff: 8/28 at Lupo’s)

I’d see at least one of each, which may explain why I’m both tired and poor, though unlike the poem, not exactly yearning to breathe free. Just tired and poor.

As you can probably tell, we love live music here at Hidden Track. But sometimes just seeing the music isn’t enough; we feel a nagging need to download the audio and video of shows we’ve either seen or wish that we saw as soon as we can.

Our favorite moments as music fans come when we stumble across recordings we didn’t think existed, or of shows we attended but had completely forgotten about. Just this week I had several “Holy Fuck!” moments when I came across three shows I never thought I’d see or hear. I’ll tell you all about them, and Paul McCartney’s “secret” show at the Highline, as we go Grousing The Aisles…

Steely Dan w/ Michael McDonald 08/12/2006 PROSHOT (DVD):

Nearly every shed in America these days has those screens that show video of the concert to people with bad views. Most of the footage from these screens either doesn’t get recorded or gets stashed in the archives of the venue or the performer. Once in a while, though, video from one of these concerts leaks onto the ‘net. The latest of these leaks comes from last summer’s Steely Dan tour, which featured special guest and longtime HT idol Michael McDonald.

The Dan was feelin’ it this night, rolling through magnificent performances of hits such as Hey 19, Green Earrings, and Josie. Mikey Mac adds his husky vocals to the last seven songs of the set, including the kickass My Old School closer. The Steely Dan Orchestra backing band is made up of extremely talented musicians. Keith Carlock is a revelation on the drums — at times there is so much going on that you wonder whether there are two drummers behind the kit. Backup vocalists Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery and Cindy Mizelle both look and sing beautifully.

The quality of this footage is unbelievably good, allowing a nice look at the ladies as they sing their hearts out during Dirty Work. The crispy soundboard feed that supplies the audio is also top notch, and worth the download by itself. I can honestly say that in my four years of collecting live concert DVDs, this puppy may take the cake as the best in my collection. It’s that good.

Read on for some more great downloads of Bustle, Macca and the Other Elvis…