It sort of seems hard to believe, but it’s been ten years since Jack Johnson put out his debut album Brushfire Fairytales via the small indie-label Enjoy Records (which is now known as Everloving). When the pro-surfer turned musician’s record was picked up for wider distribution, the label’s co-founder and album’s producer JP Plunier struck a unique deal with Universal, in which they could only have the masters for ten years. With masters tapes back in the hands of Everloving, the label has announced that on April 12 they will be releasing a remastered version of the album. The digital download version of this release will also include live versions of Flake and Inaudible Melodies.

• List Time: 10 Soulful Artists Bringing Back The Motown Sound
• Oscar nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg loves him some Ween
• Cover Alert: Band Of Horses tackle Steely Dan
• Two Boots on Bleeker Street honors CBGB’s with its own pizza
• Download This: Candy Cane Children (White Stripes Rarities)
• Rock Hall to open a Women Who Rock exhibit this spring

Finally, as we previously reported, on their current cross-country tour indie-rock trio, Yo La Tengo have been splitting their shows into two distinct  sets, with the first one being determined by a spin of their Wheel Of Fortune. This past weekend at the band’s stop at The Metro in Chicago, the randomness of the wheel, which features eight different categories, got put to the test when it landed on Sitcom Theater. Over the next half-hour plus the crowd was “treated” to Ira Kaplan & Co. reenacting the classic Chinese Restaurant episode of Seinfeld, with Ira doing a heck of a job as Jerry.

Check it out…

Hidden Track’s Joel Berk was on hand at The Metro and we’ll post his thoughts and photos from this incredibly unique rock show soon.

Over the last few seasons, Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg has been poking fun at Jack Johnson with The Mellow Show, where he portrays the laid back ways of the surfer turned rocker. For his latest music video – At Or With Me – Johnson finally gets his revenge on Samberg, who in the clip shows up at one of Jack’s gigs and plays an obnoxious version of himself…

Jack Johnson – At Or With Me

As we previously mentioned, surfer turned musician Jack Johnson is donating 100% of the proceeds from his current To The Sea Tour to a variety of community groups. Heading into the second leg of the run the eco-friendly rocker has announced plans to team up with All At Once and plans to donate $70,000  in direct donations and up to $40,000 in matching grants towards their efforts in clean up and recovery in the Gulf Of Mexico as a result of the BP oil spill. Fans headed to any of the upcoming shows that are interested in volunteering or making donations are encouraged to stop by the Village Green area for more information on how to get involved.

• List Time: 18 Band Names Inspired By Other Bands
• Weezer new album to called Hurley after the character on Lost
• Cover Alert: Joanna Newsom & Robin Pecknold tackle Kid Rock
• Elektra celebrates its 60th anniversary with a spiffy new website
• Download This: AD Presents – Soul Sides, A Gospel/Funk Mixtape
• Carrie Brownstein to score a new doc about feminist art

Finally, this fall fans of psychedelic rockers Jefferson Airplane will have a lot to get excited about as the band has dug into their vaults and will release four live albums from their mid-’60s heyday. The quartet of releases, all due out on October 26, will feature a trio of hometown gigs at the famed Fillmore Auditorium from Fall 1966, including original lead singer Signe Anderson’s farewell show with the band and Grace Slick’s first official shows with The Airplane the very next night as well as 1968 gig when they made their return to their home away from home – The Matrix – where they originally honed their chops as the venue’s house band.

As we head into the warmer months, who better to turn to than Jack Johnson for some breezy summer music. The now shaggy haired and bearded singer-songwriter, who will release his latest studio effort To The Sea on June 1, headed into the ocean for the You & Your Heart video…

Jack Johnson – You & Your Heart

Jack Johnson will kick off a 34-date summer tour on July 9 in Hartford, which includes a high profile stop at Madison Square Garden in NYC on July 14.

It’s going to be a good Spring if you’re a fan of the music of John Prine as you’ll be able to enjoy the legendary singer-songwriters music in two very different releases via his Oh Boy Records label. First up, on May 25, the live album In Person & On Stage – which was culled from Prine’s tours from the last few years and features cameos from Emmylou Harris, Josh Ritter and Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins – will be released. Then, on June 22, Prine will get the tribute treatment with the release of Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows. The record features 12 newly-recorded versions of Prine classics by a veritable who’s who of contemporary roots-rock acts featuring HT faves My Morning Jacket, Conor Obert & The Mystic Valley Band, Deer Tick with Liz Isenberg, Drive-By Truckers and The Avett Brothers.

• List Time: 11 Best Musical Performances on Yo Gabba Gabba
• Hypebot asks – Are Cassettes The New Vinyl? – for indie-bands
• Cover Alert: Mayer Hawthorne tackles Tony Bennet
• Arcade Fire collaborating with Spike Jonze on a short film
• HBO has already picked up Treme for a second season
• Coachella’s webcast to offer customizable playlists

Finally, a few weeks back we told our readers that Jack Johnson would be hitting the road in a major way this summer in support of his latest studio effort To The Sea – which will hit stores on June 1. The newly shaggy haired singer-songwriter, who also is one of the most eco-friendly artists out there, has announced that he will once again be donating 100% of the profits from his upcoming tour to 150 chosen community groups. Johnson had previously raised $845,000  for 184 environmental nonprofit organizations during his 2008 Sleep Through The Static tour. Nice work, JJ.

Colorado’s big festival aims to get bigger in year number three as the Mile High Music Festival returns to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park outside of Denver on August 14 and 15 with a lineup headed by big-time record sellers the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Weezer and My Morning Jacket.

[Photo by Soren McCarty]

In a blast from the past, the original members of The Samples will reunite for a performance on the first night, a night that will also include sets from Jack Johnson, the Steve Miller Band, Slightly Stoopid, Phoenix, Nas & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Keane, Cypress Hill, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band,Keller Williams, Rusted Root, Donavon Frankenreiter, One eskimO, Mayer Hawthorne & The County, ALO, Amos Lee, The Constellations, The Motet, Bobby Long and MyNameIsJohnMicha.

Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Cliff is among an eclectic group of artists set to play the second night that also includes the Dave Matthews Band, Weezer, My Morning Jacket, Atmosphere, Train, Bassnectar, Z-Trip, Drive-By Truckers, Railroad Earth, Ozomatli, Punch Brothers, Tim Reynolds & TR3, Trevor Hall, Matt Morris, BoomBox, On My Stars, Joe Purdy, The Knew and Danielle Ate the Sandwich.

Tickets go onsale Saturday at 10AM [MDT] through the festival’s website.

A few years back it seemed as you couldn’t find a festival that didn’t have Jack Johnson’s name at the top of the bill. The former pro-surfer turned rocker will hit the road again this summer for his own solo headlining tour in support of his fifth studio album To The Sea, which will hit stores via his Brushfire label on June 1. The 34-date North American run will kick off on July 9 in Hartford, CT and will be almost an exclusive to amphitheaters, except for a high profile stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on July 14. Tickets for the entire tour will go on-sale on April 10.

If you’re not into a night with the laid back rocker, than maybe you’ll want to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• Guitar legend Jeff Beck reveals the second leg of his US tour
• Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne lines up a 16-city trek
• Weird Al takes his comedy-rock on the road this summer
• Elton John heads out for a string of Midwest dates this spring
• Indigo Girls bring their brand of folk-rock to a town near you
• BuzzUniverse embarks on their biggest tour to date

Finally, after announcing a one-off appearance that this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, legendary folk act Simon & Garfunkel have decided to use that gig as the kick off to a short North American tour. The old elementary school friends will hit the road for a three week run, where they will play in a number of cities that they’ve never visited before – which includes stops in Fargo, St. Paul and newly crowned “City of Rock” Madison. The shows will feature the usual mix of Simon & Garfunkel classics, along with a dose of material from the pair’s respective solo careers.

Late last year, surfer/singer Jack Johnson released his first-ever live concert DVD, En Concert. The movie, which documents Johnson’s 2008 European tour, is directed by his longtime friend Emmett Malloy who brings a surf movie aesthetic to its mix of live performances and offstage footage. Here’s the opening performance of Belle/Banana Pancakes…

Jack Johnson – Belle/Banana Pancakes (Live)

Every morning on my way to work I pass one of the largest American flags I’ve ever had the distinction to see first hand. And every morning since the inauguration – and release of Umphrey’s McGee’s Mantis – as I wait patiently sitting at that stop light while staring at that flag I tend to bounce my thoughts back and forth between the president’s speech and the opening line to the title track of Mantis…

We believe there’s something here worth dying for…

Oh, how those lyrics ring true for our country’s past, present and future. People have fought and died to defend the ideals that our government originally set forth.

Obama touched on this issue, too, and spoke of an era of responsibility with these great words from his inauguration speech:

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

READ ON for more of this week’s Land of Confusion column…

We’d like to welcome yet another new member to our ever-growing Hidden Track staff, Jack Spilberg. Jack’s a longtime contributor to Glide’s main site where he’s written about Lyrics Born, Brett Dennen and Jack Johnson among others. Enough with the prelims, here’s Jack’s first column…

As a part of last summer’s Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through the Static Tour, a series of really slick-looking, limited edition concert posters were drawn up by select artists. According to Johnson’s site, the posters were printed up in numbered editions of only 300, and sold during the concert stops. You were lucky if you happened to score one of them during the tour, as they are not available for sale anywhere else right now. A full set of signed posters will supposedly be auctioned off sometime soon- check back on the site for a chance to place a bid.

It is not surprising that many of the artists involved with this concert poster art project are tied to the surf scene. While many of the designs have an organic, surfer-art vibe, there is a nice mix or urban and underground artists who give the poster series a more eclectic vibe.

Here’s a look at 12 of the 15 posters in the full set and links to the artists’ sites…

Chivo: http://www.mybrowncoat.com/

READ ON for more Sleep Through The Static tour posters…

I thought we were in the clear without having to mention the words festival, Radiohead and Jack Johnson in the same sentence for a little while….Brief pause….Was that long enough? I think so. We’re already sick of talking about festies, and the season hasn’t even started yet. Today news surfaced about the Outside Lands Festival, which is scheduled to take place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on August 22-24. As has become commonplace now, Radiohead and Jack Johnson will headline along with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

On the heels of the Radiohead story that leaked earlier today, we now get the initial line-up for the inaugural edition of the All Points West Music & Arts Festival. Let’s take a look at who’s signed on so far…

Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Underworld, Kings of Leon, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Cat Power, The Roots, The New Pornographers, Youssou N’Dour, Animal Collective, Andrew Bird, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Metric, CSS, Girl Talk, Chromeo, The Go! Team, Amadou & Mariam, The Black Angels, Sia, The Felice Brothers, K’Naan, Jason Isbell, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Alberta Cross, The Virgins, Black Kids, Mates of State, Duffy, Forro in the Dark, Nicole Atkins, Juana Molina, Little Brother, Rogue Wave, Neil Halstead and Your Vegas.

Read on after the jump for ticket information…