On March 13, one day after the one year anniversary of Owsley “Bear” Stanley’s death, Columbia/Legacy will release Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968, an unreleased Bear recording of Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Bear was involved with the mixing of this release before the fatal car accident which took his life and it will be the first of a long-awaited “Bear’s Sonic Journals” archival release series. “Care was taken to preserve and ensure the integrity of the music as well as to present an accurate snapshot of the masterful talent of one of the greatest singers of her generation and one of the hottest live bands in the San Francisco scene,” wrote Bear’s widow, Sheilah Stanley, in her dedication to Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968. “This is Bear’s vision — how he heard the band live, and how he wanted to transmit that to you… this truly is Bear’s presentation of this phenomenal band and inspirational music.”

Here’s the track listing…

1. Combination Of The Two
2. I Need A Man To Love
3. Flower In The Sun
4. Light Is Faster Than Sound
5. Summertime
6. Catch Me Daddy
7. It’s A Deal
8. Call On Me
9. Jam – I’m Mad
10. Piece Of My Heart
11. Coo Coo
12. Ball & Chain
13. Down On Me

Bonus Track:

14. Call On Me (Saturday Show – June 22, 1968)

We’re glad that Bear’s work will live on through this new archival series and look forward to future releases.

The second season of HBO’s comedy series Flight Of The Conchords premieres this Sunday at 10 PM. If the new season is anything like season one it will be filled with Bret and Jemaine’s hilarious struggles in the big city as they try to make it as a band. For those of you who found that they couldn’t get their songs out of their heads, you’re in luck as you’ll now be able to download a new song each week via iTunes the day after the show airs.

The comedic duo will also release their yet untitled sophomore album on Sub Pop on April 14 consisting of ten songs from the show and five brand new ones. As an added bonus, you can currently watch the season two premiere for free, click through and enjoy…

• List Time: Nine Great Songs About Roads
• WNEW’s Forgotten Favorites features Stephen Stills’ Manassas
• Cover Alert: The Avett Brothers tackle Aretha Franklin
• Lost In The 70s takes a look at The Sugar Bears
• Grateful Breed kicks down one of Janis Joplin’s last shows
• Hard Rock Park has filed for bankruptcy after just one year

Finally, iconic pop-rockers Cheap Trick are close to finalizing a deal that would give them their own headlining show in Las Vegas and would feature the band performing The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album in its entirety backed by a full orchestra. The exclusive deal with the Las Vegas Hilton is said to start this Spring and run through 2009.

This Mix Tape was inspired by my trip out to San Francisco this summer. SF just oozes with an energy and feel that makes you understand how the psychedelic rock movement originated and blossomed there. Anyone that has seen a show at The Fillmore can attest to that, that room’s just filled with the ghosts of the past. So with that in mind, I thought we’d take a trip back to the ’60s for some tunes from the some of the bands from that era…

We kick things off with a scintillating version of Combination Of The Two the first track off of Big Brother & The Holding Co.’s major label debut Cheap Thrills. From there, we’ve got the highly underrated Quicksilver Messenger Service with the six-plus minute instrumental Gold And Silver that features some fantastic acid drenched guitar work from John Cipollina.

Next up, we’ve got two of the more poppy efforts to come out of the scene. First, the band that should have broken big, but never lived up to the hype – Moby Grape with Omaha. Then we’ve got one from Sopwith Camel with the jazzy-folk-rocker Hello, Hello; which became the first Top 40 hit for any of the San Fran bands of the era. Finally, we close things out with two bands that came to define the city and the psychedelic rock movement – Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. We’ve got a live version of The Airplane’s 3/5 Of A Mile In Ten Seconds and The Dead with their psychedelic rave up Cream Puff War off their debut album.