We’re honored to host the World Premiere of McLovins’ latest video, Bri (In Memory Of). The McLovins are making their New York City debut next Friday night at Sullivan Hall where they’ll be opening for Strange Design. Please head out to Sullivan Hall to support our friends who may be young but are insanely inventive. Let’s take a look…

This song was written by request and here’s the story behind it…

The boys were asked by Jerry if they’d write a song for Brian, who was an important part of the fabric of the Phish community and recently passed away. The song is a celebration of the life, love and deep friendship that Brian had with his Phish brothers and sisters, who felt fortunate to also reunite for two last Phish concerts together in Hampton. His friends were most amazed that he even made it to Hampton at all. Jerry believes that it “is a testament to the power of Phish and more importantly, music in general…”

Jerry wrote that: “Brian was a wandering, free spirit and at his memorial I read a poem that I wrote that explained how his ability to really, truly LISTEN to his closest friends and family was his greatest asset.”

Jerry is in the process of working with either the Mimi Fishman Foundation, Waterwheel or The Mockingbird Foundation to raise some money in his name with the goal afterwards to begin the process of his personal Foundation with his family.

Head over to McLovins’ YouTube channel for more of their videos.

• Previously on HT: Interview – The McLovins

Rapper Eminem, Led Zep axeslinger Jimmy Page and Rolling Stone Ron Wood are among the presenters at this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in Cleveland on April 4. Page will introduce and induct Jeff Beck.  Run-DMC will be inducted by Eminem and Wood will induct Bobby Womack.

Let’s take one final look at what we missed this week…

• Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy talks to GQ about his band’s new disc
• The McLovins debut Sea of Wisdom, a brand new original
• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals say goodbye to their bassist
• The newly reunited Jane’s Addiction rocked SXSW last night
• Now you can stream every Umphrey’s podcast over at Imeem
• Paging Phish: VH1 to revive the old Behind The Music series

Finally, lovable bassist Phil Lesh will perform Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks in its entirety tonight during a set with a The San Francisco Songwriters Coalition All-Stars at the fourth annual Rock to Relief concert at Slim’s in San Francisco. All proceeds from this sold-out show will benefit worthy causes such as Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross. Go Phil!

When Coachella released the lineup for this year’s festie, many music fans had their hopes set on a seeing the name Pavement grace the artist roster after hearing Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg comments earlier this year. While the return of the seminal ’90s indie-rock band may not be on the immediate horizon, four of the five members did take the stage together this past weekend at the 5 Spot in Nashville, TN for an impromptu reunion of sorts at the wedding reception party for former percussionist Bob Nastanovich.

Stephen Malkmus took the stage first, where he performed Redbone’s Come And Get Your Love and the O’Jays’ Love Train with the wedding band that featured members of the Silver Jews. The former Pavement front man was then joined by old bandmates Steve West, Mark Ibold and Nastanovich for a version of FCC Party – a song from West’s band Marble Valley.

• List Time: Five Bands Kurt Cobain Would Love
• Triple Canopy offers up the history of Heavy Metal Parking Lot
• Cover Alert: The Chairs tackle Bon Iver
• WNEW reviews last week’s Sam Roberts show at the Bowery
• Popdose interviews Noah Weiner of the GD Listening Guide
• Pink Floyd is the latest band to get their own Converse sneakers

Finally, we’re pleased to announced that HT faves The McLovins will be making their New York City rock club debut this April as the opening act for the Phish tribute band Strange Design. The two bands will team up for a show at Sullivan Hall on Friday, April 10, tickets are currently on-sale for the low price of $12 – we suggest grabbing one sooner rather than later.

McLovin? What kind of a stupid name is that, Fogell? What, are you trying to be an Irish R&B singer?

Well, they’re not exactly Irish R&B crooners, but this trio of young musicians from the Hartford, CT area, Jake (Drumlovin), Jason (Basslovin) and Jeff (Axlovin), have certainly gained a lot of attention in a hurry with their raw talent, impressive chemistry and wise-way-beyond-their-years musical tastes.

In a genre of music that normally requires a good three years of 100+ shows and slow burn word of mouth publicity, the McLovins appear to be the first band in the jam scene to actually blow up. We see it almost every day in the realms of indie rock and pop music, but it sure is fun to see the internets buzzing with fury over the threesome of musical whiz kids because they tackle Phish covers like YEM and Harry Hood as well as plain old virtuoso material like Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover, songs that most players stumble over for months (or years) just to get through a few sections.

Having already made big waves by gracing Rolling Stone’s Smoking Section, igniting the blogosphere, appearing on the local news and making a new friend in Phantasy Tour, we thought it’d be great to get to know a little more about the three J’s: Jake, Jason, and Jeff. The boys were kind enough to collaborate and shed some light on their friendship, the new found internet fame and their plans for a first album. Hopefully, this will help tide you over until we get to see the McLovins live in action.

Hidden Track: Let’s start with a little background on the McLovins; how did you guys all get to know each other and come to realize you shared a common interest in heady stuff like Phish, Eric Johnson, and Weather Report?

McLovins: We met last summer. (Jake and Jason met at Jazz Camp and Jake and Jeff met at Rock Camp). We started playing together in the basement, sharing the songs we already knew and learning new songs we’d heard that we were interested in. We started sitting in together for a few songs every Wednesday night at a restaurant in Collinsville. People started to come to hear us play, even though it is a small place and we could get pretty loud.

READ ON for more of the first print interview with The McLovins…

In an effort to get more personal and show some of the thought processes that have led us to running this blog, I’ve decided to pen a note to start each week. For the From The Editor column I’ll discuss the week ahead and whatever’s on my mind. Later today, we’ll be running the first interview with a group of talented schoolkids we’ve got high hopes for – McLovins.

The McLovins took the internet by storm in December when a clip of the trio covering the incredibly difficult Phish song You Enjoy Myself became a viral video smash. Two members of McLovins are currently in high school while the guitar player is still in middle school. In order to secure the interview Ryan and I needed to go through drummer Jake Huffman’s mom Carol and the support, love and concern Carol and the other McLovin parents showed throughout the process had me thinking of the support, love and concern my parents showed me as I explored my passion for music.

I got into Phish and the Grateful Dead back in the mid ’90s when less than 5% of Americans knew what the internet was. After I purchased Lawn Boy and realized Phish was the band for me I started to seek out live recordings. Without the internet, it wasn’t as easy as firing up bt.etree.org and picking from 200 shows to download. As a 16 year old in Hazlet, New Jersey – a town where hardly anyone had heard of Phish – I had limited options for finding Phish tapes and one of them was a store called Prime Cuts in Rockville Center on Long Island.

READ ON after the jump to find out exactly what I’m getting at…

Look who’s back with a new Phish cover…

The McLovins – Harry Hood

What do you think?

The surviving original members of the Grateful Dead teamed up with Warren Haynes and Jeff Chimenti last night to treat the crowd at the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball to a tasty set of their greatest hits. The mini-set started off with the apropos Dancin’ In The Streets which The Dead jammed into Uncle John’s Band and then Sugar Magnolia. Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the crowd after the band rocked out Eyes of the World.

The Dead returned after Biden’s speech with The Wheel > Touch of Grey before ending their performance with Box of Rain. President Obama addressed the audience at 11:20 and stayed at the ball with the first lady for four minutes at the sixth of their scheduled 10 stops for the night.

Change is everywhere, except our traditionally stellar link dumps…

• April 21 brings us Tortoise’s first album in nearly five years
• The McLovins made their local television debut on WFSB
• Greg Kot interviews Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchinson
• Railroad Earth returns east with a new batch of original songs
• Howard Wyman of Crawdaddy! explores the close relationship between the mafia and the Music Industry
• Goldmine takes a peek inside guitarist Frank Zappa’s vault

Finally, our pals at Consequence of Sound have just launched their first “Ultimate Raffle” in which they’ll be raffling off a number of awesome prizes, each of which is divided into five separate tiers. By purchasing a raffle ticket, you will be eligible to win a prize from any one of those tiers. Prizes include a pair of Langerado passes, a Bob Dylan box set, an Elvis Costello – Spectacle package and much much more. Head over to CoS for full details.

McLovins – 12/13/2008 DAUD [FLAC, STREAM, MP3]

If you’ve browsed the message boards at Phantasy Tour for any period of time, you’ve probably noticed that the kidz on that board don’t agree on anything. That is until someone posted a video of a band of youngsters called McLovins tearing up Phish’s complex epic, You Enjoy Myself. Middle School student Jeff (axlovin), and high schoolers Jake (drumlovin) and Jason (basslovin) nail all of complicated structured parts and end the song with some tasty improv reminiscent of early ’90s Phish.

As the members of McLovins post more videos, the amount of kudos they’ve received increases exponentially with some PTers even traveling to catch the band’s live shows outside of Hartford. Yesterday, the first McLovins recording went up at Bt.etree.org. This crispy audience recording of the boys Saturday night show in Collinsville, CT shows that this band has plenty of room to improve, but are already better than most musicians twice their age.

Guitarist Axlovin shreds during covers of Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover, Weather Report’s Birdland and Santana’s Oye Como Va. The originals are better than expected with Drumlovin handling vocals quite capably while not missing a beat on the kit during Purple Trees. This tune’s lyrics are better than most of the drivel jambands come up with and the way the group works in Tweezer teases is pretty dope. McLovin’s need to learn to jam in the pocket more, but they’ve got plenty of time to work on that. Something tells us we haven’t heard the last of McLovins.

• McLovins – You Enjoy Myself Video