• If you’re looking for a complete overload of golf/rockstar metaphors, check out the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s article about hitting the links with Widespread Panic’s John Bell. While registration is required for the article you can view a slide show of photos from JB’s round of golf without having to turn over your personal information. [Hat Tip to Rook]

[Photo by Rich Addicks for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

• Prince’s rabid team of lawyers may have been overly zealous when they took down videos of the purple one performing Radiohead’s Creep at Coachella. Thom Yorke would like to remind Prince that Radiohead owns the right to that one. Unblock that shit, my man.

• Now that everyone and his brother has heard My Morning Jacket’s Evil Urges, we can turn our attention to the long-awaited new album from that other band we can’t stop fluffing: Apollo Sunshine. The boys from Boston will release the CD of Shall Noise Upon on September 2, but you’ll be able to purchase the album digitally on August 5. We can’t wait to hear what they came up with, and hopefully they’ll get back on the road for an extended jaunt over the next few months after a long layoff. Bring it, fellas.

Every blogger and their brother attended Coachella this weekend with the exception of the Hidden Track crew. If you perform a google news search on Coachella you’ll find 2,322,800 entries from the past few days. We’ve cut through the bullshit to bring you the worthwhile articles, posts and multimedia clips.

Here’s some of our faves:

• The inflatable pig from Pink Floyd’s Animals was lost at Coachella
• Everyone can’t stop talking about Prince’s spectacular performance
• Portishead kicked the boys from Stereogum’s ass (photos)
• Rolling Stone shares 63 killer photos from the scene, and also publishes Tegan and Sara’s Coachella blog
  
• Brooklyn Vegan shows some love for NYC artists at Coachella
• Billboard’s Mitchell Peters lays out the highlights from the first two nights
• Roger Waters brought Coachella to a close with a giant inflatable pig
• Benjy Eisen reports on how Stephen Malkmus rolls
• Mother Jones’ The Riff blog describes the unusual scene at Coachella
• Clear Channel launched a new format inspired by Coachella

For all of your Coachella audio needs:

• Largehearted Boy’s 2008 Coachella Live Music Downloads and Streams page only has a few entries, but you can be sure it will grow by leaps and bounds over the next few days.

Finally, we found a buncha great videos on YouTube:

• Prince: Little Red Corvette, Creep (Radiohead cover) Version 1, Creep V2, Creep V3, 1999 v1, 1999 V2,
• The Raconteurs: Many Shades of Black, Carolina Drama, Old Enough, Steady As She Goes, Hold Up, Level, Blue Veins, Top Yourself, Consoler of the Lonely, Salute Your Solution,
  
• Animal Collective: Fireworks, Chocolate Girl, Comfy In Nautica, House, Bear Hug,
• Portishead: We Carry On,
• Tegan and Sara: The Con, Living Room
• Black Kids: I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend
• The Swell Season: Cactus (Pixies Cover)
• MGMT: Weekend Wars
• Vampire Weekend: I Stand Corrected
• Prince: Creep (Radiohead cover)
• The Breeders: Cannonball
• Fat Boy Slim: Finale
• Roger Waters: Eclipse
• Death Cab: Soul Meets Body
• Cold War Kids: St. John, Hospital Beds,
• Roger Waters: Complete DSOTM Pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
• Kraftwerk: Numbers/Computerworld, Tour De France
• Metric: Poster of a Girl, Satellite Mind, Dead Disco,
  
• Dan Deacon: Okie Dokie
• The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony V1, V2,
• Shout Out Louds: Please Please Please
• Goldfrapp: Number 1

We’ll keep adding to this list as new posts and videos hit the web.

We’re off to a slow start after an incredibly fun weekend seeing music. Some Dude had the pleasure of seeing The Felice Brothers tear the roof off the Bowery, while I channeled my inner tour rat during a three-night Umphrey’s McGee run. But now reality has set in, and we’re back at work with massive headaches.

Enough about us, let’s see what else is goin’ on:

• Prince will reportedly be paid $4.5 million to headline Coachella
• Does anyone else think it’s too early for a ’90s revival?
• Check out the setlist from Rush’s first show of 2008
• Sesame Street drafts Feist to help teach kids how to count to 1-2-3-4
• NPR previews the most anticipated discs of Spring [via LHB]
• Producer Mark Ronson signs a deal to partner with Interscope
• Dave Navarro says his Jane’s bandmates are happy to be reunited

And finally, Levon Helm’s lengthy history in showbiz includes memorable roles in a number of films both as an actor and a performer. Now the longtime Band drummer and singer plans to add talk show host to his resume. Helm has started lining up guests for a new show on little-known RFD television.

With Sunday’s Super Bowl rapidly approaching, we thought we’d share a piece we ran about our favorite halftime shows just in case you missed it back in December. Stay tuned after the post for our predictions for the big game.

Nothing encapsulates the questionable marriage of sports and entertainment quite like the Super Bowl. The halftime show of the NFL’s signature event has been transformed over the past 42 years from an afterthought to a main focus of the Big Game. What was once a time for a piss break and a follow-up beer has turned into a big-time production thanks to the major television networks.

Originally the shows were filled with brief performances by a number of different artists celebrating a unifying theme. More recently the NFL decided to hand over the keys to the halftime show to just one legendary artist. What a difference a nipple makes, eh? This year Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been tabbed to perform at Super Bowl XLII on Sunday.

The Gainesville-bred band should look at the past for an idea of what works and what doesn’t work at the big game. Let’s use this week’s B List to take a look at our 10 favorite Super Bowl halftime shows. Read on for the videos…

Nothing encapsulates the questionable marriage of sports and entertainment quite like the Super Bowl. The halftime show of the NFL’s signature event has been transformed over the past 42 years from an afterthought to a main focus of the Big Game. What was once a time for a piss break and a follow-up beer has turned into a big-time production thanks to the major television networks.

Originally the shows were filled with brief performances by a number of different artists celebrating a unifying theme. More recently the NFL decided to hand over the keys to the halftime show to just one legendary artist. What a difference a nipple makes, eh? Just this week the league announced that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been tabbed to perform at Super Bowl XLII on February 3rd.

The Gainesville-bred band should look at the past for an idea of what works and what doesn’t work at the big game. Let’s use this week’s B List to take a look at our 10 favorite Super Bowl halftime shows. Read on for the videos…

We couldn’t have been happier when the New York Times finally took down their Times Select pay wall, allowing free access to nearly all of the illustrious paper’s articles since 1981. While we love reading old reviews, news stories and columns from some of the best music journalists in the history of the game, we don’t like paying $3.99 to read a 500-word article. Mr. Sulzberger, tear down this wall!

We’ve been bookmarking some of our favorite articles from the vast NYT archives, and recently we realized we should probably share the links so people don’t have to enter 100 different search phrases like we did. This week’s B List compiles one great article from each year between 1981-2007:

1981: Tom Petty: Ready to Fight the Good Fight [May 6th, 1981]

”A lot of our fans have been with us for a long time, and I think they trust us,” the 29-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist said recently. ”MCA has done a great job selling our records, but they couldn’t see the reality of what it’s like on the street - they couldn’t see that raising the album’s price wouldn’t be fair.”

1982: Talking Heads Fans Get a Night to Remember [August 23rd, 1982]

”THIS ain’t no party,” the Talking Heads warned gravely a year ago when they made their most recent concert appearance in the New York area. But the group’s expanded lineup, with a vocalist, guitarist, percussionist, extra bassist, and keyboard player added to the basic Talking Heads foursome, belied those words. Their shows were parties -joyous, celebratory, and loose.

1983: Police perform for 75,000 at Shea [August 20th, 1983]

”We’d like to thank the Beatles for lending us their stadium,” said Sting, the bassist and singer of the Police, near the end of the trio’s concert at Shea Stadium.

1984: Miles Davis Returns With Revamped Band [June 24th, 1984]

This revamped unit provides richly layered, rhythmically emphatic accompaniments for Mr. Davis and for two other absorbing soloists, the saxophonist Bob Berg and the guitarist John Scofield. The earlier group sounded like a collection of competent but uninspired individuals. Now Mr. Davis has a real band , and like all his better bands, it is an instrument that he plays as deftly and dramatically as he plays the trumpet, an extension of his own personal sound.

Read on for many more articles, reviews and columns from the Grey Lady…

It turns out Prince is not suing his fans: “…[Prince] is simply looking to provide Prince fans with exclusive music and images entirely free of charge, and bypassing unofficial and unauthorised phoney fan sites that exploit both consumers and artists.” Still, it was fun to see an artist fuck over his fans that royally, even if the whole wispy mustachioed episode now seems to be a big understanding.

NPR has completely outdone itself this time: The media folks yesterday launched a new website promoting the best of public radio music. The diverse new site contains free streams and features on a wide variety of artists ranging from classical violin player Joshua Bell to alt-rockers The New Pornographers. But it’s Monitor Mix — a blog written by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein — that wins the award for coolest feature on the new website. Check it.

• The Week Daily addresses the state of the music industry
• Legendary house DJ/producer Kenny Dope remixes Sharon Jones and the Dap-kings’ Keep On Looking
• Now you can finally buy your own Ghostface Killa doll [via tds]
• Done deal: Universal Pictures secured the rights to use Nirvana’s music in a forthcoming biopic about Kurt Cobain
• Prince fansites fight back against the purple one’s litigious ways
• A little exhaustion is good for creativity: The White Stripes used their time off the road to record some new songs and film a video
• Gothamist interviews Pitchfork faves Tokyo Police Club
• Marco Benevento announced a January residency at Sullivan Hall in NYC
• Derek Trucks balances life between families
• HeadCount plans to register 200,000 voters at concerts
• Gogol Bordello brought Gypsy Punk to Terminal 5
• Gene Ween documented the recording of La Cucaracha [via Wilson]

And, finally, try your luck at Rolling Stone’s Almost-Impossible Rock & Roll Quiz to see if you could beat Neeko’s high score of 39…it really is almost impossible.

It seems like every week iClips brings us another killer webcast. This weekend they’ll be simulcasting parts of the Voodoo Festival live from New Orleans. Today we get to check out performances by former Drive By Trucker Jason Isbell, JJ Grey and MOFRO, Toots and the Maytals among others. Toubab Krewe, New Orleans Social Club and Dumpstaphunk headline Saturday’s schedule, and we’ll be watching Paolo Nutini, The Black Crowes and Plain White T’s on Sunday. Sweetness.

Remember to return next week (or just read us daily) for a killer Dave Vann photo gallery from the Voodoo Festival, but for now, check out these links:

• This guy refuses to shave his beard until Metallica releases a new album
• Let’s Go Crazy: Prince targets an 18-month-old kid for infringement
• Stevie Wonder’s mother inspired him to go back on tour
• Greg Kot fluffs the shit out of Fiery Furnaces
• Stream a recent Spoon concert from Washington D.C. on NPR
• Where can I buy a set of these punk rock baseball cards?
• Robert Plant feels like Superman
• Popmatters calls Ween’s La Cucharacha “LOL Hilarious”
• Lotus releases Cut Paste Repeat: Lotus Remixed
• Jay-Z becomes a Storyteller for VH-1
• British authorities rule that Elton John is not a child pornographer

And, finally, can you believe Sammy Hagar is 60? Now we really feel old.

This week’s edition of GTA features a miscellany of terrific performances. We start off with an outstanding Ryan Adams’ show from last week before moving on to a Meters bootleg that comes straight from George Porter Jr. Prince, a funk all-star in his own right, recently completed a 21-show run in London, and we’ve got his hot after-show from Friday night that includes a terrific cameo by Amy Winehouse. Finally we travel back to 1967 for a look at the beginnings of Traffic. As usual we’ve included a link to MP3 files for all of the torrents we’ve reviewed.

Ryan Adams 09/21/2007 SBD Matrix [FLAC, MP3, STREAM]

Ryan Adams is currently in the middle of a lengthy tour with The Cardinals, and we’ve gotta give Adams some major kudos for allowing tapers to patch in to the soundboard during many gigs on the run (there are soundboards of nearly every recent show on the Live Music Archive). It’s good to see Adams learned something from Phil Lesh about how circulating free soundboards actually drives ticket sales. After scouring some of Adams’ fan sites, we got a recommendation that Friday’s show in Toronto was the best of the batch. If only finding soundboards of the best recent shows from every live band was this easy.

Both the crowd and Adams seem extremely happy to be in each other’s company throughout every song played at this show. I’ve heard so many negative things about Adams’ demenor and stage presence, but this bootleg shows Adams to be engaging in his personality and his musicianship. Many audience members shout requests throughout the night, and Adams’ playfully jokes “You all sound like cavemen grunting from up here.” Musically, the highlights were numerous, including the band’s incredible harmonies on Peaceful Valley and its jamming on Magnolia Mountain. Read on for three more downloads…