The Clash were easily the most commercially successful band to come out of the 1970′s punk scene, with their potent brand of punk rock that mixed elements of ska, reggae, funk and rockabilly, all set to Joe Strummer’s socio-political lyrics. On September 9, the iconic and influential punk act will release Sound System, a massive nine-disc box set that comes packaged in a vintage boom box designed by Clash bassist Paul Simonon.

The set, which will feature remastered versions of the band’s five studio albums, will include three discs of demos, non-album singles, rarities and B-sides. The box will also come with a DVD containing previously unseen footage of the band, original promo videos and live footage, as well as reprints of the band’s original ‘Armagideon Times’ fanzine plus a brand new edition curated and designed by Simonon and merchandise including dog tags, badges, stickers and an exclusive Clash poster.

• List Time: Stereogum’s 10 Best The Band Songs
• Mr. Bon Iver – Justin Vernon – is producing the new Blind Boys Of Alabama record
• Cover Alert: The Breeders tackle The Beatles
• Billy Joel to appear on an upcoming episode of History Channel’s American Restoration
• Download This: Whiskeytown -1995-05-25 – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC
• John Fogerty told CBS that he’s open to a Creedence Clearwater Revival reunion

Finally, back in the fall we mentioned that Dogfish Head Brewery was teaming up with the fine folks at Grateful Dead Productions for the latest in their line of music-inspired beers that they dubbed American Beauty. The Milton, Delaware-based craft brewery reached out to fans asking for their input in selecting the final ingredient and their Dead-inspired story for the imperial pale ale. After getting some 1,500 suggestions, which ranged from red grenadine to jalapenos to sassafras root, the winning ingredient came courtesy of Thomas Butler. Butler, who attended his first Dead show at the Oklahoma City Zoo at age nine with his dad, suggested using granola – stating in his entry that “the components of granola – honey, toasted grains, oats and fruit – offer a lot from a beer perspective, the idea is to have a sessionable ale that highlights the oats and honey with a nice ‘dank’ hop selection.” American Beauty hits stores and taps throughout Dogfish’s 27-state distribution network this October.

Everybody has one of those bands that they feel like they should know a little bit more about. For some people it might be the Kinks, King Crimson or Pavement; for me it was The Clash. Obviously, everyone knows their wide ranging hits, but I recently decided to take a deeper dive into the broader catalog to get up to speed. Sure enough, in a few short weeks, I got hooked.

Hence, this week’s mix tape takes a look at some Clash tracks that illustrate the band’s different sounds. Pressure Drop illustrates the reggae side of things with a personalized nod to Toots & the Maytals, while Robber Dub (dub mix of Bank Robber) takes the reggae deeper and highlights the band’s ability to jam and get a little weird. This is Radio Clash takes things in a completely different direction with straight up disco funk, while Train in Vain leans more toward straightforward pop. Safe European Home points to the punk edge for which the band is best known, while Police on My Back shows how well the band covers a song and makes it their own, as most people don’t even realize that the song was originally an Eddie Grant song.

We’ve reached December which means it’s time for every website, blog and music fan to start putting together their best of lists including us. Each week in December, I’ll present a new B List featuring my favorites of the year. Here’s a list of my ten favorite live archival releases of 2008…

10. Widespread Panic – Carbondale 2000

Release Date – 06/10/2008
Highlights – Jack, Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, Chilly Water
The Skinny – Widespread Panic finally opens up their vault to release a fantastic show featuring the late Mikey Houser.
Where You Can Sample This Disc – Imeem

READ ON for the Top Nine Live Archival Releases of 2008 featuring albums from Ween, Frank Zappa, The Clash, Neil Young and much more…

As we prepare for a 2009 that certain to be filled with popular rock band Phish returning to old haunts and new venues, it’s time to start thinking about what songs the band will play at these shows. Our friends at Phish Thoughts recently went over what post-Breakup Trey originals should make the cut, which in all honesty was a little depressing.

Everyone loves a good cover, so today we’re going to look at ten bands that Phish has never covered and select a song we’d like to see them perform.

10. The Eagles

Sure Henley and Frey wrote some wusstastic slop, but let’s not forget the rock edge Joe Walsh lent to this band in the late ’70s. We’d love to see Phish cover The Long Run, with its lyrics about moving on from bad influences, on the Hampton run.

READ ON for nine more artists Phish has never covered…

Once again, Neil Young has announced a delay in the release of his Chinese Democracy-esque Archives project. This marks the third delay for 8-CD/2-DVD package. Bad News Beat tells us the delay stems from production issues not economic or blue-ray problems. Now, Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 is due in January or February, but we’ll believe it when we see it.

Here are some links you can both see and believe…

• The Replacements move closer and closer to reuniting
• Did the promoters of Glastonbury deny Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright’s final wish to play that storied festie?
• Phish finally confirms the release of Phish at the Roxy
• Weird Al rushes to share a parody of Whatever You Like
• Boredoms to Unleash 77BoaDrum on Deluxe CD/DVD
• Steve Spears analyzes The Clash Live at Shea Stadium

On Monday we told you about the latest Frank Zappa archival release, Joe’s Menage. It seems most Zappa fans weren’t happy with the release and took to the Zappa.com message boards to share their disdain. Gail Zappa responded to the haters with a bizarre tirade. We’re not the biggest Gail fans, but Joe’s Menage looks like a great release to us.

We’re extremely honored to welcome Randy Ray onto the Hidden Track team. You’re probably familiar with Randy’s work on both Relix and Jambands, but he’s also authored two novels with a third on its way. Here’s Randy’s first column:

Most people are unaware that on the initial release of London Calling, The Clash’s landmark double album, their hit single, arguably the most commercial piece of old school ear candy the band would ever record, wasn’t even listed on the sleeve.

Train in Vain appeared as a hidden track, the last song on side 4, kicking in after Revolution Rock, and solidified the legendary status of the album and the band. The gesture also spoke volumes about the post-punk quartet’s confidence that a) they could record a cool, timeless track, and b) they didn’t need to shove the product down the consumer’s throat by highlighting its appearance with even a slight mention on the sleeve.

That sort of hidden track mentality also feeds into my philosophy of live music and film. Like most people who either write or consume the many morsels of heady and witty words on this site, we are longtime Phish fans, as well—just sort of comes with the territory these days like the idea that most of us are either post-college, in college or live near one of those brick or ivy institutions. Anyway, I take that fact as a given and it follows that a lot of the old Phish head way of thinking feeds into our daily lives beyond the “1 for 3, 2 for 5” and “brotha can ya spare an extra” ingrained information.

The best comment I ever heard about improvisation actually came from Phish keyboardist, Page McConnell when he very simply stated that if the band had not been venturing out into the Great Unknown for 15 minutes, they would not have reached that point where everyone was in sync, a new form of music was being created on the spot, and the entire audience was part of that process. There are numerous examples from a 20-plus year career where Phish did, indeed, find this passage of space after the 10- or 12- or McConnell-branded 15-minute demarcation mark. Suffice to say, it required the band and fan to be patient through quite a bit of improvising before one got to that sweet spot.

Read on to find out what film Randy chose as the first Hidden Flick…

A few months ago The Who’s website started a rumor that Pete Townshend would be performing in some capacity at the upcoming Steve Winwood/Eric Clapton at MSG. The ever-reliable Where’s Eric website clues us in on Eric and Steve’s lineup, also stating strongly that Townshend will not appear at the Garden. I guess we’ll see who’s right in just a few short weeks.

Let’s end the week with a piping hot batch of links, fresh from the oven:

• Yoko Ono denies that she’s suing Lennon Murphy
• The Clash Live: Revolution Rock DVD hits stores on April 15
• Pitchfork shares photos from the Tibet House Benefit
• Anti-Live Nation forces continue to fight the good fight
• Comcast defends their right to screw over BitTorrent users
• Why have music magazine covers sucked lately?
• Yonder Mountain brings “prog-grass” to Athens
• Turn It Up turns us onto Powerhouse Sound
  

R.E.M. just released the Vincent Moon-directed video for their new single, Supernatural Superserious, and we kinda like the direction they seem to be taking on Accelerate. I first saw R.E.M. at MSG in 1988 (gold clap), so I love hearing the jingle-jangle of Peter Buck’s guitar, Mike Mills’ high harmonies and Michael Stipe’s straight forward lyrics. All of the sudden, I’m getting really excited to see the band at Langerado. Check out the video after the jump…

Most of the Grousing The Aisles columns I’ve written for this rag have had unifying themes that tie together the featured shows. This week I’m struggling to figure out what these bands have in common, besides the ability to drive their audiences crazy. So I’m copping out and calling this a Variety Pack edition of GTA. Don’t let that stop you from downloading any of these amazing recordings of Los Lobos, The Clash, moe., Ryan Adams, Uncle Tupelo and more…

Los Lobos 1/24/2008 DAUD [FLAC, MP3]

Photo by Adam Kaufman

East L.A. rockers Los Lobos surprised the crowd at the recent Voices of Latin Rock benefit show in San Francisco by performing an unannounced closing set. As if that weren’t enough, they also invited some legendary rock stars to the stage. George Clinton and Sly Stone joined the band for rough but ready versions of Thank You Fallentime Be Mice Elf Agin and I Want To Take You Higher. On the other hand, we’re sure the crowd wasn’t surprised when Stone quickly left the stage after banging out a few chords and singing a few lines. You can’t have it all.

Los Lobos, who has just embarked on a two-month tour, started their set with a batch of their greatest hits. For Mas Y Mas, the band invited Jackie Greene, Mic Gillette and Karl Perazzo to sit-in on what turned out to be a blistering version of the aggressively percussive tune. The highlight of the night came towards the end of the show when Mario Valenzuela, Richie Valens’ brother, came out for an energetic La Bamba > Good Lovin’ > La Bamba sequence. Over 30 years after releasing their first record, Los Lobos is still killin’ it on a nightly basis. Read on…

Widespread Panic may not have much in common with Brad Pitt (aside from the equal good looks of Dave Schools and Pitt), but the band and the actor share a deep love for the city of New Orleans. And now Panic’s helping Pitt’s Make It Right program by offering downloads of the band’s new single, the coincidently titled Walk On The Flood, in exchange for a $10 donation to Make It Right.

Make It Right aims to help the rebuilding of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward by building 150 Earth-friendly, flood-safe homes for families that have remained or are returning to the area. WSP’s John Bell recently sent fans a letter asking them to participate in the offer or share the song without diminishing its fundraising potential. In other words, don’t upload the track to Waffles or What.cd.

Hopefully the single becomes a huge success, which would certainly lead to paparazzi photos of Schools hanging out with Brad and Angelina. Elsewhere:

• The Clash’s Mick Jones and Topper Headon recently appeared on stage together for the first time in a quarter-century
• Philadelphia’s Spectrum may be demolished within a few years
• Martin Scorcese’s Rolling Stones movie, Shine A Light, debuts at the Berlin Film Festival in February
• Rock Scully has more skeletons from the Grateful Dead’s closet to share
• The Radiators, Funky Meters and Railroad Earth headline the best looking Crawfish Fest lineup yet
• Kimya Dawson deals with sudden success after the Juno soundtrack
• Michael Stipe just says no to serving as a juror, due to past stalkers
• Robert Plant and Alison Krauss teamed up for a taping of CMT’s Crossroads set to air on 2/11

And The Weight remembers bands now buried in the Jamband Graveyard. We could totally go for a yeP!/God Street Wine double bill at the Wetlands tonight.

We’ve been pretty harsh on STS9 in the past, so on the day before Christmas, it’s only fair we recognize a cool thing they’re doing for their fans. STS9 is teaming up with iClips to offer free webcasts of their upcoming shows at The Tabernacle in Atlanta on December 28-31.

Fans that weren’t able to score tickets to the nearly sold out run will be able to surround their screens with heady crystals while watching a five-camera feed from the shows. We’d usually throw in a joke about feeding Phipps’ daughter here, but we’ll move on since these guys are also donating $12,000 from this year’s NYE shows to Rock Against Cancer. Good stuff.

Now let’s start the abbreviated holiday week off right with some linkage:

• Levon Helm, Bruce Hornsby and Bela Fleck head the MerleFest lineup
• Mike Gordon, Luther Dickinson and others look back on 2007 for the third installment of Jambands.com’s Auld Lang Syne
• Take Live Nation’s 50 Moments That Revolutionized Music quiz
• Stereogum previews studio albums due for release next year
• Despite a slew of reunions, the concert industry slumps into 2008
• VH-1 teams with CBS to offer Classic 60 Minutes
• Tom Waits returns in August to cities he hasn’t played in decades
• Are The Paradise’s days as Boston’s top rock club numbered?
• Ickmusic remembers Joe Strummer five years after his death

Finally, read on after the jump for a very special Christmas Eve video treat…

Al Gore’s Internets are experiencing a diarrhetic explosion in the number of blogs and websites publishing quality mp3 bootlegs. We had been posting links to the best boots in our Hors d’Oeuvres, Intermezzo and Leftovers link dumps, but instead we’ve decided to construct a special column compiling our favorite mp3 bootlegs. So without any further ado, welcome to MP3 Boot Camp:

• It doesn’t get better than Stevie Vai shredding it up with Frank Zappa 
• Aretha Franklin sings for a Swedish crowd in 1968 
• This week’s edition of the Grateful Dead’s Taper’s Section includes a killer track from a 1974 soundcheck
• A 1973 radio show from Bob Marley and the Wailers
• Eric Clapton plays his greatest hits for a Minnesota crowd in 1987
• A Deeper Shade of Soul kicks down a vintage Prince bootleg
• Joan Jett rocks Tokyo during her heyday in 1982
• If you haven’t heard Jason Isbell’s new band, now is your chance
• Download all of Phish’s Summer Tour ’97, thanks to our boy Bizarro Jerry and the good people at sharefreemusic
• Check out this George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ radio broadcast
• Licorice Pizza is back with The Clash’s Vanilla Tapes
• R.E.M. was at their finest in 1983

Did we miss any boots? Please let us know by leaving a comment below…

Last week’s edition of The B List looked at some amazing performances from David Letterman’s late-night NBC and CBS shows.

But Saturday Night Live is another late-night television show that features a musical performer each week, and there’s plenty of material to pillage for this here blog. Over the past three decades, SNL has produced 423 episodes, providing us a ton of incredible moments through the years. Most compliations from SNL just show the top performances from the early days and the recent days, fully ignoring the shows that weren’t produced by Lorne Michaels.

We won’t ignore the No-Lorne years. We make you that promise. So this week’s B List presents 10 great SNL music performances from 1978-1986. Read on for some classic clips from Queen, The Clash, The Band, James Brown and many more…

Over the years there has been one constant in rock and roll: terrible band names.

Hell, one of my faves, Umphrey’s McGee, has one of the worst band names ever. The tie that binds this week’s Grousing entries together is the lack of an interesting moniker. Some of these bands didn’t even try and just used the name of the player(s). But while KVMW, The Ryan Montbleau Band, Apollo Sunshine, and BAD II suffer from uncreative naming, their music absolutely blows my mind.

Kimock, Vega, Molo, and White 03/17/07 (FLAC, 320kbps MP3):

Steve Kimock, Bobby Vega, Alan Hertz, and Ray White did a few tours in 1998 and 1999 as the creatively titled KVHW. The band mostly played unique versions of Kimock and Frank Zappa tunes, as well as other covers. Kimock had been playing the same songs with Zero and his own band for years, and it was really nice to see him play a slew of material that was new to him. As with all of Kimock’s bands, KVHW ended in a trainwreck when Ray White was kicked out of the band.

This past weekend KVHW reformed with “Mountain” John Molo (The Range, Phil and Friends) replacing Alan Hertz on drums. The two gigs flew far below my radar, so I was pretty shocked when I saw setlists for these gigs on Jambands.com boxscore section. I also saw that nugs.net made official recordings of both gigs available, so I took the plunge and bought 3/17/07.

Simply put, KVMW is fucking amazing. They played the most out-of-the-box versions of the Dead’s Wharf Rat, Spring Water, Zappa’s Willie The Pimp, and much more. It would be a tragedy if this band didn’t play more gigs. If this is what the first weekend of gigs sounds like, just imagine what this group would sound like with a few tours under their belt. Read on for more Grousing downloads…

The best part of rock music is the incredible diversity, the oh-so-many different subgenres that fall within the category, from punk to emo to jam to pop. This week’s Grousing The Aisles features some incredible rock and/or roll bands from the past 30 years, each with its own unique style.

We’ll begin with some oldies, with punk rockers The Clash representing the ’70s and ’80s, and The Lemonheads bringing us the ’90s power pop. The other two entries are from seemingly always-on-the-road jammers RAQ and Outformation. When Bill Haley first sang Rock Around The Clock in 1954, I don’t think he realized how diverse the genre would become over the next five decades.

RAQ 02/08/07 DAUD (FLAC, MP3, STREAM):

It has been a few months since we’ve checked in on Burlington’s RAQ. The band has been out on an ambitious three-month tour that criss crosses the country, hitting 42 cities. Cleveland was the first city RAQ swept through, and unlike another Vermont quartet, this band sounded tight and heavily practiced.

The Grog Shop show featured here opens with the beginning of Carbohydrates Are The Enemy before segueing into Forget Me Not, a rockin’ little ditty that would surely have hit the top of the charts in the mid-1970s. Towards the end of the first set the band works its way back into the ending of Carbohydrates Are The Enemy — and I must say that the second segment of Carbs could be my favorite part of a RAQ song. Guitarist Chris Michetti lays down a fierce solo reminicent of Frank Zappa tearing through the middle of Inca Roads.

Other highlights from this hot RAQ show include the way the band weaves Bootch Magoo in and out of various songs throughout the second set and a ripping cover of ZZ Top’s I’m Bad I’m Nationwide. RAQ does a great job of presenting a bunch of different sounds throughout their show, always keeping it interesting.

My biggest issue with them is the lack of soundboard recordings. While I’m sure the taper (Jesse Scott) worked his ass off to pull a good tape whenever the music mellows out, all you can hear are people yapping away. Why don’t people shut the fuck up when a band is playing? Now that we’ve heard what the band sounds like at the beginning of the tour, we will check in with them in April to see what they sound like after a few months on the road. Until then…

Read on for the rest of this week’s edition of Grousing The Aisles…