New Archival Releases: Rolling Stones / Widespread Panic

If you’ve been paying attention over the five-plus years of Hidden Track’s existence you know that I love when bands dig into their archives to release the gems buried within. Since we started the site archival releases have become more frequent which thrills me to no end. Today, both Widespread Panic and the Rolling Stones have announced new vault installments and each of them look outstanding.

Let’s start with the Stones. According to Vintage Vinyl News (via @HeadCountOrg), the band has teamed up with a merchandising company called Bravado to launch StonesArchive.com –  a new portal the legendary group will use to distribute memorabilia and archival releases. The first such release is culled from a pair of well-known gigs that went down in Brussels during the European Leg of the 1973 Goat’s Head Soup tour. Unlike the bootlegs that have long circulated, this new release comes from the original multi-track masters and has been lovingly mixed by Bob Clearmountain. You can purchase the FLACs or MP3s through StonesArchive.com or at a discount through Google Music. [UPDATE: Google Music has an American exclusive, so us Americans can only purchase the set through Google Music.]

We’ve been waiting a while for Widespread Panic to revive the Porch Songs series and thankfully the next installment is finally available. The eighth volume of Porch Songs features every note played by the jam titans at Harmony Park in Geneva, Minnesota on July 4, 2001. Here’s the part of this killer show that needs to be heard – “One Kind Favor > Drums > America The Beautiful (by JoJo) > Four Cornered Room > Heathen (first in almost 1,700 shows) > Four Cornered Room.” For more on Porch Songs: Harmony Park, and for purchasing instructions, be sure to read archivist Horace Moore’s blog entry.