While some people get excited about St. Patrick’s Day or Fat Tuesday, around these parts there is another “unofficial” holiday that, if you haven’t already noticed, we like to geek out about and that’s Record Store Day. The annual celebration of independent music stores, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary, features scores of exclusive releases specifically made to be put out this Saturday. While we detailed some of those yesterday, and we’ve got a list of our favorite RSD releases coming later today, the one that I’ve got my eyes on is a split 7-inch single that features a rather out-of-left-field pairing of Feist and Mastodon covering each others songs. The Feistodon single will feature the Canadian singer-songwriter tackling Mastodon’s Black Tongue, while the flip side will showcase the metal band taking on Feist’s A Commotion.

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• American Bandstand host, and TV legend Dick Clark passed away at the age of 82
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• David Byrne & St. Vincent have collaborated on an album together, due out this fall
• Download This: Rearrange The Old/Call It New – the Fuel/Friends Spring 2012 Mix
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Finally, if you notice people vending local craft beers and veggie burritos outside of your local cineplex this evening, don’t be alarmed as tonight marks the second annual Grateful Dead Meet-Up At The Movies. This year select movie theaters around the country will be screening a previously unreleased Dead show, which was filmed on July 18th, 1989, the middle of a three-night stand at one the band’s favorite outdoor haunts, the Alpine Valley Music Theatre, in East Troy, Wisconsin. For more information, and to find tickets and the theater nearest you, for this one-night only event click here.

For a taste of what you’ll see tonight, check out this video of the show-opening Touch Of Grey…

[via Rolling Stone]

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Europe ’72, a legendary Grateful Dead tour now available in all its 16-track glory, we enlisted the help of Joe Kolbenschlag and the Steel Cut Oats team to break down a handful of the most memorable shows from the run. Today, they continue with a look at a performance that took place 40 years ago today at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Grateful Dead, April 16th, 1972, Stakladen, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark:

When the “Euro Box” (Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings) was announced in January 2011, the first thing I thought about was being able to hear the 16-track upgrades to some of the shows that circulated with less-than-perfect quality in the past. My short list included the performances from Newcastle, Hamburg and the Bickershaw Festival set. I was much more familiar with April’s half of the tour (England, Denmark, West Germany), and although most were available in at least decent to very good quality, I figured I probably hadn’t missed out on too many of its offerings, although there was one show that never really caught my attention – until now…

Two of April’s classics happen to come from the same venue in Copenhagen, Denmark. On April 14th and 17th, 1972, the Grateful Dead played the Tivoli Concert Hall – a venue built in the 1950′s, designed to host classical music concerts. With its excellent acoustics, and seating for just under 1700, it was a perfect venue to begin the journey through “The Continent.” It’s important to note that this was the first time the band had performed to a ticketed non-English speaking audience. They had played once before in France (June 21st, 1971), but that was more of a special invitation after the festival they were booked to play was rained out. Instead, the group retreated to the famed Chateau d’Herouville near Paris, and performed to mostly unknowing local townsfolk. Garcia recalled, “It was an event and everybody just had a hell of a time — got drunk, fell in the pool. It was great.”

The first night’s gig from Copenhagen is the quintessential Europe ’72 party tape – a giddy affair that opens with my favorite Bertha of the tour, and is book-ended by some classic Pigpen in the knockout Good Lovin’ > Caution > Who Do You Love? > Caution > Good Lovin’ combo. The second Copenhagen show was also already well-known partly due to its widely bootlegged video of about eighty minutes of the three hour performance. Highlights of the pro-shot color footage include a beautiful China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider preceding the very first reading of the soon-to-be Dead staple, He’s Gone. This is as formal of a long-form video document that we will probably ever see from this tour, so make a point to view a copy if you have not already. The initial three-set show of the run was extremely popular in trading circles way back when as I’ve heard tapes of it as far back as twenty years ago, so I’m guessing this one has been circulating much longer than most.

• Europe ’72 40 Years Later: A Tale of Two Cities, Part 1
• Previous Steel Cut Oats Installments: #9, #8, #7, #6, #5

READ ON

On May 22 MVD Entertainment Group will release a documentary on DVD called Dawn of the Dead: The Grateful Dead & The Rise Of The San Francisco Underground, a film profiling the early days of The Dead and the other psychedelic bands that emerged out of the Bay Area.

This film contains rare archival footage of the Grateful Dead in action as well as brand-new interviews with one-time Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully, keyboardist Tom ‘T.C.’ Constanten, Big Brother’s Peter Albin, Mike Willhelm from The Charlatans, publicist and official Dead biographer Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead Hour host David Gans, Merry Prankster and Ken Kesey collaborator Ken Babbs along with commentary from journalists Anthony De Curtis of Rolling Stone, Village Voice’s Robert Christgau and Mojo’s Ritchie Unterberger. Here’s a look at the trailer for Dawn of the Dead…

You can currently pre-order the movie for $14.96.

Many potential Great GoogaMooga attendees were frustrated today in their efforts to sign up for free admission to the two-day food, drink and music festival, which is set to take place in Neathermead Meadow at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on May 19 and 20. Eventbrite, the company handling registration for the Brooklyn-based event, has updated the details on the sign-up page to read “Early registration is full. We apologize for the frustrations you had today in registering. If you haven’t been able to register yet please email us at info@googamooga.com.” There was also a note for those who made it through the registration process but didn’t receive an email: “For customers who received a confirmation message, but who did not yet receive an email with confirmation of your registration, please note that you will be receiving an email shortly.” So all hope isn’t lost for those who want to attend the inaugural edition of Superfly Presents’ new festival. If you want to go, either email the info@googamooga.com address or spring for the Extra Mooga Package.

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Finally, while Jerry Garcia left behind a sizable musical legacy, that included 40+ years of recorded material both in the studio and of course on stage, the late Grateful Dead guitarist also left behind a treasure trove of his personal belongings after dying of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 53. On May 8, auction home Bonhams will give fans a chance to buy a number of unique items from the Garcia estate, including a handful of original, never seen pieces of art, several acoustic stage-used guitars, handwritten setlists and even a 1983 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. An auction preview will take place in New York from April 11-16 and another in San Francisco May 4-7.

Last month the Grateful Dead asked fans to upload videos to YouTube of themselves covering a song written or recorded by the band for something they dubbed The Dead Covers Project. The month-long submission process saw everyone from national touring bands to up and comers to the casual musician upload versions of nearly every song in the cannon from popular nuggets like Sugaree and Looks Like Rain to the more obscure I Will Take You Home, as entrants took a shot at being one of five bands to to be featured across all of the Dead’s online sites.

[Press Photo by Tracy Graham]

Among the five finalists, who will also be profiled on Dead.net and in this year’s edition of the Grateful Dead Almanac, was folk-rock act The Giving Tree Band. The Chicago-based act turned in a fantastic country-fried version of Brown Eyed Women that’s drowned in some killer pedal steel and banjo work, which captures the rollicking spirit of arguably one of the better Grateful Dead songs that never made its way onto one of their studio albums. Let’s check it out…

The Giving Tree Band – Brown Eyed Women

Comedian turned U.S. Senator Al Franken has never hid his love for the Grateful Dead. Franken helped get the band on Saturday Night Live, was featured in skits and interviews featured in the GD concert film Dead Ahead and used Terrapin Station as the theme for his Air America radio show. Last night at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C., Franken emerged at the start of the show to offer a hilarious introduction of Grateful Dead tribute act Dark Star Orchestra.

[Photo by Matt Reynolds (DSO Tour Manager)]

In working through a mention of each band member, the Senator utilized a line from his intro of the Grateful Dead at Radio City Music Hall in 1980 when he said, “if you don’t quiet down, I’m going to leave and the band will have to play.” He also made a poorly received crack about the Dead’s keyboard hot seat when he quipped, “I don’t want to give away what show this is, but [DSO keyboardist] Rob [Barraco] is going to die in three days.” After Franken left the stage, Dark Star Orchestra went on to play one of the famed Warlocks shows – October 8, 1989 at Hampton Coliseum. DSO returns to the 9:30 Club tonight. Check out Franken’s intro…

Al Franken Introduces Dark Star Orchestra

Each and every day in November Grateful Dead vaultmeister David Lemieux picked one gem from the band’s archives to share as a free MP3 download with Deadheads as part of 30 Days of Dead. All in all the 30 tracks he wound up sharing ranged from 1967 to 1992 and was a well-rounded collection of tunes from the group’s repertoire.

If you missed any or all of the tracks Dead.net has compiled all 30 in one zip file for your downloading and listening pleasure or you could still download the individual tracks from this page. The 2011 30 Days of Dead collection is a must-have for fans of the Dead, so be sure to grab it while you can. Much love to Lemieux and the band for this aural treat.

Here’s the full list of 30 Days of Dead 2011 tracks and download links…

READ ON

A couple of weeks back we hipped you to the fact that Phish would be releasing a new seven-disc box set made up of their 1997 three-night run at Hampton, Virginia and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Well today, official word finally came from the band, who’ve detailed a variety of Phish song-referencing pre-order packages through Dry Goods for its December 6 release. Whether you choose the Black-Eyed Katy Bundle or just the standard CD box, all orders will receive a full 45-track MP3 download of Hampton Winston/Salem ’97 on the release date plus two previously unreleased Hampton/Winston-Salem related tracks from the Phish Archives. With the holiday season right around the corner, we’re pretty confident that this would make a great gift for the Phan in your family.

The fine folks at Phish Inc. have given us the Mike’s Groove from Hampton ’97 to sample (download):

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• List Time: 10 Great Bands From CMJ 2011
• Akron/Family have launched their own label Family Tree Records
• Cover Alert: Vetiver tackle The Grateful Dead
• Flaming Lips to stream their 24-hour-long song at midnight on Halloween
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Finally, while it looks like we are guilty as just about every music site out in there in posting the trailer for a supposed BlakRoc sequel, that turns out most likely will not be coming out, we can report that The Black Keys will indeed be releasing an album of their own later this year entitled El Camino. For their follow up to their critically acclaimed album Brothers, which netted the top spot in our Top 25 albums of the year, the blues-duo re-teams with Danger Mouse for an 11-song set that was recorded at Dan Auerbach’s new Easy Eye Studio in Nashville, TN. Earlier this week, the band released this video for the album’s first single Lonely Boy, which is drenched in ’60s psychedelic blues sounds. Check it out…

Earlier this month we reported that the Grateful Dead were bringing the Road Trips series of archival releases to a close with Vol. 4 No. 5 featuring all of the band’s June 9, 1976 performance in Boston. The announcement about the end of Road Trips hinted at a future archival series and this weekend we got the details of what the Dead and Rhino Records have in store for us.

In the first all-digital version of the Grateful Dead Almanac, it has been revealed that early next year the first installment of a new archival series called Dave’s Picks will be released. Following in the footsteps of the late Dick Latvala and the groundbreaking Dick’s Picks series, current Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux will focus on complete shows for this new project and aims to put out four releases per year. The first release, which is set to come out in February, is a legendary show from May 25, 1977 at The Mosque in Richmond, Virginia.

Unlike past GD archival series, Dave’s Picks releases will be limited-edition affairs with only 12,000 individually numbered copies available of each installment. For now, the only way to order Dave’s Picks 1 is through a 2012 Subscription Package, which will run you for $95.50 (for U.S. residents) and gets you the first four releases (February, May, August and November) for a total of 12 CDs over the course of the year. You’ll also get free domestic shipping and handling on all of ‘em and a bonus disc for the May release.

When you talk about the venues that played a pivotal role in shaping New York City’s rock scene, certain ones come to mind immediately. The Fillmore East, CBGB’s and The Wetlands all left their mark, with both those that played gigs there, as well as those that frequented them, some almost on a nightly basis. Seemingly overlooked in this discussion was the importance of the Cafe au Go Go, a tiny club, with notoriously bad sight lines, located in the basement of 152 Bleecker Street, which from the period of 1964 to 1969 hosted every important and influential rock, folk, blues, jazz act and subversive comedian of the time.

Opened in February of 1964, it was the first venue that the Grateful Dead played when they came to New York City, and more famously the place that Lenny Bruce was arrested on obscenity charges in 1964, just two days into his scheduled six week residency at the club. The now famous six month trial over first amendment rights helped put the au Go Go on the map as the hippest place to be in New York City. Now some fifty years later, the story of this seminal club is finally being told through a new documentary entitled Seven Years Underground: A ’60s Tale. The film, which was put together by the children of the Cafe au Go Go’s owner Howard Salomon, features a treasure trove of 35 Millimeter film, reel to reel audio tapes, posters, handbills and press clippings from the club’s hey day.

Let’s check out the trailer…

On November 1, the Grateful Dead and Rhino Records will put out the 17th installment of the Road Trips archival series. Road Trips Vol. 4 No. 5 will feature all of the Dead’s June 9, 1976 performance at the Boston Music Hall as well as a handful of tracks from a few nights later on the 12th at the same venue. The biggest surprise in the announcement of this release is that it will be the last Road Trips installment.

Today’s announcement doesn’t give much detail on why Rhino and the band put the kibosh on the Road Trip series, but does mention that another release program is forthcoming…

So, what’s all this talk about the end of Road Trips? Well, we figured that four years and 17 releases was a pretty good run for that series, and now it’s time to try something new. Don’t worry, there is definitely going to be another release program dedicated to putting out the best material in the vault. We’ll be revealing details of the new series very soon, so stay tuned!

Now, why did they put out this particular show? The Dead had just returned to the road after a long hiatus that started in October of 1974 and in only their third show out, the band was starting to “throw heat.”

On the 9th they busted out St. Stephen for the first time since Halloween ’71, played a stellar run of Scarlet, Music Never Stopped and Crazy Fingers in a row towards the beginning of the first set and threw down excellent versions of Lazy Lightning > Supplication and Eyes. Not too shabby for a band that had been off the road for so long.

You can pre-order the final Road Trips now for $23.98.

In an effort to attract younger audiences to the theater, producers of Broadway musicals have looked at past Hollywood movies to stage a number of new shows over the last decade or so to various degrees of success. The latest film to be mined for The Great White Way, is one near and dear to my heart, as yesterday it was announced that Sheryl Crow will be teaming up with Barry Levinson to turn his 1982 coming of age movie Diner into a musical that is set to debut in the fall of 2012. According to a post on Rolling Stone, “The show will be penned by Levinson with original music and lyrics by Crow. Kathleen Marshall, the director of the current Broadway hit Anything Goes, will direct and choreograph the production.”

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Finally,with the overwhelming success of the Grateful Dead’s massive all-inclusive Europe ’72 box set, the band’s 22-date run will once again be mined for an additional release. This time around fans will be able to purchase each show of the legendary tour individually in order over the course of the next few months. The first six shows – Newcastle, Aarhus, Copenhagen and London – are now currently available for purchase starting at $24.98.

For an artist that has been as prolific as Ryan Adams, it’s hard to believe that he hasn’t put out a proper studio album of new material since 2008′s Cardinology. We’re talking about a guy who ambitiously released three records in the same year, including Cold Roses - the sprawling double-disc of Grateful Dead inspired psychedelic country-rock. After disbanding The Cardinals in 2009, Adams has stepped out of the spotlight performing only sporadic gigs, got hitched to Mandy Moore, became a Facebook enthusiast and dabbled in heavy metal with his vinyl-only release Orion.

On October 11, Adams will release Ashes & Fire, which he has described as a record full of  “elegant country-rock songs,” the new LP was produced by Glyn Johns, whose credentials read like a who’s who of rock elite from The Beatles to The Band to Bob Dylan to The Clash. Glyn also happens to be the father of Ethan Johns, who produced a number of Adams’ previous releases. Ashes & Fire also features guests spots from Norah Jones and Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers). Let’s check out this solo acoustic performance of the album’s title track, whose sound harkens back to Adams’ Whiskeytown days…

Ryan Adams will head out for an eight-date acoustic West Coast tour that kicks off on October 11 at the Balboa Theater in San Diego, Calif.

Following yesterday’s stunning announcement that Jack White had collaborated with Insane Clown Posse our thoughts turned to other oddball musical pairings. For this week’s B List, we polled the Hidden Track staff and compiled a list of ten of the oddest musical collaborations.

Here’s what we came up with…

10. Phish and Jay-Z

It’s well documented that Phish loves to cross genres and play with guests, but when Trey Anastasio introduced Jay-Z to the stage in Coney Island in 2004 – jaws dropped. Can you imagine the Notorious B.I.G. stepping on stage with the Grateful Dead? As live collaborations go, 99 Problems / Big Pimpin’ was a big risk and a great success. And we think it’s safe to say Jay-Z never expected 8,000 Phish-heads belting his lyrics back at him – and neither did they. READ ON for nine more oddball musical pairings…

Back on January 19, Rolling Stone broke the news that Rhino Records would be putting out every note the Grateful Dead played on their landmark tour of Europe in 1972 as part of a limited-edition box set. The limited-edition set sold out quicker than anyone imagine and now, a mere seven months later, these Europe ’72 box sets have started arriving.

[All photos via Sunshine Daydream FB Page]

All in all, Europe ’72 wound up as 22 digi-packs featuring three or four discs for most shows giving purchasers a grand total of 73 discs worth of music. The digi-packs and two accompanying books are all included in a replica steamer trunk with a latch and a handle. Early reviews of the remastered music are glowing with most complaints focusing on the flimsy cardboard sleeves that protect the discs themselves.

Chicago’s Sunshine Daydream Hippie Shop has shared some photos of the Europe ’72 box, so READ ON to view ‘em all…