The All Good Music Festival & Camp Out had long been held at Marvin’s Mountaintop in Masontown, West Virginia, but that will change in 2012 as the event’s promoters have just announced that the 16th annual installment of All Good will take place on July 19-22 just a short drive to the west at Legend Valley in Thornville, Ohio. Formerly known as Buckeye Lake, the “new” site has hosted numerous Grateful Dead shows as well as performances by the Allman Brothers Band, Lollapalooza and numerous Hookahvilles.

[via All Good Festival Facebook]

While the local community in West Virginia never fully embraced All Good, last year county officials passed a Mass Gathering Ordinance that put an onerous tax burden on event organizers. Combine the hefty tax with the authorities overzealous treatment of festivalgoers (not to mention the death of an attendee) and apparently it was time for the move to Ohio. The new site is just one mile from the interstate which should ease fans’ traffic woes. Expect a full lineup this spring, but organizers still aim to provide a schedule filled with no over-lapping sets at the new, beautiful site.

Here’s a letter the All Good team has penned about the switch…

The 16th annual All Good Music Festival & Camp Out, July 19-22, 2012, is moving a little bit west to the historic Legend Valley. For those who know your history or were a part of it, Legend Valley was formerly Buckeye Lake Music Center.

Located 30 minutes east of downtown Columbus, our new home in Thornville, Ohio was the site of some of the most memorable Grateful Dead shows ever plus historic shows by the Allman Brothers Band, Lollapalooza, AC/DC, numerous Hookahvilles and many more.

Parting is bittersweet. We will always treasure our time at Marvin’s Mountaintop. But we had to take a hard look at the negative impact the West Virginia site had on you, our fans, who sometimes spent 4 to 6 hours covering that last five miles under close scrutiny from authorities.

We had to weigh the impact of our traffic and presence on the local population and local officials who never warmed up to the festival, its legion of loyal fans and our “style”. In 2011 county officials went so far as to pass a crippling Mass Gathering Ordinance that directly targeted All Good and levied an outrageous tax on our event. We would much rather spend this money (your ticket money) on bands, safety and enhancements to your overall festival experience.

Legend Valley has a rich history of hosting similar events and Thornville is excited to have All Good roll into their town. The community is better suited to host us and grateful for the business that we will bring to their rural location.

For some of you in the east, the journey to All Good will be a longer drive, but with our entrance less than a mile off I-70, it may actually take you less time from your front door to your campsite.

For all of you, our new site means fast, unobstructed, wind-in-your-hair interstate travel, straight to the lot.

Grab your spot in the spacious camping pastures, and settle into the roomy, gently sloping amphitheater. No climbing and plenty of room to groove.

We’ll have your favorite bands, no-overlapping sets, state-of-the-art sound and lights, tons of heavy equipment, bathrooms, and dragon merch, but it won’t be All Good until you get there!

YOU make this festival! We can’t wait to see you again!

Peace and Music,

The All Good Family

In 1987 the Grateful Dead unveiled a clever video for Touch of Grey that helped propel the song to into the Top 10 of the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and won the band an influx of fans. Five years later the Spin Doctors catapulted into the mainstream thanks in part to videos for Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong and Two Princes. Since that time the format hasn’t exactly been embraced by improv-based rock bands. For instance, HT faves Umphrey’s McGee will celebrate their 14th anniversary in January and they’ve never put out an “official” music video…until today.

The Chicago-based rockers teamed up with director Travis Rime Brooks to create a visual look at the Death By Stereo track Booth Love. Guitarist Brendan Bayliss told Thomas Conner of the Chicago Sun-Times, who debuted the video on his Via Chicago blog, “In the past, we never had the right concept to go with any of the songs we had considered. We didn’t want it to be cheesy or lame, and we wanted a video to really compliment the composition. Finally, we have the right song and the right visual to go along with it. ‘Booth Love’ is a sexy tune, and I think the video is pretty sexy, too.”

Let’s see if you agree…

Umphrey’s McGee – Booth Love

In other UM news, the group has also announced details of their first DVD release since 2007.

Live at Summer Camp 2011, which is available for pre-order through Music Today, features a pair of full, two-set performances for a total of over five hours of music plus bonuses. From the bit on the order page that states, “Both the video and the audio were captured in real time as it happened – no remixing, editing, 5.1 mixes or other blemish reducing measures. What you saw is what you get.” we’re thinking this is essentially a capture of what was streamed over iClips in May.

I honestly can’t remember having a default search engine prior to Google. Sure, I searched plenty, but it was a random mix of AltaVista, Webcrawler, Lycos, Yahoo or whatever search utility my internet provider baked onto their homepage. Then, along came Google, and like many people, I can’t really imagine searching on anything else by default.

But…

A handful of things have been bothering my lately with Google searches. Primarily bothersome, are Google’s insistence at using my location and prior search history for serving me up a majority of results: even when sometimes they are not appropriate or germane to my search.

Also, paradoxically, I find that searching for technical terms (error messages, software instructions, computer related items for example) bring up the least helpful results in Google as one could imagine. Often times, the #1 result is from something that was written over five years ago. Stale, stale, stale!

And finally, the most maddening of all, is simply getting served a page with nothing more than link farms.

I had resigned myself to the fact that there was simply no better alternative and that Google was the lesser of all search evils. But I started making a handful of searches with DuckDuckGo and was pleased with the results. But, Google searched by default from my Chrome browser’s OmniBar, and it was tough to conscientiously remember to head to a search page (who does that anymore?) to really gauge how well DuckDuckGo could stand up as an everyday, default search utility.

So, I swapped up my default search in the OmniBar to DuckDuckGo where I handle 95% + of all my searches. I did this about a month ago. This week we’ll look at this search newcomer and some personal thoughts on using DDG as a primary search engine.

I’ll give you my bottom line first: I LOVE DuckDuckGO!

Search results are relevant, timely, fresh and delivered in an easy to read, clutter-free layout, with the same speed that you’d expect from Google. Often times, relevant data is served up via a partnership with Wolfram-Alpha or other sources like Wikipedia in a no-click info box at the top of the page.

Default Search

In order to really give another search engine a fair shake, it’s best to change it as the default search choice. This is super easy with most browsers. Just Google DuckDuckGo specific steps for your browser.

For Chrome: Simply perform at least one search with DDG. Then,
1 – Put the cursor over the address bar & right click. You’ll see a few choices, select “edit search engines”

2 – Scroll down under “other search engines” and find DuckDuckGo and hover over it. There will be a button that says “make default”. Click that.

Now, when you search from the OmniBar, you will be searching with DDG.

But why bother switching from Google?

I’m about as far from a tinfoil hat wearing privacy obsessed person as there can be. Yet, some of Google’s tracking is disruptive to relevant results. Why? Because as you search, your results become more and more tailored to past searches and your Google history. Sure, you can sign out of your Google account and perform your search, but that becomes disruptive to every day web use and GMail, Google Reader, Google Voice, Documents or any other Google service you happen to want to use.

Here’s an illustration of the “Filter Bubble” by DuckDuckGo: Don’t Bubble Us and an informative TED talk on the subject.

Often times, you are getting a narrow swatch of results based on your history...with potentially relevant results buried deep into result pages. (Does anyone go beyond the first, perhaps second page anyway?)

DuckDuckGo has the best privacy policy possible for a search engine: Zero collection or sharing of personal information. I like this approach and find it refreshing. Take a quick look at why you may care: Don’t Track Us

Disambiguation Links

Ya know how Wikipedia has a convenient page header sometimes with disambiguation links? DDG does the same and it totally rocks. I’ve saved a lot of time being able to quickly select the proper item of interest without having to weed through results. Sometimes, you can drill even further down on these links, for example, I expanded my “Boston” search to the “Music” category and was offered the following:

[Disambiguation Links on DuckDuckGo]

!Bang

DDG has a cool syntax with literally thousands of what they call !Bangs.

• Most big sites work, e.g. !youtube
• Most generic keywords work too, e.g. !images
• There are also shorter versions, e.g. !g (google) !i (images) !yt (youtube)

Full list of available !Bang operators. You may ask, isn’t it just as easy to head to YouTube and search there? Again, if you have DDG as your default search, and keyboard shortcut up to address bar, a quick !yt search saves a few seconds, and is grossly convenient. I have fallen in love with many of these shortcuts and use them daily.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Remember when it was easy to navigate results on the keyboard with Google? Not so much anymore. Seems like they’ve gone out of their way to prohibit keyboard use. If you are like me, and love the speed and convenience of remembering a few keyboard shortcuts, and enjoy the time savings, you will love DuckDuckGo: it was made for keyboard jockeys! A handful of the many shortcuts:

• Enter go to result
  Note: use right away to go to first result.
• Ctrl/Cmd+Enter  — open in background
• ↓ or j  — next result
• ↑ or k  — prev result
• / or h  — go to search box
• esc  — get out of search box

Relevant Results

The results are, as I said, high quality, relevant and particularly good at avoiding spam and ads. Not often have I had to resort to a different search utility and come up dry with results. Though, if I do, I simply !g from the address bar to check Google results.

Where DuckDuckGo does not have the best results is if you are looking for news and/or live time results. In the event I need results on something happening live, I will either !news for a Google News search or !twitter for a Twitter search. Similarly, Images are not a strength of DDG either and I will usually have to !images.

Clutter Free and Streamlined

You might recall one day, eons ago, where Google served relevant search results only. (Or for that matter, Bing or Yahoo!) Now, everyone uses your cookies and history and displays ads and links to make money from you. DDG eschews this approach (remember: they share nothing of your clicks with anyone and collect no data) for a clean, clutter-free results page. There is typically one small ad in the far right column.

Here’s a results page for searching “Phish”. Note the zero-click info box on top, relevant result links, and other suggested serach ideas.

[DuckDuckGo Search results page]

Other Cool Things

• Plenty of settings to play with to customize the colors and look of the results page to suit your preference.
• Ability to force HTTPS for all searches
• Ability to turn OFF privacy settings if you do want to share click-info with sites
• A developer that actually seems to care and listen to users

Bottom Line Again

Fantastic alternative to your current search default whether it be Google, Yahoo, Bing or any of the rest. Give it a shot for 30 days or so like I did. It may be awkward at first…as you may be ingrained with what you are using now, but after a little bit of time, you may just find that you have a new favorite search site like I do.

___________________________________________

Hidden Track Technology Tuesday
email: parkerjh@gmail.com
twitter: @tmwsiy
voice-mail:  (781) 285-8696

Fourteen years ago today Phish kicked off the second set of arguably one of the better two-set shows they’ve ever played with an amazing version of Halley’s Comet that explored new terrain for the jam titans over 26 exceptional minutes. While the forthcoming Hampton/Winston-Salem ’97 box set is an audio-only release, the band did shoot video of their own that night. Today, Phish has shared their footage of Halley’s from November 22, 1997…

Phish – Halley’s Comet

Be sure to enter our giveaway for a chance to win a free box set.

On Tuesday night’s episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Republican Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was one of the host’s guests and came out to the tune of Fishbone’s Lyin’ Ass Bitch as performed by the show’s house band The Roots. Of course Bachmann wasn’t familiar with the song and didn’t realize the intro music was a slight until every music blog wrote about the situation yesterday. Fallon wasn’t exactly pleased with the bashing and tweeted that Questlove “was grounded” and apologized to Bachmann.  Today, Village Voice music editor Maura Johnston penned a wise piece on the fracas and correctly mentioned that the other candidates wouldn’t have been subjected to being called a bitch (or an equivalent) on national television.

I’m all for snark, and I’m certainly no fan of Bachmann, but Questlove was out of line on this one and put his boss, who has been extremely supportive of the drummer, in a bad spot. Plus, he’s making me feel empathy for Bachmann and that’s just not cool Questo.

Here’s a look at six other stories of note…

• R.I.P. jazz drummer Paul Motian, who passed away at age of 80
• Jam faves moe. will perform Crab Eyes on iPads at MacWorld
• Sammy Hagar will be first in line to buy new Van Halen album
• List Time: Seven under-the-radar music documentaries to watch
• Watch M83 perform Midnight City on Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon
• Randy Ray chats with Del McCoury for a fascinating feature

Finally, as Jeff mentioned in Tour Dates, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band revealed they will hit the road hard in 2012 in support of a new album. The big question on our minds is how do you fill Clarence Clemons’ role? Billboard put the question to E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren who replied, “I know, as always, he’ll do something special and classy as he’s always done, but that’s a real rough thing.” I tend to think Springsteen won’t bring in another horn player and will find a different way to emulate The Big Man’s sound. We shall see…

The Roots released the first tune from their upcoming album, undun, this week. The busy-bodied hip hop act has been heavily promoting the concept element of the record, which will retell the story of Redford Stephens -  a regular guy turned criminal who died too young – using a “reverse narrative arc”.  In other words, throughout the album the main character reflects on key points in his life – beginning postmortem and working his way backwards – to determine how and why he came “undun.” The thematic material sounds both ambitious and compelling with allusions to the topic of fate versus free will.  Here is the second track on the album, Sleep.

Back in 2003 Rolling Stone’s David Fricke put together a list of what he thought were the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time for the magazine. Now, eight years later, Rolling Stone has revisited the topic and has augmented a panel of three contributors with 56 esteemed musicians and industry vets such as MMJ’s Carl Broemel and Jim James, the Allman Brothers Band’s Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes as well as Eddie Van Halen. The resulting list has its flaws (no Trey!?!?), but you can’t blame this one on the Jersey Shore-loving editorial staff over at Rolling Stone since they loaded the panel with respected vets.

In what should be a surprise to no one, Jimi Hendrix took the top spot and was correctly followed in the Top Five by Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck. Besides Anastasio (who was a judge), shockingly missing from the list are Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Al DiMeola and Ace Frehley. Who would we have replaced on this list? We love Paul Simon, but he can’t compare to those left off that we mentioned. Willie Nelson, Kurt Cobain and Ron Asheton are other guitarists who we appreciate yet are baffled by their inclusion.

The best part of the feature, which serves as the cover story on the soon-to-hit-newsstands edition of Rolling Stone, is that for some entries members of the panel wrote about why those on the list deserved the honor. From Carlos Santana discussing Jerry Garcia to Trey Anastasio paying tribute to Neil Young to Tom Petty honoring George Harrison, these essays are all good reads.  Look, in the end it’s all opinion, and we hand it to Rolling Stone for putting together an eclectic panel rather than letting their staffers make this list.

What do you think of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarist List?

[Originally Published: October 29, 2010]

Every time this year for the past couple of years, Scotty B, the fearless leader of Hidden Track and I always talk about making plans to get together for Turducken since neither of us have ever tried but really want to. I sincerely believe that this just might be the year that we actually make it happen (How about it Scotty B?). We’ll see…

Turducken for those of you that don’t know is: A de-boned chicken stuffed into a de-boned duck, which is then stuffed into a de-boned turkey.

According to Wikipedia, this is the origin of Turducken:

Claims that Cajun-creole fusion chef Paul Prudhomme created this dish as part of the festival Duvall Days in Duvall, Washington in 1983[8] are unverified. A November 2005 National Geographic article by Calvin Trillin traced the American origins of the dish to “Hebert’s Specialty Meats” in Maurice, Louisiana, although readers immediately noted that the concept for the dish itself is centuries old. Hebert’s has been commercially producing turduckens since 1985, when an unknown local farmer brought in his own birds and asked Hebert’s to prepare them in that manner.

If you want to know how to make a proper Turducken, here are a few educational videos…

Frank Caliendo as John Madden cooking some Turducken

Anderson Cooper of CNN interviews Chef Paul Prudhomme about cooking a Turducken

Click here to view the embedded video.

Paula Deen’s turducken

Click here to view the embedded video.

My favorite Turducken demo ever!

Below is a great recipe for making a Turducken from scratch (via CajunGrocer.com)

This Turducken recipe makes anyone into a gourmet chef.

If you’re looking for a truly delectable dish to serve at your next party or family gathering then consider preparing a turducken for your friends and family. A turducken is simply a turkey that is stuffed with a duck that is stuffed with a chicken, and layers of flavorful dressings and stuffings. In the last few years, the turducken has become a popular main course for both Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday meals. Regardless of the occasion you’re celebrating, this twist on a traditional roasted turkey is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Follow the recipe below to prepare a turducken of your own at home.

Cajun Style Turducken

What you’ll need:

• 20 – 25 lb. whole turkey, deboned with wings and legs still intact.
• 5 – 6 lb. whole duckling, deboned
• 3 – 4 lb. whole chicken, deboned Poultry seasoning blend
• Cornbread Stuffing (recipe listed below)
• Cajun Rice Dressing (recipe listed below)
• Shrimp Stuffing (recipe listed below)
• Kitchen string Cotton thread and a large needle

Have the birds deboned by your butcher to save yourself quite a bit of time, but if you’re a particularly adventurous cook you can do it yourself. Professional Cutlery Direct provides step by step instructions for deboning poultry. Just be sure to keep the wings and legs on the turkey, that way the finished turducken will still look like a turkey.

It’s best to prepare each stuffing ahead of time so that they have time to cool before you are ready to assemble your turducken. A basic stuffing recipe is listed below, and it can easily be adapted for any flavor that you choose.

Cornbread Stuffing

• 2 Tbsp. cooking oil
• 4 cups cornbread (crumbled)
• 1/2 lb. chopped chicken livers
• 1/2 lb. chopped chicken gizzards
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper
• Poultry seasoning, salt and black pepper (add according to taste)
• Butter or olive oil for sautéing vegetables
• Chicken broth

Brown chopped chicken livers and gizzards over medium heat in cooking oil. Add celery, onion, and bell pepper cook until soft. Season with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Add crumbled cornbread to vegetables and meat. Pour chicken broth into mixture until it reaches the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning and cool before stuffing bird.

Cajun Rice Dressing

• 2 Tbsp. cooking oil
• lb. ground beef
• 4 cups cooked white rice
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cups beef broth
• Salt and black pepper (to suit taste)

Brown ground beef over medium heat in cooking oil. Add celery, onion, bell pepper and garlic cook until soft. Season with salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning. Add the cream of mushroom soup to the pot and heat through. Mix cooked rice with beef and vegetables. Pour beef broth into mixture until it reaches the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning and cool before stuffing bird.

Shrimp Stuffing

• 2 Tbsp. cooking oil
• 4 cups cooked rice
• 2 lb. chopped shrimp (raw)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• Salt and black pepper (to suit taste)
• Dash of red (cayenne) pepper

Saute celery, onion, and bell pepper until soft. Pour in diced tomatoes. Add chopped shrimp, cook until slightly pink. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Combine with cooked rice. Add a little water if stuffing seems dry. Adjust seasoning and cool before stuffing bird.

Assembling the Turducken

Begin by placing the turkey skin side down and seasoning it well with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Then spread the cornbread stuffing over the turkey. Next, place the duck on top of the cornbread stuffing and spread the Cajun rice dressing over it. You will then place the chicken on top of the Cajun rice dressing and add the shrimp stuffing. Each stuffing layer should be approximately 1/2 inch thick. Any leftover stuffing can be placed in casserole dishes and baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes.

Once you’ve stuffed each bird, fold the sides of the turkey together to close the bird. Enlist someone to help hold the turkey closed as you begin to sew up the opening. The stitches should be spaced about 1 inch apart. You finish sewing the Turducken tie the legs together, just above the tip bones. Be sure to place the Turducken breast side up while cooking.

Once the turducken is assembled, place the turducken in a large roasting pan and cook in a 325 degrees Fahrenheit preheated oven. Alternatively, you can place the turducken on aluminum foil or in an aluminum pan, and then cook on a 350 degrees Fahrenheit grill or smoker.

Regardless of which method you choose to use you should cook the bird until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest area on the bundle reaches an internal temperature reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Fahrenheit is the minimum temperature for cooking poultry, but 180 degrees Fahrenheit will ensure that the turducken is fully cooked all the way through). The USDA recommends that a stuffed turkey of this size will generally take 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours to cook, but your best bet is to rely on the meat thermometer.

In honor of the new Muppets Movie hitting theaters, we’re re-publishing a classic B List from 2007 featuring the best performances from The Muppet Show.

From 1976 to 1981, The Muppet Show entertained both children and their parents with a humorous blend of skits and physical comedy. Each week Jim Henson’s show would feature a special guest star as the host, and many times these stars were plucked straight from the music industry.

This week’s edition of The B List features 10 must-watch musically themed videos from The Muppet Show that we know you’ll enjoy.  Our list includes great clips featuring Buddy Rich and Animal’s drum duel, Alice Cooper inspiring some scary muppets, Steve Martin and his banjo, Dizzy Gillespie, Paul Simon and more.

1. The Muppet Show had a heady house band called Electric Mayhem. This clip features Electric Mayhem playing Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. My favorite part is Rizzo The Rat’s epic cymbal playing:

2. In this clip from the Italian version of the Muppet Show, Animal challenges drumming legend Buddy Rich to a Drum Duel. Man, Buddy Rich is nasty!

3. Johnny Cash performs Jackson with Miss Piggy and the Muppets:

4. Steve Martin whips out his banjo to play Ramblin’ Guy for the Muppets:

5. Some scary looking Muppets join Alice Cooper for a rendition of School’s Out:

6. Here is a well-done homemade mashup of video footage from Sesame Street and The Muppet Show featuring audio from NWA’s Fuck Tha Police:

7. From 1996 to 1998, The Disney Channel showed an updated version of The Muppet Show called Muppets Tonight. The show wasn’t successful, but did yield a few fun videos such as Kermit singing Dancin’ In The Dark. Gotta love Miss Piggy in the Courtney Cox role:

8. Paul Simon plays a solo rendition of It’s Been A Long Long Day from 1980′s One Trick Pony for an assembled group of Muppets. Check out Janis making the O face, I think she’s more than just a fan:

9. Elton John performs Crocodile Rock. Nice fucking outfit Elton — how did people really think this guy was straight back then?

10. Dizzy Gillespie sits in with Electric Mayhem for a hot rendition of St. Louis Blues:

Did I miss any kickass Muppet Show musical performances? Did you like these?

We couldn’t let Thanksgiving pass around these parts without our annual fluffage of the greatest rock movie of all-time - The Last Waltz. Exactly 35 years ago, roughly 5,000 lucky fans were treated to a full Thanksgiving dinner, followed by a star-studded “farewell concert” from The Band, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, the site of their very first public performance. With each viewing I seem to come away with a new favorite performance from the flick and after last night’s annual viewing it’s when their former boss Ronnie Hawkins took to the stage for a fiery rendition of Who Do You Love. Let’s check it out…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Band w. Ronnie Hawkins – Who Do You Love

From everyone here at Hidden Track, we want to wish all of our readers a very happy, and enjoyable Thanksgiving!!!

How much do we like The Black Keys’ 2010 release, Brothers? We named it our 2010 album of the year. El Camino, the duo’s new album, has leaked ahead of its December 6th release date and we think it might just make our list this year. Presumably, we’ll get to hear a pair of songs from El Camino this weekend for the band’s second Saturday Night Live musical guest appearance in two years.

Friday, December 2 [All Times EST]

• Rush – Time Machine Tour 2011 [Palladia 3PM]
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Live From The Roxy [Fuse 9PM]
• Jane’s Addiction on David Letterman [CBS 11:35PM]
• Goldheart Assembly on Carson Daly [NBC 1:35AM]

Saturday, December 3

• Spoon on Austin City Limits [PBS]
• MGMT, Phoenix, Muse on Glastonbury 2010 [Palladia 11AM]
• Death Cab For Cutie on Storytellers [Palladia 7PM]
• Black Keys – Saturday Night Live [NBC 11:30PM]

Sunday, December 4

• Adele – Unplugged [Palladia 11:30AM]
• Arcade Fire, Pixies – Coachella [Palladia 1PM]
• Robyn Hitchcock – Sex, Food, Death & Insects [Sundance 3PM]
• Tom Petty – Live From Gatorville [HDNet 9PM]

When Bruce Springsteen opened The River tour in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1980, one of the state’s local heroes, Bob Seger, came out during the encore to help The Boss with Thunder Road. Last night Springsteen finally returned the favor, when he emerged in the middle of Seger’s set at Madison Square Garden for a rollicking take on Old Time Rock and Roll.

Bruce Springsteen w/ Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band – Old Time Rock and Roll

Rumor has it Silver Bullet Band sax star Alto Reed is up for a position in the E Street Band, so last night’s sit-in won’t do anything to squash that rumor.

HT faves The Black Keys continue their meteoric rise to rock superstardom with the announcement of the duo’s first arena tour. Set to kick off on March 2 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, this month-long tour finds the group playing such storied venues as Madison Square Garden (March 12), the Joe Louis Arena (March 3) and Chicago’s United Center (March 19).

Meanwhile, the group’s next show, following the aforementioned Saturday Night Live musical guest spot, will take place at Webster Hall in NYC on Monday. Our friends at MyFreeConcert.com are keeping track of the ways you can win a ticket to see the Keys at this intimate venue.

Here’s the full list of Black Keys tour dates…

December 5 New York, NY Webster Hall
December 11 Los Angeles, CA KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas
March 2 * Cincinnati, OH US Bank Arena
March 3 * Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
March 4 * Columbus, OH Jerome Schottenstein Center
March 6 * Portland, ME Cumberland Co. Civic Center
March 7 * Boston, MA TD Garden
March 9 * Washington, DC Verizon Center
March 10 * Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
March 12 * New York, NYMadison Square GardenArena
March 13 * Montreal, QC Bell Centre
March 14 * Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
March 16 * Indianapolis, IN Conseco Fieldhouse
March 18 * Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
March 19 * Chicago, IL United Center
March 20 * Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
March 23 * Norfolk, VA Constant Convocation Center

*Arctic Monkeys support

[via The Audio Perv]

David Chang.

Momofuku.

These are two names which most food lovers in NYC consider sacred. Chang’s empire has grown from a tiny noodle shop, Momofuku Noodle Bar, which opened in 2004, to having so many different restaurants, I can barely keep track anymore.

Chris and I have always had a soft spot for Momofuku Ssam Bar, since the eatery opened two years after its predecessor. We ate there from the very beginning, when they only sold Korean-style ssam–similar to burritos–and later fell in love with their (sadly defunct) $45 prix fixe 5-course tasting menu. It was truly the gateway restaurant for our culinary adventurism! Nowadays, the menu is ever-changing, with a stimulating array of choices for everyone.

Recently, Ssam Bar announced its newest concept: weekday “all-duck” lunches. Although getting out for lunch on a weekday is extremely challenging for me, I took advantage of a day off recently to meet Chris for this quacky feast.

The restaurant was equipped with a multi-spit rotisserie to roast the poultry with, and the menu stayed mostly true to its “all-duck” theme.  I spotted Fried Duck Dumplings with Srichacha Mayo and Pickled Red Cabbage–these were a must try.

 The dumplings were phenomenal. I have eaten many delightful fried pouches in my day, but these rank right at the top. Although I found the pickled red cabbage rather useless, the perfectly crisped wrapper, juicy duck and tangy srichacha mayo were a heavenly combination.

Staying true to Momofuku tradition, we wanted to see how the new school Pulled Duck Bun with Sauerkraut and Smoked Mayo ranked against the old school Pork Bun with Cucumber, Hoisin and Scallions.

Our opinions of the pulled duck bun were opposing–”can’t get enough” and “eh.” I was lukewarm, while Chris was smitten.  The melty, fatty and sweet taste of the steamed pork belly has spoiled me so much over the years–there is no comparison in my eyes.

It was finally time for the pièce de résistance–the one, the only, Rotisserie Duck over Rice with Chive Pancakes and Bibb Lettuce. The star of the show came with three accoutrements: Rendered Duck Fat with Scallions, Crispy Shallots and Ssam Sauce. Lastly, we added a side of the Spicy Fingerling Potatoes with Chili Black Bean Sauce.

After hearing that the potatoes were roasted in duck fat under the spit, I thought the potatoes would be much more crisped up, but they were just okay. Not only were they not very crispy, but I didn’t find them very spicy either–boo.

The rotisserie duck, on the other hand, was delectable! Pure vida! Beyond the tender meat, the skin had an Asian sweetness and an out-of-this-world crunch. I found myself savoring each bite of the bird on its own. I did craft one sandwich with the chive pancake, lettuce, rice, shallots and sauces, which almost gave me a flashback to the good old days of ssams, but in the end I was perfectly happy without all the add-ons.

All in all, the Ssam Bar’s “all-duck” lunch did not disappoint. I would encourage everyone to schedule a long lunch to try Chang’s latest meal-tastic concept before he decides to replace it with yet another creative venture. I’ll be happy to join you for seconds.

Nothing conjures up images of my youth quite like thinking about NYC’s legendary Wetlands Preserve. Whether I was sneaking in as a high schooler at attending one of dozens of shows during my college years, I learned about so many wonderful bands through this gem of a rock club in Tribeca. For this week’s Mix Tape I want to follow-up on a FMT I put together back in October featuring five bands that played Wetlands during September ’95. This time around we’ll look at six groups who rocked the hippie den in August ’93.

[Image via Wetlands Rock Club Alumni FB Group]

We start off with my favorite Kimock-written composition, Cole’s Law, as performed by Zero (Aug. 11). Next, we take a trip to the great jamband graveyard and come back with Sip Of Your Wine by The Hatters (Aug. 26). Before the Dave Matthews Band (Aug. 19) hit the bigtime they were Wetlands regulars and many of their gigs at the venue contained long #36 jams. So excited that From Good Homes (Aug. 13) is back in action, even if it’s sporadic. The New Jersey-based jam-folksters give us Scudder’s Lane. Warren Haynes (Aug. 5) gives us a cover of The Eagles’ Wasted Time and from Pittsburgh world-jam act Rusted Root (Aug. 12) we’ve got Ecstasy to finish us off.

We’re barely two days into December and we’re clearly feeling the holiday spirit around these parts. Earlier this week we posted She & Him’s performance of the Christmas Waltz, and today we’ve got one from another act that should be making Christmas music, rather than that horrible overwrought schmaltz that is usually playing in every store that you walk into. The Polyphonic Spree may not be a band that we’ve heard much from in recent years, but earlier this week the psychedelic-choral-pop act released their new holiday-themed single – It’s Christmas. The tune, which dates back to the sessions for their sophomore album, was recently unearthed and mixed, and is now being made available for the first time in a variety of formats, including a special, limited edition color vinyl.

On December 10,the band will host their 9th annual Holiday Extravaganza at the Lakewood Theater, in Dallas, Texas, to which fans are encourage to bring both a canned food item to benefit the North Texas Food Band and a toy for Toys For Tots. Earlier this week the group released this music video of It’s Christmas, culled from past events. Let’s check it out…

Polyphonic Spree – It’s Christmas

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…

• 1.New Potato Caboose San Francisco, CA, Winterland Arena – 10/22/1967 download the track
• 2. Slipknot > Franklin’s Tower Williamsburg, VA, William & Mary Hall – College Of William & Mary – 09/24/1976 download the track
• 3. Shakedown Street Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Copps Coliseum – 03/20/1992 download the track
• 4. Sugar Magnolia Denver, CO, McNichols Arena – 08/13/79 download the track
• 5. The Music Never Stopped > Don’t Ease Me In Kansas City, MO, Starlight Theatre – 09/03/1985 download the track
• 6. Estimated Prophet > He’s Gone Columbus, OH, Veterans Memorial Auditorium – 04/19/1978 download the track
• 7. Dark Star New York, NY, Fillmore East – 02/14/1970 download the track
• 8. Scarlet Begonias Detroit, MI, Cobo Arena – 10/03/1976 download the track
• 9. He Was A Friend Of Mine Colorado Springs, CO, Reed’s Ranch – 07/03/1969 download the track
• 10. Bird Song Washington, DC, RFK Stadium – 06/10/1973 download the track
• 11. Candyman ; Cassidy Boulder, CO, Event Activity Center – University of Colorado – 12/09/1981 download the track
• 12. Looks Like Rain > Might As Well Columbia, MD, Merriweather Post Pavilion – 06/26/1984 download the track
• 13. Friend of The Devil San Francisco, CA, Fillmore West – 06/07/1970 download the track
• 14. Mississippi Half-Step Baltimore, MD, Baltimore Civic Center – 03/26/1973 download the track
• 15. Uncle John’s Band Oakland, CA, Oakland Coliseum Arena – 12/28/1988 download the track
• 16. Ramble On Rose Chicago, IL, Auditorium Theatre – 10/21/1971 download the track
• 17. Just A Little Light Hartford, CT, Civic Center – 03/18/1990 download the track
• 18. Peggy O San Diego, CA, Golden Hall – San Diego Community Concourse – 11/24/1979 download the track
• 19. Passenger Chicago, IL, Uptown Theatre – 02/26/1981 download the track
• 20. Wharf Rat Landover, MD, Capital Centre – 07/29/1974 download the track
• 21.New Speedway Boogie San Francisco, CA, Fillmore West – 12/20/1969 download the track
• 22. Lazy Lightning > Supplication Boston, MA, Boston Music Hall – 06/12/1976 download the track
• 23. Let It Grow New Haven, CT Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum – 09/23/1982 download the track
• 24. Weather Report Suite Durham, NC, Cameron Indoor Stadium – Duke University – 12/08/1973 download the track
• 25. Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain Philadelphia, PA, The Spectrum – 08/30/1980 download the track
• 26. Feel Like A Stranger Atlanta, GA, Omni Coliseum – 04/02/1990 download the track
• 27. Playing In The Band Oklahoma City, OK, Oklahoma City Music Hall – 11/15/1972 download the track
• 28. Samson And Delilah Carson, CA, California State University Dominguez Hills – 05/06/1990 download the track
• 29. China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider(5.17.74 PNE Coliseum, Vancouver, BC)download the track
• 30. Lazy Lightning>Supplication (5.25.77 The Mosque, Richmond, VA) download the track

We couldn’t have been more excited when Eagle Rock Entertainment announced they had put together a DVD called Chronology featuring live Talking Heads performances ranging from the group’s start to the last time they played together at the 2002 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The tracklist didn’t just focus on the band’s best known material and contained a number of songs that didn’t make Jonathan Demme’s epic 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense.

Chronology is finally out and it’s everything we wished it would be, though it makes us hopeful footage of the full concerts where the tracks were culled from will see the light of day. A few samples are available on YouTube, so we thought we’d share them with you.

Here’s Cities from the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival…

Talking Heads – Cities

And now the gem of the release, a stunning take on Crosseyed and Painless featuring blistering guitar work by Adrian Belew, BOTH Tina Weymouth and Busta Cherry Jones on bass and Bernie Worrell on keys…

Talking Heads – Crosseyed and Painless

[Hat Tip - Terry OB]

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

Just a few weeks after celebrating his 80th birthday, legendary blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin succumbed to heart failure at a hospital in Wayne, New Jersey earlier today according to the Houston Press [via CoS]. Sumlin, who was cited as an influence by a generation-spanning list of notable guitarists ranging from Warren Haynes to Keith Richards to Eric Clapton, was the primary guitarist in Howlin’ Wolf’s band from the mid ’50s until Wolf’s death in 1976. When Rolling Stone recently announced their 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time list, Sumlin was listed at 65.

Hubert Sumlin w/ Allman Brothers Band – Smokestack Lightning

Hubert had been battling health issues since a lung cancer diagnosis in 2002 and underwent lung removal surgery in 2004. He called off an October gig at Mountain Stage when a doctor told him he was unfit for air travel. Despite his declining health, Sumlin’s signature expressive style shined through as the oxygen-huffing guitarist lit into Smokestack Lightning and Key to the Highway earlier this year at the finale of the Allman Brothers Band’s March Madness run. Hubert’s megawatt smile was also on display that night as it had been throughout his half-century-plus career. R.I.P. Hubert, you’ll be missed but your music will live on.