Minus the Bear
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 5:45pm - 7:00
Where: Revival Tent
Minus the Bear have always avoided easy classification, preferring to tread their own inimitable path defined by energy and invention. OMNI, the Seattle-based band’s fourth full-length recording and debut Dangerbird Records release, sees a stunning evolution to their sound and vision. As evinced by the album’s all-encompassing title, Minus the Bear have merged their myriad influences into a sweeping collection marked by its slinky and sensual melding of city-stomping rock and deep funk grooves. That spirit of sonic lasciviousness is mirrored in the album’s raw take on human sexuality – a theme as intricate and elaborate as the band’s extraordinary music. Boldly experimental yet instantly accessible, OMNI is Minus the Bear’s most provocative and potent work to date.
“I think it’s a real leap forward,” singer/guitarist Jake Snider agrees. “It’s an impactful sounding record.”
Founded in 2001, Minus the Bear earned immediate attention with their distinctive spastic prog-pop hybrid, all serrated rhythms, swirling synths, and guitarist Dave Knudson’s multi-layered, pedal-hopping acrobatics. Prolific from the start, the band let loose with series of EPs and albums, each drawing escalating acclaim and a host of new fans. 2007’s Planet of Ice was followed by the band’s most intensive touring thus far, repeatedly traveling the US, as well as Europe, Australia, and Japan. The non-stop roadwork served to increase the band’s kinetic power and intensity – a mindset they were determined to bring with them when they returned to the studio.
“One of the things we wanted to do was capture more of the live energy,” says Knudson. “We feel like the live show is really where you get to see what we’re doing.”
Work officially began on the new album in mid-2008 as the band reconvened to begin shaping and developing Knudson’s early demo tracks. This time out MTB wanted to collaborate with an outside producer and began interviewing potential candidates. Joe Chiccarelli (My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, The Shins) flew up to Seattle for his meeting mere hours after accepting a Grammy Award for his work with The Raconteurs and the rapport was immediate, with producer and band in agreement about how to proceed.
“We played the songs for Joe in our rehearsal space and he had a ton of ideas,” Snider says. “He had a great sense of where things could be trimmed, so he was a good set of ears to help us edit what we were trying to get across.”
On April 27, 2009, Minus the Bear began sessions at Seattle’s Avast! Recording Studios, opting to take a more organic approach towards recording. A conscious effort was made to play together as much as possible, eschewing the usual scratch tracks and overdubs whenever possible.
“He was really awesome about wanting to find the perfect sound before we even started tracking the songs,” Knudson says. “That was a big thing for us, changing the way we record, trying to keep as much of the performances that we were doing in the studio together to maintain the energy.”
“Joe kicked a lot of us in the ass more than any of us had ever been kicked in the ass before,” Knudson says. “We were doing 10 or 12 takes, more than any of us had ever played, but obviously all those takes paid off. He broke us down and made us evaluate what we were doing and maybe made us think of it from a different perspective.”
Where Planet of Ice was deeply informed by the band’s unified passion for classic prog-rock, OMNI sees each member bringing a diverse tableau of individual influences to the table, with keyboardist Alex Rose, bassist Cory Murchy, and drummer Erin Tate expressing a significant interest in jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and 70s funkadelia.
“Those underlying elements seeped through,” Knudson says, “whether or not we were cognicent of the fact that was happening. There’s a lot more groove, a lot more soul, a lot more feeling that comes across.”
The new music’s pulsating energy inspired a kind of sensual sprawl and carnal abandon. “Secret Country” features MTB’s most propulsive riff to date, inspired by Knudson’s purchase of a baritone guitar while on tour, while “My Time” – the album’s first single – is a rush of pure electro-pop lust, built around the glorious sound of another of the guitarist’s new toys, a vintage Omnichord synthesizer.
“The music just lent itself to dealing with these erotic themes,” Snider says. “There wasn’t a conscious idea to keep it all that way, but I didn’t really fight anything that came up when I was trying to put something to the music.”
None of which is to say that the quirky time signatures, hyperactive riffs, and prodigious hooks have left the building. The eddying tri-climax solo of “The Thief” and the album-closing “Fooled By The Night,” with its flowing arc and song-with a-song structure, reveal that MTB’s trademarks have simply been morphed and molded to fit a more straightforward – though no less ingenious – songcraft.
“We always wanted to see just how weird we can make a pop song,” Snider says, “but I think at some point we abandoned that and just started wanting to write really good songs.”
With OMNI finished by summer’s end, the band’s next step was choosing the right label to put it out. Fortunately, the band ultimately united with the Silverlake-based independent label, Dangerbird Records.
“We really care about this and whoever was putting out the record had to be a cool, awesome, artist-friendly, happening place to be,” Knudson says. “Once we met up with [Dangerbird co-founder] Jeff Castelaz and those guys, it was just kinda like, ‘Why would we pick someone else? This is exactly what we’ve been looking for.’”
The brazen and irresistible OMNI will undoubtedly bring Minus the Bear to scores of new listeners, keeping them on tour for the foreseeable future. The band are now ready to return to the road, knowing that their ever-increasing fan following awaits. Having built its base in no small part due to their exhilarating live shows, MTB have an advanced appreciation for the intimate connection between band and their audience.
“We’ve got a lot of fans that really care about us,” Knudson says, “that just love the music and keep coming out to show after show after show. I think about it every day, I think about how fuckin’ lucky we are.”
“The main thing we try to accomplish is putting together something that we’re going to enjoy playing forever,” Snider says. “We always make sure that we want to hear the song as much as anybody else.”
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
4 Days Until Wakarusa
Toots and the Maytals
When: Sunday 6/5 @ 8:00pm - 9:30
Where: Revival Tent
The Very Best Of Toots & The Maytals
Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are considered legends of ska and reggae music. Their sound is a unique, original combination of gospel, ska, soul, reggae and rock. Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, the leader of the group, was born in May Pen in the Parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. He was the youngest of seven children. He grew up singing gospel music in a church choir, but moved to Kingston in 1961 at the tender age of sixteen.
In Kingston, Hibbert met Henry “Raleigh” Gordon and Nathaniel “Jerry” McCarthy, forming a group whose early recordings were attributed to “The Flames” and, possibly, “The Vikings”. Having renamed the group the Maytals, the vocal trio recorded their first album, “Never Grow Old – presenting the Maytals”, for producer Clement “Coxsone” Dodd at Studio One in 1962-63. With musical backing from Dodd’s house band, the legendary Skatalites, the Maytals’ close-harmony gospel singing ensured instant success for the 1964 release, overshadowing Dodd’s other up-and-coming gospel trio, The Wailers. The original album augmented by studio out-takes from the Studio One sessions was re-released by Heartbeat/Rounder Records in 1997, and is essential listening for Maytals and Skatalites fans.
After staying at Studio One for about two years, the group moved on to do sessions for Prince Buster (released in 1974) before recording their second album produced by Byron Lee in 1965 . However, the band’s musical career was rudely interrupted in late 1966 when Hibbert was arrested and imprisoned on drugs possession charges.
Following Hibbert’s release from jail towards the end of 1967, the band officially changed their name to Toots and the Maytals and began working with Chinese-Jamaican producer Leslie Kong, a collaboration which produced three classic albums and a string of hits throughout the late sixties and early seventies – “Do the Reggay”, a 1968 single widely credited with coining the word reggae, “Pressure Drop”, “54-46 was my number” and “Monkey Man”, the group’s first international hit in 1970 . The group was featured in one of reggae’s greatest breakthrough events – The Harder They Come, the 1972 film and soundtrack starring Jimmy Cliff, named as one of Vanity Fair’s Top 10 Best Soundtracks of all time.
54-46 Was My Number
Following Kong’s death in 1971, the group continued to record with Kong’s former sound engineer, Warwick Lyn; produced by Lyn and Chris Blackwell of Island Records, the group released three best-selling albums, and enjoyed international hits with Funky Kingston in 1973 and Reggae Got Soul in 1976.
Toots and the Maytals’ compositions would be given a second airing in 1978-80 during the reggae-punk and ska revival period in the UK, when The Specials included “Monkey Man” on their 1979 debut album and The Clash produced their version of “Pressure Drop”. Having toured throughout the world for many years, Toots and the Maytals disbanded in the early 1980s, but reformed in the early 90s to continue touring and recording successfully. Sublime recorded cover versions of some Maytals songs in the 1990s as well.
The band recently won the 2005 Grammy award for best reggae album True Love, an album consisting of re-recorded versions of their classics alongside popular and legendary musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards, as well as popular artists today such as No Doubt, Ben Harper, The Roots, and Shaggy.
Toots and the Maytals remains a relevant influence on today’s global music scene with artists from Amy Winehouse to Sublime re-recording classic tracks. Toots recieved another Grammy nomination for his 2008 release “Light Your Light. In recent years Toots has toured with The Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Los Lonely Boys.
Always recording when not touring “Flip & Twist” will be release on 4/20/10 on Toot’s own D & F Music label. Look for Toots on the road spring and fall in the US and summer in Europe.
When: Sunday 6/5 @ 8:00pm - 9:30
Where: Revival Tent
The Very Best Of Toots & The Maytals
Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are considered legends of ska and reggae music. Their sound is a unique, original combination of gospel, ska, soul, reggae and rock. Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, the leader of the group, was born in May Pen in the Parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. He was the youngest of seven children. He grew up singing gospel music in a church choir, but moved to Kingston in 1961 at the tender age of sixteen.In Kingston, Hibbert met Henry “Raleigh” Gordon and Nathaniel “Jerry” McCarthy, forming a group whose early recordings were attributed to “The Flames” and, possibly, “The Vikings”. Having renamed the group the Maytals, the vocal trio recorded their first album, “Never Grow Old – presenting the Maytals”, for producer Clement “Coxsone” Dodd at Studio One in 1962-63. With musical backing from Dodd’s house band, the legendary Skatalites, the Maytals’ close-harmony gospel singing ensured instant success for the 1964 release, overshadowing Dodd’s other up-and-coming gospel trio, The Wailers. The original album augmented by studio out-takes from the Studio One sessions was re-released by Heartbeat/Rounder Records in 1997, and is essential listening for Maytals and Skatalites fans.
After staying at Studio One for about two years, the group moved on to do sessions for Prince Buster (released in 1974) before recording their second album produced by Byron Lee in 1965 . However, the band’s musical career was rudely interrupted in late 1966 when Hibbert was arrested and imprisoned on drugs possession charges.
Following Hibbert’s release from jail towards the end of 1967, the band officially changed their name to Toots and the Maytals and began working with Chinese-Jamaican producer Leslie Kong, a collaboration which produced three classic albums and a string of hits throughout the late sixties and early seventies – “Do the Reggay”, a 1968 single widely credited with coining the word reggae, “Pressure Drop”, “54-46 was my number” and “Monkey Man”, the group’s first international hit in 1970 . The group was featured in one of reggae’s greatest breakthrough events – The Harder They Come, the 1972 film and soundtrack starring Jimmy Cliff, named as one of Vanity Fair’s Top 10 Best Soundtracks of all time.
54-46 Was My Number
Following Kong’s death in 1971, the group continued to record with Kong’s former sound engineer, Warwick Lyn; produced by Lyn and Chris Blackwell of Island Records, the group released three best-selling albums, and enjoyed international hits with Funky Kingston in 1973 and Reggae Got Soul in 1976.Toots and the Maytals’ compositions would be given a second airing in 1978-80 during the reggae-punk and ska revival period in the UK, when The Specials included “Monkey Man” on their 1979 debut album and The Clash produced their version of “Pressure Drop”. Having toured throughout the world for many years, Toots and the Maytals disbanded in the early 1980s, but reformed in the early 90s to continue touring and recording successfully. Sublime recorded cover versions of some Maytals songs in the 1990s as well.
The band recently won the 2005 Grammy award for best reggae album True Love, an album consisting of re-recorded versions of their classics alongside popular and legendary musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards, as well as popular artists today such as No Doubt, Ben Harper, The Roots, and Shaggy.
Toots and the Maytals remains a relevant influence on today’s global music scene with artists from Amy Winehouse to Sublime re-recording classic tracks. Toots recieved another Grammy nomination for his 2008 release “Light Your Light. In recent years Toots has toured with The Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Los Lonely Boys.
Always recording when not touring “Flip & Twist” will be release on 4/20/10 on Toot’s own D & F Music label. Look for Toots on the road spring and fall in the US and summer in Europe.
Friday, May 27, 2011
5 Days Until Wakarusa
Ben Harper and RELENTLESS7
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 8:00pm - 10:00
Where:Mainstage
In a hostile sea of disposable, throwaway singles, BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7 have made a true album. White Lies For Dark Times is a timeless rock record, with a cohesive collection of music that is as raw, unrelenting and thunderous, as it is arrestingly haunting and emotional.
On the raucous opening track, "Number With No Name," Harper bellows "the very thing that drives you -- can drive you insane" over an infectious guitar line and a deftly serious groove that both thumps and propels the listener. The band then brings the listener full circle in the closing track "Faithfully Remain," as Harper sings, "the truth just wastes away in all we can't explain, but I faithfully remain." The beauty of these lyrics works as a breathtaking release which balances out the anthemic urgency of songs such as "Shimmer and Shine" and "Up To You Now," both of which are surely soon to be familiar staples at radio.
This is American rock, the way it is supposed to sound and feel.
In what may possibly be the greatest "how the band formed" story ever, Harper met guitarist Jason Mozersky in the late nineties, when the lead singer of Mozersky's then band, WAN SANTO CONDO was working as a van driver shuttling bands back and forth to the venue for a Texas promoter. (The three members of the 7 all hail from Texas) The part time driver, part time musician took a risk that all artists must take at some point in their lives in order to succeed. He asked the then captive Ben Harper, "Can I play you my demo?" Harper obliged, and in his own words "was blown away," and helped the band secure a record deal and release the self-titled Wan Santo Condo / Everloving Records, 2004. The band broke up after one record, but what survived was a lasting friendship between Harper and Mozersky.
In 2005, Harper began recording sessions that would become a double record entitled Both Sides of the Gun (2006, Virgin Records). He invited his now long time friend Mozersky to lay down some guitar work on a track. Upon invitation to continue recording the next day, Jason arrived at the studio with longtime friends, drummer Jordan Richardson and bassist Jesse Ingalls. The session would spawn not only the song "Serve Your Soul" but the framework for Relentless7.
In the summer of 2008, the chance arrived for these four uniquely talented members to reunite in the studio and dig deeper into the chemistry that was born during the Both Sides of the Gun sessions. It was soon apparent that their instincts were correct as the record quickly began to take shape. The songs from White Lies For Dark Times sound off with both the vast musical depth and experience of Harper, while commanding the pure urgency and intensity of an unknown band fighting for its life.
This is clear in the song "Fly One Time" with the lyric "I'm caught in between what I can't leave behind, and what I may never find" where BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7 capture universal emotion while the song pulsates into a bass, drum and electric guitar anthem that would captivate any arena and crush any small club.
In November 2008, the band debuted their new material on the Vote For Change Tour, where they also breathed new life into the Queen/David Bowie classic "Under Pressure," which has since become a staple of their live set. They ended the year cutting their teeth with a series of small club shows from famed venues such as Spaceland and The Mint in Los Angeles, to The Mercury Lounge and Kenny's Castaway in NYC. The band is scheduled to tour extensively across the world in 2009.
BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7 intelligently has one foot in Harper's past while every other limb and appendage reach towards the future. Any preconceptions or misconceptions in regards to a "Ben Harper sound" must now be adjusted, or thrown out all together. With BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7, the story of modern rock music is now being rewritten.
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 8:00pm - 10:00
Where:Mainstage
In a hostile sea of disposable, throwaway singles, BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7 have made a true album. White Lies For Dark Times is a timeless rock record, with a cohesive collection of music that is as raw, unrelenting and thunderous, as it is arrestingly haunting and emotional.
On the raucous opening track, "Number With No Name," Harper bellows "the very thing that drives you -- can drive you insane" over an infectious guitar line and a deftly serious groove that both thumps and propels the listener. The band then brings the listener full circle in the closing track "Faithfully Remain," as Harper sings, "the truth just wastes away in all we can't explain, but I faithfully remain." The beauty of these lyrics works as a breathtaking release which balances out the anthemic urgency of songs such as "Shimmer and Shine" and "Up To You Now," both of which are surely soon to be familiar staples at radio.
This is American rock, the way it is supposed to sound and feel.
In what may possibly be the greatest "how the band formed" story ever, Harper met guitarist Jason Mozersky in the late nineties, when the lead singer of Mozersky's then band, WAN SANTO CONDO was working as a van driver shuttling bands back and forth to the venue for a Texas promoter. (The three members of the 7 all hail from Texas) The part time driver, part time musician took a risk that all artists must take at some point in their lives in order to succeed. He asked the then captive Ben Harper, "Can I play you my demo?" Harper obliged, and in his own words "was blown away," and helped the band secure a record deal and release the self-titled Wan Santo Condo / Everloving Records, 2004. The band broke up after one record, but what survived was a lasting friendship between Harper and Mozersky.
In 2005, Harper began recording sessions that would become a double record entitled Both Sides of the Gun (2006, Virgin Records). He invited his now long time friend Mozersky to lay down some guitar work on a track. Upon invitation to continue recording the next day, Jason arrived at the studio with longtime friends, drummer Jordan Richardson and bassist Jesse Ingalls. The session would spawn not only the song "Serve Your Soul" but the framework for Relentless7.
In the summer of 2008, the chance arrived for these four uniquely talented members to reunite in the studio and dig deeper into the chemistry that was born during the Both Sides of the Gun sessions. It was soon apparent that their instincts were correct as the record quickly began to take shape. The songs from White Lies For Dark Times sound off with both the vast musical depth and experience of Harper, while commanding the pure urgency and intensity of an unknown band fighting for its life.
This is clear in the song "Fly One Time" with the lyric "I'm caught in between what I can't leave behind, and what I may never find" where BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7 capture universal emotion while the song pulsates into a bass, drum and electric guitar anthem that would captivate any arena and crush any small club.
In November 2008, the band debuted their new material on the Vote For Change Tour, where they also breathed new life into the Queen/David Bowie classic "Under Pressure," which has since become a staple of their live set. They ended the year cutting their teeth with a series of small club shows from famed venues such as Spaceland and The Mint in Los Angeles, to The Mercury Lounge and Kenny's Castaway in NYC. The band is scheduled to tour extensively across the world in 2009.
BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7 intelligently has one foot in Harper's past while every other limb and appendage reach towards the future. Any preconceptions or misconceptions in regards to a "Ben Harper sound" must now be adjusted, or thrown out all together. With BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7, the story of modern rock music is now being rewritten.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
6 Days Until Wakarusa
EOTO
When: Friday 6/3 @ 2:30am - 4:00 When: Sunday 6/5 @ 10:30pm- 12:00
Where: Revival Tent Where: Mainstage (Superjam Style)
As electronic influences continue to penetrate the live rock, jazz, and jam ethos, one band consistently rises to the top, bringing together fans from across the musical spectrum. EOTO crisscrosses the country blowing out basement dives, packed theaters, and stages under the stars. Check your festival schedules: this 100% improvised dubstep/breakbeat/house/drum & bass/trip-hop duo is the premier late-night party in the country.
Throbbing bass and thudding beats are the signatures of this project from drummers Michael Travis and Jason Hann. Born out of their shared love of electronic dance music, EOTO’s M.O. is to take the free-wheeling party vibe of a DJ set to the next level by using organic instruments, innovative performance technology, and uncharted musical exploration. Live drums, guitars, and keys, and vocals are mixed, remixed, and sampled on the fly using cutting-edge programs. This is all done without a script, and without a net.
Hann plays a hyper EQ’d drumkit, chock full of multi-touch screens and MIDI controllers, and throws a number of effects on his otherworldly vocal styles. Travis takes on subsonic frequencies, generating the band’s crushing low end with analog, digital, and software synthesizers, occasionally picking up guitar or a bass guitar and showing off his proficiency with instruments of all shapes and sizes.
Hann, has been playing percussion professionally since the age of 12. Years of collaborating, touring, and recording with the likes of Youssou N’Dour, Isaac Hayes, Dr. Dre, Loreena McKinnett, SCI, and a slew of other established artists running the gamut from Latin jazz to R ‘n’ B and soul allows him to move fluidly between styles. Adding to this is his depth in African and Latin drumming traditions, allowing the futuristic EOTO sound to keep itself rooted in the past.
For the last 16 years, Travis has been the drumming octopus in SCI. He morphs roles to melodic multi-instrumentalist in EOTO, providing the raw basslines and harmonic tapestry that fill out the soundscape of the duo. Both Hann and Travis have the chops and stamina for physically demanding, EOTO improvised sets, which have been known to go upwards of 4 straight hours. “When we’re playing live for 3 hours a night, it’s like playing tribal drums in a ceremony,” Hann explains. “I’m looking at one person at a time out there, and thinking ‘what can I do to make you dance?’”
An EOTO set is a nebulous beast. Setlists are only broken up into tracks for the sake of posterity. In reality, changes in mood, energy, and inspiration are reflected—in real-time—by rhythmic and melodic shifts. The duo moves effortlessly from choppy dubstep to whip-smart, four-on-the-floor house to psychedelic trip-hop. It’s a dance marathon, but everyone’s in it together. The EOTO set is dependent on crowd energy and activity, effectively breaking down the wall between artist and audience.
Because EOTO starts fresh every night, the band’s evolutionary progress has been thrust into hyperspeed, eclipsing standard acts who return to their dusty catalog for every performance. This is apparent when following the musical evolution of their live performances, which are recorded every night and made available to their fans. On EOTO’s first 2 studio releases--2006’s Elephants Only Talk Occasionally, and the 2008 release Razed, EOTO bounced playfully between house, trance, and breakbeat. A huge change in their sound came when Travis and Hann first saw, felt, and heard the cathartic vibes that dubstep could produce at DJ Skream’s set at Shambhala during the Summer of 2008. This influence saw the duo become the first National, live, dubstep act in the US. The wobbly, buzz-saw bass and heavy backbeat style has become a signature of their sets, as heard on their live recordings and on the 2009 studio release, Fire the Lazers!!! Newer material has the duo co-opting sounds from outside the realm of electronic music with scratchy punk riffs and fuzzy sludge metal bass.
While the recording of each album is no different than the live performance—completely improvised in one take—the records are an appetizer to the live performance. Hann and Travis are consummate road dogs, playing almost 200 shows a year. EOTO has played more than seven hundred unique showcases in 48 different states in the five years since the project’s inception. Each set is recorded and released (www.livedownloads.com ) so fans can capture their unique EOTO dance throwdown, reliving the experience again and again.
When: Friday 6/3 @ 2:30am - 4:00 When: Sunday 6/5 @ 10:30pm- 12:00
Where: Revival Tent Where: Mainstage (Superjam Style)
As electronic influences continue to penetrate the live rock, jazz, and jam ethos, one band consistently rises to the top, bringing together fans from across the musical spectrum. EOTO crisscrosses the country blowing out basement dives, packed theaters, and stages under the stars. Check your festival schedules: this 100% improvised dubstep/breakbeat/house/drum & bass/trip-hop duo is the premier late-night party in the country.
Throbbing bass and thudding beats are the signatures of this project from drummers Michael Travis and Jason Hann. Born out of their shared love of electronic dance music, EOTO’s M.O. is to take the free-wheeling party vibe of a DJ set to the next level by using organic instruments, innovative performance technology, and uncharted musical exploration. Live drums, guitars, and keys, and vocals are mixed, remixed, and sampled on the fly using cutting-edge programs. This is all done without a script, and without a net.
Hann plays a hyper EQ’d drumkit, chock full of multi-touch screens and MIDI controllers, and throws a number of effects on his otherworldly vocal styles. Travis takes on subsonic frequencies, generating the band’s crushing low end with analog, digital, and software synthesizers, occasionally picking up guitar or a bass guitar and showing off his proficiency with instruments of all shapes and sizes.
Hann, has been playing percussion professionally since the age of 12. Years of collaborating, touring, and recording with the likes of Youssou N’Dour, Isaac Hayes, Dr. Dre, Loreena McKinnett, SCI, and a slew of other established artists running the gamut from Latin jazz to R ‘n’ B and soul allows him to move fluidly between styles. Adding to this is his depth in African and Latin drumming traditions, allowing the futuristic EOTO sound to keep itself rooted in the past.
For the last 16 years, Travis has been the drumming octopus in SCI. He morphs roles to melodic multi-instrumentalist in EOTO, providing the raw basslines and harmonic tapestry that fill out the soundscape of the duo. Both Hann and Travis have the chops and stamina for physically demanding, EOTO improvised sets, which have been known to go upwards of 4 straight hours. “When we’re playing live for 3 hours a night, it’s like playing tribal drums in a ceremony,” Hann explains. “I’m looking at one person at a time out there, and thinking ‘what can I do to make you dance?’”
An EOTO set is a nebulous beast. Setlists are only broken up into tracks for the sake of posterity. In reality, changes in mood, energy, and inspiration are reflected—in real-time—by rhythmic and melodic shifts. The duo moves effortlessly from choppy dubstep to whip-smart, four-on-the-floor house to psychedelic trip-hop. It’s a dance marathon, but everyone’s in it together. The EOTO set is dependent on crowd energy and activity, effectively breaking down the wall between artist and audience.
Because EOTO starts fresh every night, the band’s evolutionary progress has been thrust into hyperspeed, eclipsing standard acts who return to their dusty catalog for every performance. This is apparent when following the musical evolution of their live performances, which are recorded every night and made available to their fans. On EOTO’s first 2 studio releases--2006’s Elephants Only Talk Occasionally, and the 2008 release Razed, EOTO bounced playfully between house, trance, and breakbeat. A huge change in their sound came when Travis and Hann first saw, felt, and heard the cathartic vibes that dubstep could produce at DJ Skream’s set at Shambhala during the Summer of 2008. This influence saw the duo become the first National, live, dubstep act in the US. The wobbly, buzz-saw bass and heavy backbeat style has become a signature of their sets, as heard on their live recordings and on the 2009 studio release, Fire the Lazers!!! Newer material has the duo co-opting sounds from outside the realm of electronic music with scratchy punk riffs and fuzzy sludge metal bass.
While the recording of each album is no different than the live performance—completely improvised in one take—the records are an appetizer to the live performance. Hann and Travis are consummate road dogs, playing almost 200 shows a year. EOTO has played more than seven hundred unique showcases in 48 different states in the five years since the project’s inception. Each set is recorded and released (www.livedownloads.com ) so fans can capture their unique EOTO dance throwdown, reliving the experience again and again.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
7 Days Until Wakarusa
Mumford & Sons
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 6:00pm - 7:30
Where: Mainstage
Since they formed in December 2007, the members of Mumford & Sons have shared a common purpose: to make music that matters, without taking themselves too seriously. Four young men from West London in their early twenties, they have fire in their bellies, romance in their hearts, and rapture in their masterful, melancholy voices. They are staunch friends - Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane - who bring their music to us with the passion and pride of an old-fashioned, much-cherished, family business. They create a gutsy, old-time sound that marries the magic of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with the might of Kings Of Leon, and their incredible energy draws us in quickly to their circle of songs, to the warmth of their stories, and to their magical community of misty-eyed men.
The four friends were playing various instruments in various bands in London throughout the summer of 2007. They were united to perform impromptu renditions of Marcus’ earliest attempts at song-writing in front of crowds of friends in sweaty underground folk nights in the capital. They bonded over their love of country, bluegrass and folk, and decided to make music that sounded loud, proud and live - taking music that could often be pretty and delicate, and fill it with enthusiasm, courage and confidence. "It was a very exciting time, and though we loved it and were in awe of the music going on around us, we didn’t consider ourselves contenders in the pretty daunting London music scene. There was never any idea of competition, just pure enjoyment", says Marcus. They loved live music so much that they would practise their sets on pavements outside the venues, and also act as backing musicians for the peers with whom they played.
This sense of playing music for the love of it has continued as the main theme through the band’s short history. They booked their first rehearsals in the late autumn of 2007: "As soon as we sat down together, just the four of us, we knew we had become a band cos what came out was unique to us four as individuals," says Ben. Out of this session came their first band songs: Awake My Soul and White Blank Page, highlights on their debut album.
As soon as they had their first rough cluster of songs, they hit the road. Straightaway, they won the hearts of their audiences with their harmonies, the way they engaged with their instruments, their bandmates and their crowds - and chased the friendly live reception they got all over the country.
Word spread quickly. The band toured extensively throughout 2008; from a barge-tour of the Thames with eight other acts, through to an island-hopping tour of the Scottish highlands, and a triumphant set at Glastonbury in June, they sold out London's Luminaire in July, only half a year after they got together. Their first American tour followed in support of Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit. A trilogy of beautiful 10" EPs all on Chess Club Records also followed, recorded simply at home. Their eponymous EP debuted the same month as their Luminaire show; Love Your Ground followed in December; while The Cave And The Open Sea arrived in May.
With each release, the music of Mumford & Sons got brighter, bolder and brawnier, with an increasing focus on their empassioned and intimate lyrics. "What we write about is real, and we sing and play our instruments more passionately cos we feel like we need to. We love honest music," says Winston.
Their success continued to build, too, with two glorious benchmarks being their place on the BBC Sound Of 2009 Poll shortlist, and their London ICA show selling out in 24 hours.
Then came the time to record their debut album - and then came the extraordinary producer who wanted to work with them. Markus Dravs recorded Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, Björk's Homogenic and The Maccabees’ Wall of Arms, and he saw similar crossover potential in the Sons. He took them to the legendary Eastcote Studios where Arctic Monkeys, Brian Eno, Tindersticks and Laura Marling have honed their music on its vintage equipment; made the band buy good instruments; set them a daily routine; and encouraged them to try and work even more instinctively, to strengthen their already-powerful musical personality. "He wanted us just to sound like us", explains Ben. "He talked about us working on our music's most jubilant and melancholic moments, and make them even more evocative. And over those four weeks, everything came together."
The album begins with the extraordinary title track, Sigh No More, a statement of intent that references the romantic language of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, as they sing: "Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you / It will set you free / Be more like the man you were made to be." Amongst darkly reflective tracks such as Thistle & Weeds and ballads like White Blank Page, Winter Winds and Roll Away Your Stone, by contrast, show the band's sprightlier side, the rollicking banjo of the former conjuring up stormy weather that "litters London with lonely hearts"; the latter a fabulous hoedown about a man unsuccessfully filling the hole in his soul.
As the album moves on, this fervour never dies. Little Lion Man - a track that Zane Lowe named the "Hottest Record In The World Today" on a recent Radio 1 show - is a rampage about regret and unresolved heartbreak: "Tremble, little lion man / You’ll never settle any of your scores / Your grace is wasted in your face / Your boldness stands alone among the wreck". And finally, after a wild lashing out in the murderous fable of Dust Bowl Dance, After The Storm arrives, the only track Mumford and Sons wrote in the studio, away from the live stage they knew so well. It stands an incredibly moving final track to an incredibly moving album - the story of a man scared of what's behind and what's before, and creates a considered conclusion to the band’s epic debut album.
Mumford & Sons’ live reputation goes before them, and now their incredible debut reveals the extent of their magic and majesty on record. Feel the fire in your belly and the romance in your heart as you listen, let your voice break into rapture - and you too sigh no more.
Mumford & Sons are: Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane.
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 6:00pm - 7:30
Where: Mainstage
Since they formed in December 2007, the members of Mumford & Sons have shared a common purpose: to make music that matters, without taking themselves too seriously. Four young men from West London in their early twenties, they have fire in their bellies, romance in their hearts, and rapture in their masterful, melancholy voices. They are staunch friends - Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane - who bring their music to us with the passion and pride of an old-fashioned, much-cherished, family business. They create a gutsy, old-time sound that marries the magic of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with the might of Kings Of Leon, and their incredible energy draws us in quickly to their circle of songs, to the warmth of their stories, and to their magical community of misty-eyed men.
The four friends were playing various instruments in various bands in London throughout the summer of 2007. They were united to perform impromptu renditions of Marcus’ earliest attempts at song-writing in front of crowds of friends in sweaty underground folk nights in the capital. They bonded over their love of country, bluegrass and folk, and decided to make music that sounded loud, proud and live - taking music that could often be pretty and delicate, and fill it with enthusiasm, courage and confidence. "It was a very exciting time, and though we loved it and were in awe of the music going on around us, we didn’t consider ourselves contenders in the pretty daunting London music scene. There was never any idea of competition, just pure enjoyment", says Marcus. They loved live music so much that they would practise their sets on pavements outside the venues, and also act as backing musicians for the peers with whom they played.
This sense of playing music for the love of it has continued as the main theme through the band’s short history. They booked their first rehearsals in the late autumn of 2007: "As soon as we sat down together, just the four of us, we knew we had become a band cos what came out was unique to us four as individuals," says Ben. Out of this session came their first band songs: Awake My Soul and White Blank Page, highlights on their debut album.
As soon as they had their first rough cluster of songs, they hit the road. Straightaway, they won the hearts of their audiences with their harmonies, the way they engaged with their instruments, their bandmates and their crowds - and chased the friendly live reception they got all over the country.
Word spread quickly. The band toured extensively throughout 2008; from a barge-tour of the Thames with eight other acts, through to an island-hopping tour of the Scottish highlands, and a triumphant set at Glastonbury in June, they sold out London's Luminaire in July, only half a year after they got together. Their first American tour followed in support of Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit. A trilogy of beautiful 10" EPs all on Chess Club Records also followed, recorded simply at home. Their eponymous EP debuted the same month as their Luminaire show; Love Your Ground followed in December; while The Cave And The Open Sea arrived in May.
With each release, the music of Mumford & Sons got brighter, bolder and brawnier, with an increasing focus on their empassioned and intimate lyrics. "What we write about is real, and we sing and play our instruments more passionately cos we feel like we need to. We love honest music," says Winston.
Their success continued to build, too, with two glorious benchmarks being their place on the BBC Sound Of 2009 Poll shortlist, and their London ICA show selling out in 24 hours.
Then came the time to record their debut album - and then came the extraordinary producer who wanted to work with them. Markus Dravs recorded Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, Björk's Homogenic and The Maccabees’ Wall of Arms, and he saw similar crossover potential in the Sons. He took them to the legendary Eastcote Studios where Arctic Monkeys, Brian Eno, Tindersticks and Laura Marling have honed their music on its vintage equipment; made the band buy good instruments; set them a daily routine; and encouraged them to try and work even more instinctively, to strengthen their already-powerful musical personality. "He wanted us just to sound like us", explains Ben. "He talked about us working on our music's most jubilant and melancholic moments, and make them even more evocative. And over those four weeks, everything came together."
The album begins with the extraordinary title track, Sigh No More, a statement of intent that references the romantic language of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, as they sing: "Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you / It will set you free / Be more like the man you were made to be." Amongst darkly reflective tracks such as Thistle & Weeds and ballads like White Blank Page, Winter Winds and Roll Away Your Stone, by contrast, show the band's sprightlier side, the rollicking banjo of the former conjuring up stormy weather that "litters London with lonely hearts"; the latter a fabulous hoedown about a man unsuccessfully filling the hole in his soul.
As the album moves on, this fervour never dies. Little Lion Man - a track that Zane Lowe named the "Hottest Record In The World Today" on a recent Radio 1 show - is a rampage about regret and unresolved heartbreak: "Tremble, little lion man / You’ll never settle any of your scores / Your grace is wasted in your face / Your boldness stands alone among the wreck". And finally, after a wild lashing out in the murderous fable of Dust Bowl Dance, After The Storm arrives, the only track Mumford and Sons wrote in the studio, away from the live stage they knew so well. It stands an incredibly moving final track to an incredibly moving album - the story of a man scared of what's behind and what's before, and creates a considered conclusion to the band’s epic debut album.
Mumford & Sons’ live reputation goes before them, and now their incredible debut reveals the extent of their magic and majesty on record. Feel the fire in your belly and the romance in your heart as you listen, let your voice break into rapture - and you too sigh no more.
Mumford & Sons are: Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
8 Days Until Wakarusa
SKRILLEX
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 2:45am - 4:15
Where: Outpost Stage
"I've been deep into electronic music my entire life. The first records I ever owned were ‘Fat of Land' by the Prodigy and ‘Come To Daddy' by Aphex Twin," raves Sonny Moore, better known as emerging electronic visionary SKRILLEX. "Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails
were also early influences. I've been dabbling in making electronic tracks on programs like Fruity Loops
since I was 14 years old."
For fans of Moore's past incarnation as the lead singer of hardcore band From First To Last, the bass bin crushing dance floor beats of SKRILLEX might come off as something of a shock. But SKRILLEX is part of a new generation of artists that refuse to be restricted by preconceived notions or outside expectations. "Genre has never been important to me," he insists. "I've never thought about music that way."
Describing his current sound as "a mix of dubstep, electro and glitch all thrown together," new SKRILLEX release "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES" reflects all of the above and beyond. The uplifting post-trance synth melodies of "ALL I ASK OF YOU" (featuring the soaring vocals of Penny) stands in stark contrast to the face-melting electro bass blasts of the massive electro-dubstep hybrid "ROCK N' ROLL (WILL TAKE YOU TO THE MOUNTAIN)."
"I've listened to so much music for so long, it's more about instinct than influence," Moore explains about his sonic inspirations. "Coming up, I was into a lot of artists on the Warp record label like Autechre, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin, so SKRILLEX tracks are inclined to have more changes than most dance tracks normally have. I can draw influences from almost anything. I just like to mess around and create cool new sounds and noises. I just go where the music takes me."
After just one hugely successful independent release, "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES" is the first SKRILLEX release on Big Beat Records, in conjunction with fellow electronic revolutionary Deadmau5's freshly minted Mau5trap record label.
"For years, the artists needed the record labels. I don't feel that way at all," Moore stresses. "SKRILLEX has been 100% independent until now. I think it's so important to be self-sufficient as artist. Working with Atlantic / Big Beat, and cooperating with Mau5trap, allows us all to work as a team and expand on what's already been built."
Following its release on Beatport, the 9-song EP dominated the charts on the site, with the title track claiming the site's #1 slot (the first time a dubstep track has ever done so), 8 songs breaking into the top 10, and multiple tracks claiming the #1 slots on several of the site's subgenre charts, including Dubstep, Electro House, Progressive House.
Aside from the immediate success of "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES
," SKRILLEX has also made a name for himself as a highly sought-after remixer. He's already produced officially commissioned remixes for such A-list artists as the Black Eyed Peas ("Rock That Body"), Lady Gaga ("Bad Romance" and "Alejandro"), and La Roux ("In For The Kill")
.
SKRILLEX stands not only at the vanguard of electronic dance music, but the perpetually evolving new music industry as a whole.
"For me, it's important to believe in and love the music you're making. I gave away my first EP on my manager's website, just so people could hear the music," he enthuses. "It was downloaded by the thousands in just a couple of months, and it hasn't let up since. That's all the inspiration I need to keep making music.
"SKRILLEX
can be anything I want it to be," he continues hopefully. "There are so many different avenues for music now. Video games, movie scores - the possibilities are endless, and I'm excited to be a part of it."
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 2:45am - 4:15
Where: Outpost Stage
"I've been deep into electronic music my entire life. The first records I ever owned were ‘Fat of Land' by the Prodigy and ‘Come To Daddy' by Aphex Twin," raves Sonny Moore, better known as emerging electronic visionary SKRILLEX. "Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails
were also early influences. I've been dabbling in making electronic tracks on programs like Fruity Loops since I was 14 years old."For fans of Moore's past incarnation as the lead singer of hardcore band From First To Last, the bass bin crushing dance floor beats of SKRILLEX might come off as something of a shock. But SKRILLEX is part of a new generation of artists that refuse to be restricted by preconceived notions or outside expectations. "Genre has never been important to me," he insists. "I've never thought about music that way."
Describing his current sound as "a mix of dubstep, electro and glitch all thrown together," new SKRILLEX release "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES" reflects all of the above and beyond. The uplifting post-trance synth melodies of "ALL I ASK OF YOU" (featuring the soaring vocals of Penny) stands in stark contrast to the face-melting electro bass blasts of the massive electro-dubstep hybrid "ROCK N' ROLL (WILL TAKE YOU TO THE MOUNTAIN)."
"I've listened to so much music for so long, it's more about instinct than influence," Moore explains about his sonic inspirations. "Coming up, I was into a lot of artists on the Warp record label like Autechre, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin, so SKRILLEX tracks are inclined to have more changes than most dance tracks normally have. I can draw influences from almost anything. I just like to mess around and create cool new sounds and noises. I just go where the music takes me."
After just one hugely successful independent release, "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES" is the first SKRILLEX release on Big Beat Records, in conjunction with fellow electronic revolutionary Deadmau5's freshly minted Mau5trap record label.
"For years, the artists needed the record labels. I don't feel that way at all," Moore stresses. "SKRILLEX has been 100% independent until now. I think it's so important to be self-sufficient as artist. Working with Atlantic / Big Beat, and cooperating with Mau5trap, allows us all to work as a team and expand on what's already been built."
Following its release on Beatport, the 9-song EP dominated the charts on the site, with the title track claiming the site's #1 slot (the first time a dubstep track has ever done so), 8 songs breaking into the top 10, and multiple tracks claiming the #1 slots on several of the site's subgenre charts, including Dubstep, Electro House, Progressive House.
Aside from the immediate success of "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES
," SKRILLEX has also made a name for himself as a highly sought-after remixer. He's already produced officially commissioned remixes for such A-list artists as the Black Eyed Peas ("Rock That Body"), Lady Gaga ("Bad Romance" and "Alejandro"), and La Roux ("In For The Kill").SKRILLEX stands not only at the vanguard of electronic dance music, but the perpetually evolving new music industry as a whole.
"For me, it's important to believe in and love the music you're making. I gave away my first EP on my manager's website, just so people could hear the music," he enthuses. "It was downloaded by the thousands in just a couple of months, and it hasn't let up since. That's all the inspiration I need to keep making music.
"SKRILLEX
can be anything I want it to be," he continues hopefully. "There are so many different avenues for music now. Video games, movie scores - the possibilities are endless, and I'm excited to be a part of it."
Monday, May 23, 2011
9 Days Until Wakarusa
Michael Franti & Spearhead
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 8:15pm - 9:45
Where: Mainstage
The Sound Of Sunshine -- the inspired and inspiring new album by Michael Franti & Spearhead -- is a kind of musical sun shower, a bright, beautiful and often buoyant song cycle created to bring all kinds of listeners a sense of hope during rough and rainy times for so many in our world.
“Music is sunshine,” says Michael Franti, one of the most positive and conscious artists in music today. “Like sunshine, music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood. Music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.”
“Music is something you can’t hold in your hands, smell it, taste it or even see it, yet somehow just coming together and feeling these little vibrations that tickle our eardrums can somehow lift us all up out of our most difficult moments in life to unimaginable heights.”
Ironically, often joyous and uplifting The Sound Of Sunshine actually came out of a darker and tougher personal experience for Franti. “Last August, my appendix ruptured suddenly in the middle of a tour and I ended up in the hospital for eight days while they figured out what was wrong with me,” recalls Franti. “I almost died and I wrote many of these songs coming out of that experience while I was in the hospital for another week or so after that. During that time, I really took a moment to prioritize what’s truly important in my life -- and in the end, that’s really about the people who I love. Even in that hospital, I could laugh with the people I love, cry with them, and start to find the sun again.”
Well aware that countless others face far worse problems than he did, Franti wants The Sound Of Sunshine to communicate a sense of hope and possibility for anybody who needs it. Franti’s singularly open spirit reflects his own eclectic and intriguing background. Michael was born to an Irish-German-French mother and an African American and American Indian father in Oakland, then adopted by a Finnish American couple who raised him along with their three biological children and another African American son. While studying at the University of San Francisco, Franti formed the punk band The Beatnigs, and later the far more hip hop-inflected The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Through it all, Franti has crossed all sorts of musical and physical boundaries in order to make music for everybody.
In the mid-Nineties, Franti first formed Spearhead, and increasingly in recent years, he’s found his own voice musically and his own organic brand of popular success. Franti and Spearhead’s last album, 2008’s All Rebel Rockers -- recorded in Jamaica with legendary producers and players Sly & Robbie – became the biggest hit of Franti’s career, hitting the Top 40 on the Billboard 200, and yielded his biggest hit, the Top 20 “Say Hey (I Love You).”
“I had a nice, long time to get ready for that first hit, and so I really appreciated it when it happened,” says Franti. “So when we were just mastering the new album, I was saying to my manager, “Boy, wouldn’t it be fun to have a sophomore hit?” He was like, “Sophomore hit? You’ve already been through grad school, man” So yes, I’ve paid some dues, and that’s made getting this far -- and still being here -- mean even more to me. The funny thing is that `Say Hey’ went into the Top Twenty right as I was being wheeled into surgery. I got the text, and I thought, `Wow, I’ve finally got a hit record, and I’m not even going to live to enjoy it.’ That put everything in perspective too.”
Michael Franti is not a man to openly chase success – in fact; he’s not a man who even wears shoes(for the last ten years). Still, Franti has absolutely no problem hearing his music on the radio now. “When I was a kid, I used to listen to AM radio on family vacations in the car, and at family barbeques and my dad would leave the radio on.
So songs that were the silly pop hits became a really meaningful part of my childhood - and of my adult life now. So when I think of the fact that there’s some family out there on the beach in the summer together listening to `Say Hey,’ it makes me feel really good. The truth is a good pop song that makes you feel good can be something of value and meaning to people.”
Arguably the most cohesive, romantic and life-affirming album that Franti and Spearhead have ever made, The Sound Of Sunshine reflects the fact that, as Franti puts it, “With time, you get a better sense who you are and how to put together all your musical passions into your own sound. I feel like for a long time, I dabbled in other sounds. Like `Let’s do something with a reggae vibe here.’ Or `Let’s really rock here.’ But now, I write everything from the acoustic guitar up -- which keeps you honest. Then Jay Bowman, my songwriting partner and I, take a lot of time figuring out what’s the best way to present this song and make every word of it come across and ring true.”
Even the recording process for The Sound Of Sunshine reflects Franti’s desire to communicate directly with his audience. “We started in Jamaica actually recording a bunch of tracks with Sly and Robbie who are, of course, great, and we used some of those tracks. Then we got home and started mixing the record. Then I went to Bali and wrote some more songs, but we still didn’t have it finished. So we said let’s bring a portable studio on the road with us. We’d literally recorded the drums in the locker room of the Toronto Raptors or in the shower of some NHL team. Then we’d go right onstage and play the song and see how other people would react to it. We’d see what worked and go back and record it again the next day. So these songs have really been road tested in front of live bodies.”
For Franti, “To play for people and share your songs with them is to make a real connection. That’s why we play outside our shows for those who can’t afford to come inside. They need the songs too – maybe more. That’s the reality. And as a musician I was on tour with put it recently, “Our fans didn’t come to us from a reality show. They came to us from reality.” And so, we mean something in their lives. We’re the music they put on when they drive their little kids to school, or hang out with the person they love at night. There’s no higher honor. So they have an investment in the music. And that means so much because this music is very personal to me too.”
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 8:15pm - 9:45
Where: Mainstage
The Sound Of Sunshine -- the inspired and inspiring new album by Michael Franti & Spearhead -- is a kind of musical sun shower, a bright, beautiful and often buoyant song cycle created to bring all kinds of listeners a sense of hope during rough and rainy times for so many in our world.
“Music is sunshine,” says Michael Franti, one of the most positive and conscious artists in music today. “Like sunshine, music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood. Music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.”
“Music is something you can’t hold in your hands, smell it, taste it or even see it, yet somehow just coming together and feeling these little vibrations that tickle our eardrums can somehow lift us all up out of our most difficult moments in life to unimaginable heights.”
Ironically, often joyous and uplifting The Sound Of Sunshine actually came out of a darker and tougher personal experience for Franti. “Last August, my appendix ruptured suddenly in the middle of a tour and I ended up in the hospital for eight days while they figured out what was wrong with me,” recalls Franti. “I almost died and I wrote many of these songs coming out of that experience while I was in the hospital for another week or so after that. During that time, I really took a moment to prioritize what’s truly important in my life -- and in the end, that’s really about the people who I love. Even in that hospital, I could laugh with the people I love, cry with them, and start to find the sun again.”
Well aware that countless others face far worse problems than he did, Franti wants The Sound Of Sunshine to communicate a sense of hope and possibility for anybody who needs it. Franti’s singularly open spirit reflects his own eclectic and intriguing background. Michael was born to an Irish-German-French mother and an African American and American Indian father in Oakland, then adopted by a Finnish American couple who raised him along with their three biological children and another African American son. While studying at the University of San Francisco, Franti formed the punk band The Beatnigs, and later the far more hip hop-inflected The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Through it all, Franti has crossed all sorts of musical and physical boundaries in order to make music for everybody.
In the mid-Nineties, Franti first formed Spearhead, and increasingly in recent years, he’s found his own voice musically and his own organic brand of popular success. Franti and Spearhead’s last album, 2008’s All Rebel Rockers -- recorded in Jamaica with legendary producers and players Sly & Robbie – became the biggest hit of Franti’s career, hitting the Top 40 on the Billboard 200, and yielded his biggest hit, the Top 20 “Say Hey (I Love You).”
“I had a nice, long time to get ready for that first hit, and so I really appreciated it when it happened,” says Franti. “So when we were just mastering the new album, I was saying to my manager, “Boy, wouldn’t it be fun to have a sophomore hit?” He was like, “Sophomore hit? You’ve already been through grad school, man” So yes, I’ve paid some dues, and that’s made getting this far -- and still being here -- mean even more to me. The funny thing is that `Say Hey’ went into the Top Twenty right as I was being wheeled into surgery. I got the text, and I thought, `Wow, I’ve finally got a hit record, and I’m not even going to live to enjoy it.’ That put everything in perspective too.”
Michael Franti is not a man to openly chase success – in fact; he’s not a man who even wears shoes(for the last ten years). Still, Franti has absolutely no problem hearing his music on the radio now. “When I was a kid, I used to listen to AM radio on family vacations in the car, and at family barbeques and my dad would leave the radio on.
So songs that were the silly pop hits became a really meaningful part of my childhood - and of my adult life now. So when I think of the fact that there’s some family out there on the beach in the summer together listening to `Say Hey,’ it makes me feel really good. The truth is a good pop song that makes you feel good can be something of value and meaning to people.”
Arguably the most cohesive, romantic and life-affirming album that Franti and Spearhead have ever made, The Sound Of Sunshine reflects the fact that, as Franti puts it, “With time, you get a better sense who you are and how to put together all your musical passions into your own sound. I feel like for a long time, I dabbled in other sounds. Like `Let’s do something with a reggae vibe here.’ Or `Let’s really rock here.’ But now, I write everything from the acoustic guitar up -- which keeps you honest. Then Jay Bowman, my songwriting partner and I, take a lot of time figuring out what’s the best way to present this song and make every word of it come across and ring true.”
Even the recording process for The Sound Of Sunshine reflects Franti’s desire to communicate directly with his audience. “We started in Jamaica actually recording a bunch of tracks with Sly and Robbie who are, of course, great, and we used some of those tracks. Then we got home and started mixing the record. Then I went to Bali and wrote some more songs, but we still didn’t have it finished. So we said let’s bring a portable studio on the road with us. We’d literally recorded the drums in the locker room of the Toronto Raptors or in the shower of some NHL team. Then we’d go right onstage and play the song and see how other people would react to it. We’d see what worked and go back and record it again the next day. So these songs have really been road tested in front of live bodies.”
For Franti, “To play for people and share your songs with them is to make a real connection. That’s why we play outside our shows for those who can’t afford to come inside. They need the songs too – maybe more. That’s the reality. And as a musician I was on tour with put it recently, “Our fans didn’t come to us from a reality show. They came to us from reality.” And so, we mean something in their lives. We’re the music they put on when they drive their little kids to school, or hang out with the person they love at night. There’s no higher honor. So they have an investment in the music. And that means so much because this music is very personal to me too.”
Sunday, May 22, 2011
10 Days Until Wakarusa
Umphrey's McGee
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 10:15 - 12:15
Where: Mainstage
Since forming in the late '90s, the musically muscular and relentlessly inventive Umphrey's McGee has cultivated an impressive presence both live and in the studio. Lauded by critics and adored by fans, the band continues to draw in new listeners with their singular style: virtuoso playing and acrobatic tempo changes and rhythmic shifts complemented by dazzling song craft and composition, memorable hooks, anthemic guitar lines and rock solid rhythms.
Now in their second decade, Umphrey’s McGee continues to wow fans globally. The band has performed at festivals such as U.S. festivals as Bonnaroo, ROTHBURY, and Lollapalooza, have toured Europe multiple times and performed Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival.
Umphrey’s McGee is also known for their innovative approach to distributing music and building community. With the recent unveiling of Umphrey’s McGee’s all-new Stew Art Series (aka, “S2”) – an interactive fan experience where audience members “conduct” the band’s live improvisations - Umphrey’s McGee continue to offer their fiercely loyal fanbase the most innovative musical experiences available. Before their latest studio recording, Mantis, was released in January of last year, the group made the album available for pre-order in an interesting way. Fans were offered more free bonus content the more Mantis pre-orders were received; as the fans “unlocked” levels of content by getting more of their friends to pre-order the album. The idea was to give the fans incentive to help spread the word about the album, and to offer a totally unique music experience.
As Umphrey’s McGee’s sound evolves with every passing show, the live concerts sold on their expansive music archive site UMLive.net continue to be in high demand by their hungry fan base.
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 10:15 - 12:15
Where: Mainstage
Since forming in the late '90s, the musically muscular and relentlessly inventive Umphrey's McGee has cultivated an impressive presence both live and in the studio. Lauded by critics and adored by fans, the band continues to draw in new listeners with their singular style: virtuoso playing and acrobatic tempo changes and rhythmic shifts complemented by dazzling song craft and composition, memorable hooks, anthemic guitar lines and rock solid rhythms.
Now in their second decade, Umphrey’s McGee continues to wow fans globally. The band has performed at festivals such as U.S. festivals as Bonnaroo, ROTHBURY, and Lollapalooza, have toured Europe multiple times and performed Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival.
Umphrey’s McGee is also known for their innovative approach to distributing music and building community. With the recent unveiling of Umphrey’s McGee’s all-new Stew Art Series (aka, “S2”) – an interactive fan experience where audience members “conduct” the band’s live improvisations - Umphrey’s McGee continue to offer their fiercely loyal fanbase the most innovative musical experiences available. Before their latest studio recording, Mantis, was released in January of last year, the group made the album available for pre-order in an interesting way. Fans were offered more free bonus content the more Mantis pre-orders were received; as the fans “unlocked” levels of content by getting more of their friends to pre-order the album. The idea was to give the fans incentive to help spread the word about the album, and to offer a totally unique music experience.
As Umphrey’s McGee’s sound evolves with every passing show, the live concerts sold on their expansive music archive site UMLive.net continue to be in high demand by their hungry fan base.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
11 Days Until Wakarusa
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 6:15pm - 7:45
Where: Mainstage
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are like a modern-day version of Tina Turner stroking the microphone in a spangled mini-dress while fronting the Rolling Stones circa Sticky Fingers. The proof is there for all to hear on the band’s third album for Hollywood Records, hitting this spring, and marks an artistic breakthrough for a vital young band caught in the act of fulfilling its immense promise. Little wonder that Grace and her cohorts have chosen to title it, directly and emphatically, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
“This record is the first time it’s really been us — the first time we’ve all found each other and ourselves,” says Potter with obvious excitement. “Everybody was totally comfortable, everything we had was sitting right in front of us, and it just poured out of us. The whole thing was fluid and effortless. In my mind, an album shouldn’t be self-titled unless it feels that way.”
Produced by Mark Batson (Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z, Dave Matthews Band), who also co-wrote six of the 13 songs with Potter, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals introduces the Vermont-based band’s new five-piece configuration, in which keyboard specialist Potter, lead guitarist Scott Tournet and drummer Matt Burr are joined by bassist Catherine Popper (Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Hem) and rhythm guitarist Benny Yurco, who also plays with Tournet and Burr in the GPN side project Blues & Lasers.
“We had a stylistic epiphany,” Potter says of her band’s exponential leap. “We realized we’re not the kind of band that’s ever gonna fit neatly in one genre, and this time we just let the songs be the songs. We just naturally wound up playing them in a certain way — they all have that beat to them, a physicality and a mood. You have to either want to dance to it or cry to it. But there’s also a feistiness to these songs that’s completely unapologetic.”
On deep-grooved, serrated rockers like “Medicine,” “Paris,” “Tiny Light” and “Oasis,” the new model Grace Potter and the Nocturnals positively swaggers. Not only that, but the hooks are humongous, from Potter’s voice as she belts, teases and soars to Tournet’s uncoiling guitar riffs, positively lethal in their aggressiveness. “Oasis” showcases the band’s newly mounted dual-guitar firepower, as Tournet and Yurco interweave spiraling lines over a refracted hip-hop groove deftly laid down by Burr and Popper, while “Tiny Light” is a powerful song of resilience and hope during dark times.
More info on Grace Potter here.
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 6:15pm - 7:45
Where: Mainstage
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are like a modern-day version of Tina Turner stroking the microphone in a spangled mini-dress while fronting the Rolling Stones circa Sticky Fingers. The proof is there for all to hear on the band’s third album for Hollywood Records, hitting this spring, and marks an artistic breakthrough for a vital young band caught in the act of fulfilling its immense promise. Little wonder that Grace and her cohorts have chosen to title it, directly and emphatically, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
“This record is the first time it’s really been us — the first time we’ve all found each other and ourselves,” says Potter with obvious excitement. “Everybody was totally comfortable, everything we had was sitting right in front of us, and it just poured out of us. The whole thing was fluid and effortless. In my mind, an album shouldn’t be self-titled unless it feels that way.”
Produced by Mark Batson (Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z, Dave Matthews Band), who also co-wrote six of the 13 songs with Potter, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals introduces the Vermont-based band’s new five-piece configuration, in which keyboard specialist Potter, lead guitarist Scott Tournet and drummer Matt Burr are joined by bassist Catherine Popper (Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Hem) and rhythm guitarist Benny Yurco, who also plays with Tournet and Burr in the GPN side project Blues & Lasers.
“We had a stylistic epiphany,” Potter says of her band’s exponential leap. “We realized we’re not the kind of band that’s ever gonna fit neatly in one genre, and this time we just let the songs be the songs. We just naturally wound up playing them in a certain way — they all have that beat to them, a physicality and a mood. You have to either want to dance to it or cry to it. But there’s also a feistiness to these songs that’s completely unapologetic.”
On deep-grooved, serrated rockers like “Medicine,” “Paris,” “Tiny Light” and “Oasis,” the new model Grace Potter and the Nocturnals positively swaggers. Not only that, but the hooks are humongous, from Potter’s voice as she belts, teases and soars to Tournet’s uncoiling guitar riffs, positively lethal in their aggressiveness. “Oasis” showcases the band’s newly mounted dual-guitar firepower, as Tournet and Yurco interweave spiraling lines over a refracted hip-hop groove deftly laid down by Burr and Popper, while “Tiny Light” is a powerful song of resilience and hope during dark times.
More info on Grace Potter here.
Friday, May 20, 2011
12 Days Until Wakarusa
Dirtfoot
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 1:30pm - 2:30 When: Saturday 6/4 @ 10:00am ish
Where: Mainstage Where: Chompdown
"Here's their deal: Imagine Nick Cave on a bed of rusty nails, the cover of "Gin and Juice" often mis-attributed to Phish (it was actually the Gourds), some old-timey "Dem Bones," Old Crow Medicine show culture-clash, and that subtle fecal stench of Mr. Bungle skronk sax craziness: Get theses elements, let them stew in an oaken barrel for a number of years and out comes Shreveport, Louisiana's Dirtfoot." - Spencer, Synthesis.net
Whether performing on big stages at festivals, or playing intimate setting in pubs and the finer taverns all over the mid west & south, Dirtfoot puts on an uproarious show. The crowds come to take part in the fun and chaos, hollering to all the calls and responses, shaking their beancans, and getting down with the infectious grooves. There is only one Gypsy Punk Country Grumble Boogie band in the land of Dirtfoot.
How it began:
Eight years ago, a tornado blew through Shreveport and Matt was standing on his porch, shortly after a tree decided to test the landlord's homeowner's policy. J walking by, initiated conversation and amidst cracked countertops and scattered shingles, the two musicians became friends.
It's more than a bit ironic that a powerful, hard-to-predict weather system marks the creation of Dirtfoot. Their music can be as dizzying as a twister, volatile and uproarious.
It is their lack of restraint, their raw musical impulsiveness and high energy delivery that can be so arresting to the people who have heard them play. They stomp their feet. Matt makes primal noises and intentionally mumbles his lyrics. They let otherwise well-rehearsed songs meander off the beaten path, or right off an auditory cliff, its finale laughably lost, the structure sacrificed for the sheer playfulness of it all.
The members of Dirtfoot seem to all secretly delight in how different they are, in how something so oddball and outlandish can still be appreciated, if not entirely understood.
Though all of their instruments are acoustic, their energy and ingenuity will make you swear they are using something else. Featuring instruments ranging from an acoustic guitar, banjo, upright bass, pots n' pans, drums, bells, saxophone, and beancan shakers, this band has a truly engaging and eclectic sound! They are a delicious, spicy, dirty band that will make you stomp your feet, shake your ass and yell like a lunatic on a full moon night.
Get more info on Dirtfoot here.
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 1:30pm - 2:30 When: Saturday 6/4 @ 10:00am ish
Where: Mainstage Where: Chompdown
"Here's their deal: Imagine Nick Cave on a bed of rusty nails, the cover of "Gin and Juice" often mis-attributed to Phish (it was actually the Gourds), some old-timey "Dem Bones," Old Crow Medicine show culture-clash, and that subtle fecal stench of Mr. Bungle skronk sax craziness: Get theses elements, let them stew in an oaken barrel for a number of years and out comes Shreveport, Louisiana's Dirtfoot." - Spencer, Synthesis.net
Whether performing on big stages at festivals, or playing intimate setting in pubs and the finer taverns all over the mid west & south, Dirtfoot puts on an uproarious show. The crowds come to take part in the fun and chaos, hollering to all the calls and responses, shaking their beancans, and getting down with the infectious grooves. There is only one Gypsy Punk Country Grumble Boogie band in the land of Dirtfoot.
How it began:
Eight years ago, a tornado blew through Shreveport and Matt was standing on his porch, shortly after a tree decided to test the landlord's homeowner's policy. J walking by, initiated conversation and amidst cracked countertops and scattered shingles, the two musicians became friends.
It's more than a bit ironic that a powerful, hard-to-predict weather system marks the creation of Dirtfoot. Their music can be as dizzying as a twister, volatile and uproarious.
It is their lack of restraint, their raw musical impulsiveness and high energy delivery that can be so arresting to the people who have heard them play. They stomp their feet. Matt makes primal noises and intentionally mumbles his lyrics. They let otherwise well-rehearsed songs meander off the beaten path, or right off an auditory cliff, its finale laughably lost, the structure sacrificed for the sheer playfulness of it all.
The members of Dirtfoot seem to all secretly delight in how different they are, in how something so oddball and outlandish can still be appreciated, if not entirely understood.
Though all of their instruments are acoustic, their energy and ingenuity will make you swear they are using something else. Featuring instruments ranging from an acoustic guitar, banjo, upright bass, pots n' pans, drums, bells, saxophone, and beancan shakers, this band has a truly engaging and eclectic sound! They are a delicious, spicy, dirty band that will make you stomp your feet, shake your ass and yell like a lunatic on a full moon night.
Get more info on Dirtfoot here.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
13 Days Until Wakarusa
Galactic
When: Friday 6/3 @ 10:00pm - 12:00 When: Saturday 6/4 @ 2:15pm - 3:30
Where: Revival Tent Where: Mainstage
It’s shaping up to be a stellar year for celebrated New Orleans outfit GALACTIC. On February 9th the band will release their groundbreaking new album YA-KA-MAY a visionary mix, intertwining New Orleans sounds from jazz to brass band to funk and far beyond. With this release, the five-man group comprised of drummer Stanton Moore
, bassist Robert Mercurio, saxophonist/harmonica player Ben Ellman, keyboardist Richard Vogel, and guitarist Jeff Raines – reaffirms their status as the quintessential modern day New Orleans band and one of the funkiest outfits in the known universe.
Ya-Ka-May features all-new material generated by the band in collaboration with a stellar series of New Orleans guests, who range from iconic figures of the 1960s to the younger veterans to the underground. These invitees appear here outside their normal contexts and away from the sound you might typically associate with them, like putting a picture in a different frame. Guaranteed you know some of their names, but it’s unlikely that you know them all, even if you live in New Orleans. At first listen you’re bound to discover scorching talents from the worlds of music you know – jazz, brass bands, r&b, gospel, rock – and one you may not have encountered before: bounce.
Being immersed in all the various New Orleans music scenes, GALACTIC are in a unique position to bring them all together. On YA-KA-MAY
(to be released Feb 9th, 2010 on Anti-), they have powerfully connected these genres, illuminating how they are all part of one distinct musical continuum. The album features established legends such as the Rebirth Brass Band, Irma Thomas, Big Chief Bo Dollis
, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty 
and Corey Henry, John Boutté, Josh Cohen and Scully, Glen David Andrews
, and Walter “Wolfman” Washington alongside groundbreaking new “Bounce” artists like Cheeky Blakk, Big Freedia, Katey Red, and Sissy Nobby.
The end result is New Orleans like it’s meant to be heard, and pure GALACTIC
.
Get more info on Galactic here.
When: Friday 6/3 @ 10:00pm - 12:00 When: Saturday 6/4 @ 2:15pm - 3:30
Where: Revival Tent Where: Mainstage
It’s shaping up to be a stellar year for celebrated New Orleans outfit GALACTIC. On February 9th the band will release their groundbreaking new album YA-KA-MAY a visionary mix, intertwining New Orleans sounds from jazz to brass band to funk and far beyond. With this release, the five-man group comprised of drummer Stanton Moore
, bassist Robert Mercurio, saxophonist/harmonica player Ben Ellman, keyboardist Richard Vogel, and guitarist Jeff Raines – reaffirms their status as the quintessential modern day New Orleans band and one of the funkiest outfits in the known universe.Ya-Ka-May features all-new material generated by the band in collaboration with a stellar series of New Orleans guests, who range from iconic figures of the 1960s to the younger veterans to the underground. These invitees appear here outside their normal contexts and away from the sound you might typically associate with them, like putting a picture in a different frame. Guaranteed you know some of their names, but it’s unlikely that you know them all, even if you live in New Orleans. At first listen you’re bound to discover scorching talents from the worlds of music you know – jazz, brass bands, r&b, gospel, rock – and one you may not have encountered before: bounce.
Being immersed in all the various New Orleans music scenes, GALACTIC are in a unique position to bring them all together. On YA-KA-MAY
(to be released Feb 9th, 2010 on Anti-), they have powerfully connected these genres, illuminating how they are all part of one distinct musical continuum. The album features established legends such as the Rebirth Brass Band, Irma Thomas, Big Chief Bo Dollis, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty and Corey Henry, John Boutté, Josh Cohen and Scully, Glen David Andrews, and Walter “Wolfman” Washington alongside groundbreaking new “Bounce” artists like Cheeky Blakk, Big Freedia, Katey Red, and Sissy Nobby.The end result is New Orleans like it’s meant to be heard, and pure GALACTIC
.Get more info on Galactic here.
14 Days Until Wakarusa
Spankalicious
When: Friday 6/3 @ 4:15pm-5:30
Where: Satellite Stage
Spankalicious is bounce. Making his mark on the electronic music scene in the Midwest with the high energy that he brings to the stage, creating the vibe needed to get the rage started! Kevin Moore (aka: Spankalicious) is currently based out of St. Louis, Missouri. Coming from an extensive background in rudimental percussion/drumming have allowed Spank to read rhythms inside and out. Shown through scratching, drumming, as well as seamlessly blending and mixing. Spankalicious thrives on taking the crowd through a musical journey that always brings many flavors of emotion to the party. A hefty line of residencies, as well as extensive tour experience, have rounded Spank to be a self proven party rocker! In 2009 he co-billed with Ana Sia, Eoto, Vibesquad, Big Gigantic.
In 2010 he has played alongside cutting edge headliners such as Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, CASPA, The Glitch Mob, Brother Ali, Boombox, Eskmo, Marty Party, Dubskin, Break Science, Kraddy, Mimosa, SAVOY, Two Fresh, Emancipator, Ott, Virtual Boy, and Elliot Lipp. He served as the host of the Wakarusa Dj Classic in Columbia and St. Louis, Mo. In June of this year he was voted "Best Dj in St. Louis" by the River Front Times annual readers poll/music showcase. Festival appearances include: Summer Camp Music Fest, Wakarusa's Interstellar Meltdown, Bassnectar's First Bass Center in Colorado, Underground Sound 6, Immix Fest, Tall Tree Lake Fest, and Schwagstock 45 at Camp Zoe.
Get more info on Spankalicious here.
When: Friday 6/3 @ 4:15pm-5:30
Where: Satellite Stage
Spankalicious is bounce. Making his mark on the electronic music scene in the Midwest with the high energy that he brings to the stage, creating the vibe needed to get the rage started! Kevin Moore (aka: Spankalicious) is currently based out of St. Louis, Missouri. Coming from an extensive background in rudimental percussion/drumming have allowed Spank to read rhythms inside and out. Shown through scratching, drumming, as well as seamlessly blending and mixing. Spankalicious thrives on taking the crowd through a musical journey that always brings many flavors of emotion to the party. A hefty line of residencies, as well as extensive tour experience, have rounded Spank to be a self proven party rocker! In 2009 he co-billed with Ana Sia, Eoto, Vibesquad, Big Gigantic.
In 2010 he has played alongside cutting edge headliners such as Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, CASPA, The Glitch Mob, Brother Ali, Boombox, Eskmo, Marty Party, Dubskin, Break Science, Kraddy, Mimosa, SAVOY, Two Fresh, Emancipator, Ott, Virtual Boy, and Elliot Lipp. He served as the host of the Wakarusa Dj Classic in Columbia and St. Louis, Mo. In June of this year he was voted "Best Dj in St. Louis" by the River Front Times annual readers poll/music showcase. Festival appearances include: Summer Camp Music Fest, Wakarusa's Interstellar Meltdown, Bassnectar's First Bass Center in Colorado, Underground Sound 6, Immix Fest, Tall Tree Lake Fest, and Schwagstock 45 at Camp Zoe.
Get more info on Spankalicious here.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
15 Days Until Wakarusa
Dark Star Orchestra
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 12:30am-4
Where: Revival Tent
Dark Star Orchestra's shows are built off the extensive catalog of the Grateful Dead. On any given night the band will perform a show based on a set list from the Grateful Dead's 30 years of extensive touring or use the catalog of original songs and often played covers to create a unique set list for the show. This allows music fans both young and old to share in the experience. Dark Star Orchestra presents its critically acclaimed live show at esteemed venues from coast to coast and internationally. Grateful Dead classics are performed in the same way that an orchestra interprets music of classical composers. The composer spirit is derived and channeled as the players capture the excitement and innovation of the original performances and compositions.
Touring nationwide for eleven years to the tune of over 1800 shows since forming, the band's determined commitment to "raising the Dead" has drawn national media attention.
"Fanatical attention to detail." Rolling Stone
"Dark Star Orchestra takes its act to a level of detail that befits a rock band famous for its fanatical following." Associated Press
"The hottest Grateful Dead tribute act. A cover band for people who don't like cover bands." The Washington Post
Critics aren't the only ones singing Dark Star Orchestra's praises. Five original members of the Grateful Dead have played alongside DSO and have had this to say:
"Playing with Dark Star Orchestra is something that feels just exactly like it felt when I was playing with the Grateful Dead." Donna Jean Godchaux-McKay, Grateful Dead vocalist, frequent DSO guest
Precision is king with DSO; the band adapts their stage positioning, vocal arrangements, specific musical equipment and instruments to fit the era of the show they are performing. Following each performance the band announces the date and venue of the original performance. Dark Star Orchestra could dip into any incarnation of the dead at any of their shows, allowing fans to experience� shows that happened long before they were born.
Get more info on Dark Star Orchestra here.
When: Saturday 6/4 @ 12:30am-4
Where: Revival Tent
Dark Star Orchestra's shows are built off the extensive catalog of the Grateful Dead. On any given night the band will perform a show based on a set list from the Grateful Dead's 30 years of extensive touring or use the catalog of original songs and often played covers to create a unique set list for the show. This allows music fans both young and old to share in the experience. Dark Star Orchestra presents its critically acclaimed live show at esteemed venues from coast to coast and internationally. Grateful Dead classics are performed in the same way that an orchestra interprets music of classical composers. The composer spirit is derived and channeled as the players capture the excitement and innovation of the original performances and compositions.
Touring nationwide for eleven years to the tune of over 1800 shows since forming, the band's determined commitment to "raising the Dead" has drawn national media attention.
"Fanatical attention to detail." Rolling Stone
"Dark Star Orchestra takes its act to a level of detail that befits a rock band famous for its fanatical following." Associated Press
"The hottest Grateful Dead tribute act. A cover band for people who don't like cover bands." The Washington Post
Critics aren't the only ones singing Dark Star Orchestra's praises. Five original members of the Grateful Dead have played alongside DSO and have had this to say:
"Playing with Dark Star Orchestra is something that feels just exactly like it felt when I was playing with the Grateful Dead." Donna Jean Godchaux-McKay, Grateful Dead vocalist, frequent DSO guest
Precision is king with DSO; the band adapts their stage positioning, vocal arrangements, specific musical equipment and instruments to fit the era of the show they are performing. Following each performance the band announces the date and venue of the original performance. Dark Star Orchestra could dip into any incarnation of the dead at any of their shows, allowing fans to experience� shows that happened long before they were born.
Get more info on Dark Star Orchestra here.
Monday, May 16, 2011
16 Days Until Wakarusa
Eliot Lipp
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 8:00pm - 9:15
Where: Satellite Stage
Eliot Lipp didn’t choose to become one of the most looked to artists in contemporary electronic music, but somehow, Lipp’s sound, one that uses vintage gear to create a unique take on Hip Hop and House, has quickly garnered the respect among the industry’s most influential musicians and producers as well as the deep admiration among audiences worldwide.
Since being discovered by Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73) in the mid 2000’s, and releasing albums on the cutting edge labels Eastern Developments, Mush and Hefty as well as backing the hype with a relentless touring schedule of influential live shows all over the globe, Lipp has quickly become one of the barometers for the revival of electronic music in the States.
Originally hailing from Tacoma, WA, Lipp paid his dues in the underground scenes of almost every primary market in the US, Europe and Asia, including stints in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago before dropping roots in the Brooklyn scene that has continued to produce some of the most recognized artists in contemporary indie and electronic music.
Lipp’s signature sound, a crossbreed of 90’s Hip Hop and House, 70’s Funk fusion as well as classic Electro, has and will continue to breakdown barriers and transpose trendy scenes. Whether programming Hip Hop beats, writing dirty basslines, collaborating with the likes of premier producers, DJs, MCs and musicians, examined by SPIN, URB, Pitchfork and other media or playing popping parties at clubs and festivals worldwide, Eliot Lipp will continue to do his part in revolutionizing electronic music.
More info on Eliot Lipp here.
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 8:00pm - 9:15
Where: Satellite Stage
Eliot Lipp didn’t choose to become one of the most looked to artists in contemporary electronic music, but somehow, Lipp’s sound, one that uses vintage gear to create a unique take on Hip Hop and House, has quickly garnered the respect among the industry’s most influential musicians and producers as well as the deep admiration among audiences worldwide.
Since being discovered by Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73) in the mid 2000’s, and releasing albums on the cutting edge labels Eastern Developments, Mush and Hefty as well as backing the hype with a relentless touring schedule of influential live shows all over the globe, Lipp has quickly become one of the barometers for the revival of electronic music in the States.
Originally hailing from Tacoma, WA, Lipp paid his dues in the underground scenes of almost every primary market in the US, Europe and Asia, including stints in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago before dropping roots in the Brooklyn scene that has continued to produce some of the most recognized artists in contemporary indie and electronic music.
Lipp’s signature sound, a crossbreed of 90’s Hip Hop and House, 70’s Funk fusion as well as classic Electro, has and will continue to breakdown barriers and transpose trendy scenes. Whether programming Hip Hop beats, writing dirty basslines, collaborating with the likes of premier producers, DJs, MCs and musicians, examined by SPIN, URB, Pitchfork and other media or playing popping parties at clubs and festivals worldwide, Eliot Lipp will continue to do his part in revolutionizing electronic music.
More info on Eliot Lipp here.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
17 Days Until Wakarusa
Big Gigantic
When: Sunday 6/5 @ 2:30am - 4:00
Where: Outpost Stage
Boulder Colorado’s Big Gigantic have been killing the live electronic music scene as of late. In the past few months, Big Gigantic went from playing a few club gigs around Colorado to opening for STS9, playing upcoming shows with Shpongle and Bassnectar, headlining shows through the South East and hitting summer festivals throughout the country. Big Gigantic is the latest project from Dominic Lalli (Motet
saxophonist/producer) and drummer Jeremy Salken. The two-man sound-machine of Lalli and Salken showcases an array of gripping composition combining elements of a DJ and a live band setup, mixing thoughtful melodic ideas, with pulsating dance tunes. Big Gigantic flavors the electronic music scene with powerful sax solos and soulful synth lines on top of super hot beats. Fire It Up, the debut album from Big Gigantic, combines hard-hitting dance beats and booming bass lines with lush electronic landscapes and unforgettable melodies.
This 10-track gem is available on 1320 Records for free download.
More info on Big Gigantic here.
When: Sunday 6/5 @ 2:30am - 4:00
Where: Outpost Stage
Boulder Colorado’s Big Gigantic have been killing the live electronic music scene as of late. In the past few months, Big Gigantic went from playing a few club gigs around Colorado to opening for STS9, playing upcoming shows with Shpongle and Bassnectar, headlining shows through the South East and hitting summer festivals throughout the country. Big Gigantic is the latest project from Dominic Lalli (Motet
saxophonist/producer) and drummer Jeremy Salken. The two-man sound-machine of Lalli and Salken showcases an array of gripping composition combining elements of a DJ and a live band setup, mixing thoughtful melodic ideas, with pulsating dance tunes. Big Gigantic flavors the electronic music scene with powerful sax solos and soulful synth lines on top of super hot beats. Fire It Up, the debut album from Big Gigantic, combines hard-hitting dance beats and booming bass lines with lush electronic landscapes and unforgettable melodies.This 10-track gem is available on 1320 Records for free download.
More info on Big Gigantic here.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
18 Days Until Wakarusa
VibeSquaD
When: Sunday 6/5 @ 6:00am - 7:15
Where: Satellite Stage
VibeSquaD, aka Aaron Holstein, is Colorado’s most beloved bass music producer/performer/innovator. His trained musical background contribute to his unique take on bass music, which carries him around the country playing packed clubs coast to coast.
Since VibeSquaD’s inception in 2007, he has released three full-length albums, two previous EP’s, as well as remixes and singles for Interchill, Multi Music and Proboscis. The New Creatures EP is his next release, showcasing his top-notch production skills and originality over the course of six tracks. The EP is charged with the energy and positivity that has come to define VibeSquaD’s signature sound and vibrant stage persona.
In addition to his deep electronic production abilities, New Creatures
shows the influence Aaron’s twenty plus years experience playing live music in various touring groups has on his sound. As a trained multi instrumentalist with a jazz background, VibeSquaD adds melodic sensibility to these gems of bass music and truly delivers on in this six-track EP. Equipped with tweaked vocal samples, polyrhythmic textures, and trunk rattling bass, these tracks grab hold and refuse to let go. Swirling, soaring synth textures weave throughout hard-hitting drum patterns on top of crushing bass thick enough to send any dance floor into a frenzy.
More info on VibeSquaD here
When: Sunday 6/5 @ 6:00am - 7:15
Where: Satellite Stage
VibeSquaD, aka Aaron Holstein, is Colorado’s most beloved bass music producer/performer/innovator. His trained musical background contribute to his unique take on bass music, which carries him around the country playing packed clubs coast to coast.
Since VibeSquaD’s inception in 2007, he has released three full-length albums, two previous EP’s, as well as remixes and singles for Interchill, Multi Music and Proboscis. The New Creatures EP is his next release, showcasing his top-notch production skills and originality over the course of six tracks. The EP is charged with the energy and positivity that has come to define VibeSquaD’s signature sound and vibrant stage persona.
In addition to his deep electronic production abilities, New Creatures
shows the influence Aaron’s twenty plus years experience playing live music in various touring groups has on his sound. As a trained multi instrumentalist with a jazz background, VibeSquaD adds melodic sensibility to these gems of bass music and truly delivers on in this six-track EP. Equipped with tweaked vocal samples, polyrhythmic textures, and trunk rattling bass, these tracks grab hold and refuse to let go. Swirling, soaring synth textures weave throughout hard-hitting drum patterns on top of crushing bass thick enough to send any dance floor into a frenzy.More info on VibeSquaD here
Friday, May 13, 2011
19 Days Until Wakarusa
Split Lip Rayfield
When: Friday 6/3 1:00am - 2:15 When: Friday 6/3 3:00pm - 4:00
Where: Outpost Stage Where: Revival Tent
With over a decade of recording and performing under its belt, Split Lip Rayfield has demonstrated an uncanny ability to survive adverse conditions and swim against mainstream trends to emerge as one of the Midwest’s most uncompromising bands. Split Lip hasn’t just carved a niche, it’s sounded a firm and furiously independent tone that reverberates in the ears of music lovers from coast to coast. With four studio albums- including Never Make It Home and Should Have Seen It Coming- and the recent Live at the Cotillion Ballroom DVD under its belt, by any means necessary live performances (including appearances at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Wakarusa, and road stints with The Reverend Horton Heat and Nashville Pussy) and a four pronged attack of acoustic instrumentation, punk attitude and speed metal aggression, plus well-crafted songs (3.2 Flu, Redneck Tailgate Dream, and Outlaw), Split Lip has stared into the face of adversity and survived. The death of SLR co-founder and guitarist Kirk Rundstrom in February 2007 deeply impacted the band members, but Rundstroms’s tireless spirit and determination inspired Jeff Eaton (gas tank bass/vocalist) and Wayne Gottstine (mandolin/vocals) to continue advancing the SLR cause.
In August the trio performed several regional dates to enthusiastic response – with the trademark blood and glory ethic as evident as ever – and decided that it was time to take the road once more. “I’m excited to tour again,” Gottstine said. “The four of us worked for 10 years as a band and we still enjoy making music together. Jeff and Eric are my favorite people to play with and we don’t want to give up on that.” With the band’s finest moment still on the horizon, doesn’t it seem time that you got hip, as they say, to the Lip?
More info on Split Lip Rayfield here.
When: Friday 6/3 1:00am - 2:15 When: Friday 6/3 3:00pm - 4:00
Where: Outpost Stage Where: Revival Tent
With over a decade of recording and performing under its belt, Split Lip Rayfield has demonstrated an uncanny ability to survive adverse conditions and swim against mainstream trends to emerge as one of the Midwest’s most uncompromising bands. Split Lip hasn’t just carved a niche, it’s sounded a firm and furiously independent tone that reverberates in the ears of music lovers from coast to coast. With four studio albums- including Never Make It Home and Should Have Seen It Coming- and the recent Live at the Cotillion Ballroom DVD under its belt, by any means necessary live performances (including appearances at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Wakarusa, and road stints with The Reverend Horton Heat and Nashville Pussy) and a four pronged attack of acoustic instrumentation, punk attitude and speed metal aggression, plus well-crafted songs (3.2 Flu, Redneck Tailgate Dream, and Outlaw), Split Lip has stared into the face of adversity and survived. The death of SLR co-founder and guitarist Kirk Rundstrom in February 2007 deeply impacted the band members, but Rundstroms’s tireless spirit and determination inspired Jeff Eaton (gas tank bass/vocalist) and Wayne Gottstine (mandolin/vocals) to continue advancing the SLR cause.
In August the trio performed several regional dates to enthusiastic response – with the trademark blood and glory ethic as evident as ever – and decided that it was time to take the road once more. “I’m excited to tour again,” Gottstine said. “The four of us worked for 10 years as a band and we still enjoy making music together. Jeff and Eric are my favorite people to play with and we don’t want to give up on that.” With the band’s finest moment still on the horizon, doesn’t it seem time that you got hip, as they say, to the Lip?
More info on Split Lip Rayfield here.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
20 Days Until Wakarusa
The Werks
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 3:30pm - 4:30
Where: The Outpost Stage
The Werks, hailing from the Midwest, are quickly emerging as a national jamband powerhouse. As a result of their eclectic individual influences, The Werks produce a dance party that can be appreciated by a majority of musical tastes. Fusing the psychedelic shredding guitar and screaming organ of jam and classic rock with funk slap bass, synthesizers, and modern dance beats, The Werks create their own style of music entitled Psychedelic Trance Funk. Their unique style of performing is affected and manipulated by the energy of the audience, guaranteeing that each show will be different and memorable.
Get more info on The Werks here.
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 3:30pm - 4:30
Where: The Outpost Stage
The Werks, hailing from the Midwest, are quickly emerging as a national jamband powerhouse. As a result of their eclectic individual influences, The Werks produce a dance party that can be appreciated by a majority of musical tastes. Fusing the psychedelic shredding guitar and screaming organ of jam and classic rock with funk slap bass, synthesizers, and modern dance beats, The Werks create their own style of music entitled Psychedelic Trance Funk. Their unique style of performing is affected and manipulated by the energy of the audience, guaranteeing that each show will be different and memorable.
Get more info on The Werks here.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
21 Days Until Wakarusa
Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9)
When: Friday 6/3 8:30pm - 10:00 When: Sunday 6/5 12:30am - 2:00
Where: Mainstage Where: Revival Tent
Since forming in Atlanta over a decade ago, instrumental electronic rock band STS9 has experienced a meteoric rise to the forefront of the electronic-rock music scene. Recently ranked #25 among Pollstar’s list of top-grossing touring acts for Summer 2010, STS9 averaged more than 4,200 tickets sold per city on a 25 city tour that boasted opening acts such as Ghostland Observatory, Thievery Corporation and Big Boi of Outkast. The band’s tour culminated with two sold out performances at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, with 18,000 fans on-hand to experience the audio-visual force that is STS9.
STS9 truly does it all; from headlining stages at festivals such as Austin City Limits Festival, Lollapalooza and Electric Daisy Carnival, to selling out shows around the country in opera houses and amphitheatres alike, to performing with Jay-Z in arenas, to running their own record label, 1320 Records, to using their voice as a platform for change and raising significant amounts of money towards funding for their activism efforts (including $150,000 this past year to The Make it Right Foundation, paving the way to rebuild a house in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans). Pushing boundaries is all in a day’s work for STS9.
In addition to the release of their latest studio album, Ad Explorata
(the tenth in their full discography), and in keeping with XLR8R Magazine’s notion that STS9 is "one of the country's most intriguing, innovative outfits around,” June 2010 brought the release of Axe the Cables
(1320 Records), a live album featuring STS9’s first ever acoustic performance recorded in late 2009 at the Gates Opera House in Denver, Colorado. These electronic virtuosos got back to their roots, performing on all acoustic instruments to absolutely rave reviews, and inspired additional “unplugged” events at various noteworthy stops across the country during their summer tour – including sold out performances at the Gramercy Theatre in New York, Atlanta’s Tabernacle and the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.
STS9’s self-owned record label, 1320 Records
was founded on the principles of collaboration, cooperation, and community. The goal is clear: bring the music to the people in the most conscious, unique innovative and savvy ways possible. By doing so, the distance lessens between artists and fans, putting the power back in the hands of those that make music and those that live for it.
More info on STS9 here.
When: Friday 6/3 8:30pm - 10:00 When: Sunday 6/5 12:30am - 2:00
Where: Mainstage Where: Revival Tent
Since forming in Atlanta over a decade ago, instrumental electronic rock band STS9 has experienced a meteoric rise to the forefront of the electronic-rock music scene. Recently ranked #25 among Pollstar’s list of top-grossing touring acts for Summer 2010, STS9 averaged more than 4,200 tickets sold per city on a 25 city tour that boasted opening acts such as Ghostland Observatory, Thievery Corporation and Big Boi of Outkast. The band’s tour culminated with two sold out performances at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, with 18,000 fans on-hand to experience the audio-visual force that is STS9.
STS9 truly does it all; from headlining stages at festivals such as Austin City Limits Festival, Lollapalooza and Electric Daisy Carnival, to selling out shows around the country in opera houses and amphitheatres alike, to performing with Jay-Z in arenas, to running their own record label, 1320 Records, to using their voice as a platform for change and raising significant amounts of money towards funding for their activism efforts (including $150,000 this past year to The Make it Right Foundation, paving the way to rebuild a house in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans). Pushing boundaries is all in a day’s work for STS9.
In addition to the release of their latest studio album, Ad Explorata
(the tenth in their full discography), and in keeping with XLR8R Magazine’s notion that STS9 is "one of the country's most intriguing, innovative outfits around,” June 2010 brought the release of Axe the Cables (1320 Records), a live album featuring STS9’s first ever acoustic performance recorded in late 2009 at the Gates Opera House in Denver, Colorado. These electronic virtuosos got back to their roots, performing on all acoustic instruments to absolutely rave reviews, and inspired additional “unplugged” events at various noteworthy stops across the country during their summer tour – including sold out performances at the Gramercy Theatre in New York, Atlanta’s Tabernacle and the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.STS9’s self-owned record label, 1320 Records
was founded on the principles of collaboration, cooperation, and community. The goal is clear: bring the music to the people in the most conscious, unique innovative and savvy ways possible. By doing so, the distance lessens between artists and fans, putting the power back in the hands of those that make music and those that live for it.More info on STS9 here.
Monday, May 9, 2011
22 Days Until Wakarusa
Perpetual Groove
When: Sunday 6/5 12:30am-2:00
Where: Outpost Stage
Perpetual Groove has become a rock band. That’s the impression fans got when they heard one of the rock & roll tracks from Perpetual Groove’s new album, LIVELOVEDIE
at the band’s sold out New Year’s Eve performance. LIVELOVEDIE was produced by Grammy winner Robert Hannon (Outkast - Speakerboxxx
/The Love Below) and Perpetual Groove. The album was produced with renewable energy through Perpetual Groove’s partnership with Tree Sound Studios, Sustainable Waves, and Green Mountain Energy Company and is being released by the environmentally progressive label, Tree Leaf Music.
A celebrated, international touring act for over four years, Perpetual Groove has built a reputation on intense, emotional music that fans call “trance arena rock,” and won over legions of fans with their experimentations in live 5.1 concert surround sound, an intense retina blinding light show, and a willingness to keep the connection strong between band and fans. The Athens, GA-based band’s riveting live performances have catapulted them into the “must-see” category of live rock bands. With a funky blend of jazz-rock, neo-psychedelia, R&B, trance electronica, progressive rock and anthemic arena rock, the Bonnaroo veterans have conquered the festival circuit and continue to tour relentlessly.
“We are really excited to bring these new songs to our fans. We’re the same band you have come to know and love, but like any good artist, we change. Where we are in our lives changes, so what we write about changes. Our songwriting has improved leaps and bounds since the last record,” says Brock Butler, singer & guitar player for the band. LIVELOVEDIE
is a departure for the quartet. With a stronger focus on lyrics and song structure and a much heavier overall sound, the album is sure to surprise even the most die-hard of “PGroove” listeners. Perpetual Groove has shown a flair for creating genre-spanning music, yet keeps their catalog fresh and unique by constantly changing the material in the live setting.
Get more info on Perpetual Groove here.
When: Sunday 6/5 12:30am-2:00
Where: Outpost Stage
Perpetual Groove has become a rock band. That’s the impression fans got when they heard one of the rock & roll tracks from Perpetual Groove’s new album, LIVELOVEDIE
at the band’s sold out New Year’s Eve performance. LIVELOVEDIE was produced by Grammy winner Robert Hannon (Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below) and Perpetual Groove. The album was produced with renewable energy through Perpetual Groove’s partnership with Tree Sound Studios, Sustainable Waves, and Green Mountain Energy Company and is being released by the environmentally progressive label, Tree Leaf Music.A celebrated, international touring act for over four years, Perpetual Groove has built a reputation on intense, emotional music that fans call “trance arena rock,” and won over legions of fans with their experimentations in live 5.1 concert surround sound, an intense retina blinding light show, and a willingness to keep the connection strong between band and fans. The Athens, GA-based band’s riveting live performances have catapulted them into the “must-see” category of live rock bands. With a funky blend of jazz-rock, neo-psychedelia, R&B, trance electronica, progressive rock and anthemic arena rock, the Bonnaroo veterans have conquered the festival circuit and continue to tour relentlessly.
“We are really excited to bring these new songs to our fans. We’re the same band you have come to know and love, but like any good artist, we change. Where we are in our lives changes, so what we write about changes. Our songwriting has improved leaps and bounds since the last record,” says Brock Butler, singer & guitar player for the band. LIVELOVEDIE
is a departure for the quartet. With a stronger focus on lyrics and song structure and a much heavier overall sound, the album is sure to surprise even the most die-hard of “PGroove” listeners. Perpetual Groove has shown a flair for creating genre-spanning music, yet keeps their catalog fresh and unique by constantly changing the material in the live setting.Get more info on Perpetual Groove here.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
23 Days Until Wakarusa
Shpongle presents The Shpongletron Experience
When: Friday 6/3 1:00am - 2:00
Where: Interstellar Sanctum
Known around the world for the mind-bending and fully immersive sensory experience that their concerts promise to deliver, Shpongle has raised the bar to new heights with the latest addition to their set-up. This year, UK-based DJ/Producer Simon Posford (the driving force behind Shpongle) is getting ready to hit cities across the US with a full-scale production tour entitled Shpongle presents The Shpongletron Experience.
Quite literally a monumental creation, the “Shpongletron” itself is the brainchild of VJ Zebbler and Coast II Coast Entertainment. It is the visual expression of Shpongle’s multi-dimensional auditory experience. Towering 18-feet above the stage and blasting audiences with 4 levels of psychedelic mayhem, concertgoers should expect nothing less than the best in modern eye candy. With platforms on each side of the structure for dancers to mesmerize the crowd with LED hula-hoops and other glowing art forms, a blooming lotus-like array of screens and an always enigmatic Posford at the center of it all, The Shpongletron Experience is like nothing Shpongle fans have ever seen before. The structure also features a 6-foot Shpongle Mask (the iconic face that often adorns Shpongle’s albums) that virtually comes alive with projected visuals and animatronics.
Shpongle will also be hurling the listener into unfamiliar territory by showcasing tracks off the just released The God Particle
EP. To use their own words, “this maelstrom of beauty and surprise” is an experiment listeners will want to experience “time and time again to reveal the new exciting levels of far out musical adventures” that Posford and friends have been unveiling with their ever-evolving sound.
More Shpongletron Info Here
When: Friday 6/3 1:00am - 2:00
Where: Interstellar Sanctum
Known around the world for the mind-bending and fully immersive sensory experience that their concerts promise to deliver, Shpongle has raised the bar to new heights with the latest addition to their set-up. This year, UK-based DJ/Producer Simon Posford (the driving force behind Shpongle) is getting ready to hit cities across the US with a full-scale production tour entitled Shpongle presents The Shpongletron Experience.
Quite literally a monumental creation, the “Shpongletron” itself is the brainchild of VJ Zebbler and Coast II Coast Entertainment. It is the visual expression of Shpongle’s multi-dimensional auditory experience. Towering 18-feet above the stage and blasting audiences with 4 levels of psychedelic mayhem, concertgoers should expect nothing less than the best in modern eye candy. With platforms on each side of the structure for dancers to mesmerize the crowd with LED hula-hoops and other glowing art forms, a blooming lotus-like array of screens and an always enigmatic Posford at the center of it all, The Shpongletron Experience is like nothing Shpongle fans have ever seen before. The structure also features a 6-foot Shpongle Mask (the iconic face that often adorns Shpongle’s albums) that virtually comes alive with projected visuals and animatronics.
Shpongle will also be hurling the listener into unfamiliar territory by showcasing tracks off the just released The God Particle
EP. To use their own words, “this maelstrom of beauty and surprise” is an experiment listeners will want to experience “time and time again to reveal the new exciting levels of far out musical adventures” that Posford and friends have been unveiling with their ever-evolving sound.More Shpongletron Info Here
24 Days Until Wakarusa
Lubriphonic
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 8:00pm-9:00
Where: Outpost Stage
Digging deep and giving it all in everything they do Chicago’s Lubriphonic specialize in a unique offering of funky rock n’ roll. The septet’s tight and raw sound is immediately familiar, fusing the roots of soul with explosive in-your-face delivery and sensuous R&B dance music.
The Lubriphonic sound is full of precision orchestrations made up of blazing guitars, tight three piece horn lines, soulful songwriting, bluesy vocals and the habit to cut the funk loose. The best description of the band’s sound comes from Relix Magazine: “Superb, adventurous, diverse, simply mesmerizing instrumental work. Steeped in soul, rock, pop, and blues Lubriphonic's members play with a tenacity and precision that sets them apart from equally proficient bands.”
Lubriphonic is the brainchild of guitarist Giles Corey and drummer Rick King which began as a residency at Chicago’s legendary Checkerboard Lounge
, where they recruited some of the best blues, funk, and rock musicians in the city for improvisational live sessions in which the kinetic energy that make a band were initiated.
The evolution from performing as sidemen for the city’s most legendary blues stars such as Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Koko Taylor into an original group came from the hunger of each musician to develop an intense and simmering sound.
Guitarist Corey explains “Everyone in Lubriphonic comes from the Chicago blues
or gospel music pools. I met Rick King while playing in blues bands in Chicago, and when we eventually wanted to start a band together all of the cats we knew played the blues. There were and still are all these cats that had a strong foundation in Chicago roots music who understood the feel and the nuances, but were dying to stretch out. Lubriphonic turned out to be a good vehicle for that.”
It’s this expression of creativity and energy at each performance that is paramount to Lubriphonic. “We are a live band first and foremost. There's a palpable energy emitted by any large gathering of people,” Giles continues. “When you perform for an audience and give them positive energy, they take what you give them, amplify it and then throw it back to you. It's a fantastic feeling.”
Lubriphonic – made up of Giles Corey (vocals, guitar), Richard King (drums), Pennal Johnson (bass), Charles Prophet (saxophone), Norman Palm (trombone) and Andrew Toombs (keyboards) – tour extensively, crisscrossing the country playing festivals, theaters and clubs spending over 220 days a year on the road.
Read here for more information on Lubriphonic.
When: Thursday 6/2 @ 8:00pm-9:00
Where: Outpost Stage
Digging deep and giving it all in everything they do Chicago’s Lubriphonic specialize in a unique offering of funky rock n’ roll. The septet’s tight and raw sound is immediately familiar, fusing the roots of soul with explosive in-your-face delivery and sensuous R&B dance music.
The Lubriphonic sound is full of precision orchestrations made up of blazing guitars, tight three piece horn lines, soulful songwriting, bluesy vocals and the habit to cut the funk loose. The best description of the band’s sound comes from Relix Magazine: “Superb, adventurous, diverse, simply mesmerizing instrumental work. Steeped in soul, rock, pop, and blues Lubriphonic's members play with a tenacity and precision that sets them apart from equally proficient bands.”
Lubriphonic is the brainchild of guitarist Giles Corey and drummer Rick King which began as a residency at Chicago’s legendary Checkerboard Lounge
, where they recruited some of the best blues, funk, and rock musicians in the city for improvisational live sessions in which the kinetic energy that make a band were initiated.The evolution from performing as sidemen for the city’s most legendary blues stars such as Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Koko Taylor into an original group came from the hunger of each musician to develop an intense and simmering sound.
Guitarist Corey explains “Everyone in Lubriphonic comes from the Chicago blues
or gospel music pools. I met Rick King while playing in blues bands in Chicago, and when we eventually wanted to start a band together all of the cats we knew played the blues. There were and still are all these cats that had a strong foundation in Chicago roots music who understood the feel and the nuances, but were dying to stretch out. Lubriphonic turned out to be a good vehicle for that.”It’s this expression of creativity and energy at each performance that is paramount to Lubriphonic. “We are a live band first and foremost. There's a palpable energy emitted by any large gathering of people,” Giles continues. “When you perform for an audience and give them positive energy, they take what you give them, amplify it and then throw it back to you. It's a fantastic feeling.”
Lubriphonic – made up of Giles Corey (vocals, guitar), Richard King (drums), Pennal Johnson (bass), Charles Prophet (saxophone), Norman Palm (trombone) and Andrew Toombs (keyboards) – tour extensively, crisscrossing the country playing festivals, theaters and clubs spending over 220 days a year on the road.
Read here for more information on Lubriphonic.
Friday, May 6, 2011
25 Days Until Wakarusa
Random Rab
When: Friday 6/3 @ 3:15am - 4:15)
Where: Satellite Stage
Emerging from his own distinct corner of the West Coast electronic music scene, Random Rab offers a powerful, timeless contribution to sonic exploration. Rab is a master of manipulating our temporal awareness, leading us into seemingly ancient worlds, where to our amazement; we find visible shreds of the future. Allow his sound to catalyze your travels into haunting ecstasy, and you will not return to your same beginning. Playing only his own originally produced music live, the depth and craftsmanship of this offering is remarkable. With an array of drum machines, samplers, sequencers, and instruments, it is a clear devotion to expression and perfection. The beats are smooth, bold, and overwhelming. The original vocals, melodies and hitting bass merge seamlessly into a tapestry of unique and unexpected journeys.
Get more information on Random Rab here
.
When: Friday 6/3 @ 3:15am - 4:15)
Where: Satellite Stage
Emerging from his own distinct corner of the West Coast electronic music scene, Random Rab offers a powerful, timeless contribution to sonic exploration. Rab is a master of manipulating our temporal awareness, leading us into seemingly ancient worlds, where to our amazement; we find visible shreds of the future. Allow his sound to catalyze your travels into haunting ecstasy, and you will not return to your same beginning. Playing only his own originally produced music live, the depth and craftsmanship of this offering is remarkable. With an array of drum machines, samplers, sequencers, and instruments, it is a clear devotion to expression and perfection. The beats are smooth, bold, and overwhelming. The original vocals, melodies and hitting bass merge seamlessly into a tapestry of unique and unexpected journeys.
Get more information on Random Rab here
.
26 Days Until Wakarusa
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
When: Friday 6/3 6:15pm - 7:45
Where: Mainstage
Sharon Jones was born Sheron Lafaye Jones in Augusta, Georgia on May 4th 1956. Her mother moved to Brooklyn soon thereafter, however Jones was sent down south for a few months every year to stay with her family. As a child, she and her brothers would imitate the songs and dances of James Brown, who shared their hometown. Like many rhythm and blues entertainers, she began performing in church at a very young age where her voice would find a lifelong home and inspiration. As a teenager in the early nineteen seventies, she began singing outside of the church in talent shows and with local funk groups. Later she would make her living with a combination of sporadic session work as a mostly anonymous voice on various dance records (sometimes credited as Lafaye Jones), singing with wedding bands, and a handful of day jobs which included stints as both a prison guard at New York’s notorious Riker’s Island, and an armored car guard for Wells Fargo Bank. In 1996 she was called in to sing back-up at a Desco Records studio session for 70’s soul legend Lee Fields.
Get more info on Sharon Jones here.
When: Friday 6/3 6:15pm - 7:45
Where: Mainstage
Sharon Jones was born Sheron Lafaye Jones in Augusta, Georgia on May 4th 1956. Her mother moved to Brooklyn soon thereafter, however Jones was sent down south for a few months every year to stay with her family. As a child, she and her brothers would imitate the songs and dances of James Brown, who shared their hometown. Like many rhythm and blues entertainers, she began performing in church at a very young age where her voice would find a lifelong home and inspiration. As a teenager in the early nineteen seventies, she began singing outside of the church in talent shows and with local funk groups. Later she would make her living with a combination of sporadic session work as a mostly anonymous voice on various dance records (sometimes credited as Lafaye Jones), singing with wedding bands, and a handful of day jobs which included stints as both a prison guard at New York’s notorious Riker’s Island, and an armored car guard for Wells Fargo Bank. In 1996 she was called in to sing back-up at a Desco Records studio session for 70’s soul legend Lee Fields.
Get more info on Sharon Jones here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)