Goodbye LA, Hello World: Green River Ordinance Right on Track with “Out of My Hands”

By Denton Ramsey

Hailing from the Lone Star State and playing all around the globe, Green River Ordinance has got to be the best band you’ve never heard of.

With absolutely amazing acoustics and an overall Collective Soul sound, these Texas musicians rock the waves from their first track to their final note in “Out of My Hands.”

From Outside to Endlessly, these guys are the next big thing in music. Think Sister Hazel with a twist of Matchbox 20.

Speaking of Sister Hazel, GRO (as the band is known by their fans) recently played on the Rock Boat.

“It’s a boat full of real music lovers,” GRO lead singer Josh Jenkins told The Dallas Morning News. “We’ve experienced, since the boat, a lot of people coming to shows that had been [on the cruise]. These people tell their friends about you and offer up their homes. It’s just a different level of fans.”

A different level of fans for a different kind of band; and what a great band GRO is.

So what does Jenkins consider to be GRO’s genre?

“We’re definitely a pop-rock band,” Jenkins said. “The 90’s were a huge influence on us.”

And what a great time period to be influenced (by some of the best musicians ever, at least in my opinion).

A question many ask the band, and one I have seen in both reviews as well as radio interviews, is “Why the name Green River Ordinance?”

To put it simply, the band really just thought the name was cool.

“That was just something that Jamey [Ice] and Geoff [Ice] had before I joined the band,” Jenkins said. “It was on a sign in their garage that said ‘Green River Ordinance Enforced.’ It was just peculiar and odd, so it kinda stuck.”

Green River Ordinance is actually a reference to a law that prohibits door-to-doors sales, but regardless of the name’s history, these guys are truly Southern comfort.

“I think it’s inevitable for us to have a Southern twist, being from Texas,” Jenkins said. “We believe our personality comes out in the songs we wrote for the record. Since we were 16, we’ve gone through so much as people. These songs are like babies you give birth to.”

If that’s the case, GRO has some oh-so-sweet offspring, and I personally love every song on the album.

To quickly introduce the band to the general public, the fivesome includes Jenkins (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Jamey Ice (lead guitar), Geoff Ice (bass), Joshua Wilkerson (guitar) and Denton Hunker (drums).

“My dad was a Deadhead,” Jamey Ice told Texas Music. “He’s the one who bought us guitars and took us to lessons.”

The parents of GRO’s members have every reason to be proud of their boys; and with a truly sweet album on their hands, it’s only a matter of time before Green River Ordinance becomes a household name.

“We want to write music that’s real, for sure,” Jamey Ice said. “But we also want to write music that’s hopeful.”

“Out of My Hands” is all that and then some, with a bit of real and a dose of hope mixed together in a guitar-induced sound that will have you hooked in no time…

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

I have a difficult time being of sound mind when my my mind is being blasted by external sounds.

I was once one of those girls, with flowers on her head, dancing directly in front of the amplifiers at Grateful Dead concerts.

But these days, my flowers are a bit more sensitive.

They wilt at high volumes, and turn into thorns that poke the thoughts right out of my head.

I don’t have that kind of auditory fortitude anymore.

I cannot concentrate clearly when my surroundings are operating at high decibels or multi levels of superfluous noise.

Uh oh, I am turning into that woman that shouts “Turn that thing down!”

I used to think that woman was a grumpy old lady who just didn’t get how much fun it was to blast your mind out in a car.

I used to think that grumpy old lady needed to smoke a doob and mellow out so the music could free her soul.

I used to think she was lacking in enthusiasm, or stuck in some Lawrence Welk nightmare that prevented her from expanding her repertoire.

Now I think…

I am her.

(replace Lawrence Welk with Hits from the Seventies playing softly in the background)

I don’t know how this happened.

It’s a bit dis concert ing.

But I do know this:

If you want me to act like a person of sound mind, if you don’t want to see some middle aged woman breaking into your trunk to pull your hip bass speaker out by the wires with her bare hands, if you don’t like the idea of a person who has all the thoughts poked out of her head running around to neighboring night clubs in flannel pajamas with electrical wire snippers, if you want to remain secure in the thought that a grumpy old lady is just a harmless nuisance with wilted flowers on her head…

then…

You better turn that thing down!

There now.

How about we have a nice quiet talk and share a sip of Geritol.

How can you go wrong with a band that references a Zombies song  and sounds like an update on The New Riders Of The Purple Sage?  This album was Beachwood Sparks breakthrough and along with The Shins and The Fruit Bats Sub-Pop debut are the holy trinity of early 00’s  pop-psyche.  Its been noted that The Beachwood Sparks would try to record while the songs were fresh and before arrangements got too nailed down which actually makes this so endlessly listenable.  Thankfully the guts of the song actually hold up as well.  Songs are casual and rolling, banjos and steel guitars float the verses into  blooming choruses that usually veer into territory similar to The Grateful Deads most enchanted jams.  These guys have not put out an album in a while but are apparently playing shows here and there which is encouraging.  Once your run out of Beachwood Sparks albums you can follow its members and that same magical feeling through bands like The Tyde, Frausdots, All Night Radio, Mystic Chords Of Memory, Farmer Dave, and Further.  Awesomeness.

In November I had the opportunity to rent the complete television series of Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000). I watched all eighteen episodes in a week and was pleasantly surprised with what an amazing show it turned out to be.

The story takes place primarily on the grounds of William McKinley High School in a suburb in Michigan (Glee, anyone?), focusing on the lives of two outcast groups of students in 1980: the freaks and the geeks.

The show had an all-star cast including Linda Cardellini (ER), John Francis Daley (Bones), James Franco (Milk), Seth Rogen (Funny People), Samm Levine, Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother), Martin Starr (Adventureland), and Busy Philipps (Cougar Town) as our lovable outcasts, as well as veteran actors like Thomas F. Wilson (Back to the Future) as the school’s gym teacher, and Dave Allen as the guidance counselor; it also featured surprise guest appearances by Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation), Kevin Tighe (LOST), David Krumholtz (Numb3rs), Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), and even Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder).

You may wonder how this show ever got canceled after only its first season. What douche-of-a-network had the balls to drop such an achievement of comedic genius? UGH, I’ll tell you that NBC put it on Saturdays at 8pm so nobody watched it! So blame them for bad scheduling.

From my point of view, Freaks and Geeks is a refreshing take on the now so popular high school genre that seems to have taken over network television in the past few years; whether it involves blood-sucking vampires, sex-addicted rich kids, or ballad-singing losers.

Although the show takes place more than a decade before I was born and aired while I was still in grade school, I still found it incredibly relatable to my own experience in high school.

However, Freaks and Geeks is not necessarily suited for fans of shows like Vampire Diaries or Gossip Girl or High School Musical; it portrays a more realistic version of life as a teenager were no one bursts out into song, nobody is a vampire, and there are no threesomes (have you seen that commercial?). In fact, I’m happy to say that throughout all eighteen episodes there is not one sex scene. Unlike Gossip Girl which has sex scenes in order to distract from how horrible the entire show is, the story in Freaks and Geeks just does not need it. They decided to let the audience dive deep into the emotional and social issues of each character instead of deep into their pants.

The show’s main focus are the lives of Lindsay Weir (Cardellini), a sophomore math-genius and daddy’s little girl turned burnout, and her younger brother Sam (Daley), a socially challenged freshman. In the first episode Lindsay crosses over from her boring existence as a mathlete to the dangerous and exciting life of a freak. Cardellini’s character’s change from golden-girl to freak is brought upon by witnessing the fearful revelation from her dying grandmother that there is nothing on the other side except utter darkness, igniting Linday’s life altering thought: what is the point of it all? Throughout the season Carellini does a great job of portraying a confused teenager struggling to deal with the pressures from her parents, and peer-pressure alike.

Initially Lindsay is not altogether accepted by the freaks, which include the math-test-cheating Daniel Dosario (Franco), his bitchy girlfriend Kim Kelly (Philipps), chronically-sarcastic Ken Miller (Rogen), and pot-smoking drummer Nick Andopolis (Segel). Although it takes a while for their emotional layers to unfold, each of them has a depth that allows them to accept Lindsay as one of them, and gives their characters a significant arc.

I was really happy with the changes in the freaks. By the end of the series Daniel is playing Dungeons and Dragons with the geeks, Kim goes from bitch-of-the-year to Lindsay’s best friend, Ken’s caring side is brought out by his relationship with the cute tuba-player, Amy Andrews (Jessica Campbell), and Lindsay (this is just what I think since  the show didn’t have a chance to resolve what actually happens), gives a final goodbye to her “straight-A” past and ends up ditching a summer academic program for a road-trip Grateful Dead tour with Kim and some “death-heads.”

I was similarly pleased with Sam Weir’s band of geeks, Bill Haverchuck (Starr), Neal Schweiber (Levine), Gordon Crisp (Jerry Messing), and Harris Trinsky (Stephen Lea Sheppard). My favorite geek is definitely Bill, whose awkwardness is ultimately overshadowed by his deeply emotional relationship with Mr. Fredricks (Wilson), the gym teacher. At first, Bill is the only geek strong enough to protest against the jocks always choosing teams and positions for baseball because he “might be great, but they’ll never know.” And when Mr. Fredricks starts dating Bill’s mom, moves in with them, and is watching football on the TV in their living-room Bill still hold pride for his love of the prime-time soap, Dallas. One of my favorite scenes in the entire series is when Bill finally accepts Mr. Fredricks into his home and he explains what’s going on as the watch the show together in a heart-wrenching father/son kind of moment.

Although not as great as Bill, fellow geeks Sam, Gordon and Harris were also pretty cool. I was happy when Sam finally realized that it did not matter how pretty his crush, Cindy Sanders (Natasha Melnick), was when she turned out to be such a bitch and had to break up with her. Harris’ wisdom concerning bullies and girlfriends reminded of the guru kid from Recess, and Gordon was a lovable addition to their group of misfits.

The only two characters I really had a problem with were Nick Andopolis (Segel) and Neal Schweiber (Levine). I found Nick’s obsession with Lindsay disturbing, and Neal’s delusion of being an expert with girls was just plain annoying. But it did make it all the more hilarious when Bill ended up making-out with the head cheerleader, Vicky Appleby (Joanna Garcia).

Overall, Freaks and Geeks is an incredible show. I quickly found myself caring about every character, and it was easy for me to relate to most of what they were experiencing. It’s rare to find a show with such interesting characters, as well as an intriguing plot, and it sucks so much that NBC ended up canceling it. No matter how under-watched it was, Freaks and Geeks is one of those shows that appeals to people of all types, so if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s time to give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.

]]> http://crixcraxcrux.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/a-c-epism/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:10:33 +0000 James Lafayette Delgado ("Jimmy") Riggs http://crixcraxcrux.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/a-c-epism/

I’ll admit to being a fair(merri?)-weather Animal Collective fan, having failed to gain satisfactory entrance into the aesthetic realm of their first 9 years or so of output –  bands like early Mercury Rev, Boards of Canada, and maybe very early Sonic Youth, being about the only relevant stamps on my passport.

However, I’m in with the outcrowd in saying that their Merriweather Post Pavilion album is this year’s best release. Verily, it is a solution to a conundrum I broach quite frequently w/ compañeros who’ve lapsed catholic on the music scene. They say:

It’s crap these days. All these internet, computer-recorded bands (oops), w/ fat indie promotion accounts, clogging up the blogosphere w/ faddy pastiche. Many cite the late 80s / early 90s as a highwater mark of genre-bursting inflorescence that glowers down on today’s indie output, aurora borealis-like. Young bands now naively mine these rich skyveins and there’s nothing new under the sun.

Of course that is bollocks, spiced meagerly w/ truth. Not appetizing. It’s bento boxes  like the A.C. that demolish the premise. Mixing synthetic and acoustic instrumentation; relying on seamless deployment of loops, electronic beats, noise and atmosphere; emoting circular murmurs and shrieks conjoined with  sunny pop vocal hooks, rice, the Animal Collective makes you think its ecological music is the sound of things to come. If so, what a weird place we will be living in…

Now, I wish it were true. An earthquake might open terra firma and take the Disney Culture Industry down into some sequestering saline aquifer, allowing us all to heal. That’s doubtful of course, almost by definition, since what A.C. does is so nigh idiosyncratic. Alas. Now they’ve bookended 2009 with the release of their Fall Be Kind EP, excerpted above. It is just as good as Merriweather and a fantastic embodiment of EPitome.  “What Would I Want, Sky” samples a Grateful Dead song, channels Mad Richard era Verve, and generally chimes along in “Empire State of  Mind”-beating uplift, since I don’t live in NYC, and I still have to face the day. In life, we can’t all be the Yankees.

They’re back at it, and at first glance the new Fall Be Kind EP by Animal Collective is pretty solid…  Here’s the track What Would I Want? Sky, which features the first ever “licensed” Grateful Dead sample (from the song Unbroken Chain)…  By saying licensed, that sounds like it’s all about the dolla-billz, but what it really means is that the Dead selected Animal Collective from the entire music world to make this gem…  While you might be perplexed on where the lyric sample “What would I want sky?” came from within Unbroken Chain… just know it’s all in the tweaking of the knobs, pushing of the buttons, and musical mind-bending abilities that Animal Collective seems to do with ease.  Lyrically for AC, this track is more accessible and audible than most, following the same path of Summertime Clothes and My Girls off their highly-acclaimed Merriweather Post Pavillion release… Check it out below.

Animal Collective ~ What Would I Want Sky

Stream and or purchase the entire EP at Lala.

Cool black night thru redwoods
cars parked outside in shade
behind the gate, stars dim above
the ravine, a fire burning by the side
porch and a few tired souls hunched over
in black leather jackets. In the huge
wooden house, a yellow chandelier
at 3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakers
hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles
Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths
dancing to the vibration thru the floor,
a little weed in the bathroom, girls in scarlet
tights, one muscular smooth skinned man
sweating dancing for hours, beer cans
bent littering the yard, a hanged man
sculpture dangling from a high creek branch,
children sleeping softly in their bedroom bunks.
And 4 police cars parked outside the painted
gate, red lights revolving in the leaves.

Το ποιήμα αυτό τιτλοφορείται First Party At Ken Kesey’s With Hell’s Angels και γράφτηκε από τον Allen Ginsberg το Δεκέμβριο του 1965.

Ο Ken Kesey οργάνωνε συχνά πάρτυ τα οποία ονόμαζε «Acid Tests». Πάρτυ, με μουσική (κυρίως με το αγαπημένο του συγκρότημα, The Warlocks, οι οποίοι γίνανε αργότερα διάσημοι ως Grateful Dead), ψυχεδελικά εφέ(black lights κ.α.) και, φυσικά, LSD. Ο Kesey φημολογείται ότι πειραματίστηκε με το LSD παρέα με το Ringo Star, προετοιμάζοντας το έδαφος για τις εμφανίσεις του στη Βρετανία με τους Beatles.

Ο Kesey γνώρισε τα ναρκώτικά στο Stanford, όπου συμμετείχε εθελοντικά σε μια έρευνα της CIA για την επίδραση της λήψης ψυχοδραστικών ουσιών όπως LSD, μεσκαλίνη, κοκαΐνη κ.α. Έπειτα συνέχισε να πειραματίζεται μόνος του…

Ο Kesey στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ’50 δούλευε νυχτερινή βάρδια σε ένα νοσοκομείο βετεράνων. Εκεί συζητούσε με τους ασθενείς, συχνά υπό την επήρεια παραισθησιογόνων. Ο Kesey δεν θεωρούσε πως οι τρόφιμοι ήταν τρελοί, αλλά ότι μπήκαν στο περιθώριο επειδή δεν συμπεριφέρονταν σύμφωνα με τα συμβατικά κοινωνικά στερεότυπα.

Έτσι,μια μέρα του 1959, υπό την επήρεια οκτώ φυτών peyote, όπως ο ίδιος ισχυριζόταν, έγραψε τις τρεις πρώτες σελίδες του βιβλίου που τον έκανε ευρύτερα γνωστό…

I am by no means a deadhead but I do enjoy The Dead in moderation, especially the songwriting of Jerry Garcia.  This live album from 1981 has some pretty incredible songs that even those unfamiliar with The Dead could probably dig.  Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir break out stellar songs from their solo outings and the energy that they attack Dead standbys with is admirable.  Jerry steals the show with “Deal” and “Loser”, Bob digs out the strange cut “Feels Like A Stranger” off the otherwise forgettable “Go To Heaven” album and kills it.   The jamming is brief but heavy never trailing too far into the void, the kraut like drumming anchors the space and seamlessly connects the songs to each other.  For a buck this is a pretty good introduction to The Grateful Dead, but the 1969 live album “Live/Dead” is an even better place to start.  It should also be noted that the rendition of “Friend Of The Devil” breathes a whole new life into a song that has almost been ruined by radio, worth the price alone.

I take one Monday off from blogging, and in the last 48 hours we’ve had two new pieces of Animal Collective information hit the nets.

The first and most exciting order of business is an interview Panda Bear did with pedestrian.tv recently where he talks about his new solo effort. There is a little detail here and there about what he is planning, but nothing concrete. All the interview really gets across is that it will be different from 2007’s Person Pitch. This is kind of disappointing because Person Pitch was so good but at the same time that is what makes Panda Bear and Animal Collective so good, they refuse to repeat. Whatever Panda Bear is planning, it sounds amazing. There is  no speculated release date as of yet and the album is still in production as of now. Here is an excerpt that focus’ on the new album:

“PED TV - What do you see as the main difference between what you’re writing now and Person Pitch?

PB: The tone is a lot darker and it sounds sort of dramatic or romantic to me. But I’m in still in the thick of the thing so it’s really tough to be objective at this point. So I have no idea, but hopefully people like it. I hope its good.

PED TV: How’s that sounding? I know that you’ve mentioned being tired of the sample based stuff and the need to change your song writing process and sound by incorporating different instruments…

PB: Yeah, it’s going pretty good. It’s been a long process. I’ve thought about it for a long time while we were doing the Merriweather stuff, so I had a long gestation process in my mind but only really started cracking on it in September. It’s kind of scary doing something totally different, like I’ve been working in a sampler zone for five or six years now. It definitely feels like a new zone, its scary but also exciting as well.

PED TV: I guess it’s liberating because you’re forced to approach it differently, what sort of sounds and instruments are you exploring?

PB: The rhythms are really basic and kind of raw and simple and are electronic. It’s not live instrumentation, I’ve been playing guitar but I feed it through the same thing that the sequences are on. It’s a very electronic sound and very voice heavy. A simple arrangement of drums, the guitar and singing. Really there are only two or three elements to every song. It’s pretty raw sounding for better for worse.”

Panda Bear goes on to discuss the next Animal Collective record, and how living in Portugal is. All in all it’s a great interview and to read it in its entirety click here: Interview

*****

The second piece of info is that Pitchfork has given one of the tracks from Animal Collective’s upcoming ep, Fall Be Kind, a best new track nod and a 10 out of 10. The track graced with such a rating is, What Would I Want? Sky. This track is already quite famous because it is the first time a Grateful Dead sample has been legally used. The song is flat out amazing, and if you haven’t heard it do yourself a favor and point your browser to pitchfork to listen to the studio track, or click here: What Would I Want? Sky

If you dig the track, head to I Guess I’m Floating to download the version Animal Collective recorded in Janurary 2009 at the BBC. There is also an excellent version of Lion In A Coma, I’d recommend snagging both. To listen to/download these tracks, head here: I Guess I’m Floating

Whuffie is a concept that was developed by Corey Doctorow is his sci-fi book Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.  Doctorow created a world where the economy has grown beyond cash currency as we know it today.  Instead of money, the currency of his world is Whuffie, a “reputation currency”, similar to what we sometimes call social capital.  You earn Whuffie by being nice, helping people, and adding value by providing access to ideas, talent, and resources. I believe that, in the world of ecommerce, Whuffie drives business.

Charles Andres introduced me to this book in a comment on my blog last week.  The book is available as a free download or free podcast, costing only Whuffie.  You can also buy it in the traditional form from Amazon if you aren’t quite there yet.

Tara Hunt has built a following by developing a guidebook of how Whuffie applies to the world of social media marketing, called the The Whuffie Factor.   Tara breaks down the process of earning Whuffie into 5 basic steps.

1. Stop talking and start listening to your customers.  (I might add that you must also prove to them that you are listening by providing feedback and adding value to their thoughts).
2. Become part of the community that you serve.
3. Create amazing customer experiences
4. Embrace the Chaos!  Entropy is growing, so you better learn how to ride the chaos wave!
5. Find your higher purpose.  Figure out how to give to the community and still be profitable.

The more I read about the Whuffie economy, the more I recognize that embodies the raison d’être for web-based marketing for ecommerce success.  Historically, retailers were successful by becoming an integral part of the local economy.  Merchants were known and trusted as part of their neighborhood, and merchandising was done to accent the best features of products for sale.  Whuffie was transparent: We knew the seller, we touched the product, and buying was a great experience.   Alternatively, if none of the above was true, say the store was run by a grumpy sales person that we didn’t trust, the business never survived.

For successful marketing online, the challenge, as we know, is how to scale that hands-on reputation and value beyond the local neighborhood.  The concept of Whuffie embodies this goal. Cory Doctorow gives away access to his books, making profit on his higher purpose of explaining his philosophy in live talks and future book sales.  The Grateful Dead figured this out long ago by listening to the fans’ desire to tape and trade their concerts (an amazing customer experience), thus creating a aura and community that has transcended well past the death of Jerry, selling more tickets and albums along the way, and spawning an entire genre of music (a higher purpose) that rides on the chaos of musical improvisation.

Traditional marketing and advertising can drive great short term results.  Well developed TV and radio, or paid placement ads, can drive short term business, and are valuable to jumpstart awareness of your brand.  But once you gain this awareness, the only sustainable way to keep it is to rapidly move to a Whuffie currency.  You need to think about how to engage that customer, add value, and keep them involved with your product.  In other words, scale with Whuffie.  Thus, the challenge becomes:

• How do you listen to your customers, and encourage them to listen to you?
• How do you engage them in a community which serves both you and their purpose?
• How do you engage them to make them enjoy visiting and buying on your site?
• How do you move that relationship to serve a higher purpose while earning profit?

The good news is that today, with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media forums, we now finally have the tools to implement these efforts.  We can talk and share with our customers and community.  But these tools do not replace or embody the underlying Whuffie, they’re just the checkbooks and credit cards of this new economy.  The Whuffie itself has to be earned, and that can only happen with hard work and genuine focus on your business.

The formula is simple… 5 easy steps described above. The tools are available, Twitter, Facebook, and other forums.  All you need is the awareness of your business’s value, the passion to involve your customer community, the dedication to make it work for you, and some serious investment of Whuffie to drive great sales results.

“You know, the only people that are grateful when someone’s dead is the recipient of life insurance, man.”

-Phillip Morrow, Pan America Insurance, Salesman of the year

Okay, this cracked me up, but it also made me think.  “My name is Marc and I am a Dead Head who believes in the power of life insurance!”  Hi Marc!  I know many people both inside and outside of the Grateful Dead community who like to live in the moment and not think too much (or at all) about the future.  Don’t get me wrong,  it is completely alright to live in the moment.  Ram Dass put  it like this:  “Remember, Be here Now.”  While it is critical for everbody’s mental health to do a decent amount of living in the moment, it is equally important to take some mental trips into the future and to make some plans for that future.  It’s like doing future you a favor- you dig? I have seen the power of a good, properly placed life insurance policy.  The next time your taking a mental trip to the future- think about what life insurance could do for you and your family.  After all according to Mr. Morrow, after you purchase a life insurance policy “Your going to be so free man…You’re going to be like flying.”

I’m feelin’ jammy today. So plug in the headphones and dig this:

And I’m climbing up on a mountain – so, here’s my bro’s favorite Allman Brothers Song:

Another nice little jam that’s live:

Give this one a second to settle in, as the guy with the camera gets the levels right, but it’s a good recording:

And, boo-ya, in HD and super clean (with awesome light goodness, too):

… what a great recording! Awesome people of the world, take note!

Animal Collective deliver once again with their latest EP Fall Be Kind

PREVIEW: VISIT Animal Collective’s MySpace
WE GIVE IT: 17/20 Watts

Met with the tough task of following up one of the year’s best albums, Merriweather Post Pavillion, Animal Collective’s Fall Be Kind had to deliver big.  Lucky for us, the band that continues to rise to, and set the bar for the challenges of today’s music scene, was up for the assignment.

Fall Be Kind is everything Merriweather Post Pavillion is not. It’s raw, unstructured and loose. The tame pop conventions are gone, and in their place dance wild and schizophrenic sonic experiments in the mold of the band’s earlier material. Instead of aiming to recreate the sound of their hit album from January, Animal Collective remade their old sound in their new, more electronically-altered image.

Powered by looping samples, and catchy, chanting repetition, the EP’s tracks shift gears constantly from high to low energy. Songs like “Graze” and “I Think I Can” are some of the most intriguing, trippy arrangements the band has put together in awhile, and the constant tempo shift leaves listeners comfortably off-guard.

And then there’s “What Would I Want? Sky.” Borrowing from the Grateful Dead’s “Unbroken Chain,” the track’s initially perceived complexity gives way to a simple, continuous loop as infectious as anything they’ve every put out. It’s the perfect blend of the band’s respective styles from past and future, a juxtaposition of tribal vocals and crazed, frenzied electronic noise. By the end of the song, you’re convinced that “What Would I Want? Sky” is one of the greatest, most interesting pieces of work the group has ever put together.

Combining their more traditionally disassembled ambience with the euphoric electronic pop of their previous album, Animal Collective has once again produced a unique and sonically remarkable piece of work. Though only comprised of just five tracks, the Fall Be Kind EP makes its mark as the start of yet another chapter in the band’s increasingly-prolific career. I, for one, can’t wait to hear what’s next.

– John Cassillo

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

My own excitement overwhelms me…Furthur has just released their winter tour dates!

Okay, so who the f is Further? Remember the Grateful Dead? Yeah, it’s some of those guys — guitarist Bob Weir and bassist Phil Lesh to be specific. But it’s also John Kadlecik, the guitarist who plays Jerry in Dark Star Orchestra, the number one Grateful Dead cover band. And then there’s Joe Russo, Jay Lane, and Jeff Chimenti, too!

It seems that for their first ride around the country, they’ve decided to hit a lot of large venues…Radio City Music Hall to name one. But not only that, they’ve also booked college campuses, too. I think they’ve figured out where their audiences are! They’re going to colleges like Lehigh University, the University of Delaware, Cornell University, and the University of Massachusetts. Joy!

Well, rather than me just ramble on about how great this all is, let me give you the link to the tour dates page so you can see for yourself: FURTHUR TOUR DATES.

Okay, so what’s going to happen to DSO when John Kadlecik leaves them? According to the band’s website, they will press on. Having gone through quite a few members in the past years, this band has the oomph to keep on going. But good luck finding another “Jerry Garcia” quite as good as Kadlecik.

It’s all for the best, really. Furthur comprises some of the most talented jam musicians in the country. This band is sure to be a hit with Dead fans and jam band fans alike. They will play Grateful Dead songs, of course, but will also venture away into their own material, too. I’m ready for them to take me FURTHUR!

As some of you know, I was quite upset to read that lead guitarist/singer and founding member of the amazing jam-band Dark Star Orchestra, John Kadlecik, was stepping down. Not since Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead have I experienced such a solid, transcendent and moving live musical experience as DSO. Given that, I felt that anyone who would try and step into John’s shoes would be as disappointing as all those who have attempted to fill Jerry’s.

Well, those shoes are being filled by Zen Tricksters and Donna Jean Godchaux Band lead guitarist/singer Jeff Mattson. Now while Mattson’s singing voice isn’t as melodic (or as Jerry-like) as Kadlecik’s, his playing is simply startling. Or at least that would seem to be the case judging by his first gig with DSO (see below).

Mattson’s guitar soars, cries and rages with the best of them. Like Kadlecik and Garcia before him, this guy seems to have that magical potential wherein the guitar becomes an instrument capable of turning one’s emotions and thoughts into the purest of sounds that lift the music far above that place of commercial comfort and allows it to burst through the clouds to that mysterious place bordering the heavens. Or at least he manages to do so on this first night. I’ll keep listening and will certainly be checking out their next live gig in my area. I’ll reserve full judgement for that time. But it’s safe to say, for the moment, that this musical experience I was already starting to mourn (again) may be far from dead. Or is that “even more Dead”?

Check out Mattson’s intro show HERE. I highly recommend the Sugaree, Deal, I Need A Miracle and Eyes Of The World as terrific samples.

My wife and I had a baby girl (Devin) the first week of November and it has reminded me of so many things in life that are great, and so many things in life that are less important. We could debate and go on about this forever, but I think music is much less appreciated than it should be, and following is why music is great for me, and almost my religion.

For those of you that have had newborns, you may remember that all they do is sleep, cry, poop, and eat, in some ratio of one to another. What you do in between is what makes dealing with the constant changes in a newborns like easier. For me, music is where I turn to when I need to escape, calm down, ground myself, or just put everything into perspective.

Last night, Devin would not sleep between 3:30 and 5 AM and since it was my turn to rock and comfort, I went into the nursery and turned on the iPod that I connected with my old computer stereo speakers. The mix of songs that came out of the very old iPod Mini was great. James Taylor, Phish, The Grateful Dead, Norah Jones, Tom Waits, Tracy Chapman, Allison Krauss and so many more brought back memories of me as a kid, child, teenager, and adult. All the while I am holding my 2 week old in my hands, staring at her, singing the lyrics to the songs – while she stares back at me, not understanding much, but at least listening to the music…this is the best thing ever.

The music had calmed the savage beast (or crying baby).

My 2.5 year old son Jared has a thirst for music. (besides a thirst for overall consumption and destruction). He craves good music, with both electric, vocal, and acoustic components. If you ask him who his favorite musician is he will tell you: Dave Matthews. He also listens to Phish, Bluegrass, Classical, and just about anything but super heavy metal. At night, or if you are crying, he will sing you twinkle twinkle little star until you are asleep.

I have committed myself to listening to the Phish Festival 8 set lists from beginning to end. Over and over again, I am reminded of the benefits of music as they take me through varying journeys to my overall state of relaxation and emotional rescue. The highs, lows, notes and chords that are achieved by some musicians provide me with what I call “tingles” which very few other things in life provide outside of physical contact. Some say [formalized] religion – but I would argue that religion provides other crutches besides true spiritual emotions. We could digress into religion for an eternity, but I will not.

Emotional Rescue – what sleep deprived parents of newborns need in order to feel less like a feeding diaper changing swaddling rocking machine. It’s what music delivers…at least for me.

What has digital technology allowed us to obtain? Music anywhere, anytime, and any decibel level, and a collection of over 85,000 tracks to sooth my mind, emotions and make my daughter fall asleep in my arms. I can’t wait to share my music collection with my children as they get older and more sophisticated in their appreciation.

Music – more people should subscribe to it as their almost religion.

The year was 1991. One of the many times Rip and I saw The Grateful Dead, as they came through Denver on their tour. This is one of my most favorite songs of all time played by our favorite band. I especially like the lyrics at 1:58.  There was no such thing as bootlegging at a Dead show. There was always a special section set up at their shows for people to tape their music.

Band Members: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and that’s Bruce Hornsby on keyboard.

“Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.”

The ‘60s passed, and soon all things psychedelic were confined to the parking lots of Grateful Dead concerts.  Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s the genre experienced a widespread backlash in the experiemental/art-rock scene that now adopted Punk in all its gritty glory.  The Dead scene -along with British Prog and roots rock like The Allman Brothers- kept the psychedelic spirit alive throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, and by the ‘90s psychedelic rock emerged on college campuses as Jam Band music.  

In part due to the newfound Rave scene, a new drug culture developed that idealized and mimicked the psychedelic ‘60s. As a result, college campuses in the ‘90s were swarming with free spirited neo-hippies looking for a headier, more spiritual sound (as opposed to the then popular Grunge and Alt. Rock).        Psychdelic/Goa Trance emerged in the early ’90s…check out ‘1200 Mics-Salvia’ below

Jam Bands mimic the improvisational ‘jams’ made popular by the Grateful Dead, and incorporate such jams into American Roots Rock.  Many Jam Bands’ sounds are referred to as ‘blends’ of two or more genres ranging from Electronica to Bluegrass.  In the early ‘90s, the most iconic of these bands was Phish.  Phish, like the Grateful Dead, toured extensively and slowly grew their fan base via live shows.  Phish composed lengthy, epic tunes and developed new methods of jamming like the Big Ball Jam; when a large ball is tossed in the crowd and the bands ‘Jams’ on the balls movements. 

Similar sounding bands like Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, the String Cheese Incident, and moe., likewise gained popularity.  The Jam Band scene grew, and soon electronica-based acts like Sound Tribe Sector 9 were grouped together with jazz-fusion acts like Medeski Martain and Wood all under the umbrella term “Jam Band”. 

“Sound Tribe Sector 9 – Water Song”

“The Disco Biscuits – Live Jam (2/14/98)”

Experimentation and/or originality are certainly necessary for artists to be incorporated into the Rock Canon.   It’s for this reason why so many recent Jam Bands are mostly ignored by Rock critics, magazines, and literature.  In their live performances, the integration of various genres seemingly creates an all-encompassing psychedelic feel. In the recording process, however, this “genre blending” resulted in largely unfocused, unoriginal albums void of both experimentation and originality.  

In the 2000s, Phish stopped touring and Jam Bands became out of fashion on college campuses.  Currently, young artists devote their ‘psychedelic energy’ towards electronic and indie Rock.  Bands like Animal Collective, MGMT, and Yeasayer are all admitted Jam Band fans that have moved on from the now stale Jam Band scene.  A new ‘Psychedelic’ has emerged based on British Shoegaze, ‘90s Indie Rock, and electronica.

“Animal Collective – Slippi (live)”

Francisco Hernandez Jr., a 13 year old from Brooklyn with Asperger’s syndrome, recently spent 11 days living in the subway system of NYC with “a MetroCard, $10 in his pocket and a book bag on his lap,” according to the Times. Francisco went into the subway so that “no one would yell” at him, at home or at school. After being found on Oct. 26, a lot of discussion has centered around how he could have possibly gone undetected for so long in the subways and subway stations, even though the cops were supposedly on the case. Few seem to doubt that had this been the son of a white lawyer in Manhattan, say, versus the son of Mexican immigrants in Brooklyn, the length of the search may have been shorter. But in any case, welcome back, Francisco.

So what would you want after being stuck riding around in the subway eating potato chips and bottled water for 11 days? Sky? Then Animal Collective has got a song for you. Following the release of Merriweather Post Pavilion earlier this year, which is widely considered one of the best records of the year, you might expect the band to take a break. Instead, the boys announced that they were releasing a new EP in December, called Fall Be Kind, consisting of a couple of songs they wrote around the same time as the songs for Merriweather but didn’t have time to flesh out. And then they also secured the first ever legal sample of a Grateful Dead song, for the second song on the EP, “What Would I Want? Sky.” I haven’t been able to get it out of my head yet.

I know this “video” is just a still of the cover art, but I wanted to post the album version because it sounds really great in stereo. Give it a minute to build and resolve and then you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky:

-Drew

Con una de las portadas más feas de los últimos años y un disco recién editado en enero, Animal Collective demuestra que no paran de hacer música y regresan con “Fall Be Kind”, un EP de 5 temas que como siempre, promete ser la referencia obligada de la vanguarida musical moderna.

“Fall be Kind” demuestra que AC no sólo sabe hacer esos temas densos, progresivos y oscuros (como podrían catalogarse Bleeding y I think i Can), sino que siguen explorando un camino más optimista, limpio y hasta alegre en algunos momentos, explotando los sonidos tropicales que les hicieron ganar la reverencia mundial con “Merriweather Post Pavillion” (disco que reseñamos aquí).

Y precisamente esos son los mejores temas de este lanzamiento. Graze abre el disco de una manera extrañamente directa y sencilla, una introducción perfecta para What Would i Want? Sky, la joya del disco y uno de los mejores temas de Animal Collective que he escuchado. Potenciada por un sampleo de Grateful Dead, esta canción se va formando con capas de loops, beats y voces distorsionadas hasta convertirse en una sabrosura que provoca escucharse con una piña colada en la mano mientras quieres un poco del cielo. Que gay suena eso,pero es cierto.

Lo cierto es que Animal Collective no teme experimentar con sonidos, texturas, loops, palabras y efectos, resultando siempre en temas generosos, amplios y que exigen atención del escucha, pero a veces, esa misma ambición también genera pastichos sonoros pesados, empalagosos y aburridos. Así es este EP, con temas muy bien logrados e interesantes, pero también con muchos minutos que pueden desecharse sin problema.

Mediafire pa bajá, aquí.

Info:

Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind EP

Tracklist:
01. Graze
02. What Would I Want? Sky
03. Bleed
04. On a Highway
05. I Think I Can

Run time: 28 minutes