Dangermuffin

HGMN's 12th Annual Best of the Year Awards

STUDIO ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Dangermuffin - Olly Oxen Free CD - read our review

Runner up: Mac & Juice - Step Into the Light CD - read our review

LIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Ten Toes Up - Live Vol 2: From the Beaver Bar 12/31/11 CD

CUSTOMER'S CHOICE: Retail: Everyone Orchestra - Brooklyn Sessions CD - read our review
Wholesale: Papa Grows Funk - Needle in the Groove CD

NEW HGMN BAND OF THE YEAR: - Les Racquet - We were most impressed with this new addition to our network. Pick up their CD and catch a live show!

HGMN HALL OF FAME: Sim Redmond Band joins Lotus, Moses Guest, STS9, The Motet, Umphrey's McGee, The Recipe, Deep Banana Blackout, The Big Wu, Acoustic Syndicate, The Disco Biscuits & Keller Williams in this select list of bands that have helped define HGMN over the years.

HG REPS OF THE YEAR: Brian Riddell

HGMN VENUE OF THE YEAR: Martin's Downtown - Roanoke VA

HGMN JAMcaster OF THE YEAR: Cleveland Carlson - WUTC - Chattanooga, TN

Congrats to all the winners and thanks for making 2012 a year to remember!

HGMN Staff's Favorites of 2012:

LEE:
Favorite shows: BIG Something Costume Ball 10/27/2012 - Lincoln Theatre - Raleigh, NC.  I saw this band more than any other in 2012 and this performance was one of the many highlights. Their set had an outer space theme. The band was wearing astronaut suits, stage was decorated like a spaceship, visuals and audio samples all played on the theme throughout the show. They busted out new covers to complement the theme like Intergalactic (Beastie Boys), Robot Rock (Daft Punk), Cosmic Girl (Jamiroquai) & Subterranean Homesick Alien (Radiohead).  Hear a recording here: http://archive.org/details/bs2012-10-27.bryonsos

Everyone Orchestra @ Jomeokee Music Festival 9/15/2012.  Matt Butler conducted an all star cast through some great improvisation. Players included: Jimmy Herring, Melvin Seals, George Porter Jr, Michael Kang, Al Schier, Vinnie Amico, Jennifer Hartswick, Jeff Sipe & more!  I hear it was all filmed - looking forward to seeing the results!

Albums: ALO - Sounds Like This CD
Conspirator - Unlocked - Live from the Georgia Theatre CD
Dangermuffin - Olly Oxen Free CD
Everyone Orchestra - Brooklyn Sessions CD
Jimmy Herring - Subject to Change Without Notice CD

ROBIE:
Favorite shows: Rubblebucket - 04/07/12 - Casbah - San Diego, CA
New Mastersounds - Bear Creek -11/11/12

Albums: Beat Connection - The Palace Garden
Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
Wild Nothing - Nocturne
The New Mastersounds - Out on the Faultline CD
Beach House - Bloom

SHERRY:
Favorite shows: HGMN Showcase - Sol Roots, Dangermuffin & Les Racquet @ The Pour House Music Hall - Raleigh NC 10/25/2012
Jimmy Herring Band & Victor Wooten Band @ Carolina Theatre - Durham NC 11/4/2012

Albums:
The New Mastersounds - Out on the Faultline CD
Dangermuffin - Olly Oxen Free CD
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Live: Everybody's Talkin' 2CDs
Everyone Orchestra - Brooklyn Sessions CD
ALO - Sounds Like This CD


TREVOR:
Favorite shows: Conspirator - Floydfest 2012
The Mantras - Mantrabash 2012

Albums: Widespread Panic - Wood CD
Gov't Mule - The Georiga Bootleg Box (6 CDs)
Mac & Juice - Step Into the Light CD
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Live: Everybody's Talkin' 2CDs
Conspirator - Unlocked - Live from the Georgia Theatre CD

Last Week:

Yarn - Leftovers Volume 2 CD - Brooklyn-based Americana/Alt-Country band Yarn's sound owes as much to Gram Parsons and Earl Scruggs as to Jerry Garcia and Exile On Main Street-era Rolling Stones. Following in a fine tradition that includes forward thinking roots bands like The Flying Burrito Brothers and New Riders of The Purple Sage, Yarn weaves roots music idioms into a fresh sound that turns on hipsters and fans of country music alike, with technically impressive song-crafting and universal tales from the road of life.

Dark Star Orchestra - Live at Peach Music Festival 2012 (2 CDs) - Professionally recorded live at the Peach Music Festival August 10, 2012 Montage Mountain, PA.
1. Help On The Way (12:09) listen 2. Franklin's Tower (11:36) listen 3. Playing In The Band (13:06) listen 4. The Wheel (8:20) listen Disc 2 1. St. Stephen (8:03) listen 2. Iko Iko (9:10) listen 3. Why Don't We Do It In The Road (4:14) listen 4. Johnny B. Goode (4:32) listen

O.A.R. - Live at Peach Music Festival 2012 (2 CDs) - Professionally recorded live at the Peach Music Festival August 11, 2012 Montage Mountain, PA

Hackensaw Boys - Plow sticker

Phish - Star Lake 98 (2 DVDs) - All new 2-DVD set, recorded live on August 11, 1998 at Star Lake Amphitheatre in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. The Star Lake 98 show was the 20th of summer to display the loose, experimental vibe of a tour that began in Europe and jumped to the United States enroute to the summer's ending Lemonwheel festival.

"Star Lake 98" is the only full video show available in the Archives from Phish's Summer 1998 tour. The 2-DVD set was created from archival VHS videotapes of the 3-camera lawn screen feed. The audio was mixed from multi-track masters in stereo PCM and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround (aspect Ratio 4:3, regions 1-6 NTSC) and clocks in at just about 2 hours and 50 minutes.

The introduction of a never-before-played cover each night earned the tour the nickname "the summer of covers" from fans and band alike and Star Lake's contribution was "Trench Town Rock." Star Lake also saw the return of "Time Loves A Hero" which was played for the first time in a decade and segued out of a sultry "Wolfman's Brother." An extended "Fee" extro and hot renditions of "Maze" and "Reba" set the stage for set II's super-swinging, ethereal "Runaway Jim" and the unusual pairing of "Meat" > "Limb By Limb". Local flavor of the Commonwealth was provided by "Bittersweet Motel" (the title of the Phish documentary recorded during the Europe dates) and "Wilson," King of Prussia.

Upcoming Events:

Dec 28-29 - NC Music & Arts Festival - Lexington, NC

Jan 31-Feb 4 - The Funky Leap Jam - Lakeland, FL

Feb 15-17 - Aura Music Festival - Live Oak, FL

Video of the Week:

The Mantras - Kinetic Bump (featuring Jake Cinninger) from their forthcoming CD - Jambands Ruinied My Life

Thanks for reading! Treat yourself to some good music this week.
- Lee Crumpton

New Releases:

Dangermuffin - Olly Oxen Free CD - With their brand new follow up, Olly Oxen Free, Dangermuffin have returned home. No longer easily dubbed an Americana or roots-rock band, the group's sound encompasses ska, calypso, and even Southern rock, often within the same song. Like the cry bellowed during a children's game of hide-and-seek, Olly Oxen Free signals that it's safe to come out from our hiding spots, gather back together, and celebrate late into the evening.

Larry Keel & Natural Bridge - Classic CD - With these gutsy tracks, Larry Keel and his ultra progressive string band, Natural Bridge, have crafted a body of work that's original, fresh and new to the world of Americana and Bluegrass music. 9 of the 12 compositions on "CLASSIC" are written variously by Keel, his band mates or by close musician-song-writer friends. The overall result is a recording so full of raw spirit, grit, wit, soaring vocals and jaw-dropping musicianship that it's easy to see why guitar icon, Tony Rice calls "Larry Keel...a force to be reckoned with!"

Coming Soon:

Lettuce - Fly CD - Modern day rulers of old school funk, the seven-piece Brooklyn-based juggernaut Lettuce drops their third studio album, Fly, a decidedly raging slab of relentless groove, hyper-charged syncopation and psychedelicized soul anthems. Having blown up stages from coast to coast in 2011, ranging from The Fillmore in San Francisco to Terminal 5 in NYC, Bear Creek Music Festival to Camp Bisco and all points in between, Lettuce entered Brooklyn recording studio The Bunker this winter with a fresh batch of road-tested material and a revitalized sound honed razor sharp by a year spent on the road.

Last Week:

Tedeschi Trucks Band - Live: Everybody's Talkin' 2CDs - Armed with a new Grammy Award for a debut album deemed "masterpiece" by Rolling Stone and praised by concert-goers around the world for brilliant musicianship and roof-raising performances, Tedeschi Trucks Band is catapulting to new heights of popularity as they release their first live album, Everybody's Talkin.

Critics have praised the outstanding live performances of Tedeschi Trucks Band. Led by one of the most dynamic husband-wife teams in popular music, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi and slide guitar virtuoso Derek Trucks, the 11-piece ensemble is the ultimate big band for lovers of rock and delta blues that also pays homage to the far-ranging influences of funk, gospel, jazz and world music.

Everybody s Talkin contains eleven tracks cherry-picked by the group to serve as a musical look-back on their first band-building year. Featured are versions of tunes from Revelator that are already crowd favorites "Bound For Glory", \"Love Has Something Else To Say" some with added details, that takes them a notch higher than the studio originals. Other songs reveal the group's affection for a wide range of soulful forebears, including Stevie Wonder ("Uptight" ), Muddy Waters ("Rollin' And Tumblin'"), Bill Withers ("Kissin' My Love"), Joe Cocker ("Darlin' Be Home Soon"), Bobby Bland ("That Did It"), Harry Nilsson ("Everybody's Talkin'") and the Staple Singers ("Wade In The Water").

Together, the tracks flow one into the next with the collective spirit and lift of a typical TTB concert raising the roof with a Saturday night sense of abandon, and gently concluding with a Sunday morning spiritual.

Leftover Salmon - Aquatic Hitchhiker CD - The first studio album in 8 years! Recorded in Denver, Colorado and Portland Oregon during the December and January 2011-12. Original artwork by Ray Troll (www.trollart.com) and the first album release from Leftover Salmon to consist of all original music from the band.

Upcoming Events:

May 31-June 3 - Wakarusa - Ozark, AR

June 7-10 - Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN

June 14-16 - IfdaKamp - Keil, WI

June 21-23 - Mantrabash Music & Art Festival - Ferguson, NC

July 19-22 - All Good Music Festival - Thornville, OH

July 19-22 - Gathering of the Vibes - Bridgeport, CT

Video of the Week:

Perpetual Groove - entire set from Jam Cruise 10

Thanks for reading! Treat yourself to some good music this week.
Lee Crumpton