Medeski Martin and Wood

New Releases:

Medeski Martin & Wood - Free Magic CD - For its latest effort, MMW dip into their archives to present a collection of recordings documenting their first-ever acoustic tour in 2007. The set, stretching out over five expansive tracks, captures the three intrepid improvisers--keyboardist John Medeski, bassist Chris Wood and drummer Billy Martin--exploring the telepathic hookup and deep groove sensibility that has defined MMW since its inception in 1991.

"There's a rhythmic and sonic connection that we have," says Martin of his MMW colleagues. "Listening is the most important thing for us. We're having a conversation when we're playing. The dynamic range is much greater in the acoustic setting. When we play electric, everything is turned up to 11 and it's screaming. But with John on piano and Chris on upright, we can play with a much more nuanced touch. It's a very different world, but I love it."

Coming Soon:

John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension - Now Here This CD - McLaughlin's latest creative venture with The 4th Dimension, reflects a slight, yet significant, alteration of the dynamic, specifically the recruitment of powerhouse Indian drummer Ranjit Barot. Cameroon-born/Paris-resident bassist Etienne M'Bappe is back from To the One, as is keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband. This 8-track set of McLaughlin originals testifies to the guitarist's decades-long fascination with Indian music, through his effortless virtuosity, and relentless lyricism, even when the guitarist is shredding at near-light speed.

As John himself simply states, "Now Here This is the culmination of my life's work till now."

Gov't Mule - The Georiga Bootleg Box (6 CDs) - "Those of you that have followed the Mule's history know that our connection with the state of Georgia is a deep one. Our first rehearsals were at the one-time living quarters of the Allman Brothers Band known as The Big House (now the ABB museum) in Macon, GA. Some later rehearsals took place at what used to be the legendary Capricorn Recording Studio in Macon while recording the song GONNA SEND YOU BACK TO GEORGIA for the HOUND DOG TAYLOR Tribute CD. A lot of our earliest shows were in Georgia as well so a lot of our growth as a band took place in front of Georgia audiences. Having recently been reminded of these 3 shows from '96, and of the fact that they had been recorded and mixed by Doug Oade back in the day, I found myself listening to these recordings for the first time in fifteen years. I was instantly taken with the visceral nature of the music along with the rawness of the way that it was captured. The Mule was barely two years old at this time and what we hear here, along with many songs from our first CD, are the works in progress of many songs that would later wind up on DOSE and in some cases LIFE BEFORE INSANITY. This was at a time in our career when our repertoire was small but constantly growing, not unlike our fan base."

Trey Anatasio - Traveler CD - Traveler, Trey's newest studio album, was co-produced with Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Jonsi) at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT. Musicians include Trey Anastasio Band, Mates of State s Kori Gardner, The National s Bryan Devendorf and Matt Berninger, Bon Iver's Rob Moose, and Icelandic percussionist Samuli Kosminen.

Infamous Stringdusters - Silver Sky/We'll Do it Live (2 CDs) - Silver Sky - the recent studio recording in The Infamous Stringdusters' constant, relentless, revelatory musical evolution -- is released in Fall 2012 in a very special Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition. Delivered by SCI Fidelity and the band's own High Country label, Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition includes a previously unreleased bonus track, "He's Gone," and the bonus live album, We'll Do It Live.

Working with an unlikely studio partner - hip-hop producer Billy Hume (Ludacris, Nas) - Silver Sky finds The Infamous Stringdusters' powerful rhythms and vocal melodies at the forefront of the music. Paired with We'll Do It Live - a seamless live recording culled from four epic 2011 performances - Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition eloquently demonstrates a band whose artistic voice has fully emerged, and offers a riveting glimpse of just how, and where, The Infamous Stringdusters are leading the bluegrass revolution.

Widespread Panic - Wood CD - In January and February 2012, Widespread Panic embarked their final performances of 2012 with the 11-date, four-city "Wood Tour". The acoustic tour ran through the Washington, DC area, Atlanta, GA, Denver, CO and ended with three special nights at the Belly-Up Tavern in Aspen, CO. Since then Panic has been on a long-overdue hiatus for the rest of 2012.

Widespread Panic fans are sure to be pleased with the announcement of WOOD. The set features acoustic versions, and some new arrangements of Panic originals, including "Tall Boy", "Ain't Life Grand" and "Climb To Safety". Covers of fan favorites, such as Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers To Cross" and Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" are stand out highlights. Wood also features first time renditions of John Lennon's "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and former Animal Alan Price's "Sell Sell" from the legendary British film O' Lucky Man.

New Releases:

Grateful Dead - Spring 1990: So Glad You Made It (2CD) - features 20 live performances hand-picked from five shows by David Lemieux, the band's archivist and the collection's producer.

Similar to 2011's Europe '72, Vol. 2, the two-disc set is a showcase for the best of the 1990 tour. The original artwork, which was created by New York artist Wes Lang (a lifelong Dead Head), showcases his elaborate drawings throughout the liner notes as well as on the cover, which features an ornate Indian skull headdress. Lemieux penned the compilation's liner notes, which provide background about the selected performances.

For those familiar with the Grateful Dead's glorious live performance history, the spring 1990 tour represents an important zenith, one fully equal to the golden ages of Europe '72 and spring '77. During this truly epic three-week spring fling, the band played as good as it ever had, with energy, sophistication and joy.

Recorded during the Grateful Dead's 25-year anniversary, the band - Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, and Bob Weir - played as though it was on a mission to prove something. The pieces just fell into place that spring - impassioned vocals, the Brent/Jerry mind-meld, the MIDI expansion of the band's sonic vocabulary, and a bunch of new tunes and choice revivals.

Despite the space limitations inherent in a two-disc set, SPRING '90: SO GLAD YOU MADE IT vividly reflects the diversity of songs played during this tour. It spotlights newer material ("West L.A. Fadeaway" and "Blow Away"), classics ("Beat It On Down The Line" and "Morning Dew"), rarities ("Easy To Love You" and "Attics Of My Life"), epic jams ("Scarlet Begonias" > "Estimated Prophet"), and choice covers with Sam Cooke's "Let The Good Times Roll" and the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time."

The powerful and revealing sound heard throughout the collection is the result of work done by the band's longtime audio engineer John Cutler, who originally recorded the shows, and Jeffrey Norman, who mastered each show to HDCD specs.

Coming Soon:

Medeski Martin & Wood - Free Magic CD - For its latest effort, MMW dip into their archives to present a collection of recordings documenting their first-ever acoustic tour in 2007. The set, stretching out over five expansive tracks, captures the three intrepid improvisers--keyboardist John Medeski, bassist Chris Wood and drummer Billy Martin--exploring the telepathic hookup and deep groove sensibility that has defined MMW since its inception in 1991.

"There's a rhythmic and sonic connection that we have," says Martin of his MMW colleagues. "Listening is the most important thing for us. We're having a conversation when we're playing. The dynamic range is much greater in the acoustic setting. When we play electric, everything is turned up to 11 and it's screaming. But with John on piano and Chris on upright, we can play with a much more nuanced touch. It's a very different world, but I love it."

Last Week:

The Avett Brothers - The Carpenter CD - The Avetts are back, produced again by Rick Rubin, with the much-anticipated follow-up to I and Love and You. The twelve songs on The Carpenter continue the band's exploration of the human condition. They will pull at your heart and make you stop and think. One moment filled with sunshine and happiness, the next sorrow and regret, they are always beautiful, always honest. Poetry from the soul. Fresh off the road and speaking from their hometown of Concord, North Carolina, Scott and Seth Avett agreed The Carpenter feels different to them, deeper, more meaningful, more starkly reflective of their own hopes and fears, than past efforts. They are wiser now, and more clear-eyed about the fragility and finiteness of life. The writing for The Carpenter reflects the brothers' journey toward growing older and the unavoidable realities that await.

Marco Benevento - TigerFace CD - Over three previous studio albums, pianist/sound-sculptor/songwriter Marco Benevento has set forth a vision for instrumental music that connects the dots between Explosions In The Sky and Tortoise on one side, Brian Eno and Brad Mehldau on the other.

On his fourth studio recording, 'Tigerface', the 34-year old artist takes the next step forward in this evolution. Benevento paints his songs in a myriad of sonic colors, shimmering in acoustic piano, synths and analog keyboards. The tunes themselves conceptualized from seemingly every wisp of melody, hook and cadence that's ever tickled his ear.

Upcoming Events:

Sept 22-23 - French Broad Fall Fest - Hot Springs, NC

Sept 28-29 - Sautee Jamboree - Sautee, GA

Oct 5-7 - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass - San Francisco, CA FREE!

Oct 5-7 - Jam-O-Rama Rage-O-Thona - Lakeland, FL

Oct 11-13 - YMSB's Harvest Music Festival - Ozark, AR

*Nov 10-13 - Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival - Live Oak, FL

*Look for the HGMN Booth at these events

Video of the Week:

The Mantras perform at Gnarnia The Festival HD w/pro audio

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

New Releases:

The Avett Brothers - The Carpenter CD - The Avetts are back, produced again by Rick Rubin, with the much-anticipated follow-up to I and Love and You. The twelve songs on The Carpenter continue the band's exploration of the human condition. They will pull at your heart and make you stop and think. One moment filled with sunshine and happiness, the next sorrow and regret, they are always beautiful, always honest. Poetry from the soul. Fresh off the road and speaking from their hometown of Concord, North Carolina, Scott and Seth Avett agreed The Carpenter feels different to them, deeper, more meaningful, more starkly reflective of their own hopes and fears, than past efforts. They are wiser now, and more clear-eyed about the fragility and finiteness of life. The writing for The Carpenter reflects the brothers' journey toward growing older and the unavoidable realities that await.

"For me, in the process between I and Love and You and this album, there have really been three years of me trying to refine a series of steps of letting go of certain things I've held on to," Scott says. "This album feels much more like a whole of refined parts that work together -- sort of like a well-oiled motor -- than records in the past did. I feel it is much more a cohesive work."

Marco Benevento - TigerFace CD - Over three previous studio albums, pianist/sound-sculptor/songwriter Marco Benevento has set forth a vision for instrumental music that connects the dots between Explosions In The Sky and Tortoise on one side, Brian Eno and Brad Mehldau on the other.

On his fourth studio recording, 'Tigerface', the 34-year old artist takes the next step forward in this evolution. Benevento paints his songs in a myriad of sonic colors, shimmering in acoustic piano, synths and analog keyboards. The tunes themselves conceptualized from seemingly every wisp of melody, hook and cadence that's ever tickled his ear.

The album was recorded and mixed by Tom Biller (Silversun Pickups, Fiona Apple) and Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Akron/Family), while Benevento invited a stellar cast of musicians to help capture his ideas, including drummers Matt Chamberlain (Bill Frisell, Pearl Jam), John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea & The Cake) and Andrew Barr (The Barr Brothers), bassists Dave Dreiwitz (Ween), Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green) and Mike Gordon (Phish), violinist Ali Helnwein (Traction Avenue Chamber Orchestra) and saxophonist Stuart Bogie (Antibalas, Superhuman Happiness).

For the first time on record he uses vocals, inviting Kalmia Traver (Rubblebucket) to sing on the infectious dance rock rave-up 'Limbs Of A Pine' and the pastoral psych rock meditation 'This Is How It Goes'. Other standouts include the angelic Arcade Fire meets The Flaming Lips anthem 'Eagle Rock', the soaring garage psychedelia of 'Going West', the piano riff rock jaunt 'Escape Horse', and the happily lilting 'Fireworks', which bounces along like a long lost Italian folk song beamed down to him by ancestors from his father's homeland. As anybody who's seen Benevento perform live can attest, the pianist eyes closed, smile wide across his face, fingers free-flowing across the keys is a satellite to the muse. 'Tigerface', indeed, is the commitment to this idea; a record that rides the yes wave and in the process becomes a soundtrack for fellow travelers chasing the horizon ahead.

Coming Soon:

Grateful Dead - Spring 1990: So Glad You Made It (2CD) - features 20 live performances hand-picked from five shows by David Lemieux, the band's archivist and the collection's producer.

Similar to 2011's Europe '72, Vol. 2, the two-disc set is a showcase for the best of the 1990 tour. The original artwork, which was created by New York artist Wes Lang (a lifelong Dead Head), showcases his elaborate drawings throughout the liner notes as well as on the cover, which features an ornate Indian skull headdress. Lemieux penned the compilation's liner notes, which provide background about the selected performances.

For those familiar with the Grateful Dead's glorious live performance history, the spring 1990 tour represents an important zenith, one fully equal to the golden ages of Europe '72 and spring '77. During this truly epic three-week spring fling, the band played as good as it ever had, with energy, sophistication and joy.

Recorded during the Grateful Dead's 25-year anniversary, the band - Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, and Bob Weir - played as though it was on a mission to prove something. The pieces just fell into place that spring - impassioned vocals, the Brent/Jerry mind-meld, the MIDI expansion of the band's sonic vocabulary, and a bunch of new tunes and choice revivals.

Despite the space limitations inherent in a two-disc set, SPRING '90: SO GLAD YOU MADE IT vividly reflects the diversity of songs played during this tour. It spotlights newer material ("West L.A. Fadeaway" and "Blow Away"), classics ("Beat It On Down The Line" and "Morning Dew"), rarities ("Easy To Love You" and "Attics Of My Life"), epic jams ("Scarlet Begonias" > "Estimated Prophet"), and choice covers with Sam Cooke's "Let The Good Times Roll" and the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time."

The powerful and revealing sound heard throughout the collection is the result of work done by the band's longtime audio engineer John Cutler, who originally recorded the shows, and Jeffrey Norman, who mastered each show to HDCD specs.

Medeski Martin & Wood - Free Magic CD - For its latest effort, MMW dip into their archives to present a collection of recordings documenting their first-ever acoustic tour in 2007. The set, stretching out over five expansive tracks, captures the three intrepid improvisers--keyboardist John Medeski, bassist Chris Wood and drummer Billy Martin--exploring the telepathic hookup and deep groove sensibility that has defined MMW since its inception in 1991.

"There's a rhythmic and sonic connection that we have," says Martin of his MMW colleagues. "Listening is the most important thing for us. We're having a conversation when we're playing. The dynamic range is much greater in the acoustic setting. When we play electric, everything is turned up to 11 and it's screaming. But with John on piano and Chris on upright, we can play with a much more nuanced touch. It's a very different world, but I love it."

Free Magic opens with "Doppler," a song from MMW's previous album 20 that was issued last year in celebration of the revered trio's two decades spent as a groundbreaking force in experimental modern jazz. The tune's droning, near-tribal introduction morphs into an earthy, undulating groove that recalls the vintage piano trios of Ahmad Jamal, Ramsey Lewis and Les McCann. Medeski's "Blues for Another Day" follows with a burst of jagged dissonance that has him channeling his inner Cecil Taylor. From that tumultuous free jazz intro, the performance settles into a slow, bluesy meditation in which the pianist digs deep, testifying with gospel-tinged intensity. Up next is the epic title track that swirls amid a zen-like collective improv by the three kindred spirits on tuned metal percussion, prepared upright piano and bowed harmonics on upright bass before segueing to Medeski's Chopin-influenced "Ballade in C Minor." The fourth track selected for inclusion takes things back almost 20 years with an acoustic version of "Where's Sly" from MMW's 1993 album It's a Jungle in Here. Over the course of 16-minutes, the three musicians take great liberties with the melody and extrapolate freely in typically daring MMW fashion. The closing performance on Free Magic is a savvy piano trio medley of Charles Mingus' "Nostalgia in Times Square" and Sun Ra's anthemic "Angel Race," which work together perfectly. Wood summons up the spirit of his hero Mingus with his forceful and resonant bass solo on the "Nostalgia" half of this potent medley.

"This stuff brings it back to when we used to hang out in this rented shack in Hawaii and make music together," says Martin of the music on Free Magic. "It was really just a little plywood cabin in the jungle with a tin roof. John had a prepared piano there that sounded like a gamelan instrument and I had these funky drums that had mold growing on them, or I might play the side of the shack or play the railing going up the stairs and make it sound like a xylophone. And we'd get into a lot of different stuff there, just having musical conversations in this intimate setting."

Last Week:

Missing Cats - Larry Brown Amen CD - On Missing Cats' confident first album, 'Larry Brown Amen,' John 'Jojo' Hermann and Sherman Ewing flex their songwriting muscles and deliver a dramatic Alt/Blues/Rock collection of original songs. This is a rich CD, conceived by a pair of road warriors & friends who share a decades-long collaborative relationship.

Hermann describes the album as 'New York City meets Mississippi meets Athens, GA meets Nashville', and he's right. An array of artists dropped by the studio to lend their support to various tracks. Visitors included North Mississippi All Stars' Luther and Cody Dickenson, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, Sam Bush, Jon Randall Stewart, Anthony Krizan, Jesse Alexander and more. The renowned musicians joined in as Hermann and Ewing record their album live in Nashville over a four-day period with Grammy nominated producer Jon Randall Stewart (Emmy Lou Harris, Sam Bush, and Lyle Lovett,) capturing the energy and electricity that the songs deserved.

Upcoming Events:

*Sept 14-16 - Jomeokee Music & Arts Festival - Pinnacle, NC

Sept 14-16 - Bristol Rhythm & Roots - Bristol, VA

Sept 14-16 - Wormtown Music Festival - Greenfield, MA

Sept 15-16 - Pink Moon Festival - Rock Camp, WV

Sept 22-23 - French Broad Fall Fest - Hot Springs, NC

Sept 28-29 - Sautee Jamboree - Sautee, GA

Oct 5-7 - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass - San Francisco, CA FREE!

Oct 5-7 - Jam-O-Rama Rage-O-Thona - Lakeland, FL

Oct 11-13 - YMSB's Harvest Music Festival - Ozark, AR

*Nov 10-13 - Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival - Live Oak, FL

*Look for the HGMN Booth at these events

Video of the Week:

Bear Creek Music Festival 2012 preview

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

New Releases:

The Heavy Pets - Swim Out Past the Sun CD - The Heavy Pets (THP) are an American rock band whose contagious vibe blends rhythm and blues, jazz-funk and reggae fusion with rock and roll. Called "a living, breathing, force of nature" by Relix, THP are known for powerhouse live performances, and their self-titled album was dubbed a "Top 10 Album of 2010" by The Huffington Post. On Swim Out Past the Sun (2011), THP's guitar duo set aside their electric axes for a more organic approach, including three song sit-in by David Grisman.

Dumpstaphunk - Everybody Want Sum CD - Quick. Think of the worst smelling spot in New Orleans. Funkier than that one unfortunate spot of land at The Fly right behind the elephant patch at the Audubon Zoo. Think the intersection of Bourbon and Conti during Mardi Gras, and then think of the receptacles those trash heaps get thrown into.

Dumpstaphunk is that funky.

Right off the bat, the verses in the opener "Sheez Music" trigger memories of Brothers Johnson's "Ain't We Funkin' Now" with the involuntary leg motions to match. Most folks by now know the sheer power of Dumpstaphunk's live show, but this track and others here sound huge coming out of the Maple Leaf's house speakers between sets at their Sunday crawfish boils.

Some might take the Neville bait and compare Everybody Want Sum to the Meters' later Warner Brothers albums, New Directions and Trick Bag, but a better comparison would be with the city's other seminal '70s funk outfit, Chocolate Milk. Like that great group, I thought I liked it most when the band sits back and slinks along in the pocket, as in the third song, "Do Ya." The tempo lends itself to drummer Raymond Weber's backbeats and the punchy horns that accent the bridges. But my preference might just be correlation. Ivan Neville's clavinet and keyboard playing make the track a standout, and it makes you stand up at attention when they burst from that into "Gasman Chronicles" at a velocity faster than the vibrations of one of Nick Daniels' bouncing bass strings. Raymond Weber plays drums on this workout like a funk robot programmed with Swiss precision to play 150 bpm breakbeats. If you make it through all five-plus minutes you'll be doing that James Brown grunt, too.

If the album were a Dumpstaphunk concert at Tip's, the song "Oughta Know Better" is when you would walk to one of the bars and replace your beer. But much of that feeling is impatience to get to the Zigaboo Modeliste-penned "Standin' in Your Stuff," and especially to its ascending-to-descending harmonies in the chorus. The guest horn section is a welcome addition on this one, lending those choruses, breaks, bridges and transitions even more muscle, like a sixth 400-pounder on an offensive line.

Bottom line--this is a party album. It'll sound great when someone plays it on St. Charles before a Mardi Gras parade. The feelings of party records often get separated into those that are straightforward/earnest versus others that are ironic/removed, and it seems obvious where Everybody Want Sum stands. But how about this detail: the Producer credit went to Morgus the Magnificent. - OffBeat Magazine

Also available: Dumpstaphunk - Listen Hear CD

Coming Soon:

TBA

Last Week:

Medeski Martin & Wood - Fly In A Bottle DVD - Taking a look into the minds and lives of Medeski Martin & Wood, drummer/percussionist, Billy Martin, directed the first feature film in the band's history titled, Fly in a Bottle.

Working through a yearlong period of personal 16mm film and HD camcorder footage of MMW on the road and in the studio during the Radiolarians recordings, the film provides an extremely intimate portrait of the band. It highlights the trio's intricate relationships with each other and with the music they have worked to create over 20 years as a band.

Unique to the Radiolarians series, the band switched the order of conventional album cycles. Instead of touring to support a new release, MMW used touring as a way to compose and refine their music live, then they took the material to the recording studio.

This inverted process allowed them to release Radiolarians I, II, and III in just two years, a rare feat for a recording artist.

The DVD provides fans and critics unprecedented access to the band during their everyday lives. It's raw, highly personal and real.

In conjunction with Fly in a Bottle, the DVD will also include the music video for "Amber Gris", the esoteric Incant to Chantes Des Femmes directed by Grey Gersten, and an experiment with time-lapse film entitled CWO

CW (directed again by Martin), is a metaphoric look at the evolving and intricate relationship between Chris Wood and John Medeski from Billy Martin's perspective. Filmed on the tour bus, CW is set to the music of "First light" and features excerpts of transistor radio as used in "Chasen v. Suribachi."

Upcoming Events:

* Nov 10-13 Bear Creek Music Festival - Live Oak, FL

* Dec 29 - Jan 2 - Bond-Fire Arts & Music Festival - Groveland, FL

*Look for the Home Grown Music Booth at this event!

Video of the Week:

As we get ready for Bear Creek Music Festival - here's one from BCMF regulars Soulive:

Soulive - Up Right (live at Cervantes)

Thanks for reading! Treat yourself to some good music this week. Look for us at Bear Creek Music Festival in FL.
Lee Crumpton

New Releases:

Medeski Martin & Wood - Fly In A Bottle DVD - Taking a look into the minds and lives of Medeski Martin & Wood, drummer/percussionist, Billy Martin, directed the first feature film in the band's history titled, Fly in a Bottle.

Working through a yearlong period of personal 16mm film and HD camcorder footage of MMW on the road and in the studio during the Radiolarians recordings, the film provides an extremely intimate portrait of the band. It highlights the trio's intricate relationships with each other and with the music they have worked to create over 20 years as a band.

Unique to the Radiolarians series, the band switched the order of conventional album cycles. Instead of touring to support a new release, MMW used touring as a way to compose and refine their music live, then they took the material to the recording studio.

This inverted process allowed them to release Radiolarians I, II, and III in just two years, a rare feat for a recording artist.

The DVD provides fans and critics unprecedented access to the band during their everyday lives. It's raw, highly personal and real.

In conjunction with Fly in a Bottle, the DVD will also include the music video for "Amber Gris", the esoteric Incant to Chantes Des Femmes directed by Grey Gersten, and an experiment with time-lapse film entitled CWO

CW (directed again by Martin), is a metaphoric look at the evolving and intricate relationship between Chris Wood and John Medeski from Billy Martin's perspective. Filmed on the tour bus, CW is set to the music of "First light" and features excerpts of transistor radio as used in "Chasen v. Suribachi."

Coming Soon:

Dumpstaphunk - Everybody Want Sum CD - Quick. Think of the worst smelling spot in New Orleans. Funkier than that one unfortunate spot of land at The Fly right behind the elephant patch at the Audubon Zoo. Think the intersection of Bourbon and Conti during Mardi Gras, and then think of the receptacles those trash heaps get thrown into.

Dumpstaphunk is that funky.

Right off the bat, the verses in the opener "Sheez Music" trigger memories of Brothers Johnson's "Ain't We Funkin' Now" with the involuntary leg motions to match. Most folks by now know the sheer power of Dumpstaphunk's live show, but this track and others here sound huge coming out of the Maple Leaf's house speakers between sets at their Sunday crawfish boils.

Some might take the Neville bait and compare Everybody Want Sum to the Meters' later Warner Brothers albums, New Directions and Trick Bag, but a better comparison would be with the city's other seminal '70s funk outfit, Chocolate Milk. Like that great group, I thought I liked it most when the band sits back and slinks along in the pocket, as in the third song, "Do Ya." The tempo lends itself to drummer Raymond Weber's backbeats and the punchy horns that accent the bridges. But my preference might just be correlation. Ivan Neville's clavinet and keyboard playing make the track a standout, and it makes you stand up at attention when they burst from that into "Gasman Chronicles" at a velocity faster than the vibrations of one of Nick Daniels' bouncing bass strings. Raymond Weber plays drums on this workout like a funk robot programmed with Swiss precision to play 150 bpm breakbeats. If you make it through all five-plus minutes you'll be doing that James Brown grunt, too.

If the album were a Dumpstaphunk concert at Tip's, the song "Oughta Know Better" is when you would walk to one of the bars and replace your beer. But much of that feeling is impatience to get to the Zigaboo Modeliste-penned "Standin' in Your Stuff," and especially to its ascending-to-descending harmonies in the chorus. The guest horn section is a welcome addition on this one, lending those choruses, breaks, bridges and transitions even more muscle, like a sixth 400-pounder on an offensive line.

Bottom line--this is a party album. It'll sound great when someone plays it on St. Charles before a Mardi Gras parade. The feelings of party records often get separated into those that are straightforward/earnest versus others that are ironic/removed, and it seems obvious where Everybody Want Sum stands. But how about this detail: the Producer credit went to Morgus the Magnificent. - OffBeat Magazine

Also available: Dumpstaphunk - Listen Hear CD

Last Week:

Passafire - Start From Scratch CD - On Passafire's fourth album release, Start From Scratch, the Savannah, GA based Rock outfit is truly starting from scratch. Injected with energy from a new member (keyboardist Mike DeGuzman), a freshly formed band-owned label (FlameGuy Records) and a new producer, Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers, Sublime, Meat Puppets), the band have made their best album to date. Trekking down to Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso, TX, where Connor Oberst, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sublime and many more recently recorded, they expand their sound from their previous releases; deeply honing guitar tones, exploring synth sounds, and laying down tracks of Harmonica and Banjo. "We always wanted to have a good balance of organic and synthesized sounds and we finally had the chance to make that happen this time," recollects singer, Ted Bowne. Songs like "Dimming Sky," "Lorelie, and the title track, "Start From Scratch," exemplify this newly found balance.

Passafire was formed in 2003 by students attending Savannah College of Art and Design. Throughout the years they have become a perpetually touring band playing hundreds of shows a year with bands like 311, Pepper, Rebelution, Matisyahu, Michael Franti, The Wailers and many more. Bowne doesn't mind the grueling schedule and adds, "Touring is the best way to keep the buzz about the band going. What keeps it fun and exciting is the people we meet and places we get to see. We are in a new city every day so there's always something to go see or do. If we didn't tour constantly, we wouldn't be doing as well as we are. That's a fact."

Jeff Beck - Live at B.B. King's CD -Whenever Jeff Beck performs in a rare intimate concert setting, it's always an event. For this special occasion at the B.B. King Blues Club in New York City, the audience was treated the reunion of the Guitar Shop power trio of Jeff Beck (guitars), Terry Bozzio (drums) and Tony Hymas (keys). This brilliant guitar shredder truly threw down some of his classiest and hard driving repertoire ever as it was captured originally for a rare online release in 2003.

Upcoming Events:

* Nov 10-13 Bear Creek Music Festival - Live Oak, FL

* Dec 29 - Jan 2 - Bond-Fire Arts & Music Festival - Groveland, FL

*Look for the Home Grown Music Booth at this event!

Video of the Week:

Medeski Martin & Wood - Undone (from the Fly in a Bottle DVD)

Thanks for reading! Treat yourself to some good music this week. Look for us at Bear Creek Music Festival in FL.
Lee Crumpton