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Umphrey's McGee - Safety In Numbers

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While displaying the precision rock aptitude that is the touchstone of their sound, Umphrey’s McGee’s Safety In Numbers delves into highly personal songwriting and diverse structures. From the foreboding "Believe the Lie" kickstart to the dramatic "Words," the joyous "Women Wine and Song," and the wistful "The Weight Around" ending, this is a showcase of Umphrey's McGee's myriad abilities as well as a highly emotional experience.
Delta Nove, a Long Beach, Calif.-based jazz/world funk band, self-dubbed an "Afro Samba World Funk Experience," derives their name from a metaphor meaning the manifestation of the mind through music.
By Chad Simon


Though the band performs mostly across California and Nevada, Delta Nove are road warriors nonetheless, traveling the country tightly packed inside a small tour van to perform for its devoted hippie fan base. Last year, the band played Xingolati - a three-day jam cruise to Ensenada, Mexico, with 40 other bands, headlined by the Flaming Lips, Medeski Martin & Wood (MMW), Banyan, and G. Love and Special Sauce.

"We did a Brazilian martial arts act during our set and Billy Martin (from MMW) sat in and played with us," described Bobby Easton, Delta Nove's guitarist and one of the band's founding members, among the event's highlights.

Delta Nove began their steady climb in the jamband world in 1999. They have four albums to their credit, with the latest, "Deep in the Compound," a reference to their recording studio, The Compound, based in Signal Hill, Calif. In addition, the band appeared on a Talking Heads tribute album, performing the song "Cross-eyed and Painless."

The band is currently comprised of six players: Easton (a.k.a. "Dr. Fuzzy" presumably because of his long, flowing dreadlocks) on guitar, vocals, and percussion; Rob "Pukey Bear" Covacevich on saxophones, flute, and percussion; Matt Welch (a.k.a. "Viking" because of his long, red hair) on bass and vocals; Heath Bennett on vibes, steel drums, and percussion; John Harrington on trumpet, percussion, and vocals; and Dominic Freedham on drums. Increasingly incorporating an Afro-Brazilian twist to its music through percussion, Delta Nove stamps their signature on a percussive breakdown during every show, in which each band member stops what they're doing and picks up a drum, creating a tribal seance-like atmosphere through a united, world, rhythmic jam.

"When we originally started, we wanted to play funk, jazz, and rock. As we all developed independently and with each other, we brought in the Brazilian and Afro beat elements. It's all pretty much a different twist on funk," said Easton. "We never play the percussive jam the same way twice. It always happens during a different part of the set and we change up the parts. We started doing this as we began to incorporate more and more Brazilian instruments into our music."

Delta Nove participates in an average of around 10 music festivals per year, and that number is steadily increasing, according to Easton. Last year, the band toured throughout the Southern U.S., headed up to New York, and worked their way back West. After that tour, the band stayed local to work on writing and recording new material.

"I wrote the majority of our original music, but it's getting to the point where everyone is contributing," said Easton. "We're trying to form a cohesive balance where we all write together."


Among the band's musical influences include: Parliament, Funkadelic, Frank Zappa, and jazz heavyweights including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Thelonius Monk. Delta Nove has shared the stage with bands such as Spearhead, Latin Jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez, Karl Denson, and Burning Spear.

Following in the path of traditional jazz, Delta Nove assimilates the improvisational element into their music by allowing the players to solo and segueing songs into one another. Describing the feeling of performing in front of a packed house, Easton says, "I just go on auto pilot. It' s a full circle and everyone's having fun. We balance our sound off each other."

Named one of the Top 10 Bands to See in 2005 by Jambase and Road Warriors of the Year by Home Grown Music Network, Delta Nove's new album is unofficially due out this summer. The band plans to promote it through heavy touring, music festivals, including Wakarusa in Lawrence, Kansas, this June and 10,000 Lakes in Minnesota in July, and also airplay on several college radio stations.

One of Delta Nove's previous recordings, the White Album, featured collaborations with guest musicians. "It was a really colorful album," said Easton. The band typically doesn't record compilation albums, the way Pink Floyd, The Who, and others have historically done. Much of the traditional Delta Nove world funk sound with more of a Brazilian twist can be expected from their upcoming release.

The band's future goals include "creating a lot more music," according to Easton. "We went through a lot of changes the past few years with personnel and now we have a stable band and we're feeling really good. We're getting into that creative zone."

Check out the latest on Delta Nove at the band's Web site: www.DNove.com  

Umphrey's McGee - Wrapped Around Chicago: New Years at the Riv DVD

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Let’s face it. In this modern indie world where geekfreak is the new cool, Umphrey’s McGee are nowhere near it. Their wholesome, Midwestern good looks and guitarist Brendan Bayliss’s habitually backwards baseball cap place them somewhere between dork and normal on the image scale, and their sense of humor is far too cheeky to pass any hipster litmus test. By traditional rock and roll rules, only the fans are allowed the gratuitous “fuck yeah!” that Brendan Bayliss belts out after the ceiling falls through their New Year’s celebration on Wrapped Around Chicago, and the band’s first set New Year’s suits reach a little too desperately for irony. So if Umphrey’s McGee is so uncool, how does one explain the UM afroman tattoo that practically swallows the shoulder of some young man hamming it up for the camera during the first set?
Having learned their craft from greats like Wayne Krantz, John Pattitucci, and Kim Plainfield, the three members of Cerulean City bring enough talent for endearing melodies to the table that they don't have to set the speakers aflame with blazing solos. Instead, they tick-tock through a group of harmonious compositions that constantly breach the surface of improvisation and leave plenty of space for the listener.

By: Chris Robie

HGMN: How long have you guys been together? Who came up with the name Cerulean City?


SMITH: Cerulean City started about 3 years ago while we were living in New York City. We actually played a few shows under the name "Birth of Mud" before that. We went through a line-up change about a year and a half ago when Kevin O'Brien came in to play bass. When we were living in New York, we were studying at a school called The Collective. One of the songs that we played a lot there was called "Cerulean Blue" by a great jazz vibraphonist named Joe Locke. I really liked that song and thought was kind of indicative of what we were trying to do, so I wanted to call the band "Cerulean." Unfortunately, there is a rock band in LA with that name, so I figured we'd tack on "City" to represent being from NYC. I didn't realize until after we started touring that "Cerulean City" was actually a stage in a very popular Pokemon game. Oops. I figure when all those 10 year olds hit college, we'll be huge...

HGMN: How much time went into making the new album? What's it like compared to the first album?

SMITH: Both albums were made in the same amount of time: 5 days. 2 days to record, 2 days to mix and 1 day to master. Its extremely difficult to make an album that fast, but we figured that its better for us to spend the money on hiring a kick-ass engineer and renting a kick-ass studio than to spend it on months of a mediocre engineer and a crappy studio. This way, if we rehearse like crazy before we go in there, we can just lay it down and let the master go to work. The quality of sound and mix is really important to us and you're not going to get that even with all the time in the world unless you get a great engineer and a solid studio setting. The guy we work with is Joe Ferla, and he is a true master. He's done some landmark recordings, including John Scofield's A Go-Go and Bill Frisell's album with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones. And many many more. We have a great relationship with him and are definitely honored that he would work with us. We were much more prepared for this album compared to the last one. We had a solid idea of what we wanted, the sounds we wanted, the arrangements and the general order and vibe of the album. The first album was really just a learning experience for us. We tried to prepare as best we could for it, but not having a frame of reference we were just not very efficient in there. We spent a month straight rehearsing and writing and concepting for Saturn Return so that we could go into the studio and just have fun and let the engineer go to town on it. I think that came across. The vibe on this album is much more relaxed and flows from one song to the next much better than the first album. I also think we played better and I think the writing was better.

HGMN: What kind of music are you guys listening to these days?

SMITH: We listen to a lot different stuff. That's one of the benefits of being stuck in a van all the time! We are all huge fans of Wayne Krantz, so he's heavy in our rotation. Lately, we've been listening to more singers and horn players...Mos Def, Fiona Apple, Chris Potter to name a few. When we went into the studio we were listening to the latest Oz Noy album a lot. There is a song on Saturn Return called "Broodwich" that is sort of a nod to Oz.

HGMN: What's the scene like in Ithaca and how do you compare it to other cities you perform in?

SMITH: The scene in Ithaca is starting to come alive again. I think when we moved there, it was a little quiet. I really felt like were scaring people away! But people there are pretty open minded and we seem to have found an audience. One of the things that disappointed me about getting on the road with this band was the total lack of community we found out there. I really thought that we would start playing shows and find like minded bands and people that wanted to be part of a community or scene. We found few friends. It dawned on us at some point that if wanted to feel community, we were going to have to do it ourselves. So, we started trying to work as much as we could with other bands that we like and forge friendships/alliances with these bands. It has taken some time, but I think out of that has risen the beginnings of a new scene in upstate NY. Bands like Oshe, Mountain Mojo Authority, Doja, Triose and others are all bands that we like to work with and are bands that are working hard to create a community for all of us to enjoy. We are very proud to be a part of that.

HGMN: What other talents do you guys have outside of music?

SMITH: Ha! Well, Lars is our diorama artist. So, you'll have to come to our shows and see for yourself if that would be considered a talent or not. Kevin works construction in his spare time, so he is our resident brute. If you are a venue and you don't pay us what you agreed upon...you will meet Kevin. Me? I am the single greatest parallel parker on the planet.

HGMN: When the tour ends, what's the first thing on everyone's agenda?

SMITH: Generally, we just get away from each other. We get along very well, almost too well. But after being stuck in a van with each other for months on end, we all need a little time to decompress. A trio has a very interesting dynamic. There is no such thing as an equal sided argument when you have a trio. It is ALWAYS two against one. So on any given day on a tour, you could be the one that is getting picked on, and there is no rhyme or reason to the daily alliance - when its your day, its your day.

HGMN: Describe your music. Any influences (Past or Present)?

SMITH: We've been using the phrase "Electro Slam Jazz." I don't think that really does it, but describing our music is tough because people who listen to us describe it in so many different ways. We are certainly heavily rooted in funk and jazz. The rhythm section of Kevin and Lars (or "Kevlars" and we like to call them) is just a solid funk/groove unit. We take it out, try some different stuff, throw in some odd meter phrasing, but it all comes back to groove. We've been doing some more trance stuff lately and some more rock stuff too. Wayne Krantz has been a big influence on us. We work hard on trying NOT to sound like him, but even if we wanted to we couldn't. That guy is insane. John Scofield was definitely and influence. We started listening to Photek this past year, getting some ideas for Drum n' Bass and Jungle stuff. We went through a big Garaj Mahal phase. I am a big Steve Kimock fan and Lars loves Rodney Holmes playing in that band, so we have definitely worked through some of their stuff. "Sherbert" on our first album was a nod to Kimock's tune in 6 called "Ice Cream."

HGMN: Where do you draw inspiration to write music? What motivates you to pick up and write a song?

SMITH: I would say writing is the most difficult thing that we have to do. Any time we try to force a song out, it rarely ends up being something that we all like enough to use. Usually, I will bring in a small idea, maybe one or two short sections, and then we'll work through the rest as a band. It is rare that song comes out that doesn't have everybody's finger print on it somehow. Occasionally we'll pull songs almost entirely from improvisation. In fact the title track on the new album was entirely improvised. We were on a marathon gig in Long Island and we ran out of tunes so Lars kicked in that beat...and the rest is history. Luckily it was recorded. What you hear on the album is almost exactly what you hear on that original tape.

HGMN: What's the craziest thing to happen to you in the past year?

SMITH: Lars is an endless supply of entertaining moments. I don't know what it is about drummers. Probably the the funniest thing that he did in the last year was to actually cut the end of his pinky finger off with a frozen hamburger. He was trying to split two VERY frozen burgers by slamming them against a ceramic sink. He literally lost the end of his finger. I have pictures to prove it.

HGMN: If you wanted to turn someone on to your music, someone who had never heard your music before, which song would you pick and why?

SMITH: At the moment, I would choose "Saturn Return." We work so hard on writing tunes and refining everything we do...and yet that one came out of us just having fun at a show. I think it says something about the direction we are trying to go in and that really we are at our best when we just relax and have fun. It has a nice groove, and is a nice foundation for some fun improvisation. We really try to stretch that one out live. That song is also a totally collaborative effort.
NRPS and their Tour Manager agreed to an informal interview; we talked over brunch the day after their Charleston show. There’s plenty of historical information about NRPS at their official website, NRPS.net, so the interview primarily focused on their latest adventures and future plans.
Interviewer: Jenn A Mahoney

New Riders of the Purple Sage:
(DN) David Nelson - guitar, vocals;
(BC) Buddy Cage - pedal steel guitar, vocals;
(MF) Michael Falzarano - guitar, mandolin, vocals;
(JM) Johnny Markowski - drums, vocals;
(RP) Ronnie Penque - bass, vocals; and
(MT) Mark Topazio - tour manager.

HGMN: One of the things I think that is most exciting about what you guys are doing is that y'all have your own other musical endeavors, but you're getting a chance now to play out with different people and play out different tunes, and that's gotta be really cool, so I'm just wondering how it's going and what you're liking about it?

(BC) I've been a hired gun since I was about 15 years old. I'd take whatever jobs I could take, so it's not like I went and got some other kind of gig or whatever, so there's no one gig, it's like everything together. That included New Riders, that included whatever session work... it was always just freelancing. You gotta be crazy to play the kinda stupid instrument I'm playing...

HGMN: That's not a stupid instrument!

(BC) I mean that in a... well, whatever. We don't need to editorialize my randomization.

(DN) He means it in the best way.

HGMN: Does somebody want to tell me how this incarnation got together?

(MF) That would be Johnny, Johnny will help you out with that.

(JM) Well, we got a call from David Nelson; he was houndin' the sh*t out of us.

(MT) It was really the spark plug, my buddy Johnny Markowski over here, ya know, that put the vision together.

(JM) It happened over a round of golf. It did, really. I was playing golf with Buddy Cage and ah, we talked about making a record with me and Buddy and a couple of friends and I asked who he wanted to get on guitar and he said, how about get David Nelson, and I said, uhm, if you're gonna play out with David Nelson again, let's put my project on the back burner and you ought to play as New Riders of the Purple Sage. That's pretty much how it happened.

HGMN: That's awesome. OK, so what's the most fun thing about the tours and how are the crowds and turnouts?

(RP) Crowds and turnouts are great.

(DN) The crowds and turnouts have been the most fun thing about the tour.

(JM) There ya go... ching!

[band] Ching!

(RP) We get taken out to lunch.

(DN) That's right, yeah.

(JM) It doesn't happen everyday.

(MF) You know how often that happens?

(DN) Never.

HGMN: All right, I want you guys to know that everybody I've talked to has said that hearing New Riders play out in this incarnation is like "church." That's how they're describing it, like it's a very spiritual, moving experience, like a reckoning, and I think that's really cool, fans are lovin' it, and so I'm wondering what the future holds for you guys? Like, do you have any new songs in the works? Are you planning anything to keep touring?

(RP) We're still embryonic, I mean this is like what, our fifteenth gig so far?

(JM) Let it grow, Let it grow, Let it blossom, Let it flow...

(RP) Like we just popped outta the seed bud and got sun light

(MF) Just taking it as it comes.

(DN) We try to pull out a new tune at least every tour.

HGMN: Well, you know I wanted to ask you about that because some of the tunes are really timeless, you know like Garden of Eden or Last Lonely Eagle... I mean they may have been penned decades ago,

(DN) Yeah, I know...

HGMN: ... but they're timeless and they're still relevant today, so I'm wondering, do you guys have... Is there any one that you really, really love to play out or is there a favorite that you have?

(DN) Not really a favorite, no, cuz if I picked a favorite, then I'd be cheating all the other ones.

HGMN: OK, fair enough.

(DN) Yeah, I'd be neglecting the others ones because of my favorite.

(RP) They're like children.

(DN) Yeah, they're like children.

(BC) We got together to do this, Nelson and me were talking on the phone about, oh really, ya know, yeah, it's something to do... but we didn't want to disappoint ourselves in trying to perform these tunes badly. So if we could just get it up, so to speak, pardon the expression, Jenn...

(JM) What? Get it up? I don't have a problem with it.

HGMN: I don't have a problem with it either.

(BC) OK, then. You know, for the first five dates, these guys booked road gigs pretty much where they live, and if we could, I mean, if he [Nelson] and I could just sit there and smile at the end of it, it'd be OK, because we got into knowing how good that these tunes really are.

(DN) Yeah, we're happy.

(BC) Yeah, we just wanted to make them faithful, you know, present them in a fashion they deserve, that they've earned over the years.

HGMN: And indeed, you guys are doing a great job with that.

(BC) Well, we're still smiling. It was really fun to do and like you said, they are timeless.

HGMN: I'm curious what was your first instrument and how did you acquire it?

(BC) My first? The one I'm playing right now. I got guitar lessons when I was like eleven. Essentially to keep me off the streets, out of girl's underwear, and that kind of thing. You know, a hobby. Parents think they're doing the right thing. Oh, music lessons... Little do they know... [laughter] but ah, just like every other guy who plays guitar, I wanted to impress the girls, I wanted to be the kid in my class who played his lessons best. Girls notice those things.

HGMN: Yeah, we do...
What about you David, what was your first instrument and do you still have it?

(DN) A steel guitar when I was about eight. Guy came to my house when I was walking home from school and I see a big black guitar case. I ran into the house, a representative had come from the Guild to the studio. I didn't get it that it was a steel guitar, cuz it was an acoustic guitar, you know, with the nuts and strings and stuff ... but all I saw was that. He was talking to my parents and said, "Would you like to play one of these?" And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" [laughter] Next thing I know, he's got it on my lap and I was like, wait a minute, this is not... he puts his thumb picks on and went plink plink plink while I strummed. He held the bar, waved Aloha Oy or something like that, see how the steel feels, I'm going, "Uh-oh," [as in, this could be really good...] and my Mom's going... [Nelson makes a wide-eyed facial expression.] And that was it, I was roped in. I couldn't back out then.

HGMN: Indeed not.

(BC) I also... the same thing happened to me.

(JM) Exactly the same thing.

(BC) That was a scam. All those things were. "It seems to me that your son has a certain aptitude for it."

(DN) Yeah...

(BC) And then you start at the introductory class and you walk into it...

(DN) I hated being promoted too, in class, cuz you had to get up with these older kids... and then here comes the little guy, I was like half the size of anybody else in the class. It humiliated me. I'd walk in the room and everybody would look up.

HGMN: Yeah, but look at you now.

(DN) You don't wanna be with bigger kids when you're young, when you're a kid. That's horrible; it's a fate worse than death. And I scammed not learning how to read music. I would watch the teacher, I'd listen to the tune, and I would put little marks on the music. When I saw the 7th fret, instead of 7 fretted slant, I'd put 7 slash 6, then go home and quickly try to remember the tune. Then come back and the teacher got hip to it, he got wise to it after a while, so in front of the whole class he'd say, "What's that note?" And I would go [mocks playing it on the table] "No, I didn't ask you to play it, I wanna know what note it is." Most notes for guitar are below the staff, so think quick, quick, count the alphabet backwards from "E," backwards... C'mon...

HGMN: E-D-C-B-A.

(DN) Very good! Well, I wasn't that fast. I was paralyzed; I just sat there, turned red. He actually used me to scare everybody else. You better keep tuned in, this might happen to you, kid.

HGMN: And what about you, Michael? What was your first instrument? How'd you acquire it?

(MF) My first instrument... well, I wanted to play the guitar, I was about seven or eight years old, and my father took me down to the local music store, and the music teacher there said, well son, you wanna play the guitar? First, ya gotta learn how to play the accordion. [laughter]

(BC) ... arrest this man!

(MF) So there I am, I got the accordion, I spent a year doing this, I was learning the accordion, and finally to make a long story short, years later I was taking lessons from a real guitar teacher and I told him this story and he just started laughing, he goes, I know that guy, he just didn't have any guitars to rent you! [laughter] And that's how it started.

HGMN: And that's how it started... and what about you, Ronnie? What was your first instrument, do you still have it?

(RP) I think it was a six-string guitar; my father bought for me and my two brothers all this band stuff. He bought a drum kit for my younger brother, a guitar for me, and a bass for my brother.

(JM) Like the Jackson 5.

(RP) Yeah, you know the Partridge Family and all that stuff goin' on and ah, I think that was it. And then I wound up playing bass a year later.

HGMN: And you got his bass, like you told me about last night...

(RP) Yeah, yeah, I got it. That was many years later, actually.

HGMN: Very nice, well you earned it. So what about you, Johnny? What was your...?

(JM) Drums. My brother's drum set; I confiscated it from him. Go to his bedroom and move it politely into my bedroom.

HGMN: But now, am I mistaken or on Last of the Blue Diamond Miners, were you playin' guitar?

(JM) Umm hum. I play guitar, too.

HGMN: Because I didn't see drums credited to you there... OK.

(JM) Yeah, that guy looks just like me. [laughter] Tattoos are a little different.

HGMN: Is there anything anyone wants to share about any upcoming endeavors? Like I noticed that you have a British tour with Banana coming up [Nelson]. That's gonna be exciting.

(DN) Yeah, getting ready to get myself over to London. February 22nd. You should go.

HGMN: I wish I could, because you're gonna be in London on my birthday. I wish I could be there.

(BC) I just got an Email last night from the director of Rock Programming at Sirius Radio. And he had just, funny how these things happen,

(JM) Oh yeah, man...

(BC) Well, funny how these guys, when they get an idea, it's their idea, but anyways, because of some persuasion on my part, you know, he said what we should talk about is doing shows on the road. Well yeah, I thought of it, but it was their idea. Well, I love it when it's their idea. Yeah, I emailed him back that we'll sit down and talk about it. I just finished the JAM Cruise with Toast. Toast got the idea to put me on that thing and do my radio shows from there. And that worked enough for the guy and then he heard the results and he said, "Yeah, this is great." I mean, you got some DJs out there saying, well, you know, Paul Simon had a hit with this in 1967. For fourteen weeks it was number one. Who gives a f**k? What about the kinda stuff that we play? I mean, you guys are part of that show, too.

HGMN: I agree, and I think also, you know, free form broadcasting is so rare these days that you gotta love satellite radio for that.

(BC) It is rare because of the FCC. And with satellite, guess what? No FCC.

HGMN: Exactly, which makes it beautiful, and you have a lot of latitude...

(BC) We figured out the bane of all radio listening over the decades was commercials. Worthless commercials. We figured out how to beat 'em. Just the way we beat the Russians: buy 'em out.

(DN) Yup, buy 'em out.

HGMN: Buy 'em out, and do your own thing ...

(BC) right, so we don't need the commercials.

HGMN: Does anybody have a favorite memorable musical moment that they might like to share? Anything that stands out to you?

(DN) [laughter]

(BC) Yeah, there were a couple chicks in the club last night. [general concurrment]

HGMN: Welcome to the South. The guys in the Caboose, they always said that about the South, just something about the water down here. I don't really know what they meant by that, but it worked for them!

(JM) That's sorta like the pizza dough in New York, something about the water just makes it better.

HGMN: I heard that about the bagels, too. But I was kinda wondering, any one venue, any one crazy moment, anything like that?

(JM) My favorite time was the first gig. Playing the first time with this lineup. You know, having David turn around and just being like "YES!" ... stuff like that and no moments are better than other moments. You know they're just... Like last night was special. We talked after the show and said the audience last night was like the sixth member, and that was really cool about last night [The Pour House; Charleston, SC].

(DN) Yeah they were really cool last night...

(RP) Very much so.

(JM) ...very much right with us the whole show and that was cool.

HGMN: You guys had the place packed. I've never seen it so crowded in there and I'm not just saying that. You had a really full house and it's a pretty new venue.

(JM) Oh Alex and Vanessa, more power to 'em. Man, we had us a great time last night. [Alex & Vanessa Harris own Charleston's Poor House; coincidentally, "Vanessa" is also the title of the first track on Stir Fried's Last of the Blue Diamond Miners.]

HGMN: Yeah, they're good folks.

(MT) I'd have to say, Jenn, that I think my favorite moments are the ones coming up with this band as we really hit the festivals this summer and take it out on the road to California and on up to Portland. I'm really looking into swinging into Portland town with these guys; it'll be a fun ride.

HGMN: I wanna be there when you play Portland Woman.


(JM) That'll be so hot!

(BC) I hope we still remember it by then.

HGMN:  Well, you guys played my favorite last night, or one of my favorites. I love, "Rainbow," and I was so happy to hear that. Thank you.

(JM) Michael does a great job, doesn't he?

[band] Yeah, great job, man.

HGMN: And so, festivals? What can we expect coming up? You guys got some good stuff lined up?

(MT) Jerry's Birthday Bash in August at Sunshine Daydream Campground in Terra Alta, WV. I think our first festival's probably gonna be SmileFest, comin' up, with a lot of friends and family there, the Stir Fried family, hopefully the Tuna family, the David Nelson family, the New Riders family. And we've got some other city festivals, and balloon festivals, and hippie festivals, you know, which I can't let out of the bag yet, but ah, it's gonna be a great festival year.

HGMN: Excellent, I'm sure everyone will look forward to that.

(JM) I wanna fly to Amsterdam and play the World Cannabis Cup.

(BC) As per Nelson's quote from Garcia last night about if you got into this thing for money, you came to the wrong decision or you made the wrong choice...

(DN) You're in it for all the wrong reasons.

(BC) All the wrong reasons, yeah. But make no mistake. Any professional musican just wants to make a decent dollar for the amount of work that they do. And a festival is a good way to do that. Talk about a fest situation. It brings in more for the player and costs the audience less overall to be part of it.

HGMN: You get more bang for your buck cuz you get to hear all your favorite bands and have a little mini-vacation. It's great.

(MF) And the artists get to play to more people.

HGMN: That's nice, and spread it around. Great. Well, what about songwriting? Do you guys have any new songs in the works? Any aspirations for that?

(DN) Maayy-be. I'm not telling.

HGMN: I know it's a very personal process, but I'm just kinda curious, do you all write songs?

[band] Maaayyy-be. Maybe. Mebbe.

HGMN: So what's that process like for you? Is it different every time? Do the words come first? Does the music come first? Do you have a favorite place or time to do it?

(DN) It's unpredictable.

(MF) It's unpredictable, that's a good way to look at it.

(JM) You just never know.

(BC) Yeah, you can't make that happen. You can work on it and try to make the song work better, take advantage of what's happening, but you can't plan, " I'm gonna write this song today..."

(RP) No, that doesn't happen. You thank the Song Gods and they show up and someone whispers in your ear to remind you of an event or something like that...

HGMN:  I really appreciate you guys being so hospitable and lettin' me do this. I'm gonna put this together with basically a review of last night's show, and Timmy... you guys switched up the set lists but that was really cool, and Timmy made sure I had it all straight before I left. And there are some nice shots, too, some very nice shots, so I'll be sharing all of that with all of you. Thank you.    

Les Claypool - 5 Gallons of Diesel DVD

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So did Aunt Susan break out the scrapbook on you this Christmas? Howdja like her gripping narration, slowly flipping through endless pages of distant cousins, great great uncles and “friends of the family”? Or maybe Dad wanted to impress everyone with his technical savoir faire and flip through all 400 photos on the digital camera you gave him last year—every single tiny event from last Christmas morning to last night’s ceremonial bird carving. Good stuff, huh?
The West Coast's ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) cap off a year of extensive touring with the release of their fourth LP, Fly Between Falls in the Fall of 2004. Over the course of this ten-song set, Steve Adams, David Brogan, Zach Gill and Dan Lebowitz apply the full force of the band's collective consciousness to weave quirky California soul with shapeshifting jams, introspective lyrics with sun-soaked funk, all infused with the uplifting vibe that ALO's ever-growing legions of fans live for.
Interview by: Chris Robie

This interview took place inside the band's RV right before their gig at The Music Farm in Charleston, SC, 11/26/05

Dan Lebowitz- Acoustic Guitar
David Brogan- Drums
Steve Adams- Bass
Zach Gill- Wurlitzer, Accordion, Vocals


HGMN: If ALO were a class at a major university, what would be the required reading?

Steve: The Real Book, I think, maybe.
Dan: Hmmm, really? That may be supplemental reading. If I could just list all the books that I would make everybody read...
Steve: We like to have fun. We like the little quirky stuff. It would be a book that kind of goes with that.
Dave: Maybe Cat In The Hat.
Zach: Breakfast of Champions.
Steve: The Little Prince.
Dave: The liner notes to Steely Dan's AJA.

HGMN: You guys have a couple of shows coming up in Japan. Anything you look forward to doing once you get there?

Dan: We're not going to have a lot of time there.
Dave: I know. I want to do a lot of things but I don't think we're going to have the time to do them.
Dan: I look forward to playing "Haji Memashite".
Zach: Yeah. We wrote this song for the trip that's in Japanese.
Steve: It's basically saying, "It's nice to meet you." It's the greeting song.
Dan: I really look forward to seeing the country.
Steve: I'm also looking forward to meeting the Beautiful Girls. That's who we're co-billing with.
Dan: They're from Australia.

HGMN: Which band member do you feel is the most eccentric and why?

Steve: Eccentric?
Dave: I think Zach Gill, because of his sticks and sweaters.

HGMN: What's the deal with the sweaters?

Zach: (Laughs) There's no deal!

HGMN: Do you wear them in the summertime?

Zach: Occasionally.
Steve: They're always the big sweaters, kind of like the "Dude".
Dave: I think maybe I'll switch and say Steve.
Steve: Why, because of the mustache?
Dave: (Laughs) No, because of like...
Zach: Because of all the subtle things that he does. For one, he doesn't sleep much. He stays up online.
Dave: He's the band's archivist.
Steve: You have to be a little crazy to do the things I do.
Dave: When you walk into his room, he has a pretty small room, it's like you're stepping inside an archive. You're just surrounded by archival material. It's from the floor to the ceiling. He's always filing and making lists. He's an archival character. He's very eccentric.
Zach: Yeah. It's not the guy with the sticks and sweaters.

HGMN: What's the deal with the sticks?

Steve: He just has a thing with sticks. He's always, like, finding sticks on tour. He'll have this certain stick for a week. He'll find them & then sometimes lose them. One time he had a broom stick for a couple days.
Dave: The other night when we sat in with Galactic, we're singing with them and then Zach walks over with this stick, dancing with it on stage.
Zach: It's like an old man thing. I kind of picked it up in high school. It makes me feel comfortable, with old sweaters & holding a cane. I have a daughter so I'm kind of like in the "father" role. I think the more you get to know someone the more eccentric they become.

HGMN: The new CD, Fly Between falls, has been nominated for album of the year by the HGMN. Did you know going in to the studio that this was going to be something special or did everything kind of just fall in to place as it happened? Were there any unexpected surprises?

Zach: There were lots of surprises...
Steve: It did feel special making the new record. It felt special to me because it's the first record we've done with Dave. We first started playing with Dave back in 1996, almost 10 years ago. We recorded a demo and then he moved up the coast. We kind of parted ways after that. I always felt that we had a really good chemistry with him. In that way it's something we've been waiting for a long time.
Zach: In this scene, especially this "Jam" scene, you hope to make an album that you're proud of and that the fans will be in to it. There's so much good music out there. As you might know there's not that many ways to get your music out so it's good to have something like the HGMN out there.


HGMN: If you wanted to turn someone on to your music, someone who had never heard your music before, which song would you pick and why?

Dan: For me it's tough because it would depend on who the person was.
Steve: For some people it would be 'Wasting Time'. It has both Zach and Dave singing on it. It has a nice little catchy hook to it. It has a nice little jam at the end too.
Dan: It covers a lot of territory that we do in that one song.
Dave: It's sort of funky, it's sort of rootsy...yeah.
Steve: I sometimes like 'Possibly Drown'. I know that it's not everyone's choice. It's also kind of rootsy and it's also kind of bluesy. It's one that often times we'll play earlier in our sets as kind of a warm up. For me it's always a good introduction song.

HGMN: What's the last CD you really enjoyed listening to?

Zach: Dave Brogan's soft rock mix. (Laughs)

HGMN: What's on it?

Dave: Ambrosia, Kenny Loggins...
Steve: We all just kind of got turned on to The Flaming Lips album, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
Dan: That first song is just so good!

HGMN: Did you guys see them in Vegas?

Dave: Yeah, I did. It blew my mind. I'm definitely into them right now.

HGMN: What is your most memorable moment on stage? Most embarrassing?

Dave: Like ever?
Steve: The first thing that popped into my head just now was when, sometimes during the song 'Plastic Bubble', Zach kind of eggs me on to, like, stand up on the amp and jump off or whatever. One time it was like that moment and I tried to get up on the monitor and I just slid off. It was pretty embarrassing. I don't think that many people saw it, although it was a full room. I kind of crawled back around, sheepishly.
Dave: One moment that popped into my head was about 2 or 3 years ago, we were playing at the Sundance film festival. We were playing at this bar, a little bar gig, so there really wasn't much of a stage, just a little platform. The people were dancing right in front of us really up close, and this drunk, tool guy, keeps sticking his hands around the keyboards while Zach was playing, almost right on top of his hands. He was really invading his space, messing with Zach and everything. So he kept doing it and kept doing it and finally he turns his back to Zach to, like, talk to some girl. Zach then just reaches over and sticks his hand right on his ass. The guys is like, "what the?!"
Zach: (laughs) Oh, yeah. That's right.
Dan: This summer I was doing this accordion solo and one of those beach balls landed on the stage. Sometimes everyone's watching just to see what you'll do. I kind of felt like I was under all this pressure, like I was up to bat. I remember kicking it back in to the crowd as I continued the solo. (Laughs) It was a triumphed moment.

HGMN: What's your favorite movie?

Steve: Ever?

HGMN: Have you seen Kung Fu Hustle?

Everyone: Yes!
Dave: That's right up there for me.
Dan: Spinal Tap.
Zach: Yeah! Sometimes we'll be in some type of argument and someone will say a line from Spinal Tap. It's like we've become a parody of ourselves.
Dave: It's like this summer when we've been playing those big places with Jack, they have those underground cavernous back stage areas and time after time we found ourselves trying to get back to the stage and not being able to find the door. We get lost.
Steve: You can hear the people cheering in the background.
Zach: that movie really hits a lot of stuff dead on. We used to watch it all the time.
Steve: That Johnny Depp movie, Finding Neverland.
Dan: Crash. That was a great movie! It's so heavy.
Steve: Batman Begins.
Zach: I really liked Life Aquatic. I like all his movies. The Royal Tenenbaums & Bottle Rocket...

HGMN: Any pre-show rituals? Superstitions?

Dave: The making of the set list is kind of our pre show ritual.
Steve: We all work on it together. We usually work on it right after sound check. Sometimes we do it on the drive to the show.


HGMN: How are the set lists chosen?

Zach: Now we're having to like, and this has been a whole new thing now that 'Fly Between Falls' has been doing pretty well, a lot of people kind of expect to hear songs from that album and we have like 40-50 songs that we pull from and there's only 10 on 'Fly Between Falls' and a lot of those aren't even tunes that you feel like playing live like you do other songs. But now we get people wanting to hear some of their favorites from that album and now we've been catering more to that.
Dan: And that's been fun because you can tell when you play something that people know. It kind of communicates with them in a whole other way. I feel you kind of connect with people. We kind of do different versions of them and we improvise a little bit and that's kind of been the saving grace for me that it's not going to sound the same as it does on the album. Its fun to play a song that people know but it's more fun to be able to do something different with it.
Zach: I think with songs it really does help to be kind of familiar with their music. You get that feeling when everybody's singing along. We just did a bunch of shows with Galactic. That was really cool and I was kind of realizing that you can not be familiar with Galactic's music at all, kind of just go cold, and you can get into the way that they perform with each other, just get into that whole thing. But I feel with a more song oriented band it's nice to know the words, to participate in that kind of way.
Dan: This gig in NY with Galactic the other day, to me, this was like the coolest thing of the whole tour. There was this kid, he looked to be about 8 years old, he was on his dad's shoulders wearing an ALO shirt and he was singing along to a bunch of our tunes.
Steve: I like to imagine the journey of the set list, what kind of experience it's going to be for us and for the audience.
Zach: I think Steve and Dan have taken a lot of the reins, maybe, on set lists. I feel like that's happened.
Dan: I tend to think in keys sometimes.
Steve: I think in keys too.
Zach: Interesting. Everybody has a different perspective. Everyone has their role that they play in the songs. It's funny how each person picks the set list because it kind of comes from their prospective. A lot of our songs will start off with piano and voice and then builds that way. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing by myself like at the beginning of every song.
Steve: I think the set list is pretty important during a show and we sometimes deviate from it. We'll tune in to the audience because sometimes they'll be shouting stuff out for us to play...we ignore it but we definitely enjoy it.
Zach: We used to be on this trip when you shouldn't have a set list. You'll just be feeling it.
Steve: That can be hard, though.
Dan: We had a thing where we'll just go around in the order of our instruments. Zach would pick a song and then I knew that the next song was going to be my pick. The whole deal was that you had to be ready. It kind of evolved because after a song we would have to have these conversations sometimes about what we wanted to play. That kind of sucked because it would kill the energy.


HGMN: What song do you enjoy most playing live?

Dan: For me it changes every night.
Zach: Sometimes it's nice when you shelve a song for a while and then you bring it back out. It feels really nice.
Dan: Like an old friend.


    

Radiohead - Live At Astoria, London DVD

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The zeal of Radiohead fans is comparable to that of the music world’s most ardent addicts. Phish, The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Metallica, and Frank Zappa, to name a few, all have certain fan bases that hang on to every note, news item, and archival action as if it were their last foothold on reality. While this affliction is much more prevalent around bands that are no longer together, it’s a testament to just how special Radiohead is that they share this characteristic while, by all accounts, remaining active and writing new material. For a band like Radiohead, even the hint of a new album gets fans in a tizzy, speculating songs that will appear, release dates, producers, and the like to an obsessive degree.

Grateful Dead - Fillmore West 1969 (3 CDs)

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At Vegoose, Trey Anastasio was asked to comment on some aspect of the current jamband scene. Somewhere in his response, he clarified that, when he was growing up in suburban New Jersey, there was only one jamband—they were called the Grateful Dead. Indeed, when Anastasio was weened on the Dead, Zappa, and progressive radio rock in the mid- to late-70s, the term “jamband” would have fit the Dead pretty well. While there was a strong dose of improvisation in every performance, setlists were constructed of songs with the standard popular music formula—the Dead stepped through a door every time they left a song behind, but the songs themselves generally closed the band inside the four walls and a ceiling of verse, chorus, bridge, rhythm and melody.

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