Music for Livin'- Jam and Beyond

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"Heaven is all around, translated to sound" -Michael Hedges

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A portion of the proceeds (100% of MY proceeds) from anything bought through the links on this webpage will go to the Squidoo charity fund!

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JamBase News: You gotta know whats goin on with the scene to enjoy it!

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Xavier Rudd Exclusive Track From Upcoming Album Only Here!: Xavier Rudd Gives JamBase Exclusive Airing of New Track "Guku"
From Upcoming Album Dark Shades Of Blue Due August 18

For a limited time only you can preview Xavier Rudd's unreleased track "Guku" right here on JamBase. Check it out HERE. The forth song on Rudd's upcoming August 18 release Dark Shades Of Blue, this is the only place you can hear "Guku."

Dark Shades of Blue finds Rudd at his most assertive, heavy and psychedelic. Dusky and cool, the disc's guitar-driven jams expand on a sound only hinted at on previous releases, as distortion often supplants the pretty jangly guitars heard on earlier work, like 2007's White Moth. While Rudd's signature didgeridoo remains, along with the myriad of instruments and voices featured on other records, the results are less "world music" than they are the makings of a truly global record.

Preorder Dark Shades of Blue here.

Track List:

1. Black Water
2. Dark Shades of Blue
3. Secrets
4. Guku
5. Edge of the Moon
6. This World As We Know It
7. Shiver
8. Uncle
9. Up In Flames
10. Hope That You'll Stay
11. Home!

Be the first to hear Xavier Rudd's new song, listen to "Guku" here.

Xavier Rudd tour dates available here.
HeadCount 90-Day Voter Challenge: HEADCOUNT TEAMS UP WITH WEB, MOBILE AND TECHNOLOGY BRANDS
TO STAGE "90-DAY VOTER CHALLENGE"

Music fans popping on their favorite websites are getting more than just the latest tour dates or album reviews - they're getting a chance to register to vote. It's all part of the "90-Day Voter Challenge," a three-month push to get people signed up to vote in time to participate in the November election.

Eight companies with heavily-trafficked websites and strong ties to music have teamed up with the nonpartisan voter registration group HeadCount to add "Register to Vote" links to their websites and stage promotions encouraging people to vote in November. The activity kicked off on July 4th and will continue until early October, when all the participants will make a final push to get every eligible American registered to vote.

As part of the 90-Day Voter Challenge, Spin Magazine will launch its own voter registration web page, which will soon be home to video clips of major musicians talking about the issues that matter to them most. Virgin Mobile USA now has a voter registration link on its website and at www.virginmobilefestival.com, a lead-up to the August 9 and 10 event in Baltimore MD, where the upcoming election and voter participation will take center stage (along with performances by Jack Johnson, Wilco, Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Bob Dylan and much more).

eMusic, the nation's largest retailer of independent music, has made a Register to Vote link part of it's standard web template, and will offer discounts to anyone who visits www.HeadCount.org and makes a "Pledge to Vote." Musictoday, a leading provider of integrated ecommerce solutions for the music industry, is also offering music and merchandise discounts on thousands of items to anyone who makes the "Pledge." In addition, they will stage special contests through sister company Ultrastar's Fan Club platform.

CMJ, a print and online music publication geared toward college students, has not only placed a register to vote link on its web pages and e-mail newsletters, but also will encourage affiliated college radio stations to run PSA's and point unregistered young people to the HeadCount web site to register. imeem, the popular social networking service with over 27 million users, will point people to a HeadCount page where they will find information on voting as well as free music playlists featuring exclusive tracks from artists who support the cause (www.imeem.com/myheadcount). And right here on JamBase, an original HeadCount sponsor, we've been displaying a "Register to Vote" link from our home page for months, and we will launch content in the Fall dedicated to the election. SexyPolitics.com, an edgy website that offers political quizzes, boasts a prominent register to vote link and will feature a special quiz devoted to how politics and music intersect.

"These companies have found creative ways to use their web assets to drive voter registration," said Andy Bernstein, HeadCount's executive director. "We expect to register tens of thousands of new voters through this initiative, many of whom would not have registered otherwise."

"For ten years we've been making it easy for music fans to discover and download the best independent music," said David Pakman, President and CEO of eMusic. "Now, we're offering them an equally easy way to register to vote."

HeadCount has already registered close to 30,000 voters in 2008, both online and at concerts. It fields voter registration "street teams" in 40 cities and tours with major recording acts such as Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson and John Mayer. By the end of the 90-day period, HeadCount expects to have registered 100,000 new voters in this calendar year.
Dr. Dog: Gettin' To That Thing: By: Dennis Cook

Dr. Dog

Fate (released July 22 on Park The Van), the fifth album from Philadelphia's Dr. Dog is a pilgrim's hymnbook written in popular song, full of outward bound thoughts wedded to shoo-bee-do-wops and befuzzed guitar. It's the kind of album you like right away but find you're madly in love with after a few dates. By your first road trip alone you'll be ready to slip a ring on its finger. An upward draft informs everything, even the tunes that begin down in the dumps, and it's that tenacity at grasping at the light that elevates Fate - and Dr. Dog in general - above the realm of neat pop craftsmanship (which, coincidentally, they do quite well). Fate is ham-hocks and collard greens for starved souls that only reveals its true spicing once it's inside you.

"Some things present themselves in everyone's lives in a million different varieties. These things make music feel substantial," says Scott McMicken, one of the voices and architects of Dr. Dog. "I find the most solace and realization in knowing about these things. No matter how sort of stuck in the muck you get, if you can find evidence of these same things existing in other people's lives, well, it just feels like a function of life and a human attribute. It's really good. The most dangerous thing is getting lost and locked up in your own experiences. I find these moments of shared experience to be so beneficial."

It's this universality, this quest for commonality and connection that informs Fate. That they deliver this message in a package that recalls great pop artists of the past makes their philosophical slight of hand all the more impressive. Their Wikipedia entry begins:

Dr. Dog is a psychedelic rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their sound has been compared to that of various 1960s pop bands, especially The Beatles and The Band, as well as The Beach Boys.

Dr. Dog

It's lazy shorthand but this set of associations tends to crop up in nearly every piece about them, in one form or another. Though Dr. Dog shares the solidity and super charged creative energy of these reference points, they don't really sound like The Band or The Beatles and largely left behind any discernible Beach Boys nods a couple years ago. In much the same way as every singer-songwriter is the "New Dylan" or "New Neil Young," critics tend to lump music into codified little boxes. So when confronted by a fully flowering rock monster like Dr. Dog most aren't sure what to do with them. While many establishment wags can't conceive of a contemporary group making albums as rich as Revolver, Stage Fright or Smiley Smile, that's just what Dr. Dog has done with Fate, which hints at even more spectacular things to come. However, it's not especially psychedelic, at least not in the candy ass, incense and peppermints way most folks take it to be.

"That word is just swimming around there for anyone to pick up on. It's a very, very subjective word at this point in time. Any music possessing a general characteristic of color and some sort of imaginary landscape immediately falls into that psychedelic category," points out McMicken. "I feel this issue is somewhat of a problem but can also be seen as a challenge, not just in the building of the identity or consciousness of your band but in learning how to feel a personal connection with something that is so easily tagged and so easily referenced. To re-appropriate all these elements and sort of become familiar with the history, the grand narrative of whatever you're a part of - whether it's your own self-analysis or your family or culture as an artist - is an opportunity to learn to keep the peace with your own personal history AND to be very comfortable in terms of any given point in what precedes you, and being proud to carry these things on instead of lashing out against them or feeling like they only exist in their most beautiful form only for you to dodge and avoid. For the most part, that's kind of what Fate, the record, is about in a nutshell."

The ABCs

Do you feel like you're stuck in time?
Forever waiting on that line
If nothing ever moves
Put that needle to the groove
And sing

Dr. Dog by Sam Seager

As Virginia Wolfe would tell you (if she wasn't clutching stones at the bottom of a lake), a room of one's own makes all the difference in art and life. For the past few years, Dr. Dog has recorded at their home studio. The lack of clockwatching and freedom to work at all hours has meant a steady technical progression that's matched pace with their increased skill as players and songwriters. They buy their tape used from a hip-hop studio in Philly, and from time to time happy accidents from the blunted maestros make their way into their tunes, shuddery, chuckling ghosts inside their spiraling barroom piano and fluttering melodies. After saving up their pennies, they purchased a 24-track rig that replaced their cherished four-track, which still gets a workout from time to time.

"We used to roll the tape and record a song. If it was awesome it was awesome, if it was bad it was bad, but we'd never go back. Now we can do several takes and let the music develop more naturally," says McMicken. "In a band you're constantly working on things together. It's very delicate. The good thing is you work through things and you wind up stronger than ever. For me, that's linked up with being in a band and always improving."

Continue reading for more on Dr. Dog...

The most dangerous thing is getting lost and locked up in your own experiences. I find these moments of shared experience to be so beneficial.-Scott McMicken

And they are a little better each time out, their new evolution obvious from record to record, tour to tour, and even in the cheek of their band listing on their MySpace page, which only lists their nicknames (real names added for your informational pleasure) and poetic gloss on their role, befitting a group that took their name from a mishearing of Captain Beefheart's "Doctor Dark":

Taxi (Scott McMicken): lead woof+mud distortion guitar, vocals
Tables (Toby Leaman): finger bass, vocals, rhythm stomp
Text (Zach Miller): keyboardings, some guitar/singing
Trouble (Juston Stens): hammer hands of a surgeon, harmonies, embellishments
Thanks (Sukey Jumps): multi-string guitar, full-grip chords, vocal nuances

Scott McMicken by Sam Seager

Dr. Dog gets that music is mathematics and poetry, a sway between organization and free flight, and always with an understanding that they stand on the shoulders of giants that they borrow inspiration from constantly.

"The craft is just as fulfilling as the poetry or philosophy behind it. It's like a dummy you can dress up," says McMicken. "Originality is such a relative word. For me, to be honest is to be as original as you can be. You're given certain faculties, and you live with them and operate clearly through this sort of looking glass that's undistorted. That's originality at its core. It shows up in the most formatted, traditional, structured thing to the most wildly unrecognizable thing. People often seek out originality for its own sake, as if it existed outside of them so that they have to catch it in the wind."

The new album is a distillation of a lot of things Dr. Dog has been working on for a while, not least, a role for the studio that functions like another band member and truly serves the songs. All the elements on Fate work in a very empathetic way, rarely drawing too much attention to any one part since the whole is suffused in such an organic, dandy way. To wit, one doesn't sit around thinking about Ringo's drumming or George's searing guitar work while listening to "Back In The U.S.S.R." It's the cumulative a-wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-lop-bam-boo that seizes you. And this is how the Dog's version of Fate operates. This is pop rock but the band is standing up on their hind legs today and yowling, "This is OUR voice."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. As is to be expected as you remain a band and explore the root of the process and grow with it, at what ever pace you're comfortable moving at. We definitely feel we had a more informed, Technicolor view of what we are as a band and where we'd come from this time," says McMicken. "There's so many threads to this 'fate' notion that apply in a purely logistical sense to where we are as a band, as well as in a more philosophical sense."

"From all the live playing, we've gained such a different relationship to the music we're playing. For years and years, the music we made was almost pure fantasy. The writing of it has sort of always been the same, though the intensity and need for that has grown. We'd always been kind of a blank slate each time we went into the studio before. For the first time, this record felt really, really informed by all these elements that exceeded our imagination in the studio and are just the natural byproducts of us being in a band. We wanted to distil that," continues McMicken. "It was very intuitive but now that it's over I can see it's a whole new vocabulary and a whole new set of needs that I know has everything to do with our observations about music nowadays, as well our own observations about where we are as a band. There's been a certain dynamic and growth as engineers and producers. We've now made a handful of records, and I've had the luxury of working on other people's records. My experience of just making records has opened up more, and all of these things felt like very, very necessary aspects of what we were going to do, in so far as you go into a project and take stock to say, 'This is where the bar is right now and we have to hit it.' You open up this forum of problems and go about solving them as best you can."

Army of Ancients

Dr. Dog

In 2008, we are all inheritors of this huge ocean of cultural influences. Each of us, particularly artists, must figure out how to keep their head above the waterline, dog paddling furiously while humming The Police's "Too Much Information" under our breath. If a band slows down it's incredibly easy to be submerged by the hot rivers of ancient vinyl and fire hose fast bit streams coming at them. Further, it's easier to recreate and nuance than dig out one's own identity. Finding a way to inherit history while making some of your own ain't easy. For Dr. Dog, "pop" isn't a dirty word. They appreciate catchy, sing-able ditties but somehow reconcile that with being dedicatedly experimental, too. For them, these are not two separate strains.

"Certainly not. At its core, we really just make music we enjoy the most, and have always had faith that if we reach that point with something then we're doing the best we can. Our sole responsibility, even to any sense of an audience, is ultimately based on a personal responsibility to do what makes us happy. I think that's really all people want. At least I would hope so," McMicken says. "[Fate] is by no means a thesis or anything; it was a forum for us to look at these things, think about them and breathe them into our lives. It can definitely be 'caveman.' It was exhilarating while making it to not only think about sound but also these larger concepts that are perhaps even more relevant to our lives than the fact we make music."

Continue reading for more on Dr. Dog...

This album feels like fate in the sense that I'm very aware that this is only a record we could have made with EXACTLY the experiences we've had in this band so far. And the lyrics are rooted in that concept, too. It's about fate but it is fate itself, too.-Scott McMicken

Photo of Scott McMicken by Michael Maly from www.sonicitchmusic.com

Fate's opener, "The Breeze," begins in quietude that doesn't hint at the largess to come, a brilliant kind of seductive bait-and-switch that goes on throughout Fate. According to McMicken, "The Breeze" is "structurally a one chord cycle going through. It's only one melody. There's no hooks, no refrain or anything. So, to look at the album as a piece, in and of itself - which we did by stringing all the songs together and not having any silence [between cuts] - we saw it as one, big, long composition. Sonically, we intentionally built ['The Breeze'] with a warbly acoustic guitar on a four-track that pops into a little bass and a little percussion and then the backups come in. It sort of represents where we started to go after Toothbrush [2002] through Easy Beat [2005], a little bit of We All Belong [2007] and now here we are at this Fate record. It represents where we've come from sonically on a very logistic level, including the equipment we used. We definitely tried to be as self-referential as possible on this record. This album feels like fate in the sense that I'm very aware that this is only a record we could have made with EXACTLY the experiences we've had in this band so far. And the lyrics are rooted in that concept, too. It's about fate but it is fate itself, too."

Dr. Dog

"At some point in the process it became very overwhelming, almost frighteningly so but in a good way that swept me up. We started out just throwing shit at the wall to see what stuck to get something cooking, to see what kind of intuition we were operating on this time," observes McMicken. "Having chosen totally randomly from at least 50 or 60 songs from this giant pile, about two weeks into recording someone noticed there were glaringly obvious connections between all this stuff. It was so easy to take one song and define another with it. All of them were holding hands in a way, and it became easier to see them and add them into this larger concept. It was not challenging in the least. All the train stuff and elements of the past, antiquity, was just there."

Trickster figures and coal shovelin' men abound, archetypes animated with human breathe, that make the arrow of time flow both forwards and backwards. Even the band's new Steinbeckian Dust Bowl stage outfits reflect this visceral connection with other time periods even as they pound out a sound that could only surface in the wake of what's come before. Portions of Fate feel like limericks or nursery rhymes ("how did the fox get the raven to crow?"). There's something primal or folk art inside their latest work that taps into deeper places than rock is known for, especially today.

"The further you delve into things the more you come back to these very simple, very timeless truths. It's a complicated mess to get to these simple things though," wisely observes McMicken. "More and more, I find that catchphrases and cliches that float around and become popular forms of advice at first seem like trivializations but in truth say things better than any amount of longwinded analysis can. That pursuit of getting down to some sense of simplicity - and in essence a sense of harmony and peace or whatever it is you're going to devote your thoughts and time to - is actually a very simple and shared experience. It is very tough to get down to but it's part of what I consider to be the work of life. I really feel we were connecting to these notions, and not being afraid if they came off as overly simplified. The truth is it's a pop record. You don't need to sit down with a pad and pencil to listen to it. We put just as much effort into making something aesthetically appealing that'll make your ass shake a lil' bit."

Hang On

And what you thought was a hurricane
Was just the rustling of the wind
Why you think we need amazing grace
Just to tell it like it is?
Well, I don't need no doctor
To tear me all apart
I just need you
To mend my heart

The reason folk and pub music works so well is because it focuses on family and hearth, death and birth, feast and famine. These subjects make people throw their arms around total strangers and sing. There's an element of that universal bonhomie in Dr. Dog. Whether conscious of it or not, the collective undertow within their music helps to generate a feeling of togetherness at Dr. Dog shows. There's a great beat and plenty of stunning bridges to help the ontological nuggets go down, which is probably why most of the time you don't notice how bright and thoughtful they're being. When you're having fun there's little time to ponder the abyss or our place in the universe; we simply exist and revel in the carefree free fall being conjured around us.

Continue reading for more on Dr. Dog...

I couldn't define for you what it is I like about ANYTHING. It's just that intangible thing, the realization that there's a life behind this thing and this is evidence of one human being's needs. That exists in everything from the most wildly abstract art to Top 40 stuff. Even outside the realm of art, you walk into someone's house and see how they organize objects. Or it's in the shoes somebody chooses to put on or the dirt stains around the light switch - just evidence of something going on, something real.-Scott McMicken

"I would feel like an asshole if we were doing anything other than that! It feels awful to go into the making of anything with really strong, demanding expectations about your experience with it," says McMicken. "It's a function of our lives, it's a process we're involved with, so personally and on a purely selfish level it needs to be fulfilling. It needs to feel good. Beyond that, if I were to stop and think about what I hope people get out of it, this is just a thing a bunch of dudes like to get together and do, and it does mean something to them. I say that because from my standpoint, looking at art or listening to music, I really have no parameters on what it is I like. I couldn't define for you what it is I like about ANYTHING. It's just that intangible thing, the realization that there's a life behind this thing and this is evidence of one human being's needs. That exists in everything from the most wildly abstract art to Top 40 stuff. Even outside the realm of art, you walk into someone's house and see how they organize objects. Or it's in the shoes somebody chooses to put on or the dirt stains around the light switch - just evidence of something going on, something real."

Dr. Dog

"It's very easy to see, especially in the context of art in popular culture, that there's a lot of illusions and puffed-up chests. That's fine because at the end of the day that serves some function for people, too. If I had to go on trial about it I'd say it's a destructive element and an exploitation of people's fears and weaknesses. But, I know I'm subject to the same things so I don't feel especially judgmental saying that," McMicken continues. "Again, the fate notion comes in as a pretty relevant tool for looking at this. When the fate thing with this record trickled in as an album title - which we tend to establish early in recording - I had no objection to it but it challenged me. It's this notion that's so real but also so romantic, and because I was considering that I opened myself up to it. When you open yourself up to a certain idea it finds you."

So much so that McMicken has recorded a "way, way more personal" solo album since Fate entitled It.

"It was this cathartic thing for me. I'd built up so much muck and so much obstruction to my sense of self-worth," says McMicken. "Literally in one night, I did a 180 on seemingly the most incidental circumstances. With this new perspective I could dig into things that I was struggling with but with a much clearer lens, a much more harmonious sense of what they meant in my life. I hung onto that feeling long enough to crank out eight or nine tunes, singing 'em all into my four-track in my room. The reason it's called It is one of the songs talks about the saying, 'It's all in how you look at it.' Then all the verses are this laying out of things - 'It's cursed. It's praise.' ending in the refrain of 'It's all in how you look at it.' These things are gonna come and go. You can't control them but you have the power of perception."

"Fate" is a power word. Like "God" or "Soul," it vibrates with associations despite its one syllable brevity. Only its construction is perfectly simple; its meaning is fluid and open to interpretation. Naming one's album Fate almost tempts it in some ways.

"Now that it's said and done, I think we tempted it for sure [laughs]. It's a living, breathing beast in my life, and I started to see everything in these terms. But, it's by no means a dogmatic thing. I've come to feel about fate that it's this constant duality, this constant balance between realizing life is both within your control and not in your control," says McMicken. "There's simple ways of applying that to your understanding. It's like, 'Here I am today and there's obviously nothing I can do about that.' So, a reconciliation of your own personal history and the choices you've made is absolutely necessary. You can't resist those things. All you can do is use them as these tools to measure the value of life and the mistakes or the right moves you've made. If you're interested in being a happy person, if you're interested in growing and staying on top of things, you can't carry around this baggage. You have to step up and take responsibility for what's gotten you where you are AND realize that the future lies ahead of you. From this stronger vantage point you can move in that direction with more security but also realizing these elements are going to keep popping up, coming and going over time, and you're going to make mistakes and not know what to do."

Dr. Dog is on tour now, dates available here.

Check out exclusive interviews, live footage and more with Dr. Dog on JamBaseTV here!

JamBase | Closer And Closer
Go See Live Music!
Alejandro Escovedo | 07.16.08 | Atlanta: Words by: David Higdon | Images by: Paul Puckett

Alejandro Escovedo :: 07.16.08 :: Variety Playhouse :: Atlanta, GA

Alejandro Escovedo :: 07.16.08

What a difference a few months can make. When Alejandro Escovedo last visited Atlanta in March, it was at the intimate 185 seat Eddie's Attic, where the duo of Escovedo and talented guitarist David Pulkingham previewed songs from then unreleased Real Animal in a stripped down, acoustic setting. A mere four months later, Escovedo's ninth studio album has been released and, without delay, it charted on Billboard. During this time, he's also been signed to coveted Jon Landau Management and had the honor of joining sole management mate Bruce Springsteen onstage in Houston. He's been an opening act for the Dave Mathews Band's summer tour, and performed on both the Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Today Show. It's been a busy couple of months for Escovedo, and the enthusiasm for his gig was thick in the summer air as Atlanta welcomed the return of the Austin musician.

Escovedo is a rare breed where punk rock manner and songwriter precision fuse seamlessly together with glam rock charisma and folk balladeer tenderness to effectively create an indefinable category of music. Emerging out of the shadows to the campy George Jones classic "He Stopped Loving Her Today," it was evident that the 1000 seat Variety Playhouse was a much better setting for tonight's show, as the Escovedo/Pulkingham duo was now joined by Hector Munoz on drums and Josh Gravelin on bass. This four-piece ignited the night's musical conflagration with "Put You Down;" a building rock song with sharp changes, which were nailed precisely. Without pause, "Always a Friend," the first song on the new album, flowed forth with effortless cool as the loose number filled the near-capacity venue. Complete with its E Street-esque "uh, oh, oh, ohs," the song's reminder to "every once in a while, just let yourself go" wasn't unnoticed by the crowd filling in the dance floor.

Always finding the common thread that ties great music of all styles together, Escovedo welcomed the Texas enchantress Carrie Rodriguez to the stage to add her stylish fiddle work to the band. With the lineup set for the rest of the night, the group delivered an incredibly textured version of "Everybody Loves Me." The number found Escovedo and Pulkingham squaring off - Pulkingham with his elaborate finger work and Escovedo with his low slung guitar cool - while Rodriguez created an ethereal landscape that ebbed and flowed with the song's momentum.

Alejandro Escovedo :: 07.16.08

Only a craftsman like Alejandro Escovedo can place the reminiscent fury of "Chelsea Hotel '78" prior to the instrumental beauty of "Juarez" in a setlist, and although vastly different in scale, never lose their electric or acoustic capacity. The ballad "Rosalie" was given even greater depth when prefaced by the true accounting of a man and woman in love who only saw each other once a year for seven years but everyday wrote the other a letter. Off the new album, "People" made its debut known with its hip sway cool. When Pulkingham added his fluid slide to the song, it helped guide lyrics like "They say we're equal, we're not all equal/ I find that hard to believe/ I tried to love you/ I tried to love them/ I tried to love me, too/ Some are easy/ Some take work/ People you know that we do" to a place of positive understanding.

As he put down his guitar, Escovedo gripped the mic closer and announced he wanted to become animalistic like his central musical tribute on the album, Iggy Pop. Escovedo might not have quite the same flexibility to "kick like a mule, twist like a tree," as Iggy but his band certainly can muster punk attitude. Attitude is key if you're going to dedicate your next song to Joe Strummer, and "Castanets" closed out the set with force that found Escovedo in a full Pete Townshend windmill attack.

"Has anyone seen Rick Richards around?" Escovedo asked the crowd of the Georgia Satellite and Ju Ju Hounds guitarist as the group emerged for the encore. There was no surprise guest, but Escovedo did surprise the crowd with the funky little boat race of "All the Young Dudes" and led the crowd in its sing-along chorus. More speed jive came our way with "Velvet Guitar," complete with Rodriguez's bow-shredding fiddle work on the builds. Putting down his guitar for the night, Escovedo grabbed the mic as the band played the raw soul ballad "Beast of Burden." Once again, the interplay between band and audience was nothing short of a good time. With broad smiles across everyone's faces, it would've been impossible not to enjoy one's self in such a unified atmosphere.

Escovedo graciously thanked the crowd before smoothly stepping back into the shadows while the band finished out the jam. He had accomplished what he had set out to do - bring people together from all walks of life, play a genre-bending blend of styles and make them all one through rock 'n' roll.

07.16.08 :: Variety Playhouse :: Atlanta, GA

Put You Down, Always a Friend, Everybody Loves Me, Sister Lost Soul, Chelsea Hotel '78, Juarez, Rosalie, Sensitive Boys, I Was Drunk, People, Real As an Animal, Whole Lotta Love teaser, Castanets

Encore: All the Young Dudes, Velvet Guitar, Beast of Burden

Alejandro Escovedo - "Castanets" Live at NO Jazz Fest 2008

JamBase | Georgia
Go See Live Music!
Hardly Strictly FREEgrass: 10/3-5: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 10/03 - 10/05 in S.F.'s Golden Gate Park

The annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival will once again take place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and as always, it will be FREE. The event will take place October 3-5, and features five stages.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Initial Lineup

Earl Scruggs
Bad Livers
The Gourds
The Desert Rose Band
Jerry Jeff Walker
Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands
Hazel Dickens
The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers
Gogol Bordello
The Waybacks
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss featuring T Bone Burnett
Iris Dement
Greg Brown
Asleep at the Wheel
The Del McCoury Band
Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band
Hot Rize
Heavy Trash
Carlene Carter
Jon Langford's Skull Orchard ft. Sally Timms & Burlington Welsh Male Chorus
Three Girls & Their Buddy
The Wronglers
Santiago Jimenez featuring Los Cenzontles
Mark Olson & Gary Louris
The Infamous Stringdusters
Pegi Young
Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women
Loudon Wainwright III
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Mike Farris & the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Robert Earl Keen
Darrell Scott Band
Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys
Ricky Scaggs & Kentucky Thunder
Waco Brothers
Riders in the Sky
Ben Kweller
Elvis Costello
Kevin Welch & Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin
Poor Man's Whiskey
Moonalice
Alison Brown Quartet
Tea Leaf Green
Red Wine
Heidi Clare & AtaGallop
The Opera Dukes
Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes
Dry Branch Fire Squad
John Jorgenson Quintet
Richard Thompson
Global Drum Project featuring Mickey Hart & Zakir Hussain
Nick Lowe
Iron & Wine
Tift Merritt
Samantha Robichaud
Marty Willson-Piper (of The Church) & the Mood Maidens
Maura O'Connell
Joe Purdy
Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson
Justin Townes Earle
Bill Evans String Summit with Megan Lynch
Odetta
Garcia & Houser Celebrated in CO: Jerry Garcia & Michael Houser Celebrated at Cervante's in Colorado

Jerry Garcia by Jay Blakesberg

These are very tumultuous times. International wars, gas prices, a plummeting stock market, and growing global environmental concerns have made it easy to become numb to everything around us. It is times like these that we look to our heroes, past and present, for guidance and leadership. Two shows in Denver, Saturday August 9 and Sunday the 10, are celebrating the life and music of two such heroes.

Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead was always a supporter of environmental causes and a voice for social and political growth. Garcia's music was the soundtrack for many people through four decades of change in America. Saturday, August 9 marks the 13th Anniversary of Garcia's passing, and Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom brings you the "U.S. Blues Americana Circus." The show will celebrate American songwriters and songs for, by, and about America, with a heavier "dose" of Grateful Dead songs. C. R. Gruver (Outformation), Tori Pater (Polytoxic), Fleeb (Stanky Pockets), and Andy Clapp (3 Degrees of Freedom) will host a cavalcade of all-star musical guests and surprises. Opening the show is Woody Pines and the Lonesome Two, a 20's & 30's jump and jugband ragtime act from Asheville, NC.

Another fallen musical hero, Michael Houser of Widespread Panic, also became a pillar for many people and provided Panic's lingering lead through over two decades, for music still continuing into the present day. Sunday, August 10 marks the 6th year of Houser's passing, and Cervante's Masterpiece brings you "Songs for Mikey," a celebration of the life and music of Michael Houser. This show features guitarist Sam Holt, Houser's guitar tech and leader of national touring act Outformation. Joining him will be C. R. Gruver and Jeff "Bridogg" Lane, also of Outformation. To round the band out is Tori Pater from local favorite Polytoxic and Spanky Mcluer from the band One Way Out.

Both shows take place at Cervante's Masterpiece Ballroom (2637 Welton St. Denver, CO) and start at 10 p.m. For tickets and info go to: www.cervantesmasterpiece.com

Rolling Stone News

The Clean Teen Machine

Featured Artist: LES CLAYPOOL

Les Claypool, one of the most creative, eccentric, and influential bassists of our time has been very busy lately. It is for this reason he is my current featured artist.

Claypool, originally of Primus starting in 1989, has had his share of interesting side-projects including Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Oysterhead (with Trey Anastasio of Phish and Stuart Copeland of The Police), Sausage, Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains, to his latest personal accomplishment, Les Claypools, "Of Whales and Woe" where the majority of the music heard is all played by the man himself.

Claypool has also been working on his first attempt at film with "Electric Apricot", a mocumentary of the jamband scene. The film has been screened at various film festivals.

Our friend, Les, has also been busy writing his first novel, "South of the Pumphouse", released July 1, 2006. It is a tale of murder, drugs and fishing and has been compared to the style of the late Hunter S. Thompson.

Primus has now released a double-whammy on October 17th, 2006: "They Can't All Be Zingers: The Best of Primus", and their new DVD, "Blame It On The Fish: An Abstract Look at the 2003 Primus Tour De Fromage" documenting their 2003 comeback tour.

Hats off to you, Les. Good work.
Loved you in Chicago.

Check out Les's work here

Blame It On The Fish

Amazon Price: $12.99 (as of 07/25/2008)

Of Whales and Woe

Les Claypool

Amazon Price: $13.99 (as of 07/25/2008)

South of the Pumphouse

by Les Claypool

Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 07/25/2008)

Les Claypool - 5 Gallons of Diesel

Amazon Price: $12.99 (as of 07/25/2008)

The Big Eyeball in the Sky

Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains

Amazon Price: $15.98 (as of 07/25/2008)

Strongly recommended!

The Umph (Umphrey's McGee) has been releasing bi-monthly podcasts that are utterly unbelieveable. Hand-picked musical highlights from their endless touring. GREAT quality recordings! I have every one of them. It's a great way to easily gain over 40 hours of quality live music - free.

Umphrey's McGee Podcasts: (Must get iTunes for these downloads)

All Hail The Umph!

UM Eye Candy

Umphreys_Mcgee-2006-06-03_038 by jam_scenes

Umphreys_Mcgee-2006-06-03_015 by jam_scenes

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Filesharing links to help you on your journey

Some applications and sites that promote the wonderful world of legal filesharing and supportive artists

Archive.org: Live Music Internet Archive: An mind-blowing amount of live shows uploaded through a peer-2-peer network!
Bit Tornado: A client used to find and download torrents. A great way to get all the music your heart desires
Torrent Spy: Search for those sweet little torrents here!
Torrent Reactor: Just like Torrent Spy

A little more on filesharing...

Now, if you check out Archive.org, you are able to download using your windows default software (not too sure about Macs, but probably). In other words, you do not need to download a client to in order to be able to download the files.

Sites like Torrent Spy require you to download a client like Bit Tornado that you see above. The process is slightly more complicated but it is well worth the effort. If you have any questions, just blurb me on my guestbook.

Keep the music coming

Internet jam radios and streaming websites that never sleep

Pandora Internet Radio: A very cool site that plays artists similar to your favorites and allows you to decide if you like them, narrowing down new artists that you may have never heard of in your favorite genres.
Jam Live Radio: Non-stop live jam music with many other features
Nugs.net: Non-stop live jam music with a nice browseable archive
Fabchannel: Live videos of tons of artists during concerts in two different concert halls from Amsterdam
My top recommendations: Xavier Rudd, Keller Williams, Andrew Bird, Ani DiFranco

The best $10 you can spend...

The best way to support hardworking musicians...buy thier album!

Also make sure to check out the "New and Used" Link on the album page to get some amazing deals

A few albums that will help to begin or complement a satisfying collection of these spectacular genres: I will also update this with a few new stuff

Dream

Keller Williams
Keller's new album with a "dream team" of guests that come together to create a diverse and surprising treat for every music fan.

Amazon Price: $13.99 (as of 07/25/2008)
Used Price: $4.05

The Conch

moe.
The long anticipateed (4 years) moe. album! Some familiar live tunes and some brand new cuts! moe.'s triumphant return to the studio!!

Amazon Price: $13.98 (as of 07/25/2008)
Used Price: $5.99

Time Without Consequence

Alexi Murdoch
I have been waiting for this album for some time. Alexi is a scottish modern folk singer with an almost creepy resemblance to the late Nick Drake. The album includes a new studio recording of the absolutely amazing song, "Orange Sky". Highly recommended!

Amazon Price: $13.99 (as of 07/25/2008)
Used Price: $11.00

Seeds

Martin Sexton
A finely-tuned, beautiful, and versatile record that illustrates Martin's amazing voice and guitar plucking.

Amazon Price: $13.99 (as of 07/25/2008)
Used Price: $8.00

Bottom Half

Umphrey's McGee
The second half of their recent release, "Safety in Numbers". A double disc. Even if you follow them live and have heard some of these tracks before you'll love the fresh studio versions that they have on the first disc. The second disk is compised of alternate versions and outtakes.

Amazon Price: $11.97 (as of 07/25/2008)
Used Price: $7.12

For the visual learners...

Enjoy some downright entertaining videos that will blow your mind, fill your heart, or just make you laugh

Umphrey's McGee on Jimmy Kimmel live

Flight of the Conchords - Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Keller Williams - "Freaker By The Speaker

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What music does for the world

Worthwhile charities supported by our favorite artists

The Make Yourself Foundation from Incubus: The Make Yourself Foundation is a non-profit organization that helps to fund various causes and charities locally and around the world that are important to Incubus.
Wear Your Music: The Relix Band: Unique jewelry handcrafted from authentic strings donated by acclaimed musicians.
The Mimi Fishman Foundation: In memory of Jon Fishman's (of Phish) mother.

Write whatever the heck you want...the more the merrier

Questions, comments, recommendations

MeganCasey

Love the Top 5 module below. Good stuff. Great lens.

Posted September 08, 2006

andygadiel

Great lens!

Posted September 08, 2006

My Current Top Five Songs

Check 'em out

1. Life (Keller Williams)

2. Those Girls (Maceo Parker)

3. Oslo in the Summertime (Of Montreal)

4. Novacane (Beck)

5. Hat Shaped Hat (Ani Difranco)

External Links

Other sites you may enjoy

JamBase: The greatest site about the scene. Its got anything you need.
Jambands.com: Another well-rounded site with tons of information.
All Music.com: This a great way to network and learn about new bands that you'll love.
Real Rhapsody: An amazing program that allows you to add perfect quality albums to a library, set up your own radio, and much more for a worthwhile monthly charge! Use this with Allmusic.com and you learn of so many new bands.
Leeway's Homegrown Music Network: A network of "jam" bands with many other features like news and reviews.
Keller Williams: Could be my favorite artist. An awe-inspiring one man band with a mind-blowing strumming technique and originality. Give him a lookskie.
Umphrey's McGee: These guys got something for everyone. Rock, jazz, funk, metal, reggae, blues, just to name a few. They light up the stage with their improvisational jams and unpredictability. They are avid tourers so check them out when they come by your town.
Jamtopia: A great blog with the same focus..."face-melting music"!