Put on your dancin’ shoes, open your ears and join the party. Sonoma County’s legendary psychedelic dance band, “Tribal Hippie UnderGround Zone” (aka the Thugz) is sure to provide big fun for all with their unique brand of cosmic rock. Over the past decade this multi-faceted band has delighted music fans of all ages and tastes.

Rock, blues, country, jazz, psychedelic and various world music styles blend together at a Thugz show to bring the positive vibes of the ‘60’s into the 21st century. Informed by the music of the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Miles Davis and others the Thugz’ original songs and cosmic jams help to create a joyous, communal spirit between band and audience.

The band has a vast repertoire that includes many Dead tunes from all eras as well as interesting originals and covers. The group strives to combine traditional elements with new and creative material; more of a celebration and less of a replication of the Grateful Dead. If you are a Deadhead or music lover in general you will enjoy the Thugz’ mixture of classic arrangements and exploratory jams.

A plethora of fine musicians have sat in with the Thugz during their musical excursions including David Gans, Barry Sless, Robin Sylvester, Niina Gerber, Zac Brown, and others.

No two “tribal hippie underground zone” shows are exactly the same but the spirit and love of music making are always present.

--

The Thugz are;

Mike Campbell – guitar, trumpet & vocals

Andre de Channes – guitar & vocals

Ian Favell – drums & vocals

Chris Lushington – bass

Sylvia Murphy – keyboards & vocals

Singer-songwriter Bobby Long still doesn’t quite know what hit him.  One minute he’s making the rounds of open mic nights in London testing out his original material in front of generally ambivalent audiences, and the next he’s selling out club dates in far-off America.  Pretty heady stuff for a 24-year-old who only began writing and performing six years ago and whose most recent goal was to graduate from college.

While his meteoric rise to instant recognition can be attributed to the inclusion of a song he co-wrote in the soundtrack of the blockbuster film “Twilight,” Bobby Long’s music has a way of rising above the film frenzy and speaking volumes to a receptive flock.  “There’s something about his humble, apologetic humor that endears him to audiences, and something about the honesty and vulnerability of his music that captivates and moves them as well,” wrote Liz McClendon in Blast Magazine of one of those early club appearances in New York City.  “The contrast in the two makes for an absolutely great performance.”

Bobby Long was born in Wigan, near Manchester in Northern England (“into a red house,” he says) and moved when he was two years old to the town of Calne in the countryside of South West England known as Wessex (think Thomas Hardy country).   His musical parents provided a constant flow of music in the house, from the Beatles to Bob Dylan to the blues.  “I’ve always loved music, but it didn’t start to hit me how much I loved it until I was about 16 and was given a guitar and started writing songs,” he recalls.  Playing along to old blues records, Bobby, who had tried cello at an early age, fell in love with the guitar and quickly joined a local grunge band, playing lead guitar.

A short time later, he began writing his first songs (“they were rubbish,” he says), and after completing his studies at 18, Bobby moved into a friend’s house for a year, working on a construction site to save up for a move to the big city.  He enrolled at London Metropolitan University, settling in a small apartment in east London, where he quickly became a regular on the open mic circuit.  Often playing five shows a week, he learned how to sing while showcasing his finely-crafted, original songs.  At one such appearance, he met his soon-to-be manager Phil Taylor as well as fellow musicians Marcus Foster and soon to become mega-acting star Robert Pattinson.

“I was playing open mic nights in London, and he [Pattinson] was playing at one too,” recalls Long.  “There was a mutual appreciation for our music.”   Long and Foster began to write songs and perform together, and it would be a song they co-wrote—coupled with their friendship with Pattinson—that would create the unforeseen break Bobby was working towards.  Pattinson, who went on to star as Edward Cullen in the film phenomenon “Twilight,” played Long and Foster’s composition “Let Me Sign” for the film’s producers.   It was the perfect fit for a crucial dramatic scene and is sung by Pattinson himself in the movie.

Almost immediately, some of that (twi) light began to shine on the music of the unsigned musicians who had composed the song, and their shows in London began to sell out.  Within two months, Long signed a publishing deal with SGO Music in England and Bug Music, the largest independent publisher in America, and made plans to capitalize on the huge interest coming from America by scheduling a short tour in April, 2009 that took him to New York, Los Angeles and Nashville.

Fueled by the support from “Twilight” fan sites, the nine scheduled shows quickly sold out and spawned interest in his two-month Dangerous Summer tour of North America.   He issued DIRTY POND SONGS, a collection of 10 songs recorded in his bedroom that he calls “a big EP,” (“You can even hear traffic sounds from outside my bedroom window on some of the tracks”) to be available at shows and via the internet.  Bobby’s debut single from the collection, “Left To Lie, reached #1 on the iTunes “Unsigned” chart and #8 on the Folk chart.  Other songs on Dirty Pond Songs include the plaintive “Who Have You Been Loving” (“When the world holds out its flag/the sun will fall across the plain/I will hold out my hands and take the blame”) and the anthemic “Dead and Done,” while the haunting imagery of songs like “Being a Mockingbird,”  “The Old Shamed Face” and “The Bounty of Mary Jane” showcase Long’s talent for telling a good story in song.  “A Passing Tale” evokes images of early Bob Dylan, while “Penance Fire Blues” is performed with near defiance.  Rounding out the set are “The Rattle and the Roll” and “So Tear Me Up.”

The tall (6’2”), shaggy-haired Bobby, who cites his influences as ranging “from Dylan to Elliott Smith to chopping wood in the night with a rusty spoon,” graduated from university before the summer tour and will continue touring until the end of the year.  “I would be happy to play every night and try out new songs,” he says.  “It will help me start thinking about what I want my first album to sound like.”   He plans to begin work on that project very soon.

That demand has spawned a fall tour beginning next week in New York to continue until the end of the year.  Bobby Long will play the B-Side Lounge in Boulder for the first time on Tuesday, November 17 and return to the Hi-Dive in Denver on Wednesday, November 18.

Tracorum draws inspiration for their uniquely original songs from the hard hitting stage bands of the 60's n 70's and pride themselves on consistently delivering energy charged live shows. Roots music mixed with an urban sensibility draw a diverse group of music lovers to their heart felt music. Original song writing serves as the creative springboard to explore many styles of music, from Rock, Gospel, Funk, Rhythm & Blues, to Latin, New Orleans, Caribbean and Soul. Tracorum’s instrumental prowess coupled with rich vocal harmony creates an eclectic landscape of soul-inspired music and lyrics. The music has been described as piano based Cosmic Gospel Thunder Funk with a little Cajun, Creole Seasoning. Honest stories about life are at the root of this contagious music. Tracorum is a band that evokes the spirit of music to move the unmovable. Guaranteed to get the people grooving, Tracorum always keeps the dance floor bumpin, the kegs flowing, and the feel good music rocking till the wee hours.

Upcoming Gigs:

Wed June 17th Elbo Room San Francisco,Ca JFJO (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey), TRACORUM 9 pm - $8/$10 - adv. tix: www.brownpapertickets.com Supporting Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Showtime 9pm Come out early and support us supporting JFJO

Thur June 18th@ Tioga Gas Mart Lee Vining, Ca 6pm till..

Fri June 19th Telluride Bluegrass Festival "NIght Show"@ Las Montanas 100 W Colorado Ave Telluride, Co Showtime 10pm

Sat June 20th Telluride Bluegrass Festival "Night Show"@ Tommy's Telluride, Co 1030pm

Thur June 25th Dulcineas 100th Monkey Denver, Co 9pm Headlining for the good people of Denver

Fri June 26th Owsley's Golden Road w/ Jacob Fred Jazz Odessey and Fareed Haque "Flat Earth Ensemble" 9pm

Sat June 27th The Mangy Moose Jackson Hole, Wyoming 9pm

Wed July 1st Pangea Quincy,Ca 9pm High Sierra Music Festival Wednesday Pre Party

Fri July 10th Iron Door Saloon Groveland,Ca 9pm California's Oldest Saloon. We will be recording a live album for two nights inside this amazing wooden building. Great time of year to visit Yosemite and it's surrounding beauty. Plan a weekend and be a part of our historic recording.

Sat July 11th Iron Door Saloon Groveland,Ca 9pm Visit this "Crossroads of America" Since 1851 Tracorum recording a live album for two nights

Sun July 12th The Independent San Francisco, Ca supporting Big Sam's Funky Nation Doors 8pm Showtime 9pm Tickets are $15 Advance Purchase Tickets on Sunday June 7th

Thur Aug 6th Tioga Gas Mart Lee Vining, Ca 8pm

People who are familiar with Psychedelphia know to not have any preconceived notions about a show. Anything and everything can happen on any given night. From the moment the Philly based quintet takes the stage, they entrance the crowd with funky, melodic grooves that hit new heights once everyone's improvisational skills are unleashed. Kenn Mogel's guitar acrobatics provide tasty leads over the diverse array of grooves held down by Alden Parker's funky Southern Fried rhythm guitar, John Olsen's innovative bass lines, and Adam Pasqueal's masterful beats. The finished product is a combination of tight grooves spliced with free flowing interplay that is always dancer-friendly.

While on stage, Psychedelphia exercises each song to its fullest potential, stretching some to twenty minutes or more, and often ending up in a place completely unforeseen. While many bands find it difficult to accurately capture their jamcentric tendencies in the Studio, Psychedelphia, in recording their In with the New EP, has effectively reigned in the length of solo sections to create highly-arranged and tightly-crafted versions of their live staples that retain every bit of the fun and danceability of their live counterparts. The final product is nothing less than a complete group effort, with each member bringing forth equal contribution to each composition. All of the writing is done with the full 4 members in mind, which allows for each member to draw from their diverse musical backgrounds to create a synthetic amalgamation of sounds. Each song is a veritable myriad of musical genres with seamless transitions into and out of each one.

Although many people would describe Psychedelphia as a jam band, it doesn't do the complexity of the music full justice to sum them up so concisely. The music of the jam band is centered around one aspect---improvisation. Psychedelphia certainly employs improvisation into their compositions, but they effectively transcend the jam band label while adhering to the philosophy of it. By incorporating elements of funk, fusion, electronica, dance, reggae, Latin, rock, and others, Psychedelphia can, at times, be labeled as any or all of those.

While they have only been together for about 6 months, Psychedelphia has wasted no time in making a name for themselves in the Philly area. Having played late night sets at many area parties and festivals, Psychedelphia always gets the crowd onto their feet and out on the dance floor. They are currently building a catalog of original material in anticipation of a nation-wide tour in the summer and fall of 2009.

The Absynth Quintet melds the familiar and the avant-garde with a unique and provocative palette of tone and texture. This is street corner swing with a sense of humor, bluegrass with foot stomping danceability, intertwined with playful forays into the depths of sophisticated musical experimentation.

The Eugene Weekly places the sound "somewhere along the spectrum of acoustic-improvisational-gypsy-jazz...plucky and tight à la David Grisman" with "a dash of Eastern European exoticism that puts you in a smoky, understated hash bar kind of mood". They make music that is equally appropriate for sit down shows at theatres or rocking Friday night dance club parties, "we work where the visceral and the cerebral meet, we eat rice" is how Mandolinist Chris "Bird" Jowaisas put it. Recent performances had the band sharing the stage with such acts as Vince Herman, Thamusement, Vagabond Opera, David Grisman Quintet, Peter Rowan and Hot Buttered Rum.

The Absynth Quintet's latest release Indigo Shoes has been receiving raving reviews. Kevlar Mariachi Pants is a live CD recorded fall of 2006. The Arcata Eye said "...listening to KMP is akin to being served an exotic meal (or mind altering beverage) one could never hope to replicate at home. You have to go out for this kind of stuff. Delicious". The CD is out now on Sidenote records and available at music stores and itunes.