Fri, 03/23/2012 - 1:49 pm

It’s not exactly common to get a music festival over St. Patty’s Day weekend. Combine that with the rarity of having one in New Hampshire and with it being at Whaleback Mountain, a tiny little ski resort right off the highway, and you had something pretty damn unique at LIFT Fest.

Sure, being a first year festival there are bound to some kinks to work out. But it was tough to find a person at LIFT who wasn’t getting down and having a good time.

My weekend started off like many going to the festival, waking up early and trekking a couple hours to middle of nowhere New Hampshire (Enfield.) My buddy Dougie hooked me up with a ride in his Cadillac- we were driving in style, blasting Orchard Lounge’s 12/28/09 set and feeling fine.

We show up at the hotel and I immediately cracked a PBR, fought the morning beer valiantly, and checked in to get ready. Friends started arriving and we made our plans on what shows to see at the festival. Fortunately, this plan barely mattered because there was one stage set up with some absolutely incredible sound blasting from it. Not to mention the fact that there was a top notch light show, fully equipped with lasers zapping around the mountain.

For those who frequent festivals, this was the main difference between LIFT Fest and others. There was no camping and the hotel was several miles down the road. Therefore, once you got to the site you were pretty much there for the long haul.

This was great because it allowed you to see as much music as humanly possible, but also a bit of a hassle because it would have been nice to have a few seconds to relax and drink a beer without having to keep a lookout in the parking lot for the MANY undercover and uniformed police officers patrolling the area.

The venue was right off of the highway, and the parking area was essentially right on the road on the way in. As soon as you got out of your car you could hear the music, making it for a pleasant walk into the venue. On the walk in, some young, flat brimmed wearing friendly stranger told us to ‘watch out.’ It was already apparent that security was strict, with some even saying overly strict.

The actual venue was one of the smallest for a festival I’ve ever been to- and this wasn’t a bad thing. For the amount of people at the festival, it was just right. It was set up with a small Shakedown Street area with several food vendors, glass blowers and vendors. The lifts were open for skiers and riders to hit the park and take some runs.

There were NOT a slew of peddlers walking up and down offering you a galaxy of substances. This non-grimy feel carried through the festival, even when it got its muddiest and dirtiest.

The first day had a steady raininess to it that created a pretty good mud pile for a dancing surface. To me, this was fantastic. It was priming me up for the festival season at such an early date. I could see this on all the smiling faces around me. Mud and music was key.

After strolling around the festival getting a feel for how it was all going to work, and finding friends, I settled in at the Indobox. It was a nice day time jam set that fit in nicely before the dub step and electronica that was sure to take us through most of the weekend.

I danced my way through the mud right through Horizon Wireless, who I had never heard before. It was a fun DJ set leading right up to Orchard Lounge.

For anyone who hasn’t been to an Orchard Lounge show, you should definitely hit it up. It was like a three DJ assembly line that had the entire festival loving life. At this point the venue had filled up compared to several hours earlier. The entire beer tent was packed with people, as well as those in the actual area.

This presented a small problem to a lot of people. We were not allowed to bring beer into the venue and if we wanted to drink we had to cram into the tent. This isn’t a huge deal, but it can be a little bit of a pain to have to go pay $7 to pound a beer and get back to where the action is.

I took a break and grabbed something to eat at Tacos Tacos Tacos, one of the vendors on site. The food was good and the vibe was outstanding so far. I looked around to see girls hula hooping and some dude spinning poi. Others were stationed up on the side of the ski hill, still with their gear on as they had been taking runs and listening to beats all day long.

I heard Jeff Bujak start up and remembered my friend telling me to check him out. I had no idea what to expect and am certainly glad I listened to my buddy Dougie. I went and joined him on the hill where he was standing and gave him that “holy crap” look.

Jeff Bujak, based out of Northampton, Mass., is a keyboardist who composes some outstanding dance, electronic music. Watching him up there with the kaossilator and keys, along with a dirty light show, was one of my favorite parts of the night.

This set up for a nasty set of Conspirator, which capped off the first day of the festival. Conspirator jammed out hard for over an hour, complete with a laser light show that had everyone in awe. The use of the lasers with a fog machine, against the backdrop of the New Hampshire ski mountain, was a perfect way to capture the feel of Conspirator’s music.

Whoever wasn’t in awe of the lasers making waves in the sky was dancing their asses off to the steady electronic move being laid down on stage. At one point I remember my friend Tommy noticed that while he was dancing his shoes were completely stuck in the mud. It was a mess on Friday night, but a very fun mess at that.

This is where the festival became truly unique. Instead of people going back to their respective tent cities and partying the night away, people went back to hotels and had an all out rager. It was no holds barred and while there were police everywhere, I never saw a real problem with people getting hassled. It was the type of time where there are seven people passed out on your floor by morning, and you only know a few of them.

Day two started painfully, but after devouring a salami sandwich and forcing a few PBRs in my system, I was good to go for the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. It was a beautiful 65 degree day and wasn’t nearly as muddy as day one. There was also much more people because people took advantage of the cheap day tickets.

It was cool to see musicians walking around the venue enjoying the festivities as much as anyone else. The McLovins opened the day with a short set and were later spotted in the venue during Lettuce. Members of the Indobox were cruising around the venue. Brownie from Conspirator spent plenty of time down in the stage area, listening to the music and casually meeting some fans. There was a truly happy vibe on Saturday.

What I was looking forward to throughout the weekend was Lettuce and they played some serious funk for about an hour and a half with some of the best weather possible. I was absolutely loving life with my best friends around me along with some friendly new ones.

So far that day was perfect and the funk was deep. I went to the beer tent to grab an overpriced beer and get some shade while Supersillyus was doing their DJ set. These guys were classic, with one dressed as a leprechaun and the other in a Viking hat cooking pancakes as they played. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, so I pounded down my beer and went to the stage. They were tossing pancakes into the audience to hungry audience members. I even know of someone who ate one off the muddy ground. Gross, but hilarious.

I went to the car with some friends and listened to Break Science and Electronicanonymous as we got away from the crowd for a bit and celebrated St. Patty’s Day. This proved to be a sketchy thing due to local authorities, so we headed back into the stage area just in time for Danger.

Danger was a phenomenal house DJ and had glowing lights that looked like his eyes under a hood. He also played on top of a piano, which was cool but I’m not really sure what the point was because he never actually dropped down and played it. Danger’s music was awesome and was a really fun, dancey set. It led nicely right into Michetti, who also played guitar the day before for Conspirator.

I stepped into the VIP lodge to check out a little bit more of Orchard Lounge. The VIP area was heated and had another bar in it. There was also an area to play pool and even get a massage while several musicians played throughout the day. It was fun, but overall it was more fun being out with the rest of the festival.

I got back outside for Paper Diamond and Alpha Data, where I found my friends deep into the St. Patty’s day festivities dancing hard. These were entertaining sets and fun to dance to, but it was Ghostland that stole the show. This was a crazy set with a laser light show as good as Conspirator’s during the previous day. Ghostland Observatory, an electronic duo from Austin, Texas, is something you kind of have to see to believe.

Thomas Ross Turner is a caped DJ in the middle of the stage with lasers blasting around him, along with a drum set which he plays as well. Front man Aaron Behrens runs around the stage like a maniac, sometimes playing guitar but always singing and screaming lyrics. He hit high notes like I’ve never heard, and had an animated feel that is comparable to David Byrne of the Talking Heads.

Ghostland played for about an hour and a half straight, which was pretty insane considering the amount of running around Behrens does throughout the show. It constantly peaked out and the visuals were just as impressive as the music.

It was a terrific set to end a great weekend. For a first year festival, this one has a lot of promise. The music was certainly top notch and the layout of the stage made the sound incredible as the mountain acted as somewhat of a natural amphitheatre. The only thing that was a constant issue with many people was the tightness of security and the inability to have drinks while watching the band in the main area. But if that’s the only major issue, I’d say it was a success and hope to go back for LIFT Fest 2.

Check out more photos from the 2012 LIFT Festival.

Tue, 07/17/2012 - 3:21 pm

The All Good Festival is right around the corner… this weekend to be exact. While the location has changed, the lineup has remained incredible with acts spanning across a wide spectrum of musical genres.

This coming weekend marks the first All Good Festival away from the now-legendary Marvin’s Mountaintop, with the festival heading to Legend Valley in Thornville, Ohio. While the scenery may have changed, one thing that people are certain to get is four days of firey music day and night.

All Good is set up with three stages and when looking at the schedule you will see that it is actually very easy to see a lot of music. There are actually no overlaps, which is a common gripe among many larger scale festivals.

Many festivals have an introductory first night that usually wouldn’t contain headliners. Not at All Good. Make sure you get to the festival with enough time on Thursday to get yourself situated before some of the best acts around hit the stage. Gates open at noon on Thursday.

Thursday night offers a whole lot of Grateful Dead tunes with Bob Weir hitting the stage with Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsalis at 8:30. Coming right up after is Phil Lesh and Friends until 1:15. This all precedes some late night Shpongle. And if for some ridiculous reason you aren’t into the Grateful Dead or Shpongle, there are plenty of other great acts going on like Trampled By Turtles, The Werks, Heady Ruxpin and Magua.

After ending at 5 a.m. it starts back up again with Dirtfoot at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. For anyone who frequents festivals you know that tents boil right around 7 a.m. so you will probably be up anyway. The music carries on throughout the day and night featuring Yonder Mountain String Band, The Wood Brothers and the Flaming Lips. Late night will also be huge with Papadosio and Galactic headlining.

Saturday has another stacked lineup from early to late featuring the Allman Brothers, Conspirator, Railroad Earth, Lettuce and Dark Star Orchestra among many others. The day has a steady mix of electronic, jam, old time rock and roll and funk. Get your party hat on. I will be sporting my double brimmed atrocity for sure.

The schedule for Sunday is a bit shortened with music beginning at noon and ending at 7 p.m., giving everyone enough time to get back to the tent and sleep off whatever the weekend has brought them before they hit the road. But don’t worry because Sunday is no sham either. Check out acts like Devil Makes Three, Mickey Hart Band and Michael Franti and Spearhead.

Online ticketing is officially over but tickets are going for $240 at the gate. There are also 3 day Friday arrival passes for $180 and a 2 day Saturday arrival pass for $120.

So go through your festival checklist, charge your cameras and remember extra socks and underwear. Hide the children; All Good Festival is finally here.

Thu, 07/26/2012 - 1:47 pm

The All Good Music Festival has been around for 16 years, but for the first time since 2003 it was held away from Marvin’s Mountaintop in West Virginia. Once again the festival held up to its reputation for inspiring acts to put on big things.

With Gathering of the Vibes happening in the same weekend, the festival had a dominant feel of Midwest in the air. My crew, coming from New England, was immersed right into the Midwest culture with residents hailing from Ohio and Michigan surrounding us. The crowd was friendly and excited to be there, but there were murmurs from some stating how they missed Marvin’s.

The weather was up and down, with plenty of rain coming at the beginning of the weekend. The temperatures remained high throughout the festival, with scorching temperatures on a mostly sunny Sunday. It was humid and sticky the entire time, so basically if you started sweating you just never really stopped.

One strange aspect that I have never encountered at a festival was that the bracelets were equipped with RFID chips. This not only sketched me out, but most of the crowd and even some of the bigger artists thought that it was pretty fishy. Needless to say I ditched that thing in the A and W trashcan before we headed back home.

The location was spread across two sides of a road, with one area containing the Dragon and Crane stages. This was very convenient because every day there was basically constant music. As one band was playing, the other was setting up. Bravo to this system. It definitely worked.

This area contained a variety of vendors that one who frequents festivals will commonly see. There was also a giant Buddha, but there were specific instructions to not rub its belly. There was plenty of tree cover on the side of the stage, which became necessary throughout the weekend which had temperatures well over 90 degrees once the thunderstorms stopped on Friday night.

On the other side of the road there was a whole galaxy of cars strewn about the rolling, hilly area. There was also another Shakedown Street area with the Grassroots Stage and a ferris wheel alongside it. This was the area that would rage all night, with people milling around until sunrise. The Grassroots stage had music going past 5 a.m. and on Friday night the artists were literally were forced to get off the stage and for the crowd to get on their way. The place was an absolute rave with glow sticks flying, crazy raver girls moving their bodies in directions I didn’t know possible, and men wearing strange hats and glowing shirts womping throughout the audience.

Unlike many festivals of today, there was not much of an electronic or dub step presence at All Good aside from the late night dance fests. Acts like Shpongle, Big Gigantic and Conspirator killed it and represented that area of music, but it was obvious that this was festival much more based on the aura of the Grateful Dead and the jamband and bluegrass scene.  Five musicians have either played for the Grateful Dead or have sat in (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Branford Marsalis, Bruce Hornsby, Mickey Hart), and there was, of course, Dark Star Orchestra. In fact, it was a bit strange to see the set lists chosen by these bands. There were plenty of repeated songs especially between Dark Star Orchestra and Phil Lesh and Friends, but it really happened between all of these bands. I guess it was our call to see which one could play Fire on the Mountain or Bertha better.

Here are some highlights below going day by day:

Thursday:

It was crazy that All Good had a lineup this good on Thursday. For anyone who likes the Grateful Dead, this was like a dream come true. Bobby Weir, Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsalis crushed it with some interestingly jazzy takes on some old classics. A memorable moment was the show opener Bird Song, marking the first time the trio had ever played together. It was a beautifully jazzy jam. The show picked up speed and turned into a true rocker by the end.

Phil Lesh and Friends was amazing and was a bit of a family affair with Brian and Grahame Lesh playing by his side. The rest of the lineup was filled out by Teresa Williams and familiar faces Larry Campbell and Jackie Greene. Greene took much of the vocals while manning the keyboard, which was to my surprise and delight. Campbell and Graham Lesh were the guitarists with Brian Lesh on the mandolin. It was such a great thing to see Phil laughing and smiling next to his kids. And the music was incredible, with standout versions of Peggy- O, New Speedway Boogie, Truckin’ and Mississippi Half-Step.

Shpongle rounded out the night, doing his weird thing on stage. He was set up in the center of a pyramid that was donned with LED lights, designs and graphics. I will say that I was slightly disappointed because I thought that when it was said there would be a masquerade, there would be a little more than just Simon Posford playing his tracks in a pyramid. The music was brain-melting but as far as Shpongle goes, the set up was fairly “meh.” It reminded me of a less cool version of EOTO’s Lotus flower stage.

Friday:

Music started at 9:30 a.m. on Friday with Dirtfoot and didn’t end until 5 a.m. In between, there was some serious music. Everyone Orchestra was a huge hit and something I had never seen before. It was great to see musicians up on stage playing together and making music with the crowd and a conductor. Definitely different and it certainly worked.

Yonder Mountain String band was incredible and I had the honor of meeting Jeff Austin and Adam Aijala. They were down to Earth dudes who said it how it was and were genuinely excited to hit the stage that night. It showed because they put on a ripping set that even included Talking Heads Girlfriend is Better and Allman Brother Band's Whipping Post.

The Flaming Lips, to me at least, was the biggest flop of the weekend. I had never seen them before and had heard great things about their live performances. To be honest, I was completely bored and caught myself hoping that each next song would be the last. Not even the confetti cannons and extreme videos on the screen could shift my thoughts on how tragic the show was. And the close ups where I can see your boogers aren’t cool or creative.

Fortunately, the evening was saved by Papadosio, who raged a 45 minute set that seemed like it was a blink of an eye. It was my first time seeing these guys and I was truly impressed by their jamming ability and creative uses of sound.

Galactic’s late night set was fantastic and had the entire audience grooving hard to the funky beats and horns. If you weren’t dancing during this set it was probably because you passed out or your feet didn’t work. Galactic is a must-see and they proved it yet again.

Saturday:

Here was the heat! Saturday brought hot temperatures and hot acts that included Conspirator, Railroad Earth, Dark Star Orchestra and Big Gigantic before night hit. Once nightfall came, the Allman Brothers took the stage to the largest crowd of the festival and they did what they did best: play some damn good ol’ bluesy jams.

Conspirator stole the daytime set, announcing that they hadn’t even slept yet since their last performance at Gathering of the Vibes the night before. They played some familiar Conspirator tunes along with new material. I had doubts about how a daytime Conspirator show would work out, but I have to say that it went well.

Dark Star Orchestra was fun but I was a bit discouraged that there were many repeats from Phil’s set. I was not the only one who was thinking this, with many talking about this throughout the weekend.

The Allman Brothers Band were as good as I have ever seen them. They are the type of band that can take it down so slow and magical to a roaring jam. On Saturday night they did this with precision. One Way Out and Midnight Rider were familiar favorites, but my favorite part of the set may have been Blind Willie McTell. This was some good music, folks.

Lettuce and Lotus were the late night acts and both kicked ass. Lettuce only had a 45 minute set, which was unfortunate because I felt like they were just getting started. Guitar aficionado Roosevelt Collier played on a funky Lettuce track, just after he had played with several acts throughout the weekend such as the Allmans. Lettuce brought the funk hard as they always do.

Lotus played over two hours of trancy, electronic dance jams. It amazes me how long Lotus has been around at this point. While their style has changed slightly over the years, these guys still know how to take extended jams out there. Sometimes I do catch myself thinking that they may have been playing the same song for 25 minutes, and then I remember that they actually probably are. It was a great show and quite the way to end the Saturday at the festival.

Sunday:

Sunday was incredibly hot and difficult to even make it to the music. I had planned on getting down there for the Devil Makes Three and spending the whole day in the shade. Instead I had to make it down mid afternoon where I caught the Mickey Hart Band set. It was a great show and full of jams. Mickey looked like he was having a blast and was even toying with a kaossilator at one point.

It was so hot during the day that it appeared that many people had hit the road by mid afternoon. The sign that normally said “Welcome to All Good” was changed to “Go Mellow,” which proved to be a useful mantra in the near 100 degree heat. Most of those who managed to brave the heat were under the line of tree cover on the hill near the stage. However there was still a couple hundred fans who were up front for Mickey; all looking like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves whether they were melting in the heat or not.

The mellow Sunday was a great way to wrap up a weekend that had raged about as hard as possible. The mix of the friendly Midwestern crowd, along with the superior musical acts made this a festival to remember. All Good has continued its long tradition of putting together one hell of a festival, no matter what location.

Check out more photos from All Good Festival 2012.

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 8:55 am

On Friday night at All Good Festival in Ohio, Yonder Mountain String Band took the stage for a raging set of blue grass. Several hours before they hit the stage, guitarist Adam Aijala and mandolin player Jeff Austin sat down with Bobby Martin of Grateful Web in the backstage artist area.

GW: Alright guys, great to meet you. Grateful Web is very happy to be talking to you guys. You guys are great and we love your music. I’ve got some fan questions and some of my own, so maybe let’s start with fan ones first.

Jeff A: Cool.

GW: My buddy Bill was wondering what was your favorite cover that is not from the Bluegrass scene?

Jeff A: Um, I’m trying to think, but I really like playing Girlfriend is better. We’ve been playing that one a lot. I like playing Pretty Daughter, this tune by Danny Barnes… It’s kind of in the bluegrass world but a little more of a Bad Livers vibe because that’s who he wrote it for.

Adam: Lately I’m digging They Love Each Other- it’s always fun to play. Only a Northern Song is always fun because there’s a big jam section at the end and we get to take long solos. If you ask me in a month, it’ll change.

GW: That’s cool. I saw you guys play Girlfriend is Better something like five years ago at Lupos in Rhode Island…

Jeff: Yea, well you’re going to today! (laughing)

GW: Oh wow, well the funny thing is that my buddy Austin wanted to see if you could play Girlfriend is Better.

Jeff: Done. It’s gonna be a good one.

GW: Do you guys prefer smaller venues or larger venues? The energy is probably different in a lot of ways.

Jeff: I’ve got to say that for myself I like bigger venues. I really do. It’s just there’s just something undeniable. There are great things that happen in smaller venues where the energy can be just through the roof, because people are so compacted, but playing today with the crowd hopefully feeling what’s it going to be like…it’s just going to be sick. There’s nothing like it. It’s just crazy.

Adam: I like both. I think for economic reasons it makes more sense to play bigger ones because more money. The machine doesn’t move on its own. But as a performer I like playing both. As a concert goer I prefer smaller for sure because it is more intimate. It works that way being on stage too. Slowdown in Nebraska, everyone is right there. The energy was bang!

Jeff: It was nuts.

Adam: Then you play a place like Red Rocks and they’re all right there, ya know. So it’s pretty comparable actually. You might say they’re different but high energy is high energy and if it’s 1,000 people or 10,000 it is still pretty awesome.

GW: So how do you guys prepare for a festival rather than a club show or something on a smaller scale?

Adam: There’s less time to really stretch out so we tend to cater a more high energy set. Not that our regular shows aren’t a lot of energy but there kind of has to be like: come out strong, have a strong middle and a strong end and throw some songs in the middle.

Jeff: It’s a different story. It’s a different race. And also, too, we’re playing a show sold out with 1,500 people there, those people the majority of them have seen us or are all coming for one thing. When like at a festival like this where you might be playing to 15 to 20,000 people, you get one shot to maybe hit 5,000 plus who might not have heard of you or seen you yet. It’s just a different telling of the story. Whereas you get 3 hours to do 2 sets in a venue, and you get 90 minutes here, it’s just a different kind of a thing.

Adam: It’s a condensed version I’d guess you say.

GW:  Currently what is your favorite musical influence? What are you listening to right now?

Jeff: Man I tell you, and this is strange, I really have not been listening to a lot of music lately because we’ve been so damn busy. It just kind of passed me. All of a sudden I looked at my Ipod this tour and I  I haven’t listened to one thing. But I’m a huge fan of Phish. I love that band. My connection with them goes way back, seeing them back in the day. You know, it’s a different era for their music. And I like it, I’m having a good time when I go see them. So, that tends to be that. Really, it sounds so odd, but it has just passed me by. It’s pretty nuts. I like John Prine a lot. I listen to a bunch of him.

Adam: I got Syrius/XM about three months ago and I’ve been listening to the Grateful Dead station a lot. I got it on my phone so if I get a signal I can listen to it. I’ve been listening in my bunk here and there. But when I’m home I listen a lot more. Same with him though, on the road I haven’t been listening to as much music-on this tour specifically. Other tours I do, but this one for some reason.

Jeff: I don’t know what it is man. I don’t know.

Adam: The axis for music is so easy now that I’m all over the place. I listen to stuff that I listened to 20,30 years ago or I’ll listen to something that I just heard about like a band I heard of a few years ago. All genres really.

GW: Is there anyone in particular who you would most like to play with, dead or alive?

Adam: Jerry, no question.

Jeff: That kills me because I think of the relationships we’ve made and the paths that we crossed and the people around. I so have the feeling we probably would have either have met him or played with him. He’s just such a great touch guitar player it’s just ridiculous. I’m doing a set of Grateful Dead music with a bunch of friends, focused on Garcia music, and we’re going to the old… going deep. I’ve been listening to a lot of it lately and my God it’s just so good, you know?

Adam: And we’re playing with Phil too. That’s pretty awesome.

Jeff: We’re playing with Phil Lesh coming up in the first week of August. He’s going to be a guest- he’s going to play our music. We’ll do a few covers. We’re sending him Mp3s of our music.

GW: When is it? Where?

Jeff: That’s at Terrapin Crossroads. It’s 2 days, August third and fourth something like that?

GW: Have you been to Terrapin Crossroads?

Adam: Not yet. I mean, that’s a really cool connection. Talk about wanting to play with someone…

Jeff: And he approached us! We invited him to our Fillmore shows, he was out of town and he said, “Hey! Maybe you could do something at the Crossroads sometime!” It’s just a trip.

Adam: We’ve been lucky as hell. You think about the people we’ve gotten to play are some of the if you had asked 10 years ago that I would have mentioned. You know, Darol Anger, Danny Barnes, Jon Fishman. We’ve just been lucky as hell. Way back when we had Stanley Jordan sit in with us. Even just sitting in with Salmon back in the day was huge for us.

GW: How are things different since you got started in ’98? Within the band? The scene?

Jeff: In the band there’s been marriages, I got divorced, there’s kids and babies, and people working on more babies. That’s just what happens.

Adam: We were in our 20s partying at first and you know, now it’s more like… well we still have fun for sure.

Jeff: It’s just a different kind of fun (laughing)

Adam: I think at festivals the music scene has changed a lot. Acoustic music is so much more accepted. We said this before but the first time we played High Sierra we were the only band without drums.

Jeff: We were the only bluegrass band.

Adam: We were the only band who didn’t have a drummer. Now you go to festivals and there are a lot of bands who don’t have drums. I don’t think All Good is one of them, but a lot of time we are playing jam band type festivals. So we were like the outcast at those kinds of festivals because we were the only band without drums, and at bluegrass festivals we were the outcasts.

Jeff: We’d be playing 20 minute segues of this and this and this.

Adam: Now there are just a lot of bands coming out like Joy Kill Sorrow out of Boston. They are cool. Really good vocals and the banjo player is ripping. There’s Deadly Gentlemen, Sam Grisman is in the band. They got a cool thing going. It’s just cool that type of thing is developing. I think it’s just more accepting now. That’s changed a lot. We thought there’d be more of a resurgence when Oh Brother came out, but it kind of fizzled out a little bit. But now it’s kind of coming back.

GW: Do you guys still get nervous on stage?

Adam: I get nervous if I feel stiff. Some nights you just don’t have it. And then when you look at the set list and see how fast all the shit is, you are like “oh man.” But in general I don’t. We’ve done it. We just did approximately our 1,500th show.

Jeff: I’ve always done stage stuff since I was like 5 years old so I just don’t. It’s something I look forward to. There’s a few… Telluride I don’t get nervous but there are moments before the show where I kind of go, “This is a huge set. Sam Bush is coming up to play the last 20 minutes or whatever. But that’s more of an excitement than a nervous thing.

Adam: It’s never debilitating. It’s more of an anxious thing, like let’s do this. I’m ready to go. Today will be fun.

GW: Do you guys have a favorite show that you look back on where you were like, man we freaking killed it?

Jeff: You know, actually, we were talking about it last night. For me a show that I thought we did our job well was a couple years ago with the late night slot at All Good in West Virginia. We did the late night, and it was funny because it came from a conversation a year before with Tim who is the head of the festival. We were sitting there and I said, “Man, we always used to be the late night.” We were the late night band at High Sierra, this and that. We always did late nights. But they got kind of taken over by like Pretty Lights or different electronic acts, or live electronic. That sort of thing. And he said what about you guys doing a late night? And I was like, well you guys want to prepare? Put us out there? And then next thing our agent was like I talked to Walter and he said basically you kind of challenged him to put you there and he’s up for it. So I was like, let’s fucking do it. And it worked. At the end of it when I was looking out and seeing all these kids that were still raging really hard to what we were doing. I felt really good about that one.

Adam: Yea it’s hard to think back very far. I can only think about tours almost. Like this tour, I thought Slow Down went really well. That was in Omaha. I think Baltimore went really well. Even Portland, that was sick. I couldn’t sing but that was still a really energy filled one. Red Rocks is always fun. I’ve never had a bad show there.

Jeff: Our last time out there I felt the most comfortable.

Adam:  And Telluride this year was probably our best Telluride.

GW: Does venue play into how you guys play?

Adam: It can like at Telluride there’s the aesthetics, and the crowd for sure.

Jeff: This was our 13th year doing Telluride and when we walked off stage we all collectively went that might have been the best main stage we have every played. Which means next year is going to suck. We’ll be out there going clank! Clink! (laughing)

GW: What’s your favorite part of being on the road? And a least favorite?

Adam: Least is being away from loved ones.

Jeff: Yea, loved ones and family. My favorite really all revolves around food. I love being on the road because there’s so many cool spots to go and eat. I also hate the fact that even though I have a little kitchen on the road I don’t have a lot of time to cook for myself. So when I go home, I never go out. My poor girlfriend, she’s like I think we should go out tonight. I’m like sweetie I’m going to make pork chops! Doesn’t that sound good? She’s like can we go out and get some noodles or something? (laughing)

Adam: I think being out in Colorado and being able to see the Atlantic and Pacific is nice. Food, definitely. I like going to certain cities, too. I really like the west coast cities like San Fran or Portland and Seattle. I love going up there. Chicago is great. New York is great. Also being able to get out and do stuff. We get opportunities sometimes, like in Tahoe we can go snowboard. I play golf a lot on the road. I can fish sometimes. Shit like that is always fun. Just getting out to do different things.

Jeff: I like to nap in different cities. This one in Tahoe was so great, but it didn’t top Portland. That was a great nap. No but, like I said, it is all around food.

GW: How do you go about choosing set lists? Are they pre-planned?

Jeff: We pre-plan them. We used to not do it. It’s just learning how to be a band and tighten up the ship a little bit. We would listen to tapes and see that we played a 2 hour first set, yea well half of it is us figuring out what we want to play. And we’re tuning and we can’t figure out what to play. So someone’s like, “let’s play this!” And you’re like oh man, my voice is killing me. Those are conversations you can have before the show and still make it a spontaneous thing. But it’s been years since we winged a show.

GW: Do you choose them together?

Jeff: We do them together, but it kind of varies. Adam and I seem to be doing most of the set lists these days.

Adam: Lately it’s been like either he’ll do the majority of it and the rest of us will touch it up, or I’ll do the majority and they’ll touch it up. Everybody in the past has done them. Basically we have the sheets of what we played last time. Like we have last year’s All Good set and we’re not doing any repeats.

Jeff: We do that for every city. It can put you in a tight spot because you might be like, “Oh you know what would be a great opener tonight?” and you put it down as an opener but you opened the second set with it last year. It can shuffle everything up. It can be a lot of math at times, especially when we first go on the road. It can take awhile to get in the swing of things.

Adam: Sometimes it’s almost easier in the beginning though.

Jeff: Oh at the end you just stare. I did that like two days ago in Brooklyn where I just stared at this piece of paper. All I needed was 10 more minutes of music and I just couldn’t. I sat there for 45 minutes and couldn’t do it. I handed it to Adam and he nailed it.

Adam: When making the set lists, obviously we aren’t doing any repeats from the last time in the town, and we look at where we are going to be the next night and pull from that. So the next day it’s not as hard because we don’t do songs night to night. We have. If we have a new song sometimes we do it night to night because we are trying to get it worked out.

Jeff: You get into a groove and see what people think about it from city to city.

Adam: Festivals we’ve done that before too. We were thinking that in theory no one from Vibes is going to be here. So we could do repeats but we are not going to.

GW: Do you have any secret talents aside from music?

Jeff: I can double snap! (says while snapping fingers)

Adam: I don’t really have any other talents, but a lot of interests. I mean, I love fishing. I fly fish a lot in Colorado and going up to Montana next week. I like any kind of fishing. If I go somewhere and some dude’s like bobber and a worm is going to get you the best fish, I’ll do it. I’m not like a snob for fishing. Whatever’s going to catch fish. I like being outside. I like hiking, snowboarding, snowmobiling, back country stuff.

Jeff: I like cooking. I do a lot of cooking at home. I actually do recipe development and we’re working on a cookbook with a friend of mine and working on a tv show with another friend of mine. I’m really big into the food and just that kind of stuff. I travel for the food, yea it’s a big to do.

GW: Is there one place that you guys would like to play that you haven’t played yet?

Adam: Australia.

Jeff: Australia would be a blast. We are actually, in December, palying in Mexico. We teamed up with the Cloud Nine people doing this strings and soul event. Us, Leftover Salmon, Stringdusters and Railroad Earth on the beach starting on 12/12/12 and playing the next four days. That’s going to be fun because we’ve never done anything like that. We did jam cruise a few times and that’s a different thing. But still on the beach, looking out at the sea, bikinis…

Adam: I’d like to go back to Japan too. It’s the best. We had a blast there.

GW: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us at Grateful Web. It’s been a pleasure.

Jeff: From Jeff Austin from Yonder Mountain String Band, I want to give a big shout out to Grateful Web. Thanks for all the support, all the input and all the good things.

Adam: And from Adam Aijala of Yonder Mountain String Band, I also want to give a shout out to Grateful Web. Thank you, love you guys.

Tue, 09/04/2012 - 7:31 pm

Nestled in the Catskill Mountains of New York is the third annual Catskill Chill, with music all day and night from Sept. 7 through 9. This year’s lineup spans across many genres of music including bands like Yonder Mountain String Band, JGB Band with Melvin Seals, Conspirator and EOTO.

Catskill Chill has set up two stages and “Club Chill,” with very little overlapping of music. The Main Stage and B Stage have no overlapping whatsoever, so it makes things convenient for fans looking to spend all day in the concert field. There is free camping or some will enjoy the cabin option, which comes at a very reasonable price throughout the weekend. These cabins, however, are now sold out. The campground will open at 9 a.m. on Friday morning and close at 3 p.m. Monday.

The festival takes place in Hancock, NY at Camp Minglewood, with music starting on Friday afternoon with Caravan of Thieves at 3:30 p.m. It continues throughout the day with acts like Conspirator, JGB Band, Lettuce, Twiddle and Kung Fu among many others. EOTO and Jeff Bujak will be rounding out the late night slots, with music going until 5 a.m.

Saturday starts off at 12:30 p.m. with Consider the Source. The day is packed with outstanding artists like Rubblebucket, Yonder Mountain String Band and Soulive. Break Science and Particle will be throwing down all throughout the late night, with the music finally ending at 5 a.m. with Wyllys and the Philadelphia Hustler Ensemble.

Sunday will end at 3 a.m. and features the likes of Lotus, Heavy Pets, Cornmeal and the McLovins to name a few. Unlike many festivals, there is plenty of music late night on Sunday so it might be a good decision to get Monday off from work and rage all night long.

Festival season isn’t over yet, so get over to New York and hit up the Catskill Chill. What could be better than jamming out all day and night while camping in one of the most beautiful parts of the state?

Considering the incredible lineup and beautiful location to camp, Catskill Chill is a bargain at $120. Your best bet is to purchase ahead of time, because at the gate the price will jump to $145. For more information go to Catskillchill.com.

Fri, 09/14/2012 - 9:04 am

With summer coming to an end and the leaves on the trees already changing, Catskill Chill was a perfect last hoorah for the 2012 festivals season. You would be hard pressed to find people complaining about the festival, which offered three full days of some incredible times.

When it comes to festivals, most people are looking for three things: great music, great people and great weather. More often than not, the latter is the one that makes things tricky. This was the case at Catskill Chill, which had a weekend full of fantastic tunes that at one point had to be stopped due to a tornado warning.

However, the storm didn’t really last for more than a couple hours and all acts still played with some having a shortened set. The good thing was that even when the rain started pouring and getting crumby there was plenty of cover in the way of friendly neighbors’ easy ups, cabins and the covered stage areas.

The festival started up at 3:30 p.m. on Friday but my crew showed up bright and early to claim our camp sites. Festival-goers were not allowed to camp with your cars… but it seemed like that was really the only rule. Catskill Chill did a great job at giving people the feel that they could do whatever they wanted within vague boundaries. In fact, the only hassling I ever saw was for people trying to bring contraband into the concert venue via backpack.

Otherwise people were free to do as they pleased and camp where they pleased. We found a nice little area near the climbing wall that served for a great place to camp, but also a spot to get a bad case of poison ivy.

Some great aspects about the festival, aside from the incredible lakefront scenery, music and fans, were the prices and availability of food and beer. Not only was the food great (thanks Vegetarian Oasis) and reasonably priced, but there was plenty of it around. Also, whoever’s idea it was to make beer $3 to $4 a pop and have a happy hour that brought the price down to $2, should win a medal. That was nice work right there.

The late nights were absolutely insane with people throwing full fledged cabin raves. It was not uncommon to see bands playing throughout the weekend and seeing artists partying with attendees until the wee hours. Others could be found dancing their faces off next to the ice cream truck, which was blasting EDM and flashing lights through a disco ball.

Catskill Chill had a great friendly feel where friends came together, as well as meeting others throughout the weekend.

Friday highlights:

Friday had one of the better lineups I’ve seen at a festival all summer with music starting up at 3:30 p.m. and going until 5 a.m. Twiddle, who hail from Rutland, VT and are friends with some of our crew, put on a great set of funkiness early in the day. They were a few minutes late due to their van breaking down, but luckily my buddy B-Fast scooped them up and got them to the show. Rock star status right there.

JGB with Melvin Seals followed, opening up with “The Harder They Come” and continuing with an hour and a half of some of my favorite Jerry Garcia Band tunes. They ended with a jammed out “Deal,” bringing delight to every Deadhead in the place.

Melvin and JGB showed ultimate hospitality by treating me to a couple of glasses of wine and talking about music and life. They are about as down to Earth as you can get, which was very reassuring.

After hanging with Melvin, Cheryl Rucker and Pete Lavezzoli of JGB, I found my way over to Conspirator which was raging about as hard as you can rage. Lately the shows I’ve seen Conspirator play have been fantastic and this one also did not disappoint. They even threw in a cover of Scarlet Begonias midway through the set.

Kung Fu played a dirty set of funk and ended up bringing out Chris Michetti of Conspirator and Neal Evans of Dopapod for Stratus. It was a perfect jam coming in a late night slot, serving as some of the most creative music of the night. Imagine the Michetti of old getting down with Kung Fu. Pure nastiness.

After Lettuce brought the funk and horns as they always do, Dopapod hit the stage. Dopapod brought up Tim Palmieri, who plays guitar for Kung Fu and The Breakfast, at the end of the set to help on the song “Trapper.” This even included a Jeopardy jam.

EOTO and Jeff Bujak rounded out the night. EOTO had a nice mix of dub step and steady dance grooves throughout their set. One can even hear a few Phish teases. Needless to say, they had the place going hard at Catskill until 4 a.m. Bujak played a stellar set in Club Chill with dancers and hula hoopers.

Saturday Highlights:

After a ridiculous Friday that seemed to never end, I started my day seeing The Alchemystics. However, at the beginning of the set, an announcement was made that everyone should take cover and prepare for 70 mile per hour winds, heavy rain and possible tornados. While it was a bit scary to some, it was a great chance for everyone to relax and meet people while the storm passed. I would like to note that our crew called the bluff of that crazy storm. In the end there was very little wind and no lightning.

Tim Palmeiri and Rob Sommerville of Kung Fu sat in at Consider the Source as well as Tim sitting in at Headtronics. While bands like Rubblebucket, Lespecial, Indobox and and Alan Evans ripped it up all day, I feel like the real party started with Yonder Mountain String Band.

This was one of the most excited crowds of the weekend, and also possibly the most excited band. The fast pace bluegrass mixed with some seriously ambient jams were flowing perfectly with the mood. Jeff Austin even took a second to tell the crowd, with a huge smile and a laugh, about how incredibly good they were all feeling that night.

Soulive played a great set with The Shady Horns sitting in for most of the show. The band started around midnight and played a killer set which featured “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles and “Third Stone from the Sun” by Jimi Hendrix.

Other highlights from the night included Break Science and Particle. Particle, which received mixed reviews throughout the weekend from those watching, was actually one of my favorite parts of the night. While I was hoping they’d play “The Elevator,” they made up for it with “Have a Cigar” and “One of these Days.”

The music officially continued until about 5 a.m. but I can tell you right now that very few people stopped then. This was a great night where people could roam around from cabin to cabin, catching late night shows by Fikus and Shwizz to name a few. Also, the ice cream truck was going all night long. The fact that this essentially became a party spot was one of the funnier things about this festival.

It was also cool to be able to catch some of your favorite artists partying amongst you. The guys from Kung Fu, Dopapod and Lespecial could be seen mingling with friends all weekend long.

Sunday Highlights:

Most Sundays at festivals tend to be a bit laid back. Not this one. This had music raging until 3 a.m. at the stages, and much more throughout the night at the cabins.

I started my day off at Jennifer Hartswick Band, where I first realized about the Happy Hour beer prices. Granted this turned around my day from being a hangover to just plain fantastic. Jennifer Hartswick put on a fantastic show with several originals to go along with a Stevie Wonder cover that included a tease of First Tube by Phish.

After Jennifer Hartswick I bounced around between the McLovins, Cornmeal and my campsite. I was getting ready for Lotus, which served to be completely crazy. This was a two hour set of some of fast paced, electronic rock that had my legs turning to putty by the end of it.

After catching Damn Right!, Heavy Pets and D.V.S., my next favorite part of the night came during Kick Rocks. This was a point where my buddy Dezi brought a broom to the crowd with him which he called his “Gibson Broom.” He was playing it like a guitar, and then would turn it over so I could play keys. Freaking silly as hell. It made sense at the time and I was yelling it at the top of my lungs much to the dismay and possibly annoyance to those around me. But we didn’t care- not one bit. This was one rocking set!

I had never seen Kick Rocks before and now I can see why people were so amped for it. It was a great fusion of jam, rock, electronic and jazz that was completely improvised, aside from a nasty cover of Led Zepplin’s No Quarter to end the weekend.

On Monday morning it seemed like nobody really wanted to leave. Maybe it was because of the physical exhaustion of the jam packed, crazy weekend or the fact that it was just that fun. Either way, I can say that I am very much looking to see what Catskill Chill 2013 has to offer.

Sun, 09/16/2012 - 5:39 pm

Melvin Seals and JGB played a rocking set on Friday evening at the Catskill Chill Music Festival. Even after playing for about two hours, Melvin sat down with Grateful Web and shared some stories and laughs about life on the road, major inspirations and playing with Jerry Garcia.

GW: This is Bobby Martin with Grateful Web and I’m here with Melvin Seals. Melvin, thanks for meeting with us. How’s it going buddy.

Melvin: Good. Good.

GW: You guys put on a killer show tonight. It was great and was a great way to kick off this festival. There was so much soul. It was just great.

Melvin: Aw, well thank you.

GW: I’ve got a couple questions for you, Melvin. First of all, you have been playing music for about 50 years now.

Melvin: Yeah, well about 48. Yeah.

GW: What inspired you to start playing originally? What was the driving force? Family? Other musicians?

Melvin: Well, my family was in the church. I used to listen to the church music on Sunday. You know, they get down on the piano and the organs. It just inspired me to see that. My father played piano a little bit and he had a piano in the house. So, you know, I started fooling around on the piano and started making a little bit of sense of it. I said, hey this is fun! So after school, everyday, I would sit down and try to pick up things I would hear on the radio or things I heard in church last Sunday. I’d just try to play things by ear and it grew and it grew to the point that my father saw there was a real interest there and he gave me some music lessons.

GW: As you grew as a musician were there any keyboardists or piano players that stick out in your mind that you were kind of striving to be like?

Melvin: Oh yea, I mean, back when I first got started I used to look up to Billy Preston. He came out of the church, too. I knew his background. He had that churchy, rock, gospel style. Even when it was R and B and Gospel it still had that church feel to it. I think that’s where I got most of it. And then, you know, when I started getting gigs and getting halfway decent, I discovered the jazz organists like Jimmy Smith, Johnny Hammond, Shirley Scott and all these other people. So I’m listening to that and going in that direction, but then listening to pop rock songs that had great organ solos. I got torn in a lot of directions when I was in my teens. That’s kind of why my style is so broad now- I listened to so many people. But it started with Billy Preston, I must say that.

GW: Are you still constantly learning at this point:

Melvin: Oh yea. Absolutely. When you don’t play you can get quite rusty even with things that used to be easy. It becomes complicated and you know that you aren’t putting the time in. But when I put the time in everything flows flawlessly, but when I don’t I go “ooh ooh,” I made a mistake there. Even tonight I said, “hey we got to put some more time in. Getting a little rusty.” You may not know it, but I know it. So you really forever learn and I think the day you stop learning is the kind of the beginning of the end. If you think you know it all then that’s it. Where else do you go?

GW: Compared to when you were touring back in the 80s and 90s with Jerry, compared to this day and age- I saw a guy that was 50 or 60 years old in the front row tonight, but then right next to him is a 20 year old kid raging to the same music. And they both know what’s up. How do you feel about that?

Melvin: That’s a really nice feeling because I think when we first started carrying on after Jerry, a lot of the older Dead Heads who went to see Jerry were not supportive. Their kids were. You know, the ones who never got to see Jerry felt blessed. We were like the link to Jerry. But a lot of the ones who saw a lot of Grateful Dead shows and Jerry Garcia Band shows just wasn’t’ coming out. Now more and more of them are starting to come out. So that’s a good feeling that you are grabbing some of those, but even if I didn’t the younger ones are really the ones who go to the shows and buy the tickets. I mean, they know all the words just like the old folks do. They know every word. So it’s good to see a younger generation because that’s what will keep you going.

GW: Do you think that will live on?

Melvin: Oh it’ll live on. They’ll just keep going. And their kids and their kids will be listening. I don’t know who will be around to play it but they’ll just keep it going. If I was relying on the old generation, I’d be a biting breed unfortunately.

GW: I’ve got two more questions for you and one is really easy. Well, this may be easy too but describe what it’s like to play on stage with Jerry Garcia.

Melvin: Well playing with Jerry was a lot of fun and a challenge because Jerry would do a lick and then I’d do a similar lick. And then we started challenging each other in a fun way. You know he’d do something and the audience would clap and roar and then I’d do something that got a clap and roar. Then he’ll do something and a clap and roar. And we’d do that five or six times and then he would just do something that was totally impossible for me to do. He’d just go off in space and I’d be like “Okay man, you got me.” He’d get me every night. (laughing) Then I’d just kind of look down and be like okay. I knew it was coming but at least I held with you a little longer than last time, you know? Those were fun times. He’d look at me and smile and lift his leg up. You know there’s little things we do. We had cues that meant something. They meant that things were okay and the vibe was right and the tempo of the song is good right now. He’d look over and give that little grin and let me know that things are good right now- that he’s liking this. That was really always special. Being on the opposite end of the stage and watching him do his thing.

GW: Right on. Now here’s the easy question: How many people have just said to you: “You’re the freaking man?”

Melvin

Melvin: Me? (laugh) No man, I’m totally keeping Jerry’s music, vibe and spirit alive. Jerry used to call me- he had a title for me called Master of the Universe. He’d always be like “Oh Melvin. He’s like the Master of the Universe. It was the way he described me. But you know, I’m trying to keep what I learned on stage with Jerry alive the same way. Same vibe. Same feel. What leaves the heart reaches the heart so we just try to play from the heart. You know and hopefully someone out there can feel it and enjoy it. I see people going away and having a good time, and there are certain songs where sometimes I see people with tears in their eyes. A song like Forever Young or others that are very touchy with certain people. Then I know that we are reaching the mark. It’s not for financial gain because this is nowhere near what we were doing with Jerry. Nowhere near it. And actually sometimes it’s a struggle. We’re from San Francisco and we flew out here for one show and we go back tomorrow. And it’s really expensive so it eats into our money of what you would make if you were on tour. But we come here and do this because we saw last time that the people seemed like they were having a really good time and it looked like that again this time. When I can put a smile on someone’s face in a world like today with all the news and stuff you hear that is so bad, we can smile and laugh and have a great time and I am all about that. And that’s all I’m doing here.

GW: You are the man, Melvin.

Melvin: (laughing) Alright, well thank you.

GW:  Melvin Seals here with Grateful Web. It was a pleasure talking with you, buddy.

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 10:29 am

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong might sound like a funny name, but their music is serious, ranging from funk to dance to electronic. On July 3, they released their second LP called “Psychology,” and right from the get go it brings the heat.

The album has 13-tracks that span across a variety of musical genre, but it is clear that funk and psychedelic trance music is their forte. The band launches into the album with a track called “FU,” which provides a funky beat to go along with some funny lyrics describing exactly what they want to do: FUNK.

I will admit, I went into listening to this album essentially blind. I didn’t know much about the band except for what I had heard and what I checked out on Youtube. I can say that I was immediately impressed by their unique sound and what seems like will be ability to get people going and dancing their asses off. “FU” is a track I listened to a couple times in a row just to get myself in the mood. They laid it down hard and reeled me in like a fish with the steady James Brownesque guitar groove, horns and powerful vocals. This one is sure to be a fan favorite and one that will have the dance floors bouncing during their live performances.

“Melting Lights” settles into an easy going groove that starts with the lyrics, “I don’t want to get no sleep, I just want to keep on grooving.” It made me smile, bounce my head and realize that these cats have it going on- and that our heads were in the same page. Unlike “FU,” this doesn’t have much of an explosive sound, but describes the party atmosphere that surrounds the band and includes some catchy riffs throughout.

“Julia” has an islandy kind of intro that reminded me a bit of the Talking Heads song, “(Nothing but) Flowers,” until it gets into a heavy guitar riff. It keeps the island groove throughout the song and the chorus is about as catchy as things get. I can’t see this being a huge live song for them, but it is well done nonetheless.

Pigeons then launch into a space aged electronica type feel, complete with funky beats and synthesizers that are sure to get people moving. After a laid back song like “Julia,” “Schwanthem” is the exact opposite. This instrumental track features a steady pocket groove that the band will probably be able to go just about anywhere with. I am especially excited to see how this track turns out live. It is followed by “Zydeko,” which gets back into a James Brownesque guitar intro before it settles into a classic rock feel. I can’t help but love the vocals, which are once again powerful but soothing at the same time. “The purpose of the show, is raging with the band.” Enough said.

“Time to Ride” brings back the funk again and has unlimited energy potential. This is one that will have fans groovin’ hard, getting’ down, lovin’ life- you know the deal. Once the vocals pop in, I was surprised by the produced voice and while caught off guard, I loved it. “Grab yourself a seat, it’s time to ride.” Man, I can get down to these guys. After getting nice and funky on “Time to Ride,” Pigeons lay down some heavy guitar and get rocking. I was pleasantly surprised by this intro, which melts into psychedelia with outstanding descending guitar patterns. Musically this is a winner, however, it was one that after that I feel might have fallen flat a little bit, as the lyrics got a bit depressing… Oh well. They can’t all be winners.

They move to their psychedelic roots with “Moonwalk,” which is another instrumental track. It is a smooth ride right from the beginning, mixing wah peddles with funky riffs, a steady drum beat and some alien noises on the synthesizer. The groove is nice and catchy and will be sure to be a highlight that could get pretty crazy during shows. This is one that I could get down to all day, and I have a feeling many will.

“Horizon” starts off mellower than any other track on this upbeat album… but it’s almost as if you know shit’s about to go down. This track goes for nearly 10 minutes and about 40 seconds in, it kicks into gear with a catchy guitar riff and suddenly the whole band is in the pocket- and a nice pocket it is. Right around 1:30, a simple but amazing guitar riff kicks in, and suddenly I am very intrigued on where this song will end up. The drum beat keeps it all together, with the rest filling in with supreme sounds that span over a number of different genres. This might be the best put together track on the album, but you might as well take this musical journey to see for yourself.

“Lightning” gets right back to the funky, psychedelic grooves with ascending guitar riffs in the intro. It launches into some powerful vocals, backed by a pure funk beat and psychedelia. About three minutes into this jam there is some raging guitar that left me impressed and wanting more before it gets right back into the vocals. Good tune and I can see this going big live.

The drum and bass beginning to “White Night” is always a welcome aspect for me, and then trancing guitar that comes next is just fine. I really like the smooth nature to this song, and you know, the sound actually sounds like a “white night” to me. It drops into the vocals and a low-toned quick guitar riff layers the background, along with the steady drum beat. This is followed by “Live Life,” which brings out the band’s love for reggae. It is simple, yet satisfying, and one that I can see myself playing on my porch while enjoying the sun on a day off from work. Everyone needs songs like this.

The album finishes off with Upfunk, which has my name written all over it. I love this tune right from the get-go. Once again Pigeon brings the funk hard, along with the deep vocals and temp changes- it’s a winner. The tension and release in this song kick it to high gear and all of a sudden I’m raging. It ends with the sound of…psychedelic pigeons on a loop? This is going to be a huge song live, mark my words.

For those who love the funk and want to dance, I recommend grabbing this album. It’s got a pleasant mixture of instrumental psychedelia, catchy lyrics, steady funk, deep meanings and overall incredible musicianship. While Pigeons Playing Ping Pong may not be a household name yet, who really gives a shit when they can kick it into high gear like this? Pick up a copy of “Psychology,” you will not be disappointed.