Dark Star Orchestra at ACL Live, Moody Theatre 10/14/2011

The talented Dark Star Orchestra returns to Austin tonight for their Last Rose of Summer tour. Performing at the Moody Theatre for the ACL live TV series, this is sure to be a rager.

Tickets are still available for ~$32 when said and done with surcharges and fees and the likes. These guys have been touring for over a decade now and have long been the Grateful Dead cover band to see for just as long. Their dedication in recreating Dead shows lick for lick has allowed them to stay on the scene, grow and gel as a group to make them the great jam band that they are today. Don't miss it.

Follow @benpapps  for live setlist updates during the show

Settle back, easy Jim

Beats Antique Return to Austin in October - La Zona Rosa

Album art by Michael Pukac
Design by Daniel Jung

Beats Antique is set to make another pass through central Texas on their fall tour with two dates in the Ausitn area:

• Sat. October 22nd - La Zona Rosa, Austin Tickets
• Sun. October 23rd - Texas Music Theater, San Marcos Tickets

This tour follows the Oakland based, home-grown-bass hungry trio's new album release, Elektrafone, set to please ear-holes and vertebrae (what with the spine-tingling basslines et al. . .) of the masses starting October 4th, our fair year, 2011.

Free download from the new album & full list of fall tour dates.

And yea, children did dance and rejoice in the streets, "O' joyous day; the gods and vibrations provideth our daily bass!"

Electric Forest Festival - On-Site Update

Two days down, two to go. The Electric Forest Festival in Rothbury, MI kicked off early Thursday morning June 30th, 2011 when, despite warnings that "if you show up at the gate before 10am, you WILL be turned away," the gates of the Double J Ranch opened around 5am to alleviate traffic.

Kandy kids, wookies, hippies, dude-brahs and Cheese fans of all shapes, colors and sizes gathered in Rothbury this weekend and with one of headliner The String Cheese Incident's three shows behind us, I think it's safe to say that Madison House (SCI's label) have done it again. The slow-fading RGB lights illuminating the flower displays in the forest, the circus tension-tarps strung up everywhere, (they're starting to explore with some new 3D shapes, it's very cool) the giant, fully-functional Mouse Trap (the game) installment: it seems like they've almost got it down to a science by now, and the smiles on everyones' faces show that it's working.

The String Cheese Incident on the Ranch Arena stage - Friday night

Anti-Tiesto propaganda

With the familiar parting words from Keith Mosley, "We'll see you guys tomorrow night," we all went to rage the rest of the night. Emancipator, Galactic, Cirque du Womp and some hate-garnering Tiesto kept the party going into the wee hours, and we all happily remembered and recited our mantra all the way back to our campsites: Only the Beginning.

More to come! Stay tuned, spunions.

Wakarusa 2011 Highlight: Vagabond Swing

Amongst 130+ other bands, 30,000 crazy, fun-loving festival-freaks and enough sun and sweat to kill lesser beings, a hidden Wakarusa gem of 2011 by the name of Vagabond Swing pushed its ugly face up to the surface to say, Hi, I'm freaky too. Let's get down.

Vagabond Swing at the Backwoods Stage (photo by Ben Papps)

Complex rhythms and jazzy leads aplenty, Vagabond Swing rocked out the backwoods stage, an intimate, shady grove with a small dirt patch in front of the stage to dance and hammocks strung between trees in the back. They're a six-man, off-the-wall, hodgepodge collection of a mandolin, a singing drummer, a melodica, guitars, an upright bass and trumpets out of Lafayette, Louisiana. Their crazy, eclectic sound comes from band members' musical backgrounds in jazz, afro-beat, ragtime, gypsy swing, folk, latin rhythms and ska, and with influences from all over the spectrum, its no wonder the finished product is so infectiously eccentric. Playful leads on trumpet, melodica and guitar wind and unwind again like the last loose strands of in unravelling mind while untraditional, syncopated drumbeats and rhythms drive each jam home. Some songs toy with lyrics, but the band truly excels when given the opportunity to collectively show their improvisational chops on the instrumentals. Think: the jazzy side of Tom Waits meets afro-beat, and you've got Vagabond Swing.

The group finds themselves touring locally and out to Colorado and Nebraska recently, and they hit Ruta Maya here in Austin on Friday, July 1^st with Black Irish Texas and Sideshow Tramps. Doors are at 9:00pm and tickets are only $7. More info on Vagabond Swing's site. Don't miss it.

Blues on the Green Tonight Wed. 6/22/11 Zilker Park ATX

Two of Austin's own, The Bright Lights Social Hour with Suzanna Choffel play tonight at Zilker park. This is the second installment of this year's Blues on the Green, KGSR's free (that's right FREE) summer concert series. More info here

The Bright Lights Social Hour brings their brand of soulful, classic rock jams to Zilker Park tonight. Assertive drum beats, screeching guitar solos, grass between your toes, enjoying another gorgeous Texas night with thousands of other fun-loving fans; what else could you want? Maybe some sweet serenades from Suzanna Choffel. She combines sweet acoustic guitar rhythms with heartfelt, raspy vocals. Sounds perfect for a breezy summer night under the stars. Come join us!

Bright Lights Social Hour:


Suzanna Choffel:

Wakarusa 2011 - When Music Festivals Get Things Right

June 2^nd, the blooming summer of 2011 marked the move-in day for the Wakarusa Camping and Music Festival in the rolling hill country outside Ozark, Arkansas at a hilltop venue by the name of Mulberry Mountain. The atmosphere on the first day of a camping festival is something special. Everyone arrives and gets a feel for their new home, and Mulberry Mountain was a very special place for those four days. Everyone on stage brought their best, lesser-known artists and musicians set up everywhere inside the venue and out and peddled their wares or serenaded passers-by, and people bustled around the campsites, set up, decorated, introduced themselves to neighbors, explored their new town of 30,000. The humid Arkansas air was laden with a palpable, light, playful anticipation of what was to come.

Wakarusa 2011 started off with a bang. Thursday night slapped us across the face with a jam-packed opening night schedule that was probably the best of the festival and included performances by:

• 

  Dirtfoot - 1:30pm
• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals -  6:15pm
• Papadosio - 6:30pm
• Buckethead - 7:30pm
• Cornmeal - 9:30pm
• Umphrey's McGee - 10:15pm
• Beats Antique - 10:30pm
• Lotus - 12:30am
• Shpongletron - 1:00am
• Ott - 2:00am
• EOTO - 2:30am

How would we last? Gates opened at midnight Wednesday night, and security and the festival staff did a great job with that first rush. By sunup, the flow of newcomers slowed to a trickle and at least 15-20,000 were already situated. Most of the sleep deprived, glaze-eyed festival goers were too anxious and it was too hot to sleep in the humid, high-90s heat of the first day. Lucky, the schedule for Waka was made with the heat in mind. While plenty of bands played during the day, the majority of the best-known names played between sundown and dawn. So, one could wait out the day in the shade and still see over twelve hours of stellar music daily.

Dirtfoot started Thursday's party off and opened the main stage with their six-man hootenanny straight out of Shreveport, LA. The self-described, “only front porch, whiskey swillin', foot stomping, gypsy, punk, country, grumble, boogie band in the land,” used a xylophone, a washboard, pots and pans, an upright bass, a sax, a guitar, a drum kit and some of the raspiest vocals I've heard in some time to start the festival off on the right foot. They threw down at this opening set and played two more over the weekend.

Dirtfoot on the Main Stage 6/2/2011 (photo by Ben Papps)

Later on in the day, as the sun went down over the hills around 6:30pm, Papadosio, a five-man electro-jam-band out of Athens, Ohio, wowed fans and innocent bystanders alike. Three members of the band play keys, among other instruments, and they are at heart a jam band, but their live sets weave across genres and borrow from electronic influences. As the sun went down and the glow-sticks, -poi, -hoops, -everything came out, the electro-shift seemed fitting as things turned for the weird.

No strangers to the weird, Beats Antique took the stage at the revival tent in front of a crowd that was about to burst with anticipation and put on the best show of theirs I've seen to date. With high energy and a raw, unpolished sound, they deconstructed every track with expertise, melding it all back together into a fresh incarnation of that eastern-influenced electro-jazz that put Beats on the lineup of so many festivals this summer. The well-known, older songs were remixed and chopped up so much that you could definitely couldn't stand still, but you weren't sure which song you were listening to, and the new material was full of crisp high-ends, heavy, womped-out lows and great juxtaposition. By the end, the crowd looked stunned, faces screaming, “How could anyone top that this weekend?”

Cue the corny introduction of Michael Travis, “We are EOTO, ladies and gentlemen: live and improvised electronic music for your ear-balls.” EOTO at Wakarusa were the headliners in my mind. Perhaps not the biggest name on the ticket, but they were one of the handful of bands who played more than one set over the weekend, they closed out the festival with a mysteriously booked “EOTO & Friends” set (who are your friends?!) and they embody the jam-band/folk sound meets the wave of electronica breaking over every genre that presided over Wakarusa 2011. They put on a show worthy of the headliner title. The different musical dynamic that comes from one long festival set, versus two shorter sets at a typical EOTO show, creates a constant, uninterrupted build throughout the entire set. 

Their hour and a half set Thursday night started off with an electro build that took off like a firecracker, exploding once the beat dropped with one of Hann's unrecognizable, perfectly placed vocals. “Boom!” or something similar. Hann seemed more active on the mic than usual and invoked lines from Back That Ass Up, Do Your Thing, (that's right, a little Isaac Hayes) Down On Me, Roll Out and Scrubs all the while backed up with his own masterful robo-drumming (sometimes using one hand to drum and one hand to mix/mod/loop) and Travis' heavy sub-bass lines and eeking, tuned-up electro licks. EOTO have come a long way since I last saw them about six months ago. Travis has a better grasp over the sounds he's adding to the build before he adds them, and he has a more confident control over the tracks he creates. Or maybe they were just on for Waka. Either way, expect great things from EOTO.

By the end of day one, (or about 6-7 hours into day two) minds had been blown, sleep-deprivation had reached unstable levels and the weekend had only just begun. With the sun starting to peak its way over the hills, it was time for the first rest in over 48 hours. The following days delivered the goods. The strongest sets by:

• ANA SIA Friday 9:30pm
• Dark Star Orchestra Friday night 12:30am
• Bassnectar Friday night 1:00am
• Skrillex Friday night 2:45am
• Ghostland Observatory Friday night 3:00am
• Ben Harper & Relentless7 Saturday 8:00pm
• Thievery Corporation Saturday 10:30pm
• Big Gigantic Saturday night 2:30am
• Vagabond Swing Sunday 5:30pm
• Peelander-Z Sunday 6:30pm
• Zoogma Sunday 8:30pm
• Beats Antique Sunday 10:30pm
• EOTO Sunday 10:30pm
• EOTO & Friends Sunday 11:00pm

ANA SIA at the Satellite Stage 6/3/2011 (photo by Ben Papps)

While Friday brought top-notch performances by Dark Star Orchestra, Bassnectar and Skrillex, and Saturday injected the festival with a healthy dose of soul from Ben Harper & Relentless7 and Big Gigantic late-night, Thursday night's supremacy was only truly challenged by Sunday, the closeout night.

Beats and EOTO were scheduled at the same time, so fans had a difficult choice to make, or so it seemed. As Beats Antique started their set, EOTO and their gear were nowhere to be found. A festival official announced over the PA that EOTO would be playing about two hours later than expected, after Beats. Perfect.

Beats put on a great set and pulled out the animal masks and guest appearances earlier than usual, making for a raucous good time of a stage show throughout the majority of the set. EOTO took the stage for their 30-minute set prior to the highly anticipated “EOTO & Friends” and put on good show, but it was obvious they were holding back in preparation for the party to come. One by one, Karsh Kale, (on tabla) David Satori, (from Beats Antique on a banjo-looking, sitar-sounding custom instrument) and Jamie Janover (from Zilla on hammered dulcimer) all came out to join Travis and Hann, with Tommy Cappel (from Beats Antique) sitting in on drums for Jason Hann for a quick spell.

The night raged on, as the three prior had, until sunup and beyond, but the official music was over, the vendors were packing up, the stages were coming down, the staff were all but off the hook, and the Wakarusa festival was a raging success once again.

EOTO at Freebird Live 12/4/2010 - Jacksonville Beach, FL

When you see Michael Travis and Jason Hann of EOTO take the stage, it’s tough to know what to think. The “100% live improvised Dubstep, House & Electro” duo doesn’t have a traditional setup, by any measure. Hann takes the throne of a full drum kit with all kinds of electronic gadgets and goodies tucked wherever there’s space, usually with a djembe close by, while Travis, guitar or bass in hand, steps up to a wall of keyboards, MIDI controllers and touch pads with effects peddles and mixers all around. Both have MIDI synched MacBooks within reach and have the ability to loop and manipulate every organic sound they create. The music that flows through this setup from the minds of this duo shows how far the modern concert and live beat production have come and screams a challenge to the electronic music genre to step up its game and remember the beauty of organic sounds played in the moment.

                  While most current electronic acts spend hours prerecording loops and setting up MIDI controllers, EOTO approaches each concert with a clean slate. This duo uses nothing prerecorded, no set list and no designated songs to speak of. They use a plethora of instrumental and technological options to create and alter loops on the spot. This keeps their live performances fresh and creates entire live tours where no two songs are ever the same. Some mainstream vocal tracks are reused. For example: Jason Hann seems to like to break into the Michael Jackson lyrics from "Startin' Something," frequently at shows as heard in the clip below, but the beat and bass line he drops it onto are ever-changing. Some other popular hip-hop and dance hooks make their way into EOTO songs. You will never hear a straight cover song at an EOTO show, but don't be surprised to hear chopped up lines from songs like "I See You Baby (Shakin' That Ass)" or "Lean Back." These familiar refrains keep the crowd grounded, while every other musical layer of the song sets the fans soaring through the weirdness that is an EOTO set. The group’s improvisational pledge, coupled with the creative melding of the familiar and the alien truly set them apart from the rest of the genre and keep the fans coming back for more. Sure, purely improvised music is a scary prospect; it depends largely on the skill of the specific musician(s), but for these two members of EOTO and The String Cheese Incident who have over three decades combined experience, entirely improvised sets are a good look.

                  When EOTO took the stage in Jacksonville Beach, FL to finish up an impressive home stretch of 33 shows in 33 days, most of the fans in attendance were no strangers to the band. With tickets at $18 at the door, the intimate Freebird Live venue attracted many people new to EOTO, but the majority of the crowd knew what they were in for; Cheese Family was in attendance. As the show progressed, Michael and Jason maneuvered deftly between audio options and instruments, using guitar, bass, keyboards, a drum kit, hand drums and  vocals to create the fully organic sounds and using their electronics to chop the loops and breaks down with the precision one would expect from the two drummers of The String Cheese Incident.

Melody after melody, thick, thumping bass line after bass line, EOTO rocked the beachside venue with a stellar show to cap off their 2010 tour. At one point, Travis donned a cheeseburger hat one of the many happy freaks in attendance offered up. EOTO is serious about making good music, but they also bring an atmosphere of pure fun to the stage. They were having a great time on stage and it showed in the band themselves and in the music. The intimate venue allowed the band to feed off the crowd as much as the crowd was feeding off of the band, and the chemistry between the two on stage was on point.

At one point in the second set, Travis broke out a deep, muddy version of the bass line from the Dead Prez song, “Hip-Hop,” and Hann followed up with a beat and the hook, “It’s bigger than. . .” There was much WOMP, as always: thick, moving bass with endless manipulations to give it the weight and meaning fitting for the jam, but at this particular show, the synth, guitar and vocal melodies were in full effect, leading through the musical landscape of the show. The electro/house sound was what the crowd was looking for, and that’s what they got at The Freebird. Hopefully, in the band’s upcoming time off, they’ll get around to posting this show, as they have with many others, on www.LiveDownloads.com.

As of right now, the only two shows on the horizon for EOTO are a sure-to-be-epic New Year’s Eve bash in Denver, CO and a set at the Summer Camp festival in Illinois on May 27^th, 2011. But if EOTO’s work ethic this fall is any sign of things to come, expect the duo to make an appearance near you sometime in 2011 regardless of where you are; these guys are all over the place. If you’re looking to get your fill of top notch, genre-morphing womp, follow on www.EOTOmusic.com, Facebook and Twitter for tour updates and don’t pass up any chances to catch these guys live.