Sinking stages, unicorn men in speedos, everything quesadillas, rage sticks, freefalls, broken lawn chairs... if you were at this year's Camp Bisco, you would understand why it's taken me a week to get this video up. Whether you're a basshead that's only interested in DJ's, or an old school Biscuits fan like myself, chances are you had a pretty fun time. Props to MCP Presents for soldiering through some tough technical difficulties to make sure we saw some music on Saturday. I also have to thank the PR girls for being nice to me even when I was shooting where I wasn't supposed to. Check out the video recap below, and stay tuned for more! Music courtesy of The Manhattan Project, who played an awesome set in the label tent on Thursday.
It was a dance party. That's the one thing I keep thinking about last night's sold-out Umphrey's McGee show at the Town Ballroom. It's really too bad that the Ballroom's disco ball is out of commission; it could've been put to good use last night, especially considering light guy Jeff Waful's amazing light show.
The worst part? I got there a little late, and I missed opener "The National Anthem" - yes, the Radiohead song. I'm still not over it. I walked in during the middle of a groovy "Professor Wormbog," which the band morphed into a tease of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"; Jake Cinninger played David Gilmour's solo note-for-note perfect. The set ended with a scorching "Mulche's Odyssey," one of the more rocking tracks off of 2004's Anchor Drops.
But it was during the second set that Umphrey's really started heating up. The improvised jam out of set-opener "Spires" was "by far the best jam of 2012. Very fast, tight funk," according to Waful. And the band remained on fire for the rest of the set. After bassist Ryan Stasik and Cinninger traded solos in the prog-metal suite "Search 4," the band treated the crowd to four straight songs of more dance-funk bliss, which started out with an unbelievable cover of Daft Punk's "Voyager." Umphrey's is known for spanning an enormous range of genres, but they are still a rock-and-roll band, and for them to faithfully recreate a Daft Punk electro-rave song is truly laudable.
The funk reached its peak during "Soul Food II," an original take on classics like Parliament's "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)," and it finally slowed down for the downtempo (yet still groove-heavy) "Atmosfarag," giving the crowd a chance to catch its collective breath before set-closer "All in Time," complete with drum and percussion solos, melted its collective face.
Umphrey's gets better every time I see them. I do not exaggerate when I opine that they are the best live band in the business right now.
In less than a year of writing for buffaBLOG, I've already written about Umphrey's McGee countless times. It seems there's always something to say; they're always playing cheap shows in Buffalo, they released a killer new album in the fall, and it doesn't hurt that, in my humble opinion, they're the best live band going right now. See for yourself tonight at the Town Ballroom (that is, if you have a ticket - it's sold out). They can be considered a jam band, but they do things other jam bands can't, like segue from a raving trance groove into a scorching metal manifesto. Plus, light guru Jeff Waful provides the best visual supplement to music I've ever personally witnessed. Show starts at 9 p.m.
The Roots, fresh off of their role in the hilarious Michelle Bachmann controversy, have released a new video called "Sleep." It's the first song from Undun, the band's forthcoming album, which will be released December 6. The black-and-white video reflects the songs eerie lyrics; the album is described as a sort-of reverse narrative of a man's life. Check out the hardest working band in the biz below:
Also, Umphrey's McGee, who aren't slouches themselves, released their first-ever music video this week. It's for "Booth Love," a feel-good funk track off of the recently released Death By Stereo. Having gone to Umphrey's shows for years, I must say that it's weird to see them in a music video; they seem so down-to-earth on stage, and it's strange to see beautiful women rollerskating to their music. They retain the everyman vibe in the video, though, and it definitely has its funny parts. Check it out below:
It's last night, and I am not where I want to be, because I am not in Rochester, attending the Umphrey's McGee concert. How often does your one of your favorite bands release its new album and play a show in a nearby city on the same day? But alas, the constraints of time and wallet kept me in Buffalo, and I'll bet that the show I missed was one for the ages, considering the occasion: Death By Stereo, UM's sixth studio album, hit record stores Tuesday. Instead of sitting and doing nothing, though, I did the next-best thing. I bought the album on iTunes to review it for buffaBLOG.
This band is not the prog-giant we saw on the last UM offering, 2009's Mantis; instead of playing extremely technical riffs, grooves are established, and the band efficiently travels upon them for as far as they were meant to go, and no further. This is especially apparent on two of lead-guitarist Jake Cinninger's offerings, "Booth Love" and "Deeper," both of which evoke some serious funkiness. The former uses a horn section to casually dub things out, while the latter is a serious funk monster, a combination of George Clinton, 2001 Dr. Dre, a creatively used string section, and hypnotizing vocals.
The other singer/guitarist, Brendan Bayliss, is no slouch, either. The second track, "Domino Theory," is perhaps the most clever, straight-ahead rocker that UM has ever come up with. The huge riffs, tough-guy vocals, and bass-only main-riff reset bring The Hives, Queens of the Stone Age, and Wolfmother to mind. After first track and lead single "Miami Virtue" falls slightly short, this is the song that truly gets Death By Stereo started.
Other album highlights include a beautiful bass solo that morphs into a guitar solo via some wisely employed studio effects at the end of "Search 4," building into a characteristically epic UM climax. Also, penultimate track "Conduit" has been rightly described by band members as a quintessential Umphrey's song, containing proggy riffs, metal guitars, jazzy keys, and a section with reggae influences - all the while sounding like one homogenous song.
Most of all, Death By Stereo sounds like the band had a clear objective to create a unified album, a task made more difficult because the 10 tracks span from being brand-new to being played at UM's first-ever show back in the late '90s ("Hajimemashite"). And though I may not have completed my objective of making it to their show last night, Umphrey's McGee certainly completed theirs, and because of that, I had a great night anyway.
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