The Telescope

Keep Aqueous on your radar; they're doing great things

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:36:49 -0500

I’ve seen Aqueous several times now in Cleveland - most recently this past Wednesday at the Beachland Tavern.

I haven’t really been this excited about any one component of the *jam scene* for a long time. Aqueous has a very fresh sound. While drawing on a number of musical traditions, they’re paving a brand new path with bricks of golden melody.

Dig the link above for my review of this week’s show. I’ll plan on catching them next month in Erie, Pa., and in April for their two appearances in Cleveland.

Just a quick update for now - and a nod to Cleveland Scene. I’m sorta digesting the band’s latest album, Willy is 40, so maybe a full-bodied review is in order sometime soon.

Just a quick roundup of bands I'm diggin' lately

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:55:00 -0500

- Milo Greene (for work and for the recent Bonnaroo nod)

- The National (for festie appearances and the fact that they’ve been on my to-listen-to list for a while - particularly Alligator)

- Belle and Sebastian (see The National)

- Foals

- Cellar Door Vol. II & III (local compilations of bitchin’ Cleveland music)

- Mogwai

- Phish (duh.)

- Dawes

Gotta admit, I really dig the drop in this song. It’s a...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:30:46 -0500

Gotta admit, I really dig the drop in this song. It’s a long, trudging sojourn toward the climax, but the breakthrough around 3:41 is worth it. Great tune. (I’m also an unabashed Cleveland homer, so there’s that.)

Joe Russo's Almost Dead

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:21:00 -0500

This show from the Brooklyn Bowl last weekend is just incredible. “Shakedown Street” is a total trip!

Jeff Mangum in Cleveland and - Ohmigawd! It's JEFF FUCKING MANGUM!

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:31:42 -0500

Here’s my quick take on the (really fantastic) Jeff Mangum show in Cleveland last night. The crowd reminded me of the over-the-top cult of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

Yo La Tengo, ushering seeds toward a fruitful future

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:15:00 -0500

Nighttime cabernet on the table, ready to dig into Yo La Tengo’s first album in, oh, four years or so.

Pleasantries right off the bat: Opening track “Ohm” has a reservedly upbeat feel to it, contrasting darker lead tunes like “Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind.” Ira’s *do da do* chirping in the background really illuminates that and sets up hopes for an album that’s going to grow upward and spin off interweaving branches of ideas and melodies.

It’s the band’s 13th studio album, representing the latest notch in a catalog that spans a much, much wider sojourn than most contemporaries. I love the band dearly, but tend to hold them at arm’s length. We’re on different wavelengths, at times.

There are soft moments riddled throughout the band’s discography that still cease to pull me in completely. “Is That Enough” fills that spot with aplomb.

YLT’s grab-bag action has always been one of their many appeals. The album, at this early point, continues to skip toward jauntiness and the juxtaposition of filter-laced fuzz groove.

Dig “Stupid Things” to get yr fix of bass-driven conversation with splattering accents dashing around in the background. And pair it nicely with the follow-up “I’ll Be Around.” Quick note: A trend that I loathe in music reviews of any kind is comparisons to other bands. The name-dropping is too easy and it detracts from the music at hand. Buuuut… There is this fine Wilco element going on in this song. And I like it a lot. AND it segues sweetly into a Georgia-crooned tune. Oh, mercy!

Something that strikes the listener is how smoothly this album encapsulates much of what has come before it. I Can Feel The Heart…, I Am Not Afraid of You… and And Then Nothing… - the band’s trio of masterpieces, by most accounts - are each felt throughout. Seeds planted much earlier have produced a rather sturdy and mature limb in Fade. There’s nothing *groundbreaking* about albums put out by bands of YLT’s vintage. And I almost feel like a silly bastard getting into such talk. But there it is: This album is a joy upon first blush: simple, vibey and kind.

Jim James: A New Life

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:41:17 -0500

My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James (alternatively Yim Yames) released a cut from his upcoming solo work today, via Rolling Stone.

Ethereal and patently Jimjamesean, the vocal melody ebbs and flows with reflective optimism. Gentle clapping and humming guitar strum work work together to paint a nice backdrop for the song. Throughout, “A New Life” builds and shines a snide light on buoyantly good times ahead.

Regions of Light and Sound of God hits the streets Feb. 5.

I’ll wrap things up here with a great Jim James quote - one that I think about often, especially in the morning as I head outside to begin the day:

“Every day is a psychedelic experience, if you’re open to it.”

***

This post also counts as my return to blogging, which has been long in the works. With a much postponed Happy 2013!, I’ll be maintaining the music focus and, ideally, broadening the Talk My Talk column. So, uh, hello again.

Quick update re: employment and blog-related stuff

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:43:00 -0500

Beginning Dec. 10, I’ll be writing for Cleveland Scene. Do pick up a copy every Wednesday and look for what can only be described as “one hell of a byline.”*

You can, of course, keep finding my ramblings about Phish and other forms of music here on a semi-regular basis. The December 1995 post is just kinda growing like kudzu vine further down the page here. You can find the link to an easy-to-read Google doc in the Talk My Talk tab up top.

* According to most - but not all - members of the Pulitzer Prize board

The long post

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:21:37 -0500

Like Phish’s talk of “the long gig,” I’ve found myself constructing “the long post” just below this one. The Talk My Talk column on Phish’s December 1995 shows is kinda growing tangled and messy. Maybe?

I shouldn’t have tried to tackle the entire month in one long, continuously updated post. I’ll likely be severing the different sections from the beast and posting them in the Talk My Talk page (link located at the top ofthispage).

I’ve knocked out three shows, so far. It’s a fun little feat and one that I haven’t really tried to do. Listening to shows in consecutive order is a fascinating glimpse into history. Again, I’ll be writing all month about these shows, with depth and clarity of thought coming later. Maybe?

Talk My Talk: December 1995

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:02:00 -0500

Let’s resurrect this column here and diverge from its regular(ish) form. This month, I’ll be rewinding time and deliberately listening to all of December 1995. It’s hallowed ground in the Phish canon and, to be honest, I’ve never listened to any real *significant* collection of shows in order.

To be honest, I haven’t heard terribly much of December 1995. 12/14 and 12/31 are the only shows I know well; other snippets of the month I’ve heard only on occasion. The Mike’s Grooves on 12/1 and 12/7 are worth doing this whole thing on their own merit, but, still, it’s been a while since I’ve done them much justice.

I’ll keep this post active and updated as the listening goes on, adding thoughts here and there.

The whole month features top-tier playing, leading to the iconic NYE show that year. The playing comes off as one protracted high-water mark following more than a year of blistering arena rawk, psychedelic excursions and goofball mania. In a word, bliss.

12/1/95, Hershey, Penn.: Buried Alive into Down with Disease is true show opener, in my opinion. Face-melting rock to start the month. It’s *of-the-era* in a way that few other month-long segments of Phish are. The over-the-top energy of Disease makes this whole assignment, fraught with dosed peril around seemingly every corner, an anticipatory delight.

And that Theme! I’m a sucker for this song. I think the brief jam fucking rocks and Trey’s work, especially in this song’s infancy at the time, is golden.

This first set is *statement* material. Yes, the band had been on tour for two months already, but this new month marked an entry point into something wholly distinct. It’s unclear if the band would have thought the same thing without the benefit of hindsight and historical context, but it’s clear to us as listeners today.

Like from the soaring heights of the mid-set Chalk Dust, it’s clear that more than a decade of hard-won success and growth was bubbling up onstage. The energy cultivated in late-95 would propel the guys into a future riddled with freedom, uncertainty and a history that would tint everything they would ever touch with a strange tincture of joy and madness.

The Forbin narration is just fantastic stuff. Western-Eastern thought patterns meeting over the pure ecstasy of chocolate… And cows. And milk. “And from that milk, milk chocolate. And that’s how we came up with the mystical land of chocolate.”

Stash: Always a patent mystery, this version is *frenetic* in the best of ways. Fish holds down the chaos with a straightforward rhythm, allowing Trey to poke holes through the membrane and splash dark sunlight across the jam. Descending chords then drop the journey into hell itself, where the sorcery continues at length.

Cavern. Set break. Halley’s. Alright, then! Terrific stuff, but:

The Mike’s -> Weekapaug is the centerpiece here, clearly. And it’s a goddamned gem. There’s a moment prior to the 10-minute mark when Trey sends the band into Groove Central Station. It gets quiet, but the undertones are so silky.

The jam blends into this aural sundae that just exudes this sorta molasses-y wantonness. Trey, of course, keeps the crazy going whilst Page knocks a few heads against the 88s, leaving Fish and Gordo with the detritus of their rhythmic bombast!

And that segue! Oh, man! They slide into a off-key ‘Paug with so much vibrancy that the smilers in the audience are just dripping with agony and ecstasy at this point. Yep, the groove is strong with this one: uptempo jamming and spritely guitar work to boot. In fact, Trey’s melody throughout the core of this jam is the epitome of mid-90s FUN PHISH. (PHUN? Uh, no. Not ‘round these parts. FUN!) Hell yes. Sign me up for a dropper of major key miracles and I’ll be happy.

And gawddamn! The ending to this jam is such a bizarre triumph, it’s worth the price of admission alone. Yes, the Mikes -> Weekapaug is the centerpiece here, clearly, but the Paug is the greater half this time around. Do it. Check it out now.

Mango delights and Wilson fun ensues, followed by a choice Bowie with beloved Catapult interlude (beloved in my head, at least). It’s a fantastic Bowie, stretching out the manic improv that came before during the Mike’s Song.

Crushing Suzy in the encore slot and that, my friends, is the start to an unbelievable month in Phish history!

12/2/95, New Haven, Conn.: Short Caspian opener to get things started (OK), then we’re off.

Runaway Jim is a terrific early slot tune and it kicks ass here. Trey, in particular, keeps the heat going throughout the jam, taking things to a nice peak with Page laying down the red carpet. Just eighth-and-a-half minutes of head-charging good times, laid down with olive branch and bottle of bourbon all for your enjoyment.

What I like about Guelah is that it was one of the first Phish songs that helped hook me into their world and, since around the time of this show, it’s remained relatively rare. The dance moves from Trey and Mike are pretty slick, too.

The first-set centerpiece Reba is a gentle, meticulous affair. The melody delicately drifts along, deeper and deeper into the heart of the jam. It’s nothing “for the ages,” necessarily, but it’s certainly got its triumphant climb toward a fantastic peak.

But, wow!, this Free is something special. The fuzz Trey spits out is of the utmost psychedelic strains. He balances his act perfectly off the staircase wanderings of Page.

It’s worth pointing out on a personal level that Free isn’t in my most-enjoyed list of songs. I just consider it too much of a standard rocker. Listen, Phish 3.0 does the song well and it’s great, but it doesn’t send me into orbit, see? But here in late ‘95… Well, I can get down with this. They way the band just lays the jam to rest and sinks back into their collective vocal work is fucking admirable. Tune in.

Hmm. OK, 2001, Maze, Simple (not bad so far). Love the Faht placement, which sets up a deep Tweezer for the back end of this show.

Mike’s bass work is *definitive* in this version, paving a winding path for the others to follow. Trey crosses melodies with Mike as he begins weaving a fantastic tale on the six-string. At 9:35, the guys burst into the next dimension in perfect concert. It’s balls-out rock soloing, for sure, and it feels so good.

Slow-down madness sets in suddenly at the 13-minute mark, soon resolving into a fine Day in the Life.

The verdict, two shows in? 12/2 was a’ight. 12/1 was some sick nasty stuff. See you soon.

12/4/95, Amherst, Mass.: In many ways, this show’s setlist just looks delightful to me. And that brings up an interesting point about the “on-paper” value of a show vs. the actual return - the actual music quality.

I don’t know. It’s probably something that ends up being far more personal than it seems on first glance. For instance, the 12/2 setlist doesn’t do much for me when first checking it out. (For the record, I have a irrevocable habit of looking into the setlist with sweat-inducing intensity as I’m digging into a show. I’d like to just go in blind, but I find that the phish.net records are just too tempting.)

This show, again, merits a few upturned eyebrows. The Julius opener I can take a pass on (though itisa great start to the show.) But Gumbo, Divided, Punch and Stash comprise a great first-set run. And this PYITE is awesome. It hits all the right notes. And coming after a soulful Divided Sky, it’s a win. Stash is dark and glorious (this is a top-tier version, folks), and the rest of the set is fine stuff - fine, fine selections, even if it’s a bit “up-and-down.”

Likewise, the second set comes off a bit topsy-turvy with its Sparkle placement and Billy > CTB, but I kinda like it. It’s endearing.

The jam segment in Ya Mar is absolutely sublime stuff. Like the Punch in the first set, this dark horse of the night gets a nod for its supreme Trey-Page action.

The highlight of this show is undeniably the Antelope. It’s a scorcher! “Been you to have any spike, Marco Esquandolas, (ai! ai! ai! ai!) man?”

Late-set YEMs are kind of a given in terms of their strength. I won’t say that there’s anything startlingly badass about this take, but it’s a monster and it helps anchor down the latter half of the set following that frenzied Antelope.

Sample and Frankenstein (Nice!) to close with a Bouncing > Rocky Top encore. Slick stuff. And we’re off!

12/5/95, Amherst, Mass.: What a show! I’m rolling the Gin again as I write this heavenly script and wondering aloud to myself if this song is the band’s best jam vehicle…

Tweezheads may dissent. Reba freaks might cry out: NAY! Even DWDers may take up the pitchforks and come running at any point tonight. I’ll be lowering the blinds for this post and kicking back with this stellar jam.

The rest of the show is choice December 1995 stuff. It’s the reason why I began this journey.

The first set is fantastic, with a Free that echoes and expounds upon my previous Free strokage (12/2: “The fuzz Trey spits out is of the utmost psychedelic strains.”) and a sick nasty Bowie.

But that Gin! Morphing seamlessly into Type II territory, Page takes the reins over a stormy brew coming out of Trey’s stack. Mike and Fish toy around on the percussive end, making for a kind of underwater adventure. Picture Grand Theft Auto and you’re gunning it away from the cops, only you’re a swordfish swimming at blindingly fast speeds and the cops are some sort of giant lamprey-shark hybrid. Something like that, anyway.

There’s a true sense of freedom in the Gin jam here. To be frank, it’s this sort of frenzied mania that I want to put at the TOP OF THE LIST for these first four shows. You in a hurry? Can’t do the 12/1-4 run real quick? Dig into the Gin, then get on with your day. You’ll thank me.

(Stick around for the Hood though, too. You’ll, uh, thank me.)

(Updates coming all day long…)

So then this happened:

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 15:39:56 -0500

It was mid-afternoon last Saturday when the rocking chair began discussing its rather unsavory breakfast with me.

“Terrible eggs. I mean, really, the yolks were practically raining onto our hardwood floor. Just pouring onto the floor, I say.”

I didn’t know how to respond to such a thing and figured I may as well let it continue.

“And the bacon! Rather, I should say, the limp rags of mildew laid out on my plate! The cook, what is her name, again? Esmeralda? Escuchanda? Something along the lines of… Emiliana? Either way, she’s atrocious and I should very much like to see her leave the house today. For good!”

I had been trying to read the morning paper, as my daily ritual tended to push the morning paper into the afternoon, but the chair’s ongoing rancor was becoming a bit disturbing. I found myself unable to focus on the article at hand. I thought back to my own breakfast, taken in bed hours after the rest of the house guests had eaten. I thought the eggs had been fine. The bacon, in fact, was scrumptious.

After a while, the rocking chair calmed down and ceased its tirade. It’s been nearly five days and I haven’t heard a word from it since.

...And a weasel named Biebz

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:48:00 -0500

Justin Bieber’s band teased Phish’s 2001, First Tube, Sand and Waste last night during his MSG gig. Bear in mind, also, Phish’s longtime lighting guy Chris Kuroda was at the helm. The Biebz later tweeted at Tom Marshall, thanking him and Trey for hanging out at the show.

It’s a very bizarre collision of worlds here. Kind of unsettling… But at the same time, it’s this overt *WTF* that has always been a beloved thread in Phish lore.

“In the cool shade of the banana tree…”

The new Star Lake DVD and a few thoughts on niche fanbase writing

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:10:00 -0500

Online Phish Tour lauds Phish’s latest DVD release (no surprise), but - come on! - drops a major misspelling in the lede. It brings up a few thoughts about niche fanbase writing…

Namely, the passion overrides any real desire to make the writing shine and, often, fans are laid back enough to let it slide. I mean, Christ, just glance across Mr. Miner’s blog and your eyes will glaze over with the terrible script he tosses off. Turning a mole hill into a mountain, I know, but…

Nonetheless, after my first Star Lake show this summer (Mike’s Simple Light Groove!) I’m pretty jazzed about this release.

explore-blog: “Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:12:22 -0500

explore-blog:

“Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.” Neil Gaiman’s 8 rules of writing.

“Explore” is really a gem of a blog. It’s kind of an ideal example of the “post quotes, photos, blurbs, nonsense, etc.” genre of Tumblr pages. Their writing tag is golden.

Now Playing at The Telescope's World Headquarters

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:30:26 -0500

A few things I’ve been really digging (obsessively digging, I mean) lately:

Iron & Wine (mostly The Shepherd’s Dog, but… Ah, hell, it’s all so good)

The Sea and Cake (I wrote about them recently and, while their catalog is a bit monotone, it’s quite delightful stuff)

Deftones (the new album is… OK. But the release is giving me a chance to head into my past and check out gems like White Pony and Around the Fur)

Phish (um, duh)

Jack White (new album = slick stuff)

Marco Benevento (new album = wildly addicting)

And a few things I want to spend more time with this holiday season:

Golden Smog

Tea Leaf Green

Neil Young’s “Ditch Trilogy”

P.O.S.’s latest

And is Trent Reznor’s “How to Destroy Angels” worth a damn? I haven’t been sold on his stuff for years.

What are yr music recommendations this holiday season?

Trepanning Trio's latest offering: auspicious and awe-inspiring

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:58:00 -0500

Excerpt from my review of Trepanning Trio’s “Auspicious Threes”:

Though one could toss out words like “folksy” and “avant-garde” and “post-rock,” they won’t do much good: There’s a broad spectrum of sound throughout the album, including the band’s rather unusual addition of voice as an instrument.

The build-up of “Last July,” a song with deep personal meaning for multi-instrumentalist and band leader David Mansbach that has made it to many recent setlists, showcases the band’s ability to mold sonic layers and swell the music’s momentum with lilting melodies rolling off the tongue.

Mansbach said that developments like that give the album a more vividly human element.

And beyond the scope of the album, this music is truly awe-inspiring in a live setting.

“Every time we play a song, it’s different,” Mansbach said. “There’s a lot of directing that happens on the fly.” While much of the band’s repertoire now exists as recorded music, each song bears only the shadow of a full composition. Rather, Mansbach said, songs are presented more as ideas that can grow and morph on the stage as needed.

(Read more)

Auspicious Threes by Trepanning Trio

Scrobbling

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:19:09 -0400

I’ve had a last.fm account for years and - for whatever reason - I completely disregarded the website’s whole “scrobbling” feature. I guess it always seemed like more trouble than it’s worth…

Similarly, I’ve become a ceaseless Spotify user this year and I just realized that I can sync the two services up and, through this “scrobbling” bit, get some real choice data on my listening.

Personal data like that is great. So, retroactively, it’s kind of frustrating knowing that I could have been logging all of this over time.

To think of all the Phish that has gone uncharted in my life…

Eh. Bygones.

Trampled by Turtles' Mountain Stage set via NPR: Late evening bliss

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:34:51 -0400

First game of the World Series.

(Go Giants!)

I’m kinda half-watching the game and half-participating in a weekly journalism chat on Twitter. But I’m all-listening to Trampled By Turtles’ Mountain Stage set via NPR.

It’s a tidy little half-hour piece, with a gentle kick-off through the reflective “Widower’s Heart.” And midway through the set, “Midnight on the Interstate” comes along to sum up so much of what makes this band great: Image-laden storytelling with the musical chops to back it all up. And Erik Berry’s mandolin work just *shines* on that cut.

As NPR writers put it: “The set is so exciting, the Mountain Stage audience actually demands an encore; Trampled By Turtles’ members oblige with ‘Wait So Long.’”

Understandably so. Dig it.

Kendrick Lamar's latest highlights the powerful flow of family

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:31:00 -0400

I dug into Kendrick Lamar’s top-notch “Section.80” earlier this year when I heard he’d be doing a set at Bonnaroo. And what I heard at that point definitely took hold in my mind, alerting me that Lamar is a talent to watch in today’s hit-or-miss hip-hop scene.

So his latest album, “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” is absolutely worth checking out.

The first track genuinely surprised me with its slinky, chill-out beat and smooth, smooth flow. The voice mail messages from his mother that dot the album bolster Lamar’s ties to family and love. And amid those nods to his past, the listener comes to know Lamar as a starry-eyed young man.

“Kendrick have a dream,” he shouts as Backseat Freestyle (embedded below) heats up. The rhymes that follow signal the ceaseless tides of his far-reaching dreams and the ebb and flow that will push him - and each listener - onward forever.

And, for what it’s worth, Lamar does with the greatest of ease what Lil Wayne tried *so hard* to do for years.

$.02

Umphrey's overhauls setlist database: A few notes on the geek culture behind jam bands

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:31:28 -0400

Via the team that brought you the fantastic setlist database over at phish.net comes Umphrey’s McGee’s own data overhaul.

All Things Umphrey’s is *precisely* what the doctored ordered, reminding me that there’s a healthy (maybe too healthy…) respect for statistics and data-driven nerdery just below the surface of the jam band scene.

What’s readily apparent about most geeked-out subcultures is the abundance of modes of connection. It isn’t enough that we allgo to the shows and, mere hours afterward, listen to the shows, dedicated fans let the spiritual battery acid seep into veins and consume their day-to-day thought processes.

The Internet makes that really simple.

The lifespan of Umphrey’s McGee certainly demands this kind of cataloging. The research that a fan gets into prior to and after a show buoys the show experience, I would argue. This stuff isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s context! (…Wrapped up in a sleek design, no less.)

It’s great to have the data on hand as a backdrop for really grasping a band’s development over the years. Obviously, this kind of stuff is probably meaningless for most rock bands that don’t vary setlists much or don’t dabble in teases, covers and the like (their poor, goddamned fans…).

But for bands that revolve around an air of spontaneity and improvisation, this stuff is gold. It’s history. It’s context! (…Wrapped up in a sleek design, no less.)