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Superfan article

Musicology v. Music

Music is a social, physical, and sometimes religious experience. You hang out with all these people who act the same at shows, you dance the same way (or don’t dance the same way if you’re emo), and this music gives you a spiritual recharge. For fans, the music one band makes is so much more epic than can be described that fans sometimes resort to “It’s so much more than that” or “You just have to hear them to understand” when they try to explain it to another person.
Because music means so much to so many people, it has become a strange situation when you categorize it. There is no denying it. Your favorite band has to go somewhere in the musicology book. This offends fans. Mostly because every Nirvana fan knows that Nirvana is a grunge band. Though 75% of the time they are labeled just as plain rock. If you want to split hairs about it, Neil Young was plain rock except for Harvest which was folk. Weezer was going to be labeled Emo because Saves the Day came out at the same time and they sounded slightly the same but Weezer fans knows that with Pinkerton and Maladroit Weezer went alternative. But when you go to the library, Sam Goody, CD Warehouse, or wherever you buy or steal your music it’s all labeled under rock. Yeah it’s confusing I know.
Bands MUST be categorized when they start. It’s a must. Let’s say that you’ve found your new favorite band and they’re called….I don’t know Fucker Pants. You can’t tell you’re friends to go see Fucker Pants because they’re so different and your explanation of why goes on for 20 minutes relating points from what they wear, to things they’ve done on stage, to how their music kind of sounds like electric guitars being played by those robots you see in those 1950’s science fiction movies. We’ve all had super fans do this and after their drawn out explanation, you still aren’t any closer to understanding. Despite how much you hate it, you have to cite a bigger picture genre and at least one band they sound like. Fucker Pants is electronic techno band that sounds a lot like Prodigy. There, much more understandable.
I see this problem a lot in emo. I’ll be honest that I’m not the best person to talk about why emo fans love it so much. I’ve yet to figure that out. But no matter how emo a band is. No matter how much they fit that profile. Fans go to great lengths to explain why they don't qualify as emo. I’ve heard people try to discredit the emo tag saying that just because a uses the same song structure, their fans dress the same and they appeal to the emo scene does not make them emo. About that time is when they retreat to the, “Well you just have to hear them” defense. If it looks, smells, and sounds like emo, it’s probably emo.
The second problem is when fans realize that their favorite band DOES fit into a genre; they assume that their band must be the greatest band of that genre. I occasionally go see a band called Umphrey’s McGee. I’ll say I’m a fan, I’ve seen a lot of shows and met a lot of other fans and enjoy their music. Umphrey’s McGee is a Jam Band, they sound like Frank Zappa and sometime Dave Matthews. The thing with Umphrey’s fans is that they know they are a Jam Band (even though the band has argued themselves as a Prog Rock band to avoid stereotypes). The fans then strongly believe that Umphrey’s McGee is the greatest Jam Band out there right now. Some believe they are the greatest of all time.
I know it’s hard to judge musicality. There isn’t a chart that can rate how great a band is especially when you’re a jam band and a lot of things happen haphazardly. But there are too many reviews of bands out there where every show is “epic” or “historic”. It’s bullshit. All bands have off nights but most fans don’t want to believe it. I’ve walked out of Umphrey’s shows knowing it was an off night and when I look online or talk to other fans I know, I hear nothing but rave reviews about how one song was the best version in the bands seven year history.
Another great example of this was the boy band explosion in the mid nineties. Everyone who was into a boy band was a super fan. I never met anyone that was a casual fan of Backstreet Boys, or N’SNC, or 98 degrees. Every girl that listened to them had posters up on the wall, they had T shirts, and for there birthday, ask for concert tickets. The funny thing is though all those boy bands were founded under the same premise. Backstreet and N’SNC were both founded by Lou Pearlman. They were clones of each other. Yet, if you talked to a fan, there was SOMETHING (besides looks) that made one better than the other. It’s like those 'find the differences' cartoons in the Sunday morning comic strips, the details are so small that yeah there is a difference, but it doesn’t change what the big picture is.
But what happens when the next big band that changes everything comes out. When I sit around and talk music, a lot of people talk about the next Nirvana. It’s because Nirvana was the last band that exploded out of left field. No one really saw them coming. But as soon as they came out, during the Bleach years, they were probably labeled as metal. Obviously they shaved that label. They weren’t a metal band but that was the closest thing they sounded like.
So where does that leave everyone? We’ll it forces every genre of music to be judged by someone who dislikes it, or has only a mere interest in it. I don’t think anyone can really give a fair looking at any band because you’re either a fan or not a fan, there is no middle. It’s 50-50. If you are a fan, you like that band too much. If you don’t like a band, you apparently didn’t pick up on what makes the band popular to their fans in the first place thus discrediting yourself as a possible candidate for being a fair judge of them. So musicology for the modern music is joke right now. We can’t know how everything is going to shell out so music must be label as these larger genres until we can find out what really stands the test of time. So whatever type of music you listen to, turn it up ‘til the knob breaks off.

Here is me trying out the whole stairway to heaven backwards thing. Give it a listen. Heres to my sweet satan.......

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Chucky

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So the new edition of Garage Band 3 swept through this computer and took with it my original rendition of Chucky with it. So now this is the new chucky. The biggest problem I had during the project was finding the right drum beats and the fact that the piece fails to end on a cadence. If I had more time, I probably would have added a jazz organ in there in a Medeski esq style. I would like to learn how to add effects to my instruments in garage band, I think adding some sick wah would be cool. Let me know what you think about it.

Umphrey's McGee Article

*This Article was published by IQ magazine in April 2006.


Indiana and musical revolution have never really worked in the same sentence. We have John Mellencamp, The Jackson Five and ……that’s pretty much it. But in January of 1998, Umphrey’s McGee set out to change that. Starting as a bar band in the Notre Dame area made of four Notre Dame students, Umphrey’s has become the leading fighting force behind the Jam/Progressive rock revolution.
The original band was made of Brendan Bayliss on guitar, Ryan Stasik on bass, Mike Mirro on drums, and Joel Cummins on keys. In 1999 the band added Andy Farag on auxiliary percussion and in 2000 Jake Cinninger added his innovative guitar licks to finish the lineup. On New Year’s Eve 2002 Mike Mirro left the group to go to medical school and was replaced by Chris Myers. Since then the lineup has stayed the same playing an average of 140+ shows a year.
The one thing that separates Umphrey’s from other bands is there diversity. Bassist Ryan Stasik once called Umphrey’s, an electric amish gothic flavor and somehow that fits. Though they have cut back on them, Umphrey’s has a cover repertoire that extended from Metallica’s “And Justice for All” to Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”. For their 100+ original songs, genres go from techno with the electric drum filled “The Triple Wide” to the pop rock lyrics of “Front Porch”.
This April, Umphrey’s will release there fourth studio album entitled, Safety in Numbers. The majority of the songs were written after the loss of close friend to the band, Brian Shultz. Even though most of the songs were inspired by him, the loss did not dampen the mood. “The mood was great. It wasn’t really somber, I mean we wanted to get our emotions out but we had a great time doing it.” Andy Farag, a Crown Point Indiana native said in an interview with IQ Magazine. “We really wanted to get into the studio and we had a lot of time to work on stuff. In the past we were kind of rushed to lay stuff down but we really wanted to put out a great product.” And they did.
Safety in Numbers consists of 11 new tracks that attempt to set the line between Umphrey’s studio work and live performances. “Yeah, with Anchor Drops we were trying to do that, but I think we did it a little more with Safety in Numbers. We’re just trying to make a good album. We’re trying to separate our live show from the studio work that we do. And when you’re listening to an album, that’s what the listener sometimes needs. They need to feel that concise, to the point feel of it. You keep the listener listening.”
Umphrey’s brought in new friend Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News fame to contribute harmonica and vocals on the Women, Wine Song off of Safety in Numbers. “That got started at the award show The Jammys last year. They have bands playing and the creators ask you who you want to play with so we brainstormed for people of that caliber who would want to do it, and we ran through a whole list of people. Some couldn’t do it; some didn’t want to do it. It finally came down to like ‘what if we could get Huey Lewis?’ We were already playing another one of his tunes and it ended up he wanted to do it. He’d never heard of us but Phil Lesh lives in his neighborhood and went over and said something to him. So we hung out and practiced. And after that he was on board.” Also guest starring on the album is tenor sax player Joshua Redman on the song Intentions Clear. “We were fans of him already. It was about a year but we finally worked out a tour with him and we told him that we wanted him on the next album and it just happened to have worked out.”
Umphrey’s has always been hailed for their live shows. Each night the band will play a two never the same sets that consists of originals, a couple of obscure cover songs, and on the spot improvisational songs the band has entitled “Jimmy Stewarts” stemming back from there rehearsals at the Jimmy Stewart Ballroom.
The Stewarts are different every night and allow for new material to be tested as well as new ideas to form on the spot. It makes the for the song writing process to flow much easier. “This album was a small percentage of “Jimmy Stewarts,”” Says Farag. “For this album it was mostly pen and paper. But after our new years show this year, we made up CDs of just “Jimmy Stewarts” and would just go back and listen to them and right now we have five or six new songs that all stem in one way or another from “Jimmy Stewarts””.
But onstage jamming has put the band in a tuff spot. Most people unfamiliar with their work will often throw them in the jam band category because of the jams and other bands that they have been billed with. (Phil Lesh, Moe., Keller Williams, The String Cheese Incident) though the band feels that’s really not them. “I think it’s more aggressive than other bands in the scene. We fit more under the category of Yes, or Rush. Our improvisations are more in depth and more complex. It’s not just noodling.”
Besides the jamming link between Umphrey’s and jam bands there are the covers. Most touring oriented bands will perform covers. Up until recently, Umphrey’s were the masters of obscure covers. At the 2003 Murat Egyptian Halloween show alone, Umphrey’s played the covers Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor, Metallica’s And Justice For All, Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy, and Billy Idol’s White Wedding. But recently the band has attempted to cut back on there covers and refocus on original material. “It all stems back to our practice sessions and we thought we spent too much time on new covers. We really thought we need to get back to working on our original material and writing new stuff. We just made that conscious effort not to play many covers that tour. Yeah, I think Umphrey’s will always play covers. One or two a night at the most but the special shows, New Year’s Eve and Halloween we will always play covers.”
Another aspect of their live shows that makes the band popular is the UM Live series. When you go to an Umphrey’s show you can purchase that show for 15 dollars and at the end of the night pick up a soundboard recording of the show you just saw. Only 30 or so shows are sold per night but the shows can later be downloaded for the same price at DiscLogic.com later. “Because that live show is so much different than our studio work people want both. I think it actually helps [our studio albums] because some people will say ‘man that was a great live disc, do they have any studio work?’”
As of for their summer plans, Umphrey’s will be playing as the opening act for The Dave Matthews Band in Virginia and the famous Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. “This is a huge opportunity for us to play in front of people that would never come out to see us in the first place and they can make whatever decision they want to make. I think some of them will get it, and I think some of them won’t get it at first and some won’t get it at all. And that’s there opinion. It’s the beauty of liking who you want to like. We just need to have that chance. Carter has always been one of my favorites for years. Getting him out or Dave to sing something would be great too. ”
Umphrey’s is always trying to find new fans. You can tell by their festival schedule. This year the band will return to the Bonnaroo Music Festival, Summer Camp Festival, The All Good Music Festival, and the 10,000 Lakes festival just to name a few. “Festivals get us to play in front of a larger audience then we are used to playing. Plus a lot of people who probably would come to see us will be there. And it’s great playing outside, people are always having great times, and we have great times, it’s a big party.” And it’s been working. This year, Umphrey’s McGee played two sold out nights on New Years Eve at the Aragon Ballroom. They also sold out the Murat Egyptian Room in Indy for the first time.
Some fans have worried about the variety of people showing up stating that many of the newer fans are two young, but Andy disagrees, “I don’t think that’s a bad thing because it just means that these kids aren’t going to see Britney Spears or any of this top 40 stuff there going to see stuff that you have to think about what you’re listening too. And I’m glad to see that coming back. In the 60’s and 70’s kids were going to see stuff but aside from Phish, kids weren’t really coming out in the 80’s and 90’s. I think it’s great.”
With Umphrey’s tour schedule its hard not to catch a show. In the past three years, the band has averaged 140 shows across the country. This past march they will play their own festival, Jam at the Dam in Amsterdam. Afterward they will embark of their first European tour. “Yeah we really felt that we needed to get into those other European cities. Europe right now is really into the whole Prog-Rock thing and I think that we fit in that category. I think it’s a great opportunity.” Andy said about the tour. Upon their return, Umphrey’s will do several shows on the west coast and also play two nights at the Canopy Club on April 27th and 28th. But they keep themselves busy while on the road. “When we’re not playing, it’s practice, watch TV, watch music DVDs, or playing golf. A lot of us really like to play golf. Baseball games if it’s the right night.”
Regardless of what kind of music you like, Umphrey’s has something for you. It’s rare that music this finely tuned and energetic is coming out of Indiana and being as successful as Umphrey’s has been and will become. And the band is welcome to have you, as more success comes there way, they will take it with modesty. They just want to Rock.

How MTV stole our voice

As my generation comes of age, wait, no cancel that. As I age. There that actually makes sense. There is no period of aging; we are always aging until we die. Anyway, I don’t know if it is our generations of if generations before us have been so divided. I know they have been divided always. The good and the bad, the squares the hippies, the poor the rich have all been around ages before I or my parents or my grandparents were ever born. But In teenagers and the twenty something kids, it seems to be such a statement about who or what we are that it’s become distorted and trivial. To anyone outside of the generation, we are kids, there isn’t a distinction between anyone, and we are defined by an age. Between us it’s so much deeper.
I won’t bore anyone with the ideas about cheerleaders, jocks, hippies, burnouts, hoodlums, and the weirdos that we all attempt to label ourselves as and strive to be. But
I think as a whole, the nation of kids who are about to inherit America, we have become beat.
Kerouac once used the term to describe what the “Life during Wartime” kids had become, they were literally beat from the constant pressures of war and the day in day out repetitive tasks that lay before every one of them. No one was different. They all suffered from the same eerie idea of draft and death. They were beat. I think that the idea has returned. Or maybe in never left and we didn’t realize it but I know it’s here now. Every generation is told something by the generation before it. Our generation is being told to suck it up. The idea that we can change the world becomes fleeting as parents tell their children to get a good job and they’ll be okay. Striving for greatness becomes a second battle to be done in your spare time.
One of the biggest problems is that we gave up all of our speaking power to the MTV generation; or at least the generation before us did. As soon as that picture of the moon landing and those guitar riffs came on, every kid watching said, “Yeah, this is what we stand for. Hey Everyone! MTV speaks for me”. And then we lost our voice.
It used to be that MTV was a stereotype for the cool. As it came of age, it realized that it could influence culture. It went from being the group consensus about music, movies, and culture, to being your older brother trying to influence you on such ideas. Instead of letting the demographic decide what was worth watching, MTV grew a voice that said, “THIS is what you should be watching.” And we sucked down the THIS. We held onto it because we thought, “How could MTV fail us? MTV is one of us!” I think we all fell to it. For a while it wasn’t bad. I mean, Limp Biscuit had some redeeming qualities right? After a while I think MTV just stopped trying. The music, or what music they actually play is a joke. It becomes a 30% music 70% lifestyle that sucks in 12 year old girls by pretending they are speaking for us. They don’t speak for the cool anymore.
So the divide I spoke of earlier comes back. The trendy watch MTV, the cool abandoned it. The trendy 20 something kids think that they are cool, but they’re not, they’re trendy. The easiest way to tell the difference is that the cool kids like college and/or remember it. The trendy kids peaked in high school and/or won’t remember college. They don’t know who Miles Davis is and they think Nick Lachey is the coolest guy.
Nick Lachey is trendy. Not to say that he isn’t a cool guy, I’ve never met him. But by the fact that he has someone tell him what shirt to put on in the morning makes him very trendy. When Nick goes to an award show, he could very well start a new trend that everyone will be wearing next fall. “Did you see that Nick Lachey cut the ass out of his pants? I’m totally going to do that”. Or he could be raped by the fashion press and possibly ruin there career. If you career is largely based on what clothes you where and you care, you are trendy. If Wayne of the Flaming Lips, who is very cool, would cut the ass out of his jeans, everyone would just laugh and say, “Oh Silly Wayne, he’s so cool.” That would be a factual statement.