Umphrey's McGee

Yes, it is a dumb name. I'm beginning to think that is the point with these neohippy bands... anti-image and music-oriented... " if you're too cool for us, we don't want you around anyway" kind of thing? Either that or totally image-oriented: "Hey, hippies! You like bands with stupid names! Check out us!"

They don't sound very much like Phish or Grateful Dead to me. They have kind of an 80s keyboard sound, sort of dance beats and more of a pop rock sound than a classic rock sound. But, I guess they made the mistake of choosing jazzy sounds for interludes rather than sonic dissonance.

They sound kind of like Talking Heads to me.

Umphrey’s McGee’s innovative Stew Art Series (aka, “S2”) – an interactive fan experience where audience members “conduct” the band’s live improvisations - continues to garner industry attention for its ground breaking approach to building the ever-important band/fan relationship. Most recent: Time.com just posted a video feature on the band and their S2 series.

Umphrey’s will host their next S2 event this Friday, October 22, at Michigan’s Kalamazoo State Theatre. As with all S2 shows, the event sold out in just minutes.

Hosted as individual events before that evening’s already schedule show, Umphrey’s Stew Art Series is a crowd-sourced improvisation experiment, in which all the music performed by the group on stage will be entirely directed by S2 audience members. Tickets for each event sell out in just minutes.

For S2, fans submit their ideas by texting descriptive words, phrases, and pop culture references (pretty much whatever came to mind), to the Umphrey's Mozes mobile interface. The suggestions are then filtered by the band’s long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning and projected on a screen for the band to digest and turn into the next phase of the jam. The band’s music varies stylistically with suggestions ranging from “an afternoon bus ride in Jamaica” to “drinking pina coladas…in a hurricane”. As one elated fan commented after a show, “S2 was the coolest thing I have ever been a part of. It’s always been a dream of mine to meet the band, and the opportunity to participate in leading the Jam for the band was a dream come true as well.”

Phish already did this (sort of, but without the technology part) with their "Big Ball Jam".

this makes me want to gouge my eyes and ears out.

Everything about this band seems custom designed to make me personally want to never ever listen to them.

as i understand it, tickets sell out in minutes

long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning
long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning

Their show from 2004 Bonnaroo is enough to convince me. Their own music is more rock than hippy, all the sets are amazing, but for what they did on set 3: Metallica's "Enter Sandman" into some jam into Metallica's "And Justice For All" just plain kicked ass. I've never heard anyone do Metallica so perfectly (actually sounded just like them; never realized what a great drummer Lars was before) and with a crazily intricate jam in the middle.

wait so UMPHREY'S MCGEE convinced you that lars is a good drummer

i am listening to this band for the first time ever on youtube. and it's really horrible.

one of the guitar guys (ballcap on backwards) just did some tapping.

having the audience crowd-source your fucking song is antithetical to every artistic impulse that exists

Hah I read that on Zing and knew it was Whiney before I even looked at the poster name. I would love to know your thoughts on interactive installation art? Or jam bands in general? Or if you feel there is a requirement to have "artistic impulses/aspirations" if you want to make any sort of music in any form?

I mean, I love John Zorn's game pieces and Christian Marclay's unusual scores because it makes already atonal and unpredictable music even more atonal and unpredictable.

However, for a genre whose basis is groove, flow and hypnosis, I honestly feel a good jam band should just go where the music takes them, not where a digital cue card says.

yeah but most players who jam think the audience is already a big part of what goes down, this is kind of an extension of that imo

oh man blarrrrggghhghhhh

xpost - hilarious delusions coming from the most masturbatory musicians on the face of the planet.

i try so hard but stuff like this just makes me all irritating 15 year old punk jerkass kill the hippies all over again

From someone who listened to jam music almost exclusively for a couple of years, it's a v audience-involved thing, much more than a lot of other genres and forms. So much of it is just about connecting with other people and creating music that makes everyone feel good, man. So, in context, something like direct participation seems like a really interesting and appropriate thing and it is absurd to approach something like this and say "they shouldn't be doing this because I feel it lacks artistic integrity"

And of COURSE they're going to go where the music takes them. They're not just going to stop dead and start something else entirely. But I'm sure it's nice to have different variables that sort of shape the ebb and flow of what you're doing.

i am still stuck over here trying to make a really good todd rundgren TR-i joke

I don't really listen to jam stuff except for the dead and the allmans but really hating on jam bands is the tired most phoned-in look imo

ARRGH IT'S SO SELF-INDULGENT AND BORING THOUGH THEY JUST PLAY BORING STUFF FOR LIKE TEN MINUTES STRAIGHT HOW DOES ANYONE LIKE THIS

yah but this is like a jam band trying to incorporate the lamest parts of shopping mall improv club comedy xpost

iirc they do the same thing at UCB's ASSSSCAT 3000 which is sort of the polar opposite of "shopping mall improv club comedy"

xp What if you got to choose all the interactive cue-cards, then it would be cool right?

I'm having a really shitty night and I want to blast Whiney for being kind of a dick with his "this is cool if hipster namedrop A does it, but not if lameass third-tier jamband B does it", but I honestly feel like he's doing a pretty good job of doing himself in.

namedropping Marclay is more a snob move than a hipster move, but i get your point

cool, so this is the thread where we defend "Umphrey's McGee"

shut the fuck up whiney

http://i36.tinypic.com/nfi902.jpg

is it still okay to hate jam band? cuz i still hate jam bands and would like to feel okay about it.

(s)

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/a-jam-band-experiment-in-live-hi-fi/