Remember Yeasayer? They used to tour with MGMT when people still pronounced them “migamit.” Did you the bassist from Yeasayer spent his days at the University of Pennsylvania? He was in a little jamband called The Ally.
Anyway… they have a new album coming out and released a new single. and let me tell you, friends, the song is awesome. Check it out below…
Yeasayer – Ambling Alp
Back to the Penn jamband The Ally… it looks like they’ve all turned into indie rockers. Lead singer (i think) Eric Zeiler has started a new band called Xylos who have just released their debut EP. check out below.
Xylos – Testament
download the entire Xylos EP from their website HERE.
We’re back from Thanksgiving break. It was fun. ReboxX saw Phish, ReboxX liked Phish. This months just about wrapping up (fastest month ever?!)… so if you’re not too tired from the fact that it gets dark at 4pm then go to some concerts!
Nov 29: Zero 7 @ TLA
Nov 30: Mew @ The Trocadero (the Mew pictured above is not the same Mew)
The ‘60s passed, and soon all things psychedelic were confined to the parking lots of Grateful Dead concerts. Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s the genre experienced a widespread backlash in the experiemental/art-rock scene that now adopted Punk in all its gritty glory. The Dead scene -along with British Prog and roots rock like The Allman Brothers- kept the psychedelic spirit alive throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, and by the ‘90s psychedelic rock emerged on college campuses as Jam Band music.
In part due to the newfound Rave scene, a new drug culture developed that idealized and mimicked the psychedelic ‘60s. As a result, college campuses in the ‘90s were swarming with free spirited neo-hippies looking for a headier, more spiritual sound (as opposed to the then popular Grunge and Alt. Rock). Psychdelic/Goa Trance emerged in the early ’90s…check out ’1200 Mics-Salvia’ below
Jam Bands mimic the improvisational ‘jams’ made popular by the Grateful Dead, and incorporate such jams into American Roots Rock. Many Jam Bands’ sounds are referred to as ‘blends’ of two or more genres ranging from Electronica to Bluegrass. In the early ‘90s, the most iconic of these bands was Phish. Phish, like the Grateful Dead, toured extensively and slowly grew their fan base via live shows. Phish composed lengthy, epic tunes and developed new methods of jamming like the Big Ball Jam; when a large ball is tossed in the crowd and the bands ‘Jams’ on the balls movements.
Similar sounding bands like Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, the String Cheese Incident, and moe., likewise gained popularity. The Jam Band scene grew, and soon electronica-based acts like Sound Tribe Sector 9 were grouped together with jazz-fusion acts like Medeski Martain and Wood all under the umbrella term “Jam Band”.
Experimentation and/or originality are certainly necessary for artists to be incorporated into the Rock Canon. It’s for this reason why so many recent Jam Bands are mostly ignored by Rock critics, magazines, and literature. In their live performances, the integration of various genres seemingly creates an all-encompassing psychedelic feel. In the recording process, however, this “genre blending” resulted in largely unfocused, unoriginal albums void of both experimentation and originality.
In the 2000s, Phish stopped touring and Jam Bands became out of fashion on college campuses. Currently, young artists devote their ‘psychedelic energy’ towards electronic and indie Rock. Bands like Animal Collective, MGMT, and Yeasayer are all admitted Jam Band fans that have moved on from the now stale Jam Band scene. A new ‘Psychedelic’ has emerged based on British Shoegaze, ‘90s Indie Rock, and electronica.
by Dana Tom | Friday, November 20, 2009 at 12:15 am
When hip-hop duo Hoodie Allen took the stage Thursday in the Zellerbach Theatre, students stormed the stagefront, eager to see not only performances by big name artists, but also familiar faces.
For this year’s annual Fall Concert, the Social Planning and Events Committee To Represent Undergraduate Minorities hosted the Hoodie Allen duo as well as the Thornton brother hip-hop duo Clipse, rap artist Big Sean and Duke University senior and hip-hop artist Mike Posner.
Audience members heard hits from Clipse, including some of the duo’s unreleased material that appears in its upcoming album, “Till the Casket Drops.” But in addition to the already-popular music of Clipse and Big Sean, many students said they came to watch performances by artists from their own peer group.
Nursing senior Tiffany Mahuad said she came out to support her friend Steve Markowitz, Wharton senior and one half of the Hoodie Allen duo. She said she has been listening to his music since freshman year and was proud to see him perform for the community.
Markowitz and the other half of the duo, Tufts graduate Sam Obey, were greeted by chants from the audience before they even took the stage. The duo performed songs from their “Making Waves” record as well as new material.
According to Markowitz, he and Obey have been working together since high school. They appreciated the excitement and support of their fellow students.
“In this college environment, it’s nice to have students rally around one of their peers,” he added.
SPEC-TRUM co-director and College junior Ferrell Townsend said the committee tries to bring “new, up and coming” hip-hop and rhythm and blues artists every year, most of whom students have not yet heard of.
SPEC-TRUM co-director and College senior Brittany Minor added that historically SPEC-TRUM has hosted unknown artists who soon afterwards “end up blowing up” in the mainstream music industry.
“I’m not personally interested in music,” SPEC director and College senior Dasha Barranik said. “But I trust SPEC-TRUM to bring in some really great artists.”
Wharton freshman and audience member Andrew Weinstock said he “prayed for Mike Posner” to come to Penn when he arrived on campus in the fall. Posner recently hit number one on iTunes.
“I had a lot of fun at the concert,” he added. “SPEC-TRUM really knows how to bring in the great artists.”
“Psychedelic” is much more than a description of ’60s rock. In the 1960s, proponents of ‘psychedelic rock’ created their own sub-genre that challenged the boundaries of Pop music and transformed Rock n Roll into a high Art. Accordingly, Psychedelic rockers and their music have been included in the Rock Canon as experimental pioneers. Let’s look at some reasons why…
In Sixties Rock, Michael Hicks describes “Psychedelic” as the music that mimics the three effects of the psychedelic experience: dechronization, depersonalization, and dynamization. Dechronization permits drug users to move outside of conventional perceptions of time. Depersonalization allows the user to ‘lose the self’ and gain awareness of unity. Dynamization makes everything bend (physically). ’Psycheledelic’ rockers attempted to mimic these effects in many ways that forever changed Rock music.
1. Jamming/Improvisation. Psychedelic ‘Jamming’ features the loss of time restraints and a strong emphasis on group improvisation. Rockers attempted to mimic Jazz improv, and lead guitarists attempted to mimic prolonged solos of John Coltrane. These early Jams are the first examples of changing tempos and wide-scale improvisation in Rock music. The pioneers of Jamming are a little band called The Grateful Dead, who played extended versions of their tunes at LSD freakouts called Acid tests.
2. The Cohesive Album. In an attempt to create musical pieces with Dechronization, rock bands put an emphasis on creating a cohesive album. Whereas Rock albums of the ’50s and early ’60s focused on singles, the albums of the mid to late ’60s became multi-movement pieces joined together with instrumental segues and often focused on a theme. Musicians juxtaposed various songs and sounds, and the ‘album’ became a whole. The Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” was one of the first of these albums. This also lead to the development of the Concept Album, an album revolving around a specific story or theme. Many notable non-psychedelic rock artists (including David Bowie, The Who, Peter Gabriel, Iron Maiden, and Green Day) adopted the Concept Album to create unified, cohesive works of art in the form of an LP.
3. FX. A direct effect of psychedelic drugs was the musicians’ experimentation with sonic effects. Rock musicians wanted to go beyond the ‘limits’ of sonic capabilities available in their instruments, and attempted to use various types of Effects to mimic the psychedelic experience. The Whammy Bar and Wa-Wa pedal were adopted by guitarists to create a glissando effect. In the studio, Reverberation, Panning, and other Tape effects were adopted by sound engineers to create a ‘trippy’ sound. In 1966, George Martin reversed the The Beatles’ vocals on their single “Rain”. Needless to say, many many musicians have copied the Reverse effect.
Check out Mew’s “New Terrain”, a recent song that utilizes the Reverse effect.
Posted by trippingfranklins 
