Umphrey's McGee (a band)

[racecar]

OK - I've been meaning to make a post about these guys for quite awhile.
They're my favorite band, and I really like trying to introduce them to folks, so let's see how geeky I can get in trying to describe them. . .

From allmusic (an awesome site, BTW):

Quote:A jam band coming out of the Midwest in the mid-'90s, Umphrey's McGee edged toward the Frank Zappa side of the improv rock scale, as opposed to the Grateful Dead/Allman Brothers Band direction espoused by many of their contemporaries.

Quote:The members of Umphrey's McGee met at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. The original four bandmembers (keyboardist Joel Cummins, guitarist Brendan Bayliss, bassist Ryan Stasik, and drummer Mike Mirro) had been playing in various campus bands when they got together in December 1997, naming themselves after a cousin of Bayliss. With the national jam band infrastructure already in place, the band quickly began disseminating their live shows and soon released their first album, Greatest Hits, Vol. 3. The fourth-generation jam band often included songs by Phish and moe. in their live sets, along with the usual selection of wacky covers.

Quote:The quartet won a large following in the South Bend area. As bandmembers graduated, the group instated a more and more rigorous rehearsal schedule. Half of the band had degrees in music, so emphasis was placed on constant precision. The band religiously studied tapes of their performances in order to improve them. While their record sales never reached high levels, they used live recordings to pave the way for gigs in parts of the country they'd never been to before. A story circulates of the band selling out shows in Colorado before their first trip there due to the distribution of live CDs.

Quote:In 1999, the band released a live recording, titled Songs for Older Women, their first recording to feature percussionist Andy Farag. In 2000, the band became a sextet with the addition of guitarist Jake Cinninger, a former member of a fellow South Bend group Ali Babba's Tahini, which had broken up, and they made the move to the bustling metropolis of Chicago. From their new home base, the band went on two-week jaunts throughout the Midwest, occasionally hitting other markets and sharing the stage with a variety of musicians, including Béla Fleck, Topaz, members of Moe, etc.

Local Band Does O.K., their second studio album, came out in 2002. In 2003, they released their first DVD, Live from the Lake Coast, which had been filmed in July 2002. It marked the last appearance on an Umphrey's McGee recording by Mirro, who had left to go to medical school and was replaced on New Year's Eve 2002 by Kris Myers, who had a master's degree in jazz drumming. Local Band Does OKlahoma, their next live album, also was released in 2003. A second studio album, Anchor Drops, appeared in 2004, and a second DVD, Wrapped Around Chicago: New Years at the Riv, was issued in 2005. In 2006, Umphrey's McGee released their third studio album, Safety in Numbers. The studio effort Bottom Half and the concert album Live at the Murat both followed in 2007.

So that's the bio. . .they were playing about 150 shows a year a few years ago, but as they become bigger and bigger, they've cut this down to 100 or so. They're still somewhat unknown, especially outside of the "jam" scene - but they can draw big crowds at events like Bonnaroo, and will probably sell out 3 nights at Chicago's Auditorium Theater (3500 people) for New Year's.

I've only been seeing them for about three years, but I'd consider myself pretty addicted - seen 34 shows so far, and hope to make it up to 40 by the end of the year. That might seem crazy - but like Phish, the ABB, Moe, etc, they have such a huge song catalog (100+ songs) and they (practically) never will play the same song within the span of a week or two - so there are rare songs of theirs that I have never seen. Furthermore, they're always writing new material, so there are three or four new songs that I haven't seen live yet.

Anyways, their music:

Here's a description of their latest (studio) album, "The Bottom Half:"


(cover picture is done by renowned graphic designer Storm Thorgerson, who did a bunch of famous album covers for Pink Floyd back in the day)

Quote:Let's dispense with the "jam band heroes" tag right at the start. Widely hailed as the improvisational successors of the Grateful Dead and Phish, Umphrey's McGee are nothing of the sort. As the band's detailed liner notes make abundantly clear, their songs are painstakingly composed and meticulously structured, and whatever "improvisation" takes place is far removed from the sometimes aimless noodling of their acid-drenched antecedents. The process is admirably illustrated on Bottom Half. . .

[it] particularly focuses on the group's more electric and up-tempo side. The first CD features the typical Umphrey's McGee grab bag of genre hopping -- reggae riddims, folk strumming, Southern rock, progressive bluegrass jams (courtesy of special guest Béla Fleck), and jazz fusion excursions that wouldn't have sounded out of place on late-'70s Weather Report or Al di Meola albums. They get Steely Dan funky on "Bright Lights, Big City" and "Iron and Wine," and introspectively mellow on "Home," all the while retaining their own signature sound. It all comes to glorious fruition on "Divisions," a ten-minute Southern rock tour de force that showcases the band's instrumental prowess, and which finds the band's four soloists soaring off into an extended jam that conjures up fond memories of Dickey Betts and Duane Allman guitar duels.

Not all of it works. "Memories of Home" can't escape the maudlin clutches of its overly sentimental lyrics. And, in general, the singing is merely serviceable, and provides a few momentary lulls between the dazzling instrumental workouts. But at their best -- and there are many such moments here -- Umphrey's McGee combine the finest aspects of virtuosity and soul. They can really play, and they can play with feeling and fire.

Here's an Internet Archive (another awesome place to hear music) version of the song "Divisions" (the version on the Bottom Half is acoustic, this is not) from a show on 11/12/2004 in Indianapolis.

BTW - these shows that I'm linking to have excellent sound quality - the band's soundboard is combined with an audience tape, letting the roar of the crowd combine with the clean feed of their instruments. . .I'm showing y'all older shows b/c they don't hook their soundboard up to audience tapers gear any more, and newer archive shows don't sound as crisp

(another note: it might skip with a lot of tabs open - you can view the shows I mostly linked to here:
12/11/04 - 9:30 Club, Washington DC
12/03/04 - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta GA

They can be downloaded by clicking on the top in the upper left for VBR Zip, then by unzipping it and adding it to iTunes or whatever

Anyway. . .
Like a lot of other jam bands, they'll have composed parts of the song, then go off into a jam (whether they come up w/this on the spot or have an agreed-upon structure), and then return to the song. The Divisions that I linked to starts with lyrics, then typically has a percussion jam (which often can go into a longer jam, or into a newer song), then returns to lyrics and the end. This song is one of the oldest in the catalog, as Brendan (the rhythm guitarist, and one of the 1st 4 members) wrote it in high school to mark the looming separation of his friends.

I listened to this version for the first time before posting this. . .it's a good, albeit not great version of the song (nothing wrong w/their playing, just a lack of improv to "push it over the top.")

One of the biggest draws to Umphrey's for me is their versatility - they jump from reggae to southern rock to almost-metal to some electronic-ish dancy numbers within the same set.

Here's some different songs by them:

FF (an older, reggae-ish song) which segues into one of their most blistering jams from 2004 - if you listen to nothing else, listen to this FF > jam

Here's one of thier instrumental jazz numbers:
Kat's Tune, which segues into a cover of Metallica's "And Justice for All"

this song, Miss Tinkle's Overture is a hard-rocking instrumental affair (named after the perils of urinating in bottles in band vans) has a cover "sandwiched" in the middle - fun stuff

Sociable Jimmy: typically lets their keyboard/piano player shine with a solo near the end



Oof. . .that was quite a geek-fest, wasn't it?

When they play, this happen:


(more posts to come)

[racecar]

some videos:

Mulche's Odyssey
written by Jake, the newer, lead guitarist who has a metal streak in him - this was from a 12/30/06 show that I saw in chicago

[youtube]Az0T8evwAI8[/youtube]


The Triple Wide
written by the keyboardist (Joel), it's one of their danciest and most techno/electronic inspired numbers. Kris, the drummer, gets to play with an e-drum kit in this one - from 5/5/07 in Dallas

[youtube]6fg8vs6jDug[/youtube]

End of the Road
quite different from those two. . .a soft instrumental (the sound/video isn't as nice as the other two, but I just think this song is so beautiful. . .)
[youtube]7F0oUhF9j0c[/youtube]