Umphrey's McGee

[moses]

While Umphrey's McGee's fan base tends to be in the jamband scene, this is not your typical "jam over one chord for 20 minutes" band. They are quite technically proficient and their songs are definitely prog, odd time signatures and all.

Come to think of it, it's kind of surprising that jamband fans are into it. But live they do tend to add a bit of improvisation, so I guess that explains it. But I was checking out their latest cd, "Local Band Does OK," and it struck me that they really are a prog band. They might fit in well here.

Moses

[Rick and Roll]

I have never heard of them. Do you have any more info?

[progdirjim(Admin)]

Interesting that this came through today - I was checking through old suggestions, and a while back someone had mentioned these guys - so I was just on their web site checking them out today. I may be obtaining some of their stuff shortly - they are pretty interesting. their web site is www.umphreys.com

[moses]

Yeah I meant to include that link to the website. That's probably the easiest way to find info on the band. There's another site run by the fans (I suppose) at http://www.umphreaks.com. I haven't really checked that out much though.

If you're not into web surfing (but you made it here somehow), they're a 5 piece with 2 guitars, keyboards, drums, and a percussionist. I think a couple of them handle the vocals on the songs that aren't completely instrumental. I know I heard their ex-drummer do an awesome performance of a Sade song once.

No, I'm not kidding.

One last thing is that if you're into free live music, you can often find their shows on http://www.archive.org/audio or with the Furthur software (http://www.furthurnet.org) and download them. Perhaps their taper-friendly status is what made them popular with the jamband crowd.

[moses]

A quick blurb review from their upcoming album...

"Progressive rock's and metal's double-clutching, gnat-note precision smashes headlong into the jamband clan's urge to luxuriate in the never-ending now..."
- Richard Gehr, Village Voice

It's really fun to read that, but it wears off after the first 5 or 6 times.

[jtmckinley]

OK, I went to the site and checked out a couple MP3s and they were pretty cool. They've got about 12 freely downloadable MP3s in the Music section. I guess I wouldn't mind hearing their stuff in the mix once in a while on AM.

Then I was poking around on the site and saw the first photo in the Photos section was from Otto's, DeKalb, Illinois! I used to hang out at Otto's sometimes when I was an undergrad at Northern Illinois University in the 80s, but the best bands I ever saw play there were Koko Taylor and Pat Travers. Andy's Tap had better local bands IMHO. Not that this is relevant, but I just thought I'd share....

[Rick and Roll]

Nothing irrelevant about Mr. Travers. That cat played anywhere! We used to yell "Mars" at the top of our lungs for the bass wizard Mars Cowling. He probably thought we were a bunch of idiots.