Posts by Chad Berndtson

We at Hidden Track have grown rather fond of Cornmeal, the Chicago jam-grass quintet that doesn’t seem to have a problem being called “jamgrass” or “jamband bluegrass” even though the terms are useful only as loose groupers. Fact is, though, if you dig a little deeper with Cornmeal, you hear plenty of bluegrass, roots and old-time, sure, but also a mischievous streak that recalls forebears like New Grass Revival in the way that they draw in everything from country and jazz to funk and blues without quite embracing any one of those idioms. There’s a lot to grab onto.

The band’s actually been around for nine years, but it took at least half that time to reach a stabilized lineup, and it’s only in the past two or three, since word got out from their Midwest fan strongholds and swept the festival circuit, that Cornmeal has attracted national attention. They’re still an unknown quantity in much of the country, although bassist Chris Gangi says the band does a little better every time it returns to developing pockets of fans in the northeast, southeast and west coast.

Hidden Track caught up with Gangi to hear about what’s on Cornmeal’s radar and how he, fiddle player Allie Kral, guitarist Kris Nowak, drummer JP Nowak and banjoist Dave Burlingame plan to keep striking while they have the momentum.

HIDDEN TRACK: So where am I finding you today?

CHRIS GANGI: I’m actually home at the moment, for about a day or two before we go back out again. It’s easy in Chicago to catch a day at home, and a lot of times we’ll bypass extended tours when we’re in the Midwest so we can make sure we get a few days off. When the band started out, that’s just what made sense expense-wise — we could go out for stretches and then come back home and save our jobs.

READ ON for more of Chad’s interview with Chris from Cornmeal…

Wilco’s a peculiar musical addiction: most of their songs don’t quite bowl you over as much as sneak up on you, and you’re hooked long before you know it. On what, exactly? It’s different for everyone, but is some variation on songs and a core sound that are an uneasily balanced dichotomy: pastoral melodies that give way to apocalyptic sounding guitar squalls; plangent pop and alt-country tunes that find themselves torn open to reveal molten jams and psychedelic cores churning beneath. Jeff Tweedy seems to wear all that on his face: a goofy grin has a way of morphing into a teeth-baring growl, a bemused smile into a terrified caterwaul. His band mates seem like nice enough chaps. They also give no quarter when there’s rocking to be done.

You Never Know – Wilco w/ Feist and Ed Droste

Wilco (The Album) is Wilco’s latest, and like most Wilco albums grows on you insistently. There’s nothing on it to match 2004’s A Ghost Is Born (to these ears, the band’s masterpiece, indulgences and all), although the gems, such as the gorgeous One Wing and the stormy, head-splitting Bull Black Nova, have definitely revealed themselves. Wilco mined heavily from the new record on a laid back, groovy, immensely satisfying two-plus hours at the home of the Cyclones in Brooklyn: a show that took some time to get going – sluggish band and sluggish crowd alike – but once it hit its stride, made for that classic Wilco balance of mess and finesse.

I maintain – and it’s hardly a unique opinion – that hiring Nels Cline is the best decision Tweedy’s ever made. Cline plays guitar as if it’s an extension of a seizure, his arms and torso shaking as he peels off fuzzy, sheety sounds and hot-toned blasts of guitar noise, dismantling Wilco delicacies like Handshake Drugs and Impossible Germany and forcing them into oblivion, with the rest of the band by now well aware of when to follow him down the rabbit hole. At Keyspan, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, especially, was as animated as I’ve ever seen him, tucking all sorts of filigree in behind Cline’s machinations. Tweedy himself was playful and mischievous, spinning his microphone chord, stalking around the stage and making warm banter with a crowd that awoke sometime around that “Germany” and from that point kept up its end, too.

READ ON for more of Chad’s thoughts on Wilco at Keyspan Park…

When Topaz McGarrigle still lived in New York, he was a fixture – in the clubs with Topaz (the band), sitting in all over the place, a general man about town who definitely had a lot to contribute to the city’s thriving jazz-funk and jam scenes. And while it’s not as though Topaz (the man) has faded away, he’s been gone from the Big Apple for about four years now. Consider your correspondent among those who misses the infectious spirit and thrilling improvisation he brought to once-regular, now-occasional Manhattan gigs.

A native Texan, Topaz moved back to the Lone Star state in 2005, and he’s now based in Austin with a revamped band, Mudphonic. Not only is the personnel different from his earlier, jazz-funk-heavy ensembles, but Topaz also added harmonica, guitar and vocals to his own trick bag. He’s no longer “saxophonist Topaz,” at least in the sense of describing everything the man does on record and on stage.

Mudphonic, a six-piece, has a greasier, swampier, more rocking sound than any band Topaz brought on the road in his New York days – as much tethered to roadhouse blues as the jazz-inflected funky stuff on which he made his name. Mudphonic’s debut album, Music for Dorothy, came out in 2008, and while Topaz has kept the band until now a principally regional affair – most tours in the South and Midwest with once-in-a-while forays to San Francisco, New York and other spots – he’s shopping for a booking agent and readying for the next Mudphonic record, as well as more national exposure.

Hidden Track caught up with Topaz in advance of his return to a New York stage tonight at Sullivan Hall. The full Mudphonic won’t be with him; instead, Topaz will play a late show with an all-star band consisting of himself, Joe Russo on drums, Mark “Tewar” Tewarson on guitar (from Mudphonic and also the original Topaz in 1998) and former ulu bassist Justin Wallace. Expect a special guest or two, Topaz warns – the last time he was in New York, over New Year’s Eve, Will Bernard, Eric Kalb and John Popper all made the stage.

HIDDEN TRACK: You’ve been gone from New York about four years, yes?

TOPAZ: It’s been almost four. My wife is from New York, so we get back a couple times a year, and I try to set up a gig or two.

READ ON for the rest of Chad’s conversation with Topaz McGarrigle…

For me, this was the one – a serious, relentlessly energetic Phish concert that rollicked for more than three hours and drew generously on the vibes created by a happy crowd, a gorgeously temperate New England evening, and the assuredness of having spent a week on the road, working out kinks, getting sea legs back, remembering to enjoy one another’s myself onstage.

[All photos by Jeremy Gordon from 6/5]

All four of our beloved Phishermen delivered the goods, and while we’re still far from the point where they feel comfortable (excitable?) enough to take jams deep into the blurry, whirry cosmos, I haven’t seen or heard a better full-length expression of the fairly conservative, songs-first, relax-and-do-your-job well Phish 3.0 yet than what we witnessed at Mansfield last night. The boys were on. They had it. They reined things in where, say, 10 years ago they might have been an exercise in transcendent improvisation, or five years ago they might have been a frayed, sloppy trainwreck, but the crowd was better for it, the vibe was better for it, and the band, well, it’s safe to say it feels like Phish again. “Long live the Phish!” howled a goofy bobber in a Makisupa Police Academy t-shirt, seconds after Phish put the wraps on his apparel’s titular song.

All around, the setlists have been a little oddly paced in the week of shows we’ve seen so far, but maybe that’s a subtle suggestion to throw out old ideas about how a Phish show’s machinery should be oiled. They didn’t exactly lose anybody by opening with a new song (Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan — crisply rendered, if no great shakes) and a relative obscurity from Undermind, the cool, even-keel Nothing. Quite the opposite; when the groovy gallop of Back On the Train set in and had the whole place bobbing along like synchronized pogo, the band had already hit its stride, not yet even a half hour into the first set. From there came balanced moments of familiarity that were briefly, wonderfully toppled with aggressive jamming: a ripping, groovalicious Gotta Jibboo tempered by Page’s calming croon in Lawn Boy, for example, or a Trey solo nugget (Let Me Lie) splayed against Taste; or the laid back snacking of that Makisupa followed by a deceptively easygoing, then full-forced hungry Prince Caspian. Trey had already torched the midsection of Jibboo but it was here where he veered from note-y pointillism to starry-eyed, psychedelic abandon. Simply. Fucking. Gorgeous.

READ ON for more from Chad on last night’s Phish show…

Axe slinger Steve Kimock’s a most curious musical creature, and the only thing I know for sure is that I’ll follow him anywhere. A slight man with an ostensibly unassuming, almost chameleonic way about him, he speaks “guitar” – speaks it fluently, lyrically and intensely, but without the ostentatious stage presence that looks as if, by merely playing a few notes or progressions, he’s trying to wrangle a crazed wolverine or perform emergency surgery. He’s unhurried as hell; you listen on his time, not the other way around, and if you’re patient about things, you get a tremendous reward in the end.

Maybe what’s most appealing about Kimock is that no matter what the context or how spacey his licks, tender or corrosive his tones, or protracted his solos, he somehow exudes a warmth and texture in what he does that prevents it from sounding clinical. Cerebral, yet warm? To these ears, not even Derek Trucks can manage that all the time – virtuosity with candor, dazzling skills with palpable comfort.

Since more or less putting the Steve Kimock Band on hold a few years ago, Kimock’s been doing a little bit of this and that, lending his talents to bands in need (RatDog, for one), forming ad hoc ensembles with old friends and new sparring partners alike, and not quite committing to one thing or another for very long. READ ON for more of Chad’s Steve Kimock Crazy Engine review…

Modern indie rock troubadours that sound weary, but not angst-ridden, and tender, but not twee are a rare breed, indeed, and that's probably why Matthew Houck has in the time since his 2000 debut as Fillup Shack ("Hipolit") become a connoisseur's choice in the genre.

The Allman Brothers Band keeps pushing — gentle nudges here, violent heaves there — and with still four nights left to go in the epic and already legendary 2009 Beacon Theatre residency, calling shows like last night’s a “blowout” just seems so remote. It was a raging inferno and a soulful celebration, capped off by perhaps the greatest version of Les Brers In A Minor yet played by the current Allman Brothers Band lineup.

[Moogis Screenshot by Musichead]

Overall, the third Monday felt almost entirely unpredictable: a comfortably weird and somewhat esoteric setlist that for what its many, many guests connote, also felt just right. The first set was long and cinematic; I’ve heard better Don’t Want You No More > It’s Not My Cross to Bear openers, but the band got right to business with a chugging, dynamic Done Somebody Wrong, complete with good ol’ Thom Doucette blowing crisp and modal harp. Into this song, especially, the ABB’s breathed a lot more life in recent years: a shuffling intro that finally feels like one instead of a random pre-jam, stirring Gregg vocals, and a better jam segment.

From there things erupted: Warren blowing large shotgun shell holes in Can’t Lose What You Never Had, Derek and Ron Holloway (hi Ron!) laying waste to a wrenching Desdemona (to these ears, still the best of the “new” ABB songs), and a mesmerizing walk through the new and unnamed (though some say it’s called Orfeo) instrumental. I like it: very fusiony Bitches Brew, a tangle of minor key progressions and dark tones, rippling percussion, a little inchoate getting from the spare melody to the jam segments, but overall long and satisfying.

READ ON for more of Chad’s thoughts from last night’s show…

Yes, friends, he showed: Eric Clapton sat in with the Allman Brothers Band on Night 8 of the 2009 Beacon Run. Loose, relaxed and all smiles, the guitar legend turned up part way through the second set and ripped up a six-song blowout run that consisted of Key to the Highway, Dreams, Why Does Love […]

If there are bugs crawling on Will Bernard, the world’s probably ended. The guitarist seems to keep as busy as and often busier than any of his peers, and in classic scene fashion, is at his best when he’s juggling as many projects, collaborations, sit-ins and fresh ideas as humanly possible.

He’s also bi-coastal – Bernard moved to Brooklyn in October 2007 but still spends a lot of time among the West Coast jazz, soul, R&B, funk and other scenes that bred him. An eclectic stylist, he started getting noticed in the Bay Area and then on a national level as a member of Peter Apfelbaum’s Hieroglyphics Ensemble, and then, in the mid 1990s, busted out with Charlie Hunter and John Schott in T.J. Kirk.

The first Will Bernard record was Medicine Hat (1998), and the following decade would see him in a number of different configurations, both with his own bands – the Will Bernard Band, Motherbug, the Will Bernard Trio – and with the likes of Galactic’s Stanton Moore, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Meters anchor Zigaboo Modeliste, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress and the jazzy reggae collective Groundation.

For Bernard’s latest, Blue Plate Special (2008) he assembled a bona fide supergroup: himself, Moore on drums, John Medeski on keyboards and Andy Hess, who recently left Gov’t Mule, on bass. Jazz-funk rules the day, but there are psychedelic workouts (Blister), soul-jazz (Fast Fun), frothy blues (Frontwinder) and even a zany ska version of James Booker’s Gonzo (long an MMW concert favorite, though not like this).

READ ON for Chad’s interview with guitarist Will Bernard…

Maybe you’ve heard: The Allman Brothers Band take hold of New York City this month for 15 allegedly guest-dappled shows at the Beacon Theater starting Monday. Folks, as Butch Trucks was happy to explain, they’re going to be barnburners. (And shit, they’re not even the most hotly anticipated jamband event this month.)

Over the years, it’s become fashionable for both individual Brothers or other artists (especially potential sit-in guests) to throw their own shows on top of a Beacon gig or too – a late night post-party, a headline spot on a Beacon offnight, anything that might capitalize on that hot ABB Beacon March Madness vibe and attract a few concertgoers (Beacon or not) who wanted a piece of it.

Well, if you’re like me, you like to make long, full, multi-show nights out of your musical endeavors whenever possible (and affordable). So, for this week’s B-List, we’re taking a look at 10 Beacon sweeteners: post-ABB or off-night gigs (official or not) where you’d be likely to find some connection to the Allmans or just a hell of a spot to nightcap after four hours at 74th and Broadway.

READ ON for Chad’s list of ten must-catch Allmans-related shows…

Whether in interviews, on drums or in a constantly renewing push to integrate technology and music, Butch Trucks isn’t one to hold back.

Having anchored the Allman Brothers Band’s drum assault for 40 years now, Butch is like the rest of his Brothers gearing up for what’s promising to be a batshit exciting Beacon Theater residency. You know the details and have heard the rumors: it kicks off March 9, with 15 shows total through March 28, and a rumored dazzling array of special guests.

In a recent interview with Hidden Track, Butch touched on a number of topics, including such hot potatoes over whether this is the start of an Allman Brothers Band scale-back (yes and no), some hints on what’s to come at the Beacon, and of course, Moogis – a brand new piece of the Beacon experience that will bring streaming, near-high-definition video to Web subscribers to capture each night of the run live.

READ ON for Chad’s interview with Butch Trucks to find out about the Allmans’ future, the upcoming Beacon run, Moogis and much more…

Crazy Engine is one of Kimock's most curious lineups yet: his old pal and legendary Hammond B3 player Melvin Seals, his son, John Morgan Kimock, on drums, the sturdy Janis Wallin from Family Groove Company holding things down on bass, and a vocals section consisting of Cheryl Rucker and Shirley Starks, affectionately dubbed "The Girls."

It’s precisely a band like U-Melt that allows me to keep faith that the jamband scene hasn’t morphed into a hippier, hettier (gah!), scruffier version of indie rock, filled to the brim with lightning flash buzz bands that are followed seconds after their debuts with heaps of backlash and hipster scorn. Too much to deal with, man; that kind of pressure makes bands essentially have to compete against themselves, let alone navigate the quotidian shitshow of trying to make it as a working musician.

[Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

No, U-Melt is that latter day jamband that’s done right by itself and its fans through earnest and steady growth. Where I was once skeptical of their “all-in” approach – so many styles, genres and components strained into a mass that wasn’t once much for hooks and songs and more on long, occasionally great passages of improvisation – every time I’ve seen them I feel like they’ve been a bit more “on”: more authoritative, more interesting, more assured and more fun. If there’s still such a thing as a grower band in this fractious scene, U-Melt is it.

Hidden Track caught up with keyboardist Zac Lasher at the start of the band’s extensive winter and spring tour, following a terrific kick-off show at Mulcahy’s on Long Island. If you haven’t checked ’em out in a while, or even if you have, do yourself a favor, as the saying goes…

HIDDEN TRACK: U-Melt really continued to hit the road hard in the last year. Looking back over 2008, any particularly great nights or individual sets come to mind?

ZAC LASHER: Oh yeah, two in particular. One was our moe.down show, which was pretty spectacular because we were fortunate enough for moe. to have invited us back—they don’t often do that for bands that have played moe.down before. We played the Beer Tent again and sometime during that day a friend of mine pointed out to me that it was Michael Jackson’s 40th birthday. So, we decided to do an impromptu Michael Jackson thing and I’ve never heard an ovation for U-Melt like we got for that Michael Jackson medley. And the other one was we started out the year with a bang, our New Year’s show late night at the Highline Ballroom was pretty excellent.

READ ON for more of our interview with Zac Lasher of U-Melt…

As Conan O’Brien goes, so must guitarist Jimmy Vivino, who despite appearing in any number of contexts over the years in his New York City base, definitely considers his role in the Max Weinberg 7 the priority gig. As such, Vivino later this spring will make the move to Los Angeles. And although his spot […]

Oh, is this one good. Let me state it outright: if you’ve ever had anything like a casual enjoyment or curiosity about the Black Keys – let alone a full on, one-of-the-best-bands-of-the-last-decade jones for ’em – Black Keys Live at the Crystal Ballroom, recorded at an April Keys show, is a definite pickup.

But it’s not quite “fun” – it’s great, but not Black Keys great. And the boys have earned the right to be evaluated on a relative scale. Maybe director Lance Bangs’ crispy rendered, no-bullshit attack could have used, for once, a little bit more director involvement – a little something (though something that is not the same as “a little more bullshit”). I found myself wanting to step in to the frame as a viewer and get to something I couldn’t reach; I never moved beyond the feeling that I was merely watching a framed concert of a band I enjoy. I never felt sucked in.

READ ON for the rest of Chad’s review of Black Keys’ DVD…

He's consistently a good interview, but no matter how many times you get the privilege, you come away with the same sense of wonderment: Warren Haynes is mentally organized. Granted, he's a lot of things, and you have to expect as much, given how many projects he's been juggling for how many decades now—and how in the next six months alone he'll be on tour with Gov't Mule and the once-again-reconstituted Dead, as well as play solo shows and hold it down with the Allmans for the just-confirmed 2009 Beacon Theater run.

Sometimes widespread speculation ends up totally bupkes…and sometimes it’s widespread speculation because, well, it just friggin’ makes sense. In that regard, saxophonist extraordinaire Jeff Coffin has confirmed that he is officially joining Dave Matthews Band in 2009. Coffin is, of course, a longtime associate of Dave & Co through his work with Bela Fleck and […]

“I’ll state my opinion any time I fucking choose.”

Those aren’t the exact lyrics to Light Is Like Water, my favorite Jerry Joseph song, but that’s how I’ll always remember the verse from the last time I heard Joseph do it live (sometime around Stockholm Syndrome’s inaugural tour in 2004).

That line sounds exactly like Joseph, the incisive folk-rocker with the serious songwriting chops and the lived-in voice, best known for Little Women, the Jackmormons and numerous other solo projects, not to mention his longstanding association with Widespread Panic. And the song’s overall attributes might describe Joseph himself, as well as his curious career: longwinded, tender, pointed, hopeful, irascible, cynical, soulful—and singular.

Hidden Track caught up with Joseph at a snowed-in tour stop in Salt Lake City late last week. His 2008 is far from over; having revived the Jackmormons name with a modified lineup, he’ll close out the year in his adopted home of New York City, booked for Dec. 29 and 30 at Crash Mansion and New Year’s Eve at the Delancey Lounge. If you’re in the area and haven’t yet made your plans, well, we’d be remiss if we didn’t recommend it.

Hidden Track: In recent years you’ve been doing New Year’s gigs in Portland and also in Costa Rica and other far-flung locales. Why New York for 2008?

Jerry Joseph: Well, I live there, for one. Originally this year we were supposed to do a bunch of Colorado shows and I think one of them was planned for after Panic, but I just wasn’t into it. So we decided to say fuck it and do this and our New York City friends were all holy shit, holy shit. This has kind of been thrown together more last minute than we usually like, so we’ll see what happens. Lots going on in NYC that week and I’d love to say we have the same fanbase as My Morning Jacket [laughs], but that’s just not true. We’ll see what happens—I know it’s been moving pretty quickly but I know a lot of people are flying in for it too.

READ ON for more of Chad’s interview with Jerry Joseph…

Musical collaboration among pre-established units is tricky business, and it's rare to arrive at that special level: the place where you find a meeting of minds so potent that a union of two or more styles, eras, backgrounds, or whatever else becomes a whole and not just co-working parts. To that special category you'd definitely have to add Donna Jean & the Tricksters.  

I’ll spare you full reviews seeing how often I’ve sung the praises of this lineup, but with now two Phil & Friends Nokia shows under the ol’ belt for the run and a third on deck tonight, here are five off-the-cuff observations:

[Photo by Rob Chapman via Phillesh.net]

1. There’s a nice little debate kicking around the Phil faithful at the moment asking whether this year’s Nokia residency is better than last year’s. Most folks are hedging, but some glass-half-empty comments I’ve heard favor last year’s, saying that now that this incarnation of Phil & Friends is comfortable, it’s lost the surprise factor and settled into predictability.

Based on this year’s setlists, that seems a little absurd to begin with, but to me, that’s an apples-to-toothpaste comparison anyway. Last year’s Nokia run was essentially a test kitchen for this lineup to see just how chemistry it had and how much excitement it could muster, and on its last weekend, most observers agree, they clicked and became a band. This year’s model is the same personnel, give or take a guest, but a band utterly sure of itself after a long summer of touring and now confident in its ability to “get there”—aware of all its strengths, working on its weaknesses—with everyone willing to add a bit more of his (or her!) personality to the mix.

Most noticeably, Steve Molitz isn’t as reticent about slipping in the nutty keyboard effects this year—he’s been blasting off all over the place, and doing it tastefully, as in Tuesday night’s fierce Feel Like a Stranger second set opener. Teresa Williams, too, now qualifies as a full-fledged band member, and it’s been great to see her in places both logical (boy, did she nail that beautiful, beautiful Peggy-O on Sunday) and surprising (she and Jackie brought marvelous harmonies to Music Never Stopped on Sunday and Cassidy on Tuesday—both set two enders, both Bobby songs the Phil lineup doesn’t often play, and both terrific.)

READ ON for four more observations from Chad…