Hidden Track Staff

Wyllys, longtime HT contributor and Lighting Tech for jamband stalwarts Umphrey’s McGee, leaves the lights behind for his first solo DJ tour. HT had the chance to catch up with Wyllys before he takes the stage on Thursday night at Club Metronome in his current hometown of Burlington opening for another Chicago institution of jam, Future Rock.

Hidden Track: First, I guess we should start from the beginning. How long have you been a DJ? How did you get into the craft?

Wyllys: I was given my first set of turntables at age 15 by one of my dearest friends and longtime collaborators Alan Veniscovsky. We were writing a bunch of songs together and continue to do so to this day. Alan had the decks, which were belt driven, and this archaic mixer to tie the rig together and was like “You need these” as I was starting to get heavy into electronic music at that age. Unfortunately, I was mostly into Drum and Bass and Jungle at the time and trying to learn how to beat match that stuff on belt driven tables would piss off The Pope. So by the time I got direct drive tables I had my shit together pretty well.

HT: Your sets can be anything from House to Drum and Bass to Ambient, etc. How did you end up getting proficient in all these types of music?

W: Like I said, Drum and Bass and Jungle dominated my early record shop trips but with every 10 D and B records I would pick up 4 or 5 Ambient or Experimental records as I have always been a HUGE Brian Eno fan. His whole philosophy on the space between moments being more important than the actual moments really struck a chord with me so I keep my eye on all the new Ambient music coming out and have researched all of the old Tangerine Dream and Can stuff. Jake Cinninger of Umph has really expanded my Can knowledge and I can’t thank him enough for that.

READ ON for more of our conversation with Wyllys…

SLM, The Hue, Fatbook @ the Miramar Theatre – March 18, 2010

Words: Cal Roach

Milwaukee should be very grateful for the return of the Miramar Theatre as a live music venue; not only is it a great sounding little room, but they serve quality beers at a good price. The place brings in a wide variety of local and national talent, but it has become known primarily as a haven for jambands and metal. In a somewhat curious triple bill on March 18th, fans got a chance to experience both specialties, with mixed results.

[Photos of The Hue by Joel Berk]

The first act of the night was Fatbook, based in Appleton, WI, but drawing members from Minneapolis, Chicago and other Midwestern hubs. You’d expect such a far-flung collective to have little opportunity for rehearsal and thus lack cohesion, but these guys gave no such impression. The first few tunes were lackadaisical, with no real excitement from the three-piece horn section. Singer/guitarist Harjinder Bedi was giving off a lazy Jack Johnson-meets-Jamiroquai vibe, and nothing original was going on via lyric or music. But as the show progressed, the band unveiled some pretty terrific horn arrangements, jazzy but melding unscrupulously with Police-style Caucasian reggae. The motley band began to show remarkable synergy, whether crafting a murky moodscape or generating a kinetic dance groove. No long jams, short and purposeful, often integrating the horns really well into the improv.

Ultimately, Fatbook (Bedi in particular) needs to develop a more original sound, something to set it apart from the pack stylistically, but the pieces of the puzzle are all there. Above all, these guys have the togetherness to create that magical swell of intensity as well as hold together in the mellower stretches, and a horn section that can carry the whole band through its more generic moments. That’s worth your ten-dollar ticket price right there.

READ ON for more of Cal’s thoughts on this triple bill…

Words: Jennifer Bernstein
Photos: Tammy Wetzel

snoe.down @ Killington and Rutland – March 26-28

moe. hosted their third snoe.down in Killington, Vermont over the weekend as part of the Music & Winter Sports Festival. Headlining both Friday & Saturday nights at the Spartan Arena, moe. also played a free afternoon set at the base of Killington Mountain & a special acoustic brunch set for VIPs.

Smaller bands like Lynch, The Bridge, Heavy Pets, and The McLovins performed at K1 and Bear Mountain Lodge throughout the weekend, while bigger acts like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Assembly of Dust, and Railroad Earth opened for moe. at the arena. As noted by an emcee on Friday night, Sharon Jones was the inaugural “rock” act to break-in the arena, and moe. would play the arena’s first sold-out show.

There was a little bit of a learning curve for fans trying to find their way to Spartan Arena, which was located in a parking lot behind a mall. Fans filtered their way in for moe.’s first set, with some parents and kids under 21 disappointed with the set up (those old enough to drink had the first 2/3 of the hockey rink to themselves, with the other 1/3 stuck behind a barricade in the back with local vending).

READ ON for more on snoe.down from Jen & Tammy…

Just as quickly as it started, HT’s Cover Wars March Madness tournament is racing towards the end as we’re down to the final four contestants. In the last round, PGroove put a beating on Give Us The Money Lebowski, Trey Anastasio and Phish won by slim margins over YARN and Pearl Jam respectively. Also, Umphrey’s won big over Built to Spill. In each matchup, our readers came out in large numbers to vote so we thank you for that.

For today’s semi-finals, we made Phish face off against Trey while PGroove goes up against Umphrey’s. Regardless, it’s clear a HT Favorite will take this year’s title.

Let’s take a look at this year’s semifinal matchups…

1. PGroove – This Must Be The Place vs. UM – Can’t You Hear Me…
2. Phish – Curtis Loew vs. Trey Anastasio – Sultans of Swing

Our first bout finds Perpetual Groove’s cover of This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by the Talking Heads squaring off against Umphrey’s McGee’s version of the Rolling Stones’ Can’t You Hear Me Knocking…

Perpetual Groove – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Audio: 2-10-2007
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/pgroovenaive.mp3]
Video: 12-13-2009

Umphrey’s McGee – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
Audio: 12-30-2007
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/umknock.mp3]
Video: 12-30-2007

READ ON to place your vote on this week’s bouts…

This morning, The Internet was buzzing with rumors of a hospital trip for the Disco Biscuits guitarist Jon Gutwillig after last night’s show. Barber addressed the rumors with a posting

In February, Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB completed a highly successful 16 show tour. While certain songs were played every night, there were plenty of tunes that made sporadic appearances over the three week jaunt. For this edition of The Number Line we took a close look at the setlists from each of those shows to compile a few statistics you might find interesting.

[Photo by Joe Ringus]

Here’s what we came up with…

400 – Total Songs Played
50 – Different Songs Played With Full Band
30 – Songs Also Performed Live by Phish (First Tube, Sand, Gotta Jibboo, Mozambique, Alaska, Drifting, Mr. Completely, Let Me Lie, Wilson, Backwards Down the Number Line, Bathtub Gin, Brian and Robert, Chalkdust Torture, Magilla, Sample in a Jar, Water in the Sky, Back On The Train, Kill Devil Falls, Sleep Again, Strange Design, Waste, Windora Bug, Beauty of My Dreams, Driver, Farmhouse, Heavy Things, I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome, Joy, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, The Inlaw Josie Wales)
18 – Different Songs Played Solo Acoustic
18 – Most Songs Played in a Set (2/21/10 Set 1)
16 – Shows Played
14 – First Tube Encores
10 – Shine Openers
9 – Shows That Featured A Solo Acoustic Portion
8 – Black Dog Set 2 Closers
7 – Lowest Number of Songs Played in a Set (2/25/10 Set 2, 2/21/10 Set 2, 2/16/10 Set 2)
7 – Number of Band Members
7 – Different Covers Played (Sultans Of Swing, Black Dog, Small Axe, Sweet & Dandy, Beauty Of My Dreams, I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome, Rocky Mountain Shuffle)
6 – Full Band Songs Played Only Once (Flock of Words, Heavy Things, Love Is Freedom, Moesha, Peggy, Rocky Mountain Shuffle)

READ ON for more Trey and Classic TAB stats…

For this month’s Track By Track, singer/songwriter/guitarist Fred Torphy of San Francisco-based rock band Big Light shares the story behind each tune on the group’s debut album, Animals In Bloom. Big Light makes their New York City debut on Saturday night at Sullivan Hall.Take a listen to some of the tracks from this album and then read Torphy’s take on each of them…

Animals In Bloom

Recorded from October to December 2009. We had a routine of recording for a week straight or so, then we’d break and do gigs another week. That’s how it kind of played out. So we were constantly listening to rough mixes in the van, hatching ideas. The main goal of the album was to take a core set of road-tested songs and turn them on their heads…

Good Time of the Year
One of our more up-tempo tunes. That’s why it’s the opening track. This was also the 1st song we tracked. It’s a about someone lamenting on a down-on-their luck friend. And the healing powers of going home to your roots. I fucking love the drum solo…

Monster
We wanted this one to be fuzzy. It’s actually one of the oldest songs written on the record. I started it when I still lived in Vermont. At the time I was surrounded by a lot of rich, coke heady, semi-obnoxious, girls who seemed to be full of feeling of entitlement. So Monster is about a fictitious person. She’s a total bitch, addicted to drugs, but somehow always can get into a sold-out show…

READ ON for Fred Torphy’s thoughts on the rest of Animals In Bloom…

We’re honored to welcome journalist Bob Doda to Team HT. Today, Bob makes his Hidden Track debut with an extensive profile on one of our favorite bands – The McLovins…

On a sunny afternoon in Brooklyn, all three members of The McLovins stand with their backs to a retro-style bowling alley and watch a video of a seal & penguin fight to the death, in some sort of psychedelic nature video.

[All photos courtesy of Carol Huffman]

“That seal kicked that penguin’s ass,” says Jake Huffman, 16, the band’s lead singer and drummer. Obviously, this isn’t your average bowling alley.

The Brooklyn Bowl is half bowling alley, fitted with leather couches and half staging area complete with flashing lights and dance floor. On this particular Sunday, the Bowling Alley is hosting their first Bar Mitzvah. Upon first glance, it would appear that Jake, Jason Ott (bass) and Jeff Howard (guitar) would be there to bowl a few games and down a few cold coca-cola classics, not melt one face at a time with catchy riffs and jams that could only be classified as organized chaos.

Entering their second year as “the band that killed YEM on YouTube,” The McLovins are poised to stay busy in 2010. They will be opening for legendary jam rockers, Max Creek, who are on the verge of their 40th anniversary, in May. They are also on the Snoe.Down bill scheduled for a lunchtime set in Killington, Vermont, and the StrangeCreek Festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts Memorial Day Weekend. Another huge milestone for The McLovins is their own show at Infinity Hall in Norfolk, Connecticut on May 7th. Most recently, they played a gig at the celebrated club, Nectar’s, in Burlington, when a local piano player walked through the door.

READ ON for more of Bob’s interview with The McLovins…