To say it’s been a rather intense summer for Simone Felice may be a bit of an understatement. This past June, The Duke & The King front man underwent emergency
At the Prague stop on last year’s In Rainbows tour, 50 Radiohead fans shot the concert using flip cameras and the footage was edited together to create the free-to-download DVD
Yesterday we posted the first part of Wade Ellis Wilby’s latest installment of our Storytellers series about the effect Steely Dan’s Aja had on him growing up. Today, we bring you his anecdotes on Side Two of the LP…
Peg
So girls were obviously a huge part of any 17 year old’s life. No scientific breakthrough there. The great groove to this song was really what drove me to it as well as the fantastic harmonies and slick guitar work. But Peg…something was up with this broad. She was the starlet that hung in poster form on some guys wall in the 60’s. She was from a time far away from ’97 but I smelled what they were stepping in. She loved the limelight, and this guy loved seeing her in the limelight. Did she exist without it? Did he think about her when she wasn’t in a movie?
I had all kinds of crazy emotions and feelings about woman at this time. I had a girlfriend of three years at this point whom I loved VERY much and love to this day. This song made me think about why you love someone and if there are any situational ethics involved with love and attraction. I mean, we were meeting TONS of broads out on the road and this song made me realize those girls probably thought we ceased to exist once the lights go out and we pack up the gear. We go from star to student in a matter of hours and what did we matter to these girls whom hours ago wanted to sleep with all of us…even the light guy? Oh well…if Peg had any consolation advice to offer I heard it: “It Will Come Back To You.”
Home At Last
12/29/95. Not the summer or even ’97, but needs to be addressed for this anecdote. I was one of the lucky ones who was there for the life-changing Bathtub>Real Me>Bathtub segue from the Phish NYE run in ’95, hallowed as one of the best segues the band has done to date. However, the counter culture was still being explored by this up and comer and I decided to take more LSD than I was accustomed to at this point in time.
READ ON for more from Wade on the songs of Aja…
Primus will take to the road in two weeks on the 2nd Annual Oddity Faire. The Oddity Faire is a freak show like no other and this year the tour
Following the summer success of The Way Out (on Temporary Residence), The Books expand their upcoming fall North American tour to include stops along the Midwest and East Coast. In
I’ll never forget the calls I got about Umphrey’s McGee’s performance at The Tabernacle in Atlanta back on February 6th telling me what a special show had taken place and
Wade Ellis Wilby presents Hidden Track Storytellers. This is a creative writing workshop for fiction and nonfiction stories & poetry inspired by music.
My father turned 60 the other day which got me very nostalgic about the many great things he has taught me over the years. One of the greatest lessons I inherited was his vinyl collection. Back in the day, people use to write on album covers like high school year books. So not only do I have an amazing collection of classic rock and jazz, i also have love notes from my mom to my dad etched forever on the covers of so many historical records…Abbey Road being one of them – the album is covered with little pictures of “jan loves lew” – cute right?
Well, sometime after I ruined the family record player by trying to scratch with a Grado needle, and sometime before my friend bequeathed to me his turntables, I was left with only a cassette Walkman. It is at this point my Dad hands me two tapes : Aja and Gold, two monsters from the Steely Dan vault. This is the summer of my junior year in high school – 1997. And I didn’t know that when I pressed play on Aja, I would be entering into a deep part of the counter culture that only so many people were “in” on. The rest of the majority would pass off Steely Dan as “jazz fags”. Not my father, and certainly not me. And I have to tell you…the weed helped.
By now, I was deep into Phish and weed had saved my life two years earlier. I was a hot headed kid who just LOVED violence. The weed helped mellow that side of me out and opened me up to many different cultures and types of music and people. I am SO happy I decided to fire up before taking that first walk with Aja down my suburban street in Enfield, CT. It got me into that slippery, slithery vibe that is “The Dan”. Below is a story full of memories and lessons I associate with the record Aja. I hope you enjoy this trip through my youth and the summer of 97. (Went Rage Tales Not Included)
READ ON for more of this installment of Storytellers…
After spending years upon years toiling away as a band playing countless shows, traveling thousands of miles, recording various studio projects and building an original catalog, to say it’s a hard decision to change directions, re-brand and move on to something new is like saying it’s hard to beat Mike Tyson in Punch Out: an understatement of the highest order.
After nearly five years, the popular Brooklyn jam/jazz/funk/fusion band, Licorice, decided it was time for a change. Three of the original four members, David Lott (guitar, vocals), Matt Epstein (bass) and Josh Bloom (drums, vocals), plan to stay together in the form of The Whitewalls, but with a new direction, a more song-focused trio and perhaps (gasp) less extended jamming.
Despite the mental struggles that come with debating a name change and a new sonic endeavor: giving up the brand recognition; wondering what to do with the recorded catalog; questioning if the fans will follow; and summoning up the energy to build something new from the ground up, David Lott and The Whitewalls have a reinvigorated spirit and they know they did the right thing. Look no further than Lott’s recent months for proof. He’s already released an E.P. with The Whitewalls, recorded his own solo EP, landed a role as the lone guitarist in an Off-Broadway gig and continued to perform relentlessly.
Ryan Dembinsky: So let’s start with some background; I ran into your lovely wife Emily in Saratoga before the Phish shows and she passed along the news that had Licorice split up, or was at least on hold for the time being. It sounds like the intent is that you are planning to focus on writing for a new band called The Whitewalls as well as on your solo material. So, without digging up dirt, what happened?
David Lott: My wife starting seeing Phish regularly, and so, I had to get out of the jamband race – that’s some stiff competition.
All kidding aside, after nearly 5 years, Licorice had accomplished so much, from our Blue Note extravaganzas to playing with jazz legends as regulars at the Telluride Jazz Festival in Colorado to the stages in NYC like Bowery, Brooklyn Bowl, Blender Theater, The Knit, Sullivan Hall, etc. We had come to a point, a sort of fork in the road, where we wanted to attain the production level, artistic intention, and lyrical value of the bands/artists we were also learning from in addition the bands in the jamband world.
It was not “Licorice” anymore once we made that choice. The intent was different, and so, the name, had to change. Licorice may always exist – it’s like my first child, but I want to have a bigger family now.
READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with David Lott…
All’s been quiet on the God Street Wine front since July’s epic reunion, so we took the opportunity to take a little God Street Wednesdays hiatus in August. Speaking of
1320 Records recording artist Big Gigantic have built quite a name for themselves over the past few years thanks to relentless touring, vivacious live shows and sharing free downloads of
