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State of the Union: moe. 2011

Hidden Track Staff February 23, 2011 11 Comments

We’ve asked moe.ron extraordinaire Kahlil Katool to cover the moe. beat for Hidden Track and he has kindly accepted. Kahlil will be covering snoe.down for us, but starts by sharing his opinion of where the band is at after the group’s first two tours of 2011…

something new, something cool , something borrowed, something blue…

This line from moe.’s new song Haze rings true as an accurate description of what the band has offered the music world in 2011. Coming off the heels of their 20th anniversary tour in 2010, the members of moe. may have shed the suits they wore all year long to celebrate the benchmark, but have remained all business while barreling head first into 2011.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

moe. has played 22 shows thus far this year, starting out with the Tropical Throe.down in the Dominican Republic, touring through the Pacific Northwest and hitting the left coast along with the Rockies, and most recently returning to Japan. Dual-lead guitarist Al Schnier, had this to say when asked how the band felt about the past two months: “New Year’s Eve in Boston was a great way to end the 20th Anniversary tour and the Dominican Republic was a great way to kick off this year. I can’t say enough good things about that trip, and we are already discussing plans for a follow up (island excursion). This run has been great one, and (we) are heading even further into 2011 with a lot of momentum.”

The New York-based “ragers of improvisational rock” continue to push the envelope nightly breaking outside of the familiar with over a dozen new songs debuted since last year’s Summer Camp Festival. The band is integrating these new songs in their set arrangements with great fervor. moe. has been taking big chances outside its comfort zone as the band mixes up its setlist writing formula of traditional staple “big guns” (ie. Moth, Recreational Chemistry, Timmy Tucker, meat., Yodelittle, Brent Black, McBain) as being the centerpieces of the energy and flow of moe. sets.

READ ON for more from Kahlil on moe.’s 2011…

Interview: Billy Nershi Reveals String Cheese Incident’s Past, Present, and Future

Ryan Dembinsky October 20, 2010 18 Comments

The year 2009 was a jamband renaissance. Phish, the Dead and the String Cheese Incident all reunited after parting ways for indefinite periods of time for varying reasons. However, unlike Phish and the Dead, who came back with the pedal to the metal in terms of their workload, SCI made a decidedly more cautious return to grace.

[Photo by Jason Gershuny]

Hoping to appease even the most persnickety of fans, while balancing personal lives and other responsibilities, the band has yet to tour or record an album, instead focusing on sporadic runs of blowout shows at monumental locations. SCI’s venue selections since their comeback have represented a short list of fan favorites including Rothbury, Red Rocks, Oregon’s scenic Horning’s Hideout, and soon, the famed Hampton Coliseum.

The String Cheese Incident seems to have found a common ground business model that works for everybody. Periodic destination getaways afford the members flexibility to entertain the seemingly endless side projects they’ve birthed in recent years while the SCI camp has focused on releasing archival music to fans via various channels. Yet, some wonder if there are elements of a Favre, Shaq and Jordan comeback in that, yes, some greats are playing again, but is their head in the game? Can they still bring it? The answer is seemingly, yes. READ ON for Ryan’s interview with Billy Nershi…

Briefly: Modern Drummer’s Fishman Feature

Scott Bernstein August 2, 2010 2 Comments

Phish drummer Jon Fishman graces the cover of the latest issue of Modern Drummer magazine. Scans of the interview have already surfaced, while Modern Drummer has shared a “web exclusive”

Hidden Track Interview: Bill Kreutzmann

Chad Berndtson June 30, 2010 1 Comment

For a guy who was not all that long ago described as “semi-retired,” Bill Kreutzmann seems to be everywhere these days. No sooner did his BK3 trio peter out than a new band with Papa Mali, 7 Walkers – a fierce little unit spawned from a place where psychedelic Dead meets the spiciest, unruliest New Orleans funk and R&B – came to the fore.

[Photos by Andy Hill]

And wouldn’t you know it, neither unit will be Kreutzmann’s main focus this summer. That’d be the Rhythm Devils – Kreutzmann and brother in arms Mickey Hart – back on the road with a retooled lineup that features percussionist and longtime associate Sikiru Adepoju, as well as Keller Williams, singular as ever, bass ace and former Gov’t Mule anchor Andy Hess, and, most intriguingly, Back Door Slam frontman and shredder Davy Knowles.

Hidden Track briefly caught up with Kreutzmann as the Rhythm Devils tour prepares to get underway.

HIDDEN TRACK: You’ve got so much going on at the moment and plenty of projects, from Rhythm Devils to 7 Walkers. What’s top priority these days?

BILL KREUTZMANN: Right now it’s Rhythm Devils, 100 percent. I’m just focusing on that. I like to focus on one band at a time.

HT: Fair enough. You have a new and interesting lineup for Rhythm Devils, for which I guess Davy Knowles is the wild card. Can you talk a little bit about how you and Mickey put this lineup together?

BK: Well, it’s true, when playing with different musicians, the more people you play with it, the fresher it makes it. The driving force in the Rhythm Devils — from the Devils, meaning me and Mickey, — is to have new players. The one we work with all the time is Sikiru, he’s a master drummer from Nigeria, but the new energy with different people is exciting. I’m looking forward to rehearsal.

READ ON for more of our interview with Bill Kreutzmann…

The Reinvention of Hot Buttered Rum

Ryan Dembinsky October 5, 2009 4 Comments

For a band to last the better part of a decade represents a momentous feat. To put it in perspective, think about where you were in your life about eight years ago. Unless you are Wooderson from Dazed and Confused, odds are things looked a lot different back then than they do today.

For a band like Hot Buttered Rum to push on through for eight more years, it is only natural that they would feel the need to shift things up to keep it fresh. With the release of their new album, Limbs Akimbo, we see the culmination of this freshness come across ten fold, as this is not simply a collection of new tunes, but a reinvention of sorts. With this album, the band puts forth sweeping changes.

In chatting with Erik Yates, the man behind the barn-burning banjo and guitar picking as well as those signature HBR woodwind accents, he made it clear that this is simply to be considered an “evolution” rather than a true change in direction. Still, there is certainly a lot to take note of and good reason to renew interest in what Hot Buttered Rum is doing.

READ ON for more from Ryan on Hot Buttered Rum…

HT Interview: Drew Emmitt of Emmitt-Nershi

Chad Berndtson September 18, 2009 2 Comments

If there’s pickin’ to be done, you could do far worse than Drew Emmitt, who thanks to his long tenure in Leftover Salmon and later projects like the Drew Emmitt Band, is one of the scene’s most visible mandolinists and bluegrass aficionados.

Never short on a strong opinion, Emmitt caught us up on all he has going on now, most notably a lengthy tour with the new Emmitt-Nershi Band (featuring Emmitt, Nershi, banjoist Andy Thorn and bassist Tyler Grant) and how getting back to basics — that is, the fun and fleet-fingered business of bluegrass — has been a blessing for both he and String Cheese Incident’s Bill Nershi.

With more on the horizon from the ENB, Emmitt’s band — and a stray Leftover Salmon reunion or two — it’s looking good that Emmitt’s year will finish better than it started, though if you’re holding your breath for that 40-date Leftover Salmon tour, it’s time to let go.

HT: Can you talk a little bit about how you and Bill decided to form a band together. Obviously you go way back and given the Colorado origins, have a lot in common as musicians and otherwise.

DREW EMMITT: Yeah, definitely. I guess where it started was we were at a benefit show in Boulder for the Mark Vann Foundation in 2007. We did some playing together there and just started talking backstage about how it’d be cool to play some bluegrass together. Later, I was down in Florida for a tour with my band and I heard from Billy. He said he was quitting String Cheese and wanted to put this band together and from that point on we’d planned to do it six months later so we’d have time to get it going.

READ ON for the rest of Chad’s chat with Drew Emmitt…

HT Interview Exclusive: David Butler – President of Ticketmaster North America

Luke Sacks March 24, 2009 73 Comments

Last week, Ticketmaster took some major heat for an unplanned and accidental presale for tickets for Phish’s four performances at Red Rocks this summer. Fans that thought they had stumbled onto a surprise jackpot had their orders canceled and received an email from David Butler, President of Ticketmaster North America, explaining why.

In an exclusive Q&A with Hidden Track, Luke Sacks spoke with Butler, who is responsible for Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing business in the US and Canada, via phone about the cause of the error, how Ticketmaster is working to thwart scalpers, what band he has seen nearly 50 times himself and more.

LUKE SACKS: Let’s start with the incident last week when tickets for the Red Rocks shows went on sale early. Speculation among fans has ranged from a simple computer glitch to Ticketmaster secretly activating that link so scalpers could get in and do their thing. From your perspective, can you walk me through what happened?

DAVID BUTLER: Absolutely. It was fundamentally human error by an employee of Ticketmaster in our Rocky Mountain region. An experienced person, who has been with us for years, accidentally, in releasing the show to be visible on the website that the on-sale was coming, accidentally made it appear to be on sale against the desires of the promoter or the artist. It was really just human error. She was trying to set it up so the show would be apparent with the future on-sale date so the fans would know it was coming. She just goofed.

LS: So that happened, all these orders were filled and eventually the decision was made to cancel these orders. Who made the decision to cancel the orders and subsequently to send out the $50 credit? Were those solely Ticketmaster decisions? Was the band or their management involved?

DB: To be clear, the mistake was totally ours at Ticketmaster and that’s why we sent out the gift certificates. Our policy is, if there is ever an error and the event goes on sale prior to the on-sale date, even if its on our website, that we will invalidate all the orders and if any money is taken we will refund it because we have to protect the integrity of the artist and the promoter that the show goes on sale as announced to the fans. So that’s exactly what we did.

READ ON for more of our exclusive interview with David Butler…

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