Category Archives: Music
FAITU#4
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE
(FAITU#4)
1997-04-11
 |
|
|||
 |
||||
 |
||||
 |
||||
 |
||||
 |
||||
| Trouble playing tunes? | ||||
MMW c. 1997
Source info:
1997-04-11.octava-012.78853.t-flac16
– SET I (tracks 1-6) –
– SET II (tracks 7-12) –
– SHACK THOUGHTS –
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE (FAITU#4)
The Shack Project celebrates MMW @25 years!
One of the reasons I LOVE listening to MMW is that I wholeheartedly trust their musical exploration — really, they can do no wrong for me because they embrace the music in a way that no other group does for me. There is no “scene”, no gimmicks, no characters to fall in love with from the songs, no real stage production — just the music and how they approach making it and what that results in. That has always been refreshing to me and part of what appeals to me about them as a band. In 1997 MMW made quite a shift in their sound, so much so that when I finally got to see them live in the spring of ’98, having heard nothing from ’97, I was astounded by the soundscape they were creating as it was NOTHING like I’d heard from them having only heard tapes from ’95-’96 over the previous couple years — it took a while for music to reach Atlantic Canada in the mid-’90s! Anyway, that shift in MMW’s sound began in ’97 when they debuted a bunch of new tunes and covers. The new MMW songs, at least most of them, would end up on the ’98 release Combustication, but for this guy who’d just gotten into the ’95-’96 sound, ’98 really threw me for a loop. It wasn’t until years later that I finally got my ears on some ’97 recordings and started to bridge the gap between ’96 and ’98 … and so, this week’s pick comes right at the beginning of the ’97 development.
MMW promo c.1996/97
– Set I –
The presence of this embryonic Down On Me melody is a wild way to open the show! Things start slow and easy with Chris establishing his bassline and Billy locking down a beat with some piano sprinkles and around 1min John starts to loosely introduce the melody to what became known as Down On Me — it wasn’t until 2003 that the band took this old traditional melody and really established a tune, but not before toying around with the melody again in spring 2000 which found the melody paired with Tsukemono’s bassline and beat — clearly the guys have dug the Down On Me melody for a while! Since this “version” of the tune only happened once (that we know of) it’s unclear whether this arrangement was established or if John just started dropping the melody into the opening improvisation … eventually the groove moves away from Down On Me, becoming its own thing, getting heavier as the track plays on.
Early performances of Combustication tunes, some others we never hear again, a couple covers and a few Shackman tunes populate the rest of the show.
After some monitor requests to the soundman and a note that they’ll be trying out some new music tonight, the wonderfully slinky groove of Start/Stop comes next and this would be like the 3rd time the tune was played — debuted on April 8th, we don’t have a recording of the 9th but it’s safe to assume it was played, making this show on the 11th most likely the 3rd performance. Just noting that this is an EARLY rendering of this tune and it’s already just busting out into some nice space. They aren’t pushing the “Stop” moments as far into space as they eventually will but the hints are there. As the tune fizzles out we enter into some Open Improvisation, just as wacky as ever! Bird calls from illyB, bowed bass from Chris, some dancing piano on top of that from John which are leading us to the night’s first cover, and a new addition to the MMW repertoire on this tour …
Hip Chops, a Roland Kirk tune new to the live repertoire, is a nice influx from a more traditional “jazz” sound while still retaining some oddities — it’s a weird tune, I think! But I dig it.
MMW c. late ’97
Fast Clicks pops in with a breaking illyBeat and a super poppin’ bassline from Chris while John colours the upper spectrum using a few of his different toys. This tune is SO GOOD! WHY DON’T THEY PLAY THIS! Well, I can ask that about lots of their tunes … the answer is that they’re always moving forward. Just makes me wonder what makes a tune stick for them? They have a high turnover from tour to tour as they tend to focus more on new music when they’ve got some, but those new tunes eventually become older tunes and some stick while others don’t. Always interesting what an artist digs vs. what the fans might dig. Anyway, Fast Clicks would have been cool to hear over the years moving through the band’s various palettes of sound, but alas, all we get is the ’97 treatment — so, I listen to these old gigs to get my fill. The song pumps along and then they bring it down to this nice little soft vamp around the middle of the track and that continues to get tighter as the track nears its conclusion with a nice explosion of keys from John (not sure what board it is??).
Just Like I Pictured It bloops out as Fast Clicks finishes and finds some odd-to-my-ears key work from John — not the usual clean sound we know from the album version and subsequent performances. He’s using a muddy sound in the start and then moves to organ, and I’m digging it as it makes the tune a little less smooth. A nice early take on this MMW classic.
The lovely Latin Shuffle (what a title, eh? HA!) takes us to set break, and again, this is a brand new tune at the time but the guys are all over it! Chris is back on upright bass and this line just gets my head boppin’! Billy is well locked into the Latin shuffle and once John hops in on piano we are off and running, smiling, and just enjoying the groove … breaks down to just bass’n’drums at the end before we reach the end of the set — this will later become a place where Chris often takes us out into a larger solo, but they’re still feeling their way around these tunes at this time.
– SET II –
With a Latin beat (no shuffle) the 2nd set gets going with the debut of something I’ve dubbed “Dysfunctional Ash Groove“, after the venue name — it is wacked! Wish both this and Fast Clicks would pop to the band’s attention now to revisit … so the groove is SOLID but something sounds a wee dysfunctional to me, like I can’t quite dance to it but wanna – HA! My body keeps jerking in different ways — picture Elaine from Seinfeld … if you know how she dances, that’s kinda how I feel this tune makes me move. The groove gets more intensified as we approach 5min, and John is just swirling away, Billy crashing, while Chris holds the groove. This all dissolves into a short illyB solo leading into …
Disrobe was great to hear again in recent years (2010-11), with its slinky groove (much of MMW is “slinky” to me, I guess), and back in ’97 it was real nice too as the band’s sound was morphing yet again, while still retaining that MMW vibe … the tune was part of a soundtrack for the film End of Violence (never saw it, myself) and the studio track is sweet too. This tune is simply KILLER. Period. I REALLY LOVE IT! When it resurfaced in 2010 I was stoked, but didn’t catch it in the shows I saw … then it came back in 2011 in the all requests first sets they were playing, with Billy even noting they hadn’t played it in forever … well, it had only been a year at that point, but I think he forgot that they, the band, dug the tune out on their own back in 2010.
Next up, a little Everyday People, MMW-style — can you even recognize this as the Sly and The Family Stone tune? This cover kinda introduces MMW’s gospel-treatment of certain cover tunes, i.e. Hey Joe, Julia, etc. This is a nice mid-set meditation, which is also messing a bit with what had been the usual construction of an MMW set of music. Up until this point the band’s “slower” tunes were still intense in some way and not really bringing the mood down like these tunes do, in my opinion.
MMW 1997-09-06 @Gallup Park, Ann Arbor, MI
Well, we’re not down for long and now things are bubbling up in the Bubblehouse! Everyone’s favourite song, right? HA! I mean, I love the tune, like really dig its groove and release but why is this the tune that most folks seem to call for? During the all request first sets in 2011 this tune was played almost every night, either in that set or in the encore slot due to it being requested by folks online before the tour began. I found it hilarious! There were SO MANY other songs I would have wanted to ask for since the band already plays this tune with regularity, but … I digress … nonetheless, the groove gets you moving and this performance is no different. It’s interesting for the ’97 sound to it. When it drops to John skittering along just before 5min and Chris starts dropping bombs before the half-time beat kicks in — well, that’s cool to my ears every time!
After a short pause, John gives us some nice organ swirls before Chris kicks in the bassline, which starts cooking along as Billy smatters some percussive interjections, with the tension building as we wait for the groove proper to kick in, which ain’t too long in ’97 but eventually they can really milk this opening! At this time they’ve played the hell out of the tune over the previous couple of years so they are rocking it hard. Nice moves with John on the piano mid-tune, and then exploding into the Jelly Belly again before illyB busts out with a little solo before John and Chris jump in to finish it out. It becomes common for Billy to bust out the end of this tune with a solo, as we’ll hear in shows to come.
For the encore Billy ponders aloud what they should play, with the audience shouting out a garble of suggestions. They “THINK” about it a bit and then, well, they Think us right to the end of the show. The opening features stellar tambourine work from Billy before he hops on the kit when John busts into the main melody. I’d say this is a fairly reserved rendering of the tune, but it still makes you Think!
enjoy the grooves,
dug
THE SHACK STREAM
LISTEN/DOWNLOAD ANOTHER SHOW!
FAITU#3
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE
(FAITU#3)
2009-11-12
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
| Trouble playing tunes? | ||||
Chris Wood @Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2009-11-12
Source info:
2009-11-12.schoeps-mk22.102558.t-flac16
– SET I (tracks 1-7) –
– SET II (tracks 8-16) –
– SHACK THOUGHTS –
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE (FAITU#3)
The Shack Project celebrates MMW @25 years!
John gets the evening hopping on the Clav and we are in full-on dance mode — my feet won’t stop moving while I sit here! This is quite a developed piece of Improvisation, or an unknown one-off tune … either way, it’s incredible. At the end the band moves into what I can only describe as robot-like bleeps and bloops with percussive accompaniment, and this gives way into more open and darker space that grows over the next 4min (start of track 3) to create a brooding slow pulse led melodically by Chris on stand-up bass and Billy’s tom work while Medeski’s keys balance between filling out that slow pulse and colouring it with zaps. I’m swaying side to side in my seat now with John coming in with a new melody around 7min (track 3) on one of his organs, coloured by an electric piano (Wurlitzer?), while that slow pulse gets deeper and deeper. This is mesmerizing … my state of mind might be helping that, but nonetheless, deep haunting groove — ooh! Billy kicks the beat up just before 9min and this slow pulse has intensified into a skittering groove with Billy’s fills almost busting it apart, but then he locks the shuffle beat back down and we’re off!
MMW @Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2009-11-12
The fourth track carries out into the explosion brought on by the build over track 3, but this settles down a bit around 3.5min with some low key piano work from John, broken bowing sounds from Chris, and Billy’s toolbox getting a bit of play time before he returns to the kit as John’s piano work gets a little more involved — Chris is still heaving away on that bow. This is some wacked and beautiful shit. In a similar pattern to the last Improvisation, this one makes it’s way back into some chaotic space before dissipating around 10min down to a rumbling piano solo from John and leads into …
An incredible piano-based spontaneous composition – wow (we’re on track 5 now). This is some down right astounding on-the-spot-composing, folks. It erupts into MMW-esque chaos over the final couple of minutes that lingers into a hanging silence …
Resolving down to Chris picking up his electric bass on track 6 and giving us a *nasty* biting solo that Billy jumps into on one of his hand drums (the Talking Drum, I think?). Around 4min Billy kicks in a bass drum a bit, Chris starts to lay down more of a line and John jumps in with some space keys — it’s light and floating. The illyB begins what I consider what of his specialties: he starts driving the groove with a GODDAMN TAMBOURINE! He’s incredible on this thing! Once Billy moves to the kit the band is driving a full on groove to take us *almost* to set break and it is nice! Like, SUPER nice! Damn, these guys are good, eh?
The groove dissolves, and illyB takes us out … I used to not really dig or “get” drum solos, until I started listening to Billy …
Billy’s Toolbox @Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2009-11-12
– SET BREAK –
2nd set … RADIOLARIANS! 2009 was the year after the Radioalarians creations and the band was steeped in the music of these three albums BIG TIME, along with some new music from the recently released children’s album and Zorn Book of Angels disc, with the odd older tunes popping up here and there, but mostly it’s the Radiolarians songs that carried shows from 2008-2010.
John Medeski @Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2009-11-12
We’re on the Scene with Jean, and this is tune is all about Medeski tickling those ivories – sweet sounds! I mean, I love Chris and Billy holding it down here, but Jean’s Scene is all about John and he gets the set hopping! This is a tune from Radioalarians 3, the fall batch of tunes from the ’08 series of Radiolarians tours. Anyway, the Scene carries on with some tension and release tinkering out of the piano … man, I love John on the piano — any other player is ruined for me now due to the talents in Medeski’s fingers … well, body, the guy plays full-body on his keys. I still dig lots of other piano and keys players, but nobody makes ’em sound like John. Stellar upright bass work from Chris over the tune as well, with Billy keeping it tight.
Next up, Amish Pintxos — aka “Stabs“! That was the temp title given to the tune during the Radiolarians tour in ’08 before we knew the name (I think that temp name came from, Randy B?). I always thought “Stabs” was appropriate when you hear Medeski’s key jabs that get the tune rolling and carry on under his melody on the melodica — this is a nasty tune and I love it! There are 3 distinct section to the tune and each interplay so well together. Some fun picking from Chris on electic during this tune, and Billy is rocking the shakers as the tune winds down … listent to that raunchy sound John gets outta the melodica!
A brief pause before we Walk Back, which is like an echo of some old school ’70s funk in the MMW flavour — tune would have fit nicely in the Shackman era, really.
MMW @Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2009-11-12
Then Chris treats us to an upright bass solo, which basically stands alone even though it is a lead-in to the following tune we drop to silence at the solo’s end for a little longer than usual in such cases before …
Padrecito’s bassline begins and we drift into this lullaby … that’s how it feels to me, I just love getting lost in this tune … I often listen to the Radiolarians 2 album version as I begin my evening slumber … again, like the opening tune of the set, John is tickling the ivories but we aren’t hopping here … just drifting along …
Wonton gets our hearts pumping again and asses shaking — another tune that would jive with the Shackman era groove … love Billy’s tom work in this tune.
MMW @Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2009-11-12
And the set ends with Undone, a common spot for this tune to pop up and it’s more than welcome — I F#CKIN’ LOVE THIS TUNE! I feel this tune and Amber Gris, the encore, really took lessons from the PJ Harvey cover tunes the guys were playing in the few years leading up to Radiolarians. Both Undone and Amber Gris are like epic pop tunes … like GOOD epic pop tunes. I REALLY dig both of them, so to end the set with Undone is music to my ears (literally and figuratively!), and then an Amber Gris encore is just icing on this groovy cake — take a BIG bite, you won’t be disappointed!
enjoy the grooves,
dug
THE SHACK STREAM
LISTEN/DOWNLOAD ANOTHER SHOW!
FAITU#2
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE
(FAITU#2)
2004-08-06
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
| Trouble playing tunes? | ||||
Chris Wood 2004-05-28 @Harmony Park Music Garden, Geneva, MN
Source info:
2004-08-06.dpa4022.26327.t-flac16
– SET I (tracks 1-7) –
– SET II (tracks 8-15) –
– SHACK THOUGHTS –
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE (FAITU#2)
The Shack Project celebrates MMW @25 years!
For this 2nd instance of FAITU we jump ahead from the previous week by 11 years to find ourselves in the summer of 2004 where MMW played a mix of festival gigs, openers for The Roots, as well as some of their own shows. This week’s selection is a 2 set affair from Colorado in early August …
2004 was a golden year of improvisation for MMW. End Of The World Party (Just In Case) would be released in the fall, and the guys had started playing some of those tunes as early as fall ’03, with winter ’04 finding even more new tunes popping up. We’ll get some of those new tunes in the 2nd set of this show, along with some old favourites, but the first set will be almost entirely new to everyone, aside from the last tune, and it will happen only once: We’re looking at about 45min of pure spontaneous composition, and the band is *on*!
MMW 2004-05-28 @Harmony Park Music Garden, Geneva, MN
Starting with the first set:
Track#2, first Improv, starts with the band exploring the fringes of space before Chris plunks some key notes just around 1.5min in and suddenly a whole tune begins to develop, slow groove-like. At 3min we hit a set of very affirmative chords from John and things are sounding celebratory in a low-key way for a bit before some nasty sounding keys urge Billy into a little more chaos, while Chris continues with the sluggish bassline he’s created. John is toying around, settles into the Clavinet and we’re off into a sluggy funk with a bit of a Night Marchers-ish vibe — oh yeah, I’m liking this! Change up into an organ interjection, busy fills from Billy, and Chris keeps milking that bassline to great effect. illyB kicks it up a notch just before 6min and really starts wailing and finishing out that groove, while John and Chris follow him into some outer-space for the last couple of minutes on track #2.
Chris and Billy lock into a quick paced bottom for track #3 and John jumps into the fray bubbling over top. Organ jabs just after a minute in while Chris and Billy continue developing the bottom end — suddenly we’re into yet another killer spontaneous composition! Where do these melodies and beats all come from!?!? John’s working both the Clav and organ now as both Chris and Billy bust their parts open more and start filling in the sound. We hit a “bridge” in the tune around 3.5min, then John and Chris bring us back around to the groove we’d started with — this is cool shit! After milking this for a bit longer they start bending the structure they’d established while still echoing back to it, pushing us further on with John on organ and Chris on stand-up — this feels kind of like LCTDT(P) — until the eruption of an illyB solo! It’s short and more of just a connector joining to the next groove than a full on Billy solo, in the usual sense (if MMW can be said to have a “usual”). Chris is the first to jump back in with Billy, with John not too far behind, and this is subtly building layers onto Billy’s beat, which he keeps breaking into with percussive colouring or some off-beat fills — this piece carries onto the next track …
… John slides onto the Rhodes(?) and really takes control of this groove’s direction, and all three are locked in. Eventually the tempo really picks up and they spend about 2min breaking this down … slowly … @6:17 a new groove begins out of the remnants of the noise left by the previous, beginning with almost a Combustication-like sound before John backs off a bit, and Chris steps in with a quick pulse and Billy’s tinkering leads to him riding the cowbell. As this progresses we head into similar territory as the tune We Are Rolling — structure-wise — and it is ROCKING! Billy is just pounding his kit, John’s going crazy, and Chris is holding down the groove.
The pick up at the end of the last track leads into this next Improvisation, and Chris is the one pushing the other two.
This last Improv sounds similar in spirit to If I Only Knew — the melody sounds recognizable, but sometimes I’ve listened to some of these improvisations so many times that it’s hard to distinguish *why* something sounds familiar. And it almost sounds like Chris is tinkering with the Queen Bee bassline way back here, 3min before the tune bubbles up to close the set — love the slinky groove of Queen Bee! (I keep thinking of my wife dancing to the tune when we first got the EOTWPjic album – HA!)
Wood & Martin 2004-05-28 @Harmony Park Music Garden, Geneva, MN
And then the second set:
I could listen to Toy Dancing at EVERY show — I love that swirling call from John! Love the different sections of this tune and band ride this one right into some open space before Billy and Chris buckle down together for a bit leading us in to the sassy Sasa, a new-ish tune at the time, with Billy on tambourine (he rocks the TAM!) and Chris plunks along the melody … Sasa holds inside the tune’s groove before leading us to ITAHTLMJ, a welcome tune any time as well (one of the earliest MMW tunes I remember hearing). Sasa slows right down, Billy keeps just the beat going, and suddenly we’re romping along for Jesus … a nice solid take on the tune — hard to hear a bad version, really, but this has some nice playfulness belonging to a “2004” take on the tune (i.e. John’s sounds).
Curtis, another new EOTWP tune, is always pumping and this one jumps right in full steam off the last beat of ITAHTLMJ driving ahead to explode into some welcome release on the drums by illyB, which gradually speeds us into some …
Fire! By Hendrix, that is — I love MMW’s take on Hendrix tunes because they bite right into them … and where there’s Fire, there’s Smoke. I always dig the combo of the two tunes, and Smoke brings us back in nicely from the Fire chaos.
Once the Smoke clears, Billy solicits the audience for a song, baffled by the choice, but obliging the fans nonetheless: Chubb Sub! And this ain’t your standard Chubb … a LENGTHY solo from Chris gets us to the start of Chubb, but the beginning saunters in with Medeski jumping in on some different sounds than usual — ya gotta hear it!
Ending your evening with Whiney Bitches might not *sound* appealing based on the title, but that groove is so FREAKIN’ awesome! Fantastic encore to end a KILLER gig … just one of several from 2004.
enjoy the grooves,
dug
THE SHACK STREAM
LISTEN/DOWNLOAD ANOTHER SHOW!
FAITU#1
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE
(FAITU#1)
1993-09-12
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
| Trouble playing tunes? | ||||
MMW logo
Source info:
1993-09-12.aud-web+vid.partial.30852.t-flac16 [TSP1993#1]
– SET I partial (tracks 1-2) –
– SET II partial (tracks 3-5) –
– Set II (Partial) + Interviews (tracks 6-11) –
– ONE VIDEO SET –
– LOCAL TV BROADCAST –
– Set I/II mix + Interviews –
@00:00 – ‘Announcer Intro’*
@00:50 – Syeeda’s Song Flute//+
@03:23 – ‘Interviews’
@05:24 – Chubb Sub
@17:41 – ‘Interview’
@19:04 – Friday Afternoon In the Universe^
@27:19 – Hermeto’s Day Dream
@36:47 – ‘Interview’
@37:39 – Wiggly’s Way
@43:59 – ‘Announcer Outro’
@44:16 – ‘Interview’%
@44:46 – Moti Mo//$
* Syeeda’s is playing under the introduction then the image fades over to the band in progress
+ fades out as the song is cut short by interviews
^ titled “Hermeto’s Daydream” on screen during the video
% Moti Mo is playing under the announcer then the image fades over to the band in progress
$ fades out as the song is cut short by the video ending
NOTE: This is basically a local TV station’s “special” on the out-of-town “jazz” group visiting Lucille’s.
– SHACK THOUGHTS –
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE (FAITU#1)
The Shack Project celebrates MMW @25 years!
Welcome to what I hope will be a weekly series. I’ve had folks ask about me sharing and recommending some live MMW, so I hope this helps lead some of you over to the dark side of the groove – MMW!
For this first FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE (FAITU) we go all the way back to 1993, MMW are roughly 2 years into their development at this point and are well into exploring the electric side of their sound, having started together in a more acoustic set-up in ‘91– Chris is still holding to the stand-up at this point (in later interviews we’ll hear Chris talk about how he disliked many electric bass sounds, so it took him a while to find what he liked). This particular gig, at a club in Knoxville, TN called Lucille’s, while incomplete is an interesting glimpse into a young band hungry to bust out their sound.
MMW @Lucille’s, Knoxville, TN 1993-09-12
We’ve got both audio and video available for you, each offering something a little different. Some of the audio is a little cleaner sounding, but the video is WELL worth soaking in to see the guys tackling some “classic” MMW in the early years and also getting a chance to hear them talk about their craft in various interview segments – the video comes from a Local TV station’s coverage of the performance.
And, of course, my first FAITU sharing *has* to include that most groovy of tunes: Friday Afternoon In the Universe itself! The video labels it incorrectly as it appears just before Hermeto’s Daydream actually starts, but it’s a nice early take on the tune which would eventually be released a couple of years later on an album by the same name. (One of the interviews has John raving about Hermeto Pascoal and the development of the Daydream tune – VERY cool to hear! Gotta check out some Hermeto, folks!)
happy Friday and enjoy the grooves,
dug
THE SHACK STREAM
LISTEN/DOWNLOAD ANOTHER SHOW!
MMW+Nels Cline 2014-04-06 Under the Bridge in London
| And so, I just listened to this show and I have to welcome you all to …
GET YOUR FREAK ON!!! [Click below to visit the stream or to find download and show info links] Under The Bridge, London, England |
||
 Nels Cline & Billy Martin – France 2014  Chris Wood & John Medeski – France 2014 |
||
The Shack Project 