Blog Archives
FAITU#3
FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN THE UNIVERSE
(FAITU#3)
2009-11-12
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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
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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
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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!
TSP Download/Stream MMW w/Trey Anastasio
– KNOWN/CIRCULATING RECORDINGS WITH TREY
FROM 1995 & 2001 & 2006 –
Trouble playing/downloading tunes?
| MMW Shows w/ Trey Anastasio | |
| ~ 1995 ~ | |
| October 1995 | 14 |
| ~ 2000 ~ | |
| December 2000 | 1 |
| ~ 2006 ~ | |
| July 2006 | 22 |
| ~ FLAC & MP3 filesets ~ ~ Download and/or Streaming ~ |
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| 1995-10-14.dsbd.3.t-flac16 [TSP1995#8] Emo’s, Austin, TX Saturday, October 14, 1995 w/Trey Anastasio |
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| 1995-10-14.dsbd.80131.t-flac16 [TSP1995#9] Emo’s, Austin, TX Saturday, October 14, 1995 w/Trey Anastasio |
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 MMW 2000-12-01 @Palace Theatre, Albany, NY |
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| 2000-12-01.akg481.99566.t-flac16 [TSP2000#1] Palace Theater, Albany, NY Friday, December 1, 2000 with Oren Bloedow & Cyro Baptista for the entire show # with Trey Anastasio on guitar * unfinished |
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| 2000-12-01.fob.schoeps-mk41.26149.t-flac16 [TSP2000#2] Palace Theater, Albany, NY Friday, December 1, 2000 with Oren Bloedow & Cyro Baptista for the entire show # with Trey Anastasio on guitar * unfinished |
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 MMW w/ Trey Anastasio 2006-07-22 @10,000 Lakes Festival |
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| 2006-07-22.fob.mbho.76552.t-flac16 [TSP2006#34] Field Stage, 10,000 Lakes Festival, Soo Pass Rch, Detroit Lak, MN Saturday, July 22, 2006 One Set Only # with special guest Trey Anastasio |
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| 2006-07-22.fob.senn-me66.76192.t-flac16 [TSP2006#35] Field Stage, 10,000 Lakes Festival, Soo Pass Rch, Detroit Lak, MN Saturday, July 22, 2006 One Set Only # with special guest Trey Anastasio |
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 Medeski w/ Trey Anastasio 2006-07-22 @10,000 Lakes Festival |
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THE SHACK STREAM
LISTEN/DOWNLOAD ANOTHER SHOW!
The Shack Project – Old Idea/New Site – Sharing Medeski Martin & Wood Grooves for Download
MMW – Oct 5/2012 @Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Welcome to THE SHACK PROJECT home!
We are sharing lossless recordings of live Medeski Martin & Wood shows via bittorrent on bt.etree.org, and THE SHACK TORRENTS are LIVE ALL THE TIME! LIVE 24/7/365!
Please email if a torrent is not seeding
Use the menu along the top to find lists of torrents providing downloads of concerts from various years, and select special shows at times as well.
The site is new and should see some improvements in the near future, but the main priority is:
SEEDING LIVE MMW 24/7/365!
enjoy the grooves,
dug
The Shack Project 