FREE MUSIC! Extra Golden and Fleet Foxes - 07/18

Extra Golden and Fleet Foxes July 18, 2008; 6:00PM; FREE SHOW TO HEAR SOUNDS FROM THESE TWO ARTISTS CHECK OUT THE LINK: http://madisonmusicreview.com/Artists/ExtraGolden-FleetFoxes/ExtraGoldenFleetFoxes.html

We are fans here at MMR of Fleet Foxes, and very much enjoyed their recent appearance at High Noon Saloon (opening for Blitzen Trapper). So we were delighted to see them scheduled to be play again at the Memorial Union Terrace on Friday night! We also encourage you to get there early and see Extra Golden – who is scheduled to start at 6:40pm! Extra Golden is an international collaboration between Kenyan and American musicians playing an innovative combination of east African benga guitar pop and American rock. The band has five singers, all trading off on lead vocals duty from song to song, and three guitarists trading off on rhythm and lead roles, some times doing all at once. This will be the band's second US tour, and their most recent release - Hera Ma Nono (Thrill Jockey) - was recorded during the band's first US tour in fall of 2006, which was the Kenyan members' first trip outside of east Africa. Their first album was 2006's Ok-Oyot System, recorded mostly in one afternoon at a Nairobi nightclub. Ok-oyot is Luo for "It's not easy," Luo being the ethnic group and native language of Extra Golden's Kenyan members and the benga tradition. . . Well things have certainly not been easy for Extra Golden, from the death of original singer and co-founder Otieno Jagwasi in 2004, to the visa difficulties on the last tour that were solved only with the help of Illinois Senator Barack Obama (a Luo descendant), and more recently the political and ethnic crisis in Kenya after the recent presidential elections. (You may have heard of those difficulties and the support Extra Golden received from their fans around the world recently on NPR's All Things Considered.) For those of you planning to attend the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival – Extra Golden will be performing Wednesday, 7/23 at 9:30p on the Barn Stage!

10,000 Lakes Festival: Zappa Plays Zappa

Dweezil Zappa

Zappa Plays Zappa fans

Party regulars on the dance floor!

10,000 Lakes Festival: 2007 in pictures

Great weather, great music, wonderful camping with plenty of space and beautiful people all around... that sums up the long weekend at Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. I had a field time taking pictures (despite the early loss of a media card and a technology glitch that lost me a score of pictures from The Hip concert) and I hope they convey the festival vibe and spirit! Here's a start... pictures are in no particular order (and are clickable for larger size) though Toubab Krewe, Little Feat and The Tragically Hip all performed on Friday, July 20.

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Toubab Krewe at the Barn Stage

Waiting for Columbus fan; Little Feat

The Tragically Hip; Gordon Downie - lead singer and lyricist extraordinaire; a Hip and Trailer Park Boys fan

Downie has also made an appearance in the Trailer Park Boys movie "The Big Dirty". For those of you not familiar with this Canadian TV series (now in it's 7th season), I implore you to go out and buy/rent TPB and get ready for a jaw-aching, belly-aching, laugh-till-you-fall-off session. For best results, watch with your buddies and have refreshments handy ;)

More pictures and snippets coming soon - malliman/AM

Ten Thousand Lakes Festival - 2007

Four days of camping and music sounds like a lot, but when Sunday morning rolled around our little group was not ready for it to end.

There is a lot to like about 10KLF. Soo Pass Ranch is a permanent festival venue, and it is well laid out and very comfortable for this festival. About 15,000 people were spread out among six campsites that surround the "concert bowl." (By way of contrast - over 100,000 turn out to this same site for "WE Fest" the biggest country music festival in the Midwest. Stucker, one of the masters of ceremony, described it to me as "nuts to butts.")

Stucker takes a break – and so do we – to listen to Shoeless Revolution
from the shade of the Saloon deck.

Permanent showers and rest rooms, and plentiful water facilities; wooded and lakeside camp spots; lots of cool clothing and merchandise for sale; general stores for emergency needs. And most importantly the sound systems were really great.

Our campsite

If I have any complaint at all, it is only that our camp setting was so nice and comfortable that it took some real motivation to leave it and head over to the bowl for the shows. But we did see some great performances, including very strong sets by:

• Bob Weir and Ratdog
• String Cheese Incident
• Zappa Plays Zappa
• Galactic
• The Tragically Hip
• Toubab Krewe
• Everyone Orchestra
  

Ratdog on the Main Stage, and joined by Keller Williams

Field Stage was the secondary "main stage"

Toubab Krewe on the wonderfully shaded Barn Stage

Hippies of all ages were in attendance, but as you would imagine this was generally a younger generation of hippies. Music officially ended at 3am, but the party continued in the camps until the sun rose. I’m a heavy sleeper, so got all the rest I needed. Light sleepers might want to bring all their arsenal of sleep aids!

Until next time. . .

Ratdog to be joined by Steve Kimock in July

BREAKING NEWS - It has just been announced that Steve Kimock will be sitting in on lead guitar in place of Mark Karan this month. Best wishes to MK for a quick return to full health!

As you might already know, I am a long-time fan of Bob Weir. But I first caught Ratdog just two years ago at the Orpheum Theatre on 29 Mar 2005. I was very impressed - actually transformed - by this specific show. (A story for some other time perhaps.) But I loved the way that Weir was “playing with” the song canon of the Dead. The entire Ratdog lineup was just extremely enjoyable - tight, jazzy and trippy. I liked it . . . alot.

So last year I saw two Ratdog shows - both fantastic. At Summerfest, the boys played a really great long set opening for String Cheese Incident at the Marcus Theater (the "cheesedog tour"). The band was on, the sound was good, and the crowd was way into it. I actually felt a little sorry for SCI to have to follow this set – because Ratdog was “en fuego.” This show also offered the treat of watching Bobby sit in with Keller Williams to play “Cassidy” and later playing Dylan’s “Quinn the Eskimo” with SCI.

Bob Weir and Ratdog will again be at Summerfest on July 5th and headlining at 10KLF on July 21st. So do catch them if you can.

Deadheads (and boneheads!) know that Weir has always admired Bob Dylan’s work, and Dylan songs show up regularly in his setlists. If you want to get a sense of Bob Weir and Ratdog, there are a few tracks on iTunes.including their cover of “Masters of War.” (How can that song still be so powerful?!)

By the way – I do recommend Weir Here/The Best of Bob Weir. It’s a real good collection of Weir’s work with the Dead and his other side projects. (I got mine in the used CDs section at Madcity Music Exchange. . . But I find lots of treasure there.)

Ratdog sells high quality soundboard recordings of each of its shows. The three-CD sets can be obtained in person, by mail or download. For existing fans, I recommend these shows from ratdoglive.com:

2005 Mar 29 at the Orpeum Theatre, Madison
Opens with a great Tomorrow Never Knows, and Dark Star runs throughout; but it was the final jam that was just amazing : Come Together > Dark Star > Lady with a Fan > Terrapin > Astronomy Domine > At a Siding > Terrapin Flyer > Dark Star (Instrumental) > Two Djinn

2006 Jul 06 at Summerfest
Here’s how it starts – Terrapin>Easy to Slip>Supplication>Birdsong>Book of Rules. After 45 minutes, the first “selection” came to an end. It was very good, indeed.

2006 Oct 21 at the Rave, Milwaukee
Bob put the whole show within a “Help on the Way > Slipnot> Franklins Tower” suite – including a set break. It was cool.

Rock on!

Coming Up – 10,000 Lakes Festival!

I’m real excited about going to the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival this year! First of all, I’m going to be meeting up there with a bunch of friends from far and wide. Jonny and Tonja (Spartan!) are really responsible for getting me there. I met them at Jam in the Dam in March and they raved about 10KLF.

My friends know that I haven’t camped in years. I love nature! . . . but I prefer to sleep on a bed. What can I say? I’ve somehow grown soft and decadent over the years. (Not that there is anything wrong with that!)

But J+T were persistent. . . Then Ankur and Ashwini sealed the deal. They urged me to camp with them, and I agreed. Now, it looks like Rob and Laura (from Madison) and Aaron (from Berlin) are also going – all fellow veterans of JitD! And, if at possible, my own dear one will be coming along too!

But I’m also delighted with the lineup. Some of you already know that I’m a long-time fan of Bob Weir (over 30 years!) and recently a big fan of Ratdog (more later on this topic, I assure you!).

Other bands I’ve seen and really enjoyed are . . .

• The Tragically Hip
  
• Zappa Plays Zappa
  
• The Disco Biscuits
  
• Particle
  
• Galactic
  
• The String Cheese Incident
  
• Little Feat
  
• Umphrey’s McGee
  
• Trampled by Turtles
  
• Keller Williams
  
• Toubab Krewe

And more bands that I have wanted to catch . . .

• New Riders of the Purple Sage
  
• Derek Trucks Bank
  
• Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk
  
• Govt Mule
  
• Kaki King
  
• Dubconscious
  
• Pnuma Trio
  

That’s a LOT of really good bands! . . . and there are 20 other bands playing also!! This promises to be a rollickin’ good time.

Think about it. . . I'm serious here.

5TH ANNUAL 10,000 LAKES FESTIVAL
DETROIT LAKES, MN
WED – SAT JULY 18-21, 2007