Umphrey's McGee

When we last checked in with the supergroup of sorts 30db, there were really no details about anything.  The only awesome that really existed was a nice streaming studio tune called One Man Show.  Now we have some good info, and it reeks of awesome. 

First comes first, the track we previewed was indeed the title track as the album will officially be called One Man Show.  Currently the record is scheduled for a May 11th release and will be supported by some actual tour dates, as opposed to the one-offs they are used to like tonight's show at Schuba's, or next week's appearance at Jam In The Dam.

While all of their public appearances until now have only featured Austin and Bayliss, the album and subsequent tour is going to be a little more crowded ........ with awesome.  Let's get some history from the official bio

Hailing from Chicago, longtime friends, musical collaborators, and all-around conspirators Jeff Austin (of Yonder Mountain String Band) and Brendan Bayliss (of Umphrey's McGee) have been writing music and playing together for years. In between their busy tour schedules with Yonder and Umphrey's, the two musicians had always wanted to start a band. They wrote some songs, played some shows (both on Jeff's turf in Colorado and back home in Chicago) and so 30db was born.

After accruing a mass quantity of music, they decided it was about time to make a record. They recruited an amazing crew of musicians to join them in Boulder for some recording sessions, and that's when 30db really took its shape and became a band. Holding down the sound on drums is the Memphis-based North Mississippi Allstars drummer and co-founder, Cody Dickinson. E-Town host and legendary guitar player from Hot Rize, Nick Forster, plays electric guitar, and Boulder-based Eric Thorin keeps it tight on the bass. The final product is a collection of heartfelt tunes, filled with fun yet ironic lyric undertones and solid playing from start to finish.

Yes please and thank you.  We even have some cover art.  Rock.

Tour dates for the band's newly announced mini-tour are below with presales beginning March 22nd at 1PM local time.  Head on over to the official 30db site for all the mania you can handle.

Also, add an LA date.  Thanks.

30db Tour Dates
May 6 | Cabooze, Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 7 | Barrymore Theater, Madison, Wisconsin
May 8 | Lincoln Hall, Chicago, Illinois
May 19 | Fox Theatre, Boulder, Colorado
May 20 | Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, California (*on sale Sun 03.21)
May 21 | Tractor Tavern, Seattle, Washington
May 22 | Berbati's Pan Portland, Oregon

** The first 20 ticket purchasers in the pre-sale will receive a backstage meet and greet with the band!

That little 4th of July weekend festival up in Maine is starting to take shape.  The latest additions to the inaugural Nateva Music Festival include Umphrey's McGee, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, as well as a special "Sunset in Maine" performance by Sound Tribe Sector 9 that will begin at "exactly" 8:28 on Saturday July 3rd.  These bands will be joining previously announced headliners Furthur, The Flaming Lips, moe, Lotus, and others.  The list of the latest additions is below.  Tickets are still available at the official Nateva site.

• STS9
• George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
• Umphrey's McGee
• Max Creek
• John Brown's Body
• The Felice Brothers
• Ryan Montbleau Band
• Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
• Greensky Bluegrass

As with any announcement there were a lot of people complaining about this year's initial Bonnaroo lineup.  Many felt the festival was betraying its jam roots.  Well the first round of artist additions should silence the critics a bit.  And .....................  Ween! It's gonna get brown.

There will be more additions as we get closer to the festival and we'll keep you updated.  Tickets and other details are still available at Bonnaroo.com

• Ween
• Galactic
• Umphrey's McGee
• John Butler Trio
• The Gossip
• Circa Survive

Umphrey's McGee continues their attempt to blur the line between band and fans with the announcement of their 2010 UMBowl.  Today comes the official explanation of the 4th Quarter as well as ticketing details, which include an extremely reasonable $99 pricetag.  I know some may consider this expensive for a "smaller" band, but having been privy to the band's behavior at one of their equally priced, albeit more exclusive S2 events, I have no doubts that the fans lucky enough to get tickets will be getting their walletsworth.  And then some.

Presale tickets go on sale March 3rd at noon CT through UMTicketing with the public onsale March 5th, same bat time, through Lincoln Hall Ticketing.  Good luck.  For more details head to UMBowl headquarters.

As you know, we don't believe in letting things wind down, so we are gonna take it up a level in the UMBowl's 4th Quarter (Q4). For Q4, YOU are the quarterback. Here is how it will work. The band will begin a set of UM classics, and along the way, you will be able to "call an audible" by texting in your vote as to which direction the band should go in.

As an example:

"Intentions Clear" begins, and four choices will be projected onto the screen:

A. Segue into a cover
B. Take the song into evil, minor key jam
C. Compose on the fly a soaring, major key "Jimmy Stewart," then return to Intentions Clear
D. Zappa-esque jam into Bridgeless

Voting occurs via text message and Offensive Coordinator Kevin will tally the votes and transmit the instructions to the band – you won't know what choice was made until the band begins to play it. You pick the plays and determine the strategy to make a killer set . . . the ebb and flow is up to you.

There has been a lot of talk over the last couple years about a possible studio album coming from the supergroup of sorts 30db featuring Yonder Mountain String Band's Jeff Austin and Umphrey's McGee's Brendan Bayliss. The duo has played several festival sets, but nothing too serious yet.  I had no idea that a website even existed for the group so you can imagine my joy when I was alerted to it, only to find a studio quality track streaming.

The tune, titled One Man Show, may simply be the first single off the album but from the art at the website it also seems like it may be a title track.  For now we are just left with guessing, but what we do have is a very nice little tune.  I am assuming the vocals will be mixed between Bayliss and Austin throughout the album but here Austin handles the lead.  Rumors of an April release seem a bit optimistic but clearly there is some stuff that is already done.  We'll update you with details when we have them, and hopefully that includes a mini-tour, although that's tough to do when your main bands hardly take a break.  Of course if you are lucky enough to be heading to Jam In The Dam you can catch the 30db set there, and you will be in Amsterdam.  Some might call that a win.

30db will also be playing a special St Patrick's Day show at Schubas in Chicago.  You can order tickets here. 

We made mention of a new UMBowl banner that the Umphrey's McGee gang added to their official site Super Bowl Sunday.  And while it's not any of the intensely researched guesses of the Super Hella Awesome team, it  certainly sounds awesome.  Re-posting the entire thing so as not to leave out any of the details.

 

We are psyched to announce the inaugural UMBowl!

UMBowl 2010 will be a unique interactive Umphrey's McGee experience. This 4+ hour extravaganza will be unlike any other Umphrey's event to date – the UMBowl will be a show for the ages!

The evening will be broken up into four quarters of music, each with a different interactive theme. The 1st quarter will kick off with an acoustic set chosen entirely by attendees. Well in advance of the show, each ticket buyer will receive a ballot to vote for which songs UM will give the acoustic treatment – and that's just the beginning. Further juicy details for the remaining quarters will be revealed shortly. Attendees will have unprecedented opportunities to showcase their musical coaching skills and truly get in the game. In addition to ticketing and travel packages, UMBowl will feature tailgating options, a halftime show, limited edition merch, and loads of other sweetness to make this a night to remember. For now, save the date for this intimate experience!

Stadium: Lincoln Hall
2424 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL

Gameday: Saturday April 24, 2010
Doors 7:00 PM, Kickoff 8:00 PM

We will be emailing further details and posting them to www.umphreys.com, Facebook, and Twitter . We have also set up a page dedicated to the UMBowl – www.umbowl.com – and will update it regularly.

Yes please!  Tailgating, acoustic set, fan interaction, halftime show, rock music oh my.   I'd say more but I'm too busy looking for plane flights.  See you there!

Looks like it's festival lineup announcement day.  Now we have this year's initial lineup for the All Good festival set to return to Martha's Mountaintop in Masontown, West Virginia July 8-11.  Those fans who weren't finding enough jam in the Bonnaroo lineup will be hard pressed to complain about this initial list as it features Widespread Panic, Furthur, Umphrey's McGee, Lotus, and many more.

Head on over to the official All Good site for ticketing info and more details.  We'll update you with the artist additions as they come.

Last night at Umphrey's McGee's Valentine's Day show in Baltimore, the band debuted a new cover based on fan voting, and the lucky winner was Wilco's I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.  Not wanting to make their original catalog feel slighted, the crowd at Ram's Head Live! was also treated to the debut of an Umphrey's original entitled Booth Love.  Thanks to the incredibly awesome combination of the taping community and the internet you can hear audience recordings of both tunes for free, today, with the band's approval.  I love the internet.

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Wilco cover)

Booth Love (original debut)

And here is a nice stream of the entire show if you feel like some nice tunes in the background.  You can download taper Timothy Brown's recording of the show over at the Live Music Archive.  Of course you can also always get high quality soundboard recordings through the band's official avenue UMLive.  Rock.