Umphrey's McGee Announce Philly S2, ValUMtine's Day

With the next incarnation of the band's highly successful S2 event scheduled for this weekend in Atlanta, Umphrey's McGee have announced a new S2 which will take place at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia on February 27th.  With this announcement comes another good thing from the band, more charity. 

Umphrey’s McGee’s S² debuted on October 3rd in Milwaukee and since then each event has been a unique experience in band and fan interaction. As much as each S² has sharpened the band’s ability to improvise on the spot, it has been a learning experience for everyone in attendance. With learning in mind, Umphrey’s McGee will donate a portion of the proceeds from each upcoming S² event to USTORM, a Chicago-based charity that donates funds to help children in need as well as young adults to improve their lives by providing access to various music and arts education programs: United So Together Our Reach Multiplies. USTORM has donated over $40,000 to various music and art educational schools and programs. The connection between S² and USTORM is clear -- in the ever-evolving learning process of each S² event, Umphrey’s Mcgee looks forward to continuing to assist USTORM with their mission.  [via]

Nice work fellas.  The Philly S2 goes on sale today at noon EST through Umphrey's Ticketing.   This will sell out so get em while they are hot.  Truly an awesome experience for any music fan.

That's not all though, the band keeps coming up with original ways to interact with their fans, which is partly why they are so awesome.  Just recently they released several tracks to the Rock Band Network so all you video game guitarists cans do your best Jake and Brendan imitations.  You can check out a preview of what 1348 and Miss Tinkle's Overture look like over here.

For the band's upcoming Valentines Day show, appropriately taking on the name ValUMtine's Day, they have announced a couple of fun bits of fan interaction.  The show will take place in Baltimore at Rams Head Live! and will feature the band busting out a new love themed cover based on votes.  The candidates are as follows:

Death Cab for Cutie, I Will Possess Your Heart
Wilco, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kiss, Love Em' and Leave Em'
Beck, Think I'm in Love
Def Leppard, Love Bites
J. Geils Band, Love Stinks
Roxy Music, Love Is the Drug
Prince, I Would Die 4 U
Stone Temple Pilots, Sour Girl

A tough call am I right?  I'd be very satisfied with almost all of those but I think in the end I'd have to vote for the funky madness the Prince cover would undoubtedly generate.  To do your part head on over to this link to vote, just make sure to do it before Friday Feb 12th at noon EST or you will be too late.  And noone wants that, believe me.

Adding to the ValUMtine's Day mania is a little video contest.  I'm going to just copy and paste the band's words so there is no confusion in what must be done.

Create a short video interpretation of your favorite Umphrey's McGee song for a chance to win a tickets to the show and a prize package! All you need to do is create a short video showing your love for your favorite Umphrey's song, whether it is you singing along, or you filming a short with the song as the soundtrack, the options are endless. All you need to do is post your video on YouTube and then email the link to:

contests@walther-productions.com

by 12:00 pm ET Friday, February 12, to enter the contest. Check in to Walther-productions.com for links to submitted videos.

Submissions received will be reviewed by the band, and the winner will receive a pair of tickets to the ValUMtines Day show Rams Head Live! along with two after-show passes, two Umphrey's McGee tour t-shirts, and a copy of the UMLive from that night's show.

Two runner ups will receive a copy of the UMLive from the Rams Head Live!.  [via]

Well that is pretty damn awesome if I don't say so myself.  Unfortunately we will be far away from Baltimore on ValUMtine's Day but I'm sure we'll be sending in something super hella awesome from here, most likely featuring a monkey that does karate.  It's looking like All Things Ninja!  Got any good ideas of your own?  Let us know in the comments, and let the games begin.