Does ANYONE on ILX like jam bands? I mean, really?

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0033,tracker_writer.inc,13594,.html

(didn't feel this required a whole new thread)

The following is a list of jam bands, or bands on the jam-band circuit.

0-9

7 Walkers

A

Acoustic Syndicate
Al and The Transamericans
Allman Brothers Band
Amfibian
Animal Liberation Orchestra
Apollo
Aquarium Rescue Unit
Aqueous
Assembly of Dust
Ataxia

B

Back Door Slam
Band of Gypsys
Banyan
Barefoot Manner
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Benevento/Russo Duo
Bernie Worrell & the WOO Warriors
Big Gigantic
Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Big Tasty
Biodiesel
The Big Wu
The Black Crowes

Blind Faith
Blues Project
Blues Traveler
Bob Weir & Ratdog
The Bomb Squad
BoomBox
The Brakes
The Breakfast
The Brew

The Bridge
Buckethead
Buckminster Fuller

C

The Cardinals
Centipede
Clutch
The Codetalkers
Colonel Bruce Hampton and the Pharaoh Gummit
Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains
Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade
Cope
Cornmeal (band)
Country Joe and the Fish
Cream (Band)

D

Dark Star Orchestra
Dave Matthews Band
David Nelson Band
Deep Banana Blackout
Derek Trucks Band
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
The Disco Biscuits
Dispatch
Donavon Frankenreiter
DJ Logic
Donna the Buffalo

Dr.Dan Matrazzo and The Looters

E

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
The Egg
Ekoostik hookah
Electric Apricot
The Electric Co.
EOTO
Evergreen (evergreenjams.com)
The Expendables

F

Family Groove Company
Fat Freddy's Drop
Freddy Jones Band
Fungus Amungus
Furthur
Future Rock

G

G. Love & Special Sauce
Gabe Dixon Band
Galactic
Galapagos
Garage A Trois
Garaj Mahal
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
Gneiss
God Street Wine
Gov't Mule
Grateful Dead
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
The Grapes
Greensky Bluegrass

H

The Heavy Pets
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Tuna
Hypnotic Clambake

I

Infamous Stringdusters
Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk

J

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
Jam Camp
Jazz Mandolin Project
Jefferson Airplane
Jerry Garcia Band
JGB
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimmy Swift Band
John Brown's Body
The John Butler Trio

K

Karl Denson's Tiny Universe
Keller Williams
Kudzu Kings
KVHW

L

Lake Trout (band)
Leaf Hound
Leftover Salmon
Legion of Mary (band)
Les Claypool
Les Claypool's Frog Brigade
Lettuce (band)
Little Barrie
Little Feat
Liquid Soul
Lotus

M

The Machine
Maktub
Man
The Mars Volta
The Marshall Tucker Band
Matisyahu
Max Creek
The McLovins
Medeski Martin & Wood
Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood
Michael Franti & Spearhead
moe.
Mofro
The Mother Hips
Motorpsycho
My Morning Jacket
Moon Taxi

N

New Deal
New Grass Revival
New Riders of the Purple Sage
New Monsoon
Nickel Creek
North Mississippi All-Stars
The New Mastersounds

O

Old and in the Way
Oteil Burbridge
The Other Ones
Oysterhead
Ozric Tentacles
O.A.R.

Octopus Nebula

P

Particle
Pat McGee Band
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Perpetual Groove
Phil Lesh & Friends
Phish
Pink Floyd
Pinot
Polyphonic Spree
Pnuma Trio
Primus
Pseudopod

Q

The Quark Alliance

R

The Radiators
Railroad Earth
RAQ
Ratdog
Red Levee Skyy
Raw Deluxe

Rhythm Devils
Robert Randolph and the Family Band
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
The Roots
Roster McCabe
Rubber Souldiers

Rusted Root
RX Bandits

S

Sabbatical
The Samples
SerialPod
Sister Hazel
Slightly Stoopid
The Slip
Soulfarm
Soulive
Soul Rebels Brass Band
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Spread
Spearhead
The Spin Doctors
Sprout
State Radio

Steve Kimock Band
Stockholm Syndrome
Strangefolk
The String Cheese Incident

T

Tea Leaf Green
Ten Ton Chicken
Toubab Krewe
Traffic
Trey Anastasio Band
Trigon
The Tubes

U

Umoja Orchestra
Umphrey's McGee

V

Vida Blue
Vinyl

W

The Waybacks
The Werks
Ween
Widespread Panic
The Word
Wilco

X

Xavier Rudd

Y

Yonder Mountain String Band

Z

Zero
Zilla
ZOX

PINK FLOYD RULES

no qms = no credibility

Sometimes, yeah.

Seeing Cream on that list reminded me of this: obviously hardly anyone thinks of the Who as a "jam band," but I was just listening to this the other day
http://youtu.be/qrBi4q_9Ji4
...and thinking how it just comprehensively demolishes Cream. And I like Cream, but man, the Who just flattened them.

i like pretty much every power trio that ripped off cream more than i like cream. and the who could kick almost anyone's ass in a jam band contest. if they felt like it. but they'd probably be too pissed off to feel like it and they'd just give you a dirty look. and then demolish you with music.

I think Gov't Mule is pretty good rock band. Warren Haynes is a rare modern sideman musician that was actually able to create an separate musical identity well over a decade into a career. If you like that late 60s/early 70s blues hard rock like Free or Allman Brothers or Cream etc., I'd figure you would find something to like in Gov't Mule's music.

I'd think if any of the corporate radio programmers would have mixed a band like them in on the radio next to the endless Bad Company and Led Zep or Stones tunes over the past couple of decades, they would have fit and probably would have a bit larger profile. They don't get the props but I think that is pretty canny of them to have pretty much every show they have done for years up for their fans to get from the band, usually pretty well recorded.

I just listened to a Moe. song a friend posted on fb. It wasn't terrible.

i love the dead (in addition to finally getting into a few shows, the americana albums are sorta obv great, and blues for allah is a gorgeous jazz fusion record anchored in songs and so feels to me very related to stuff like court and spark while also being totally different), love floyd and floyd bootlegs if those count. every time I've tried to get into phish, at least live, they seem like the worst possible evolution of fusion. their playing itself sounds so...self-involved, as much as you can ascribe that to a particular interplay. some of their songs are good though, I remember enjoying billy breathes

...not enough to take on the whole of ilm on the topic. :)

lol

lol

none of the newer hippie bands have songs. that's my main problem. maybe songs are beside the point. the dead had many many wonderful songs to choose from. they had an actual songbook! all the best old bands had memorable songs. allman brothers. quicksilver. new riders. little feat. also they could jam better...but they had good to great material to fall back on in if they were too stoned to play straight. i've never heard a great nu-jam band song. they might be giant songs sound like cole porter compared to phish songs.

i think it doesn't help that the bands now are completely unfunny to me. and it seems like humor is definitely a part of their thing. and its definitely zappa humor which is my least favorite kind.

it's a cult thing that i will never enjoy. and i like a lot of cult things. when people come in my store and ask if i have any phish i say no and they have no interest in anything else. they just leave. they don't look at a single record.

ALSO, i know a fanatical phish fan and i've told him that i've listened to album stuff and didn't like it and he'll say NO! you have to hear the live thing and i'll say i've listened to a lot of live stuff online...and he'll say NO! you have to go to a show!! and that right there is the heart of it. if i can't tell how good a band is by listening to any of their zillion albums or live shows online...i mean, that is some extra-musical cult-like activity.

also, yes, the dead could definitely make me cringe when they did "funky", but nothing like any of the newer bands doing "funky". kinda think there should a law against it. that and their takes on "reggae".

i also know that arguing with fans of these bands is pointless. like fighting with limp bizkit fans or something. just not worth it.

well... you have to take it for granted that jam band people will be fanatical about set and setting. i find the best way to listen to any band is to ignore anybody who listens to that band to the exclusion of all other music.

the alleged lack of tunes isn't really a weak side for me, but i listen to, you know, berlin school stuff, which isn't exactly known for its hummable melodies. compared to pink era tangerine dream, most jam bands sound like max fucking martin.

I spent close to four years sharing office space with Relix magazine. Jam band music is the worst music on Earth. If I had to rank major jam bands in order of least to most intolerable it would probably go:

The Allman Brothers Band
Medeski, Martin & Wood
Grateful Dead
Gov't Mule
Widespread Panic
Umphrey's McGee
Phish
The Disco Biscuits (aka The Worst Fucking Band On Earth)

it does make me feel a little jerky to slam the stuff because it really is music for normal white people who feel at home seeing uncool people who look like them onstage and there is something, uh, endearing about that, i guess. i always wanted to see totally cool people who were nothing like me onstage. Ghost were kind of my live ideal in the 90's as far as jam bands go.

It's never made any sense to me that Dave Matthews is gladly accepted into this category. I guess a live show makes the difference, but he seems like a fairly traditional artist/songwriter to me.

i would say that a group like govt mule actually does cross over with older rock fans and fans of older bands. duh, allman brothers fans. but i feel like widespread panic, disco biscuits, string cheese, etc have very little crossover. they are in that hermetically sealed cult world. the wider world has no knowledge of them. something they share with polka fans and probably circa 2016 drum 'n' bass fans. all kinds of people bought grateful dead albums. all kinds of people don't buy phish albums.

also this stuff only really exists here, right? as far as fandom goes? phish never even go to europe, i don't think. maybe its all for the best that phish stay home...

yeah i was just gonna compare jam band music to, like, lawrence welk. i never watched lawrence welk when it was on the air, but i don't have any great objection to it, and there's some polka music i like a lot. i mean i really dig "die knodel" for instance. so while i've never heard the disco biscuits and never have any desire to, i do definitely enjoy listening to, say, ween, or my morning jacket.

polka bands jam so hard. they are insane musicians. great songs too. and choice covers. more fun in general. the local polka radio shows here will play new stuff and it's like a ridiculous level of shredding.

i mean people like to talk shit about myron floren but that dude could shred.

i used to love phish & saw them like 20x but idk i grew out of it, havent listened to them in yrs

oddly they are playing in my area TONIGHT i think, i considered going tbh & id prob still like it but i could never see myself listening to them @ home & obv never as nearly exclusively as i did for awhile, again

When I was editor of Global Rhythm we ran a profile on Jimmy Sturr once. That dude has won 18 Grammys!

I also used to love Phish but only saw them 4 times and the last time was in 1996. I stopped caring a long time ago but will still listen to a few of the studio records every three years or so.

But I'm friends with a guy who has kept up, seen them a couple times in the last few years, and has paid for and invited me over for a live PPV show and the final Dead show with Trey. We've joked that if they happen to come near us, when we're both in town, and at one particular venue, we'd see them. It's taken like seven years but all that has come to fruition and we're seeing them on Friday (or Saturday, our wives going one night, us the other).

Love the Dead and like a few Allman brothers records but don't include them in this category because they were "old". I sort of flirted with other bands but went to see moe live once and halfway though had a magical epiphany about how shitty it was and I just gave up.

let me put it this way: of the music i used to listen to twenty years ago, phish has held up better than dream theater.

Haha!

I saw Medeski Martin Wood a couple times and really enjoyed it. There's even a MMW tune I used to put on mixes for people from time to time (Hey Hee Hi Ho or whatever exactly it's called).

I sort of fell into a circle of people who were into these bands in college after having no prior idea that such bands existed. I was mostly appalled, especially by Phish. I got dragged to a String Cheese Incident show at Wetlands once freshman year and I found them intolerable. Given that I was unaware of jam bands up to that point, I was also unaware of any backlash or hipster sneering against them, so this was a pure, gut feeling I had.

I saw MMW at a city music fest in Birmingham, AL back in the 90s, and went and bought their album afterwards. I've lost track of them over the years, though, and was surprised to find out they migrated into the jam world.

yeah I also didn't originally perceive them as a "jam band" so much as a jazz crossover band, sort of like the Bad Plus today but maybe even more crossed over. Although by the time I saw them live they were definitely in that world.

john scofield

i love jam bands!

j/k

my thesis is that jam bands are for guys in college and the tasteful/"good" ones are for the music majors

I definitely thought of MMW more as a jazz or instrumental/electronic-leaning band than a jam band. A big hip hop nerd I knew thought the same and left a show we were at halfway through because he was horrified by and unable to comprehend or deal with all the rank twirling hippies packing an indoor venue.

xp my phish nerd friends - one used to a high school jazz and orchestra teacher, the other has a doctorate in music and is a tenured oboe professor

What is the definition of 'jam band' is it pachouli soaked hippy fusion with some nods to the Dead?
I'm not that familiar with it but I do love bands that improvise heavily.
Can, Conqueroo, Meat Puppets, Levitation (& Dark Star), Loop, Spacemen 3, Television, Mountain Bus, Santana/Mclaughlin, Lifetime, Gateway, Brian Auger, Pink Floyd Grateful Dead, Mad River, Jefferson Airplane, QMS, man, Arzachel, Soft Machine, Ash Ra Temple, Cymande, Osibisa, Gila, The New Age(Pat Kilroy), Hawkwind, Mighty Baby, Great Society, Hunger, Outlaws, Allman Bros, Yardbirds, Caspar Brotzmann Massaker, Swans, Velvets etc etc. Could go on. Not sure if there's any crossover.

of the bands you name, i'd say the dead, the airplane, qms, and the allmans have "jam band" elements.

the thing about "jam band" music is that, like many genres of music, it's defined culturally more importantly than by what it sounds like. so you have a guy like dave matthews who is a very important jam band figure, even though his music doesn't necessarily have a lot of overlap with, say, dumpstaphunk.

in a historical sense "jam band" music is an outgrowth of dead fan culture- they're just clearly and obviously patient zero here (and as such it's not very fair to lump them in with everything else defined as a "jam band", because they're not very influenced by the dead!)

anyway, the phenomenon really starts in the '80s and becomes more culturally broad in the '90s. they're bands who are inspired by the drugs and the improvisational approach of the dead, but who have more in the way of "chops"- my feeling is that the dead weren't good enough at their instruments to be able to make it as a jam band in this scene. your first wave of these bands would include groups like the spin doctors, blues traveler, etc., and this was the wave that did have some degree of mainstream crossover- i don't think you will ever hear string cheese incident on the radio.

jam bands also tend to de-emphasize vocals and lyrics- there is singing, but, and this is another holdover from the dead, i think, there's not really any sense that you have to sing _well_, either in the technical sense or in the more nebulously defined emotional sense. this is where you start dealing with the infamous jam band sense of humor, which i personally would trace back to phish. phish's sense of humor is pretty much zappa's, except without the hate and misanthropy. while in many ways this is a blessed relief, it also means that the lyrics to their songs are all stupid and have no motherfucking point.

A friend of mine nearly killed the Disco Biscuits' dog with pot brownies once.

The MMW crossover thing was funny. I went to see them play once with a large cadre of Phish fans. During peak points of their improvisations, some of my friends would yell, whistle and hoot, like you do at a rock show when the jams are cookin', and in response the sweater-wearing jazz fans would turn around and shush us.

I've reached a point where I can't even listen to the Dead anymore, outside of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead. Someone posted on the live dead thread last week about some show that was the absolute favorite Dead show, so I dl'd it and tried to give a listen on a car trip. I couldn't switch it off fast enough.

then there's the newer breed of jam/EDM crossover acts. there are all kinds of these that i've never heard of that sell out theaters here (and festivals, of course) on the regular. i wonder what the ratio of hippies to bros to hippiebros is at these shows.

some of the bigger names i can think of that afaik fall into this horrible intersection: Lotus, Beats Antique, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Dillon Francis, Pretty Lights, etc.

XP during my July 4th amurican music marathon, I tried yet again to get into some live Dead, but it just wasn't happening for me ... other than the two Americana albums, I haven't been able to embrace the Dead, in spite of family and friends playing that music around me since childhood

after switching off Europe '72, I put on the recently-released 1971 Allman Brothers set, Live at A&R Studios, and I was good for the rest of the evening

wait, dillon francis the moombahton king? he's a jam band guy now? say it ain't so!

Sound Tribe Sector 9 has been going on about 20 years, so it's not necessarily a newer breed.

Also, don't forget to add Bassnectar to that list.

i'm just going off vague impressions from festival fliers and music listings. i guess he's squarely on the edm producer/dj side, then moving across the continuum you have live band edm shit like 'Big Gigantic', to regular ol' jam bands who bought keyboards and sampler pads