We’re just a few weeks away from the release of the latest Phish live archival video which features all of the quartet’s August 11, 1998 performance as a 2-DVD set dubbed Phish – Star Lake ’98. Today, the band has shared another gem from the release.
Phish debuted the Mike Gordon-sung Meat (penned by Tom Marshall and all four members) just six weeks prior to Star Lake ’98. Check out the version they laid down in Burgettstown…
There have been many occasions since we started HT that we’ve written about an artist cancelling/postponing a tour and most of the time the “official” excuse is lame. This article however is not about one of those times. Fiona Apple has postponed a South American tour that was set to begin on Nov. 27th in Brazil and run through a Mexico City date on Dec. 9th. Apple has explained her decision to postpone the tour with a hand-written letter that brought us to the verge of tears.
[Click For Full-Size or See Below]
Apple’s 14-year-old pitbull, Janet, which she rescued from a terrible life getting mauled by other dogs, is very sick and may be on the verge of dying. In the beautiful heart-felt letter, Fifi explains just how strong of a force Janet has been in her life since she rescued the dog. If after reading the letter you don’t feel Apple was justified in delaying the tour, you probably don’t have a heart. As dog lovers, we wish Janet the best and hope there’s a miracle out there with her name on it.
Here’s the full text of Fiona Apple’s letter…
It’s 6pm on Friday,and I’m writing to a few thousand friends I have not met yet.
I am writing to ask them to change our plans and meet a little while later.
Here’s the thing.
I have a dog Janet, and she’s been ill for almost two years now, as a tumor has been idling in her chest, growing ever so slowly. She’s almost 14 years old now.I got her when she was 4 months old. I was 21 then ,an adult officially – and she was my child.
She is a pitbull, and was found in Echo Park, with a rope around her neck, and bites all over her ears and face.
She was the one the dogfighters use to puff up the confidence of the contenders.
She’s almost 14 and I’ve never seen her start a fight ,or bite, or even growl, so I can understand why they chose her for that awful role. She’s a pacifist.
Janet has been the most consistent relationship of my adult life, and that is just a fact.
We’ve lived in numerous houses, and jumped a few make shift families, but it’s always really been the two of us.
She slept in bed with me, her head on the pillow, and she accepted my hysterical, tearful face into her chest, with her paws around me, every time I was heartbroken, or spirit-broken, or just lost, and as years went by, she let me take the role of her child, as I fell asleep, with her chin resting above my head.
She was under the piano when I wrote songs, barked any time I tried to record anything, and she was in the studio with me all the time we recorded the last album.
The last time I came back from tour, she was spry as ever, and she’s used to me being gone for a few weeks every 6 or 7 years.
She has Addison’s Disease, which makes it dangerous for her to travel since she needs regular injections of Cortisol, because she reacts to stress and to excitement without the physiological tools which keep most of us from literally panicking to death.
Despite all of this, she’s effortlessly joyful and playful, and only stopped acting like a puppy about 3 years ago.
She’s my best friend and my mother and my daughter, my benefactor, and she’s the one who taught me what love is.
I can’t come to South America. Not now.
When I got back from the last leg of the US tour, there was a big, big difference.
She doesn’t even want to go for walks anymore.
I know that she’s not sad about aging or dying. Animals have a survival instinct, but a sense of mortality and vanity, they do not. That’s why they are so much more present than people.
But I know that she is coming close to point where she will stop being a dog, and instead, be part of everything. She’ll be in the wind, and in the soil, and the snow, and in me, wherever I go.
I just can’t leave her now, please understand.
If I go away again, I’m afraid she’ll die and I won’t have the honor of singing her to sleep, of escorting her out.
Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes to pick which socks to wear to bed.
But this decision is instant.
These are the choices we make, which define us.
I will not be the woman who puts her career ahead of love and friendship.
I am the woman who stays home and bakes Tilapia for my dearest, oldest friend.
And helps her be comfortable, and comforted, and safe, and important.
Many of us these days, we dread the death of a loved one. It is the ugly truth of Life, that keeps us feeling terrified and alone.
I wish we could also appreciate the time that lies right beside the end of time.
I know that I will feel the most overwhelming knowledge of her, and of her life and of my love for her, in the last moments.
I need to do my damnedest to be there for that.
Because it will be the most beautiful, the most intense, the most enriching experience of life I’ve ever known.
When she dies.
So I am staying home, and I am listening to her snore and wheeze, and reveling in the swampiest, most awful breath that ever emanated from an angel.
And I am asking for your blessing.
I’ll be seeing you.
Love, Fiona
New contributor Roger Norville shares his Cannabis Cup experience with us…
I paid the price for a long and arduous first day in Amsterdam with a solid 14-hour sleep. By the time I woke up I had already missed the seminar I was hoping to see at the Cannabis Cup, though I suspect I’m not the first person who has done that.
[Photo by @musicsumo]
Blowing off the expo, the order of the day became a further exploration of the competing coffee shops. Voyageurs, Bluebird, 420 Cafe – there are dozens of places vying for best coffeeshop and they all stock different competing strains, so as a judge it behooves one to get around as much as possible.
Though each coffee shop has its own vibe, they all operate basically the same. Most have a standard bar serving non-alcoholic drinks alongside of which is a smaller counter that sells the smokeables. There is generally a laminated menu offering about a dozen different kinds of marijuana and hashish, priced about eight euros and up per gram, plus there are pre-rolled hash and weed joints available, with or without tobacco. Most places sell space cake as well.
There is a five gram limit per person and that rule extends beyond the coffeeshops; one can only legally possess five grams. There is also a limit to how much product a coffeeshop can have on the premises at any one time, and the busier places need their suppliers to come back several times a day to restock.
And that is where things get a little sketchy. According to the murky balance of law and tolerance in The Netherlands the stuff just magically (and legally) appears at the back doors of the coffeeshops. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s been working for decades.
[Photo via @ThePotcast]
To the end user (pardon the term) it all seems to work very well. Tourists absolutely flock to these places. It’s often hard to find a seat in most coffeeshops as people from all over the world sit amongst a smattering of locals and enjoy a freedom not afforded them at home. Let’s face it, most of these people are not doing anything they can’t do in their own country, they’re just doing it in the open and legally. And it feels good.
People want product, people buy product, good times and profits abound. It sure looks like a sensible system when you see it in motion.
With a full day of exhausting research behind me and feeling the need to unwind I headed to Melkweg for the evening’s entertainment. The Cannabis Cup pass includes nightly concerts, all in the DJ/hip-hop vein and all at Melkweg, one of Amsterdam’s premier music venues.
I arrived to find rapper N.O.R.A and DJ Scram Jones kicking it out to a full house. The bars were busy, the beer was flowing and with about 1,200 people smoking heavily there was no need for a dry ice machine.
The audience was kept busy between acts lunging for a multitude of free t-shirts and other swag that was hurled from the stage. The promoters were also tossing enormous joints into the crowd. “They’re for sharing,” they yelled. “Puff, puff, pass! Puff, puff, pass!”
The air was so thick you could barely see the stage when DJ Symphony started the show with a booming, “We came all the way from New York City, let’s see your hands in the air!” He did his best to get the crowd off their mellow and hyped for the headlining act Ghostface Killah.
The Wu-Tang Clan alumni emerged wearing an oversize red jacket and obligatory baseball hat. He lifted the mic to his lips and let loose with an endless barrage of rhymes that weaved around manic drops by DJ Symphony for the next 75 minutes..
It seemed like it took a while for Ghostface to truly get into the groove. After the first song he called out the light guy. “You gotta change this shit up muthafucka! We gotta work tough, it’s the muthafuggin Cannabis Cup!” The lights merely changed from a static white to an equally static red. After the next song he had some words for his accompanist. “DJ’s being an ass right now, been smoking that shit too, huh?”
[Photo by @DJBonesUK]
He even took a moment to berate the crowd, telling them he gets energy from the audience, and if they aren’t putting it out he can’t give it back. “You’re my Duracell batteries,” he urged, “let’s see you jump up and down!” But the audience was so sedated they couldn’t sustain energy more than thirty seconds at a stretch.
In what looked like a last-ditch effort to get the room hyped he invited fans to help sing some Wu-Tang classics. A few audience members were led onto the stage as the DJ kicked into Protect Your Neck. The pressure was on but Ghostface told us not to take it easy on them. “If they fuck up make sure you boo their asses off the stage!”
Killah started off with the first verse and then handed the mic off to a fan who did an admiral job. For the second verse he handed the mic to another fan who just absolutely killed it. This guy took the moment and ran with it, he rapped his ass off like he had been living for this. It was truly his Rocky moment; he went the distance and we were all there to see it. His verse done, he handed off the mic to thunderous applause, easily the most enthusiasm the crowd had felt all night.
Ghostface felt it too. “That shit is real,” he said. “N—–, you just won the Stanley Cup!” And with that the spent fan vomited right then and there on the stage.
For good or ill that was the peak moment everyone was looking for, and launching into another Wu-Tang standard C.R.E.A.M. Ghostface Killah managed to ride the energy for the rest of the set. It was fitting that he closed the show by saying, “Peace to my n—– who threw up on the stage!” Killah knows who got the party started.
[Photo via @blacktheripper]
After the show I had a hankering for some rock and roll so I headed across the Leidseplein to a live music bar called The Waterhouse, live bands every night and the cover is always just one euro.
There was a kickin’ four piece band with a pair of guitar powerhouses playing the shit out of two chords. They started off their set with Bill Withers’ Use Me and raged to a dozen patrons like they were a crowd of thousands. Every song turned into a massive guitar battle with the rhythm section stepping up with a few dazzlers of their own.
In short it was a great cap to a long day.
The beer kept coming and so did the killer rock and roll. I don’t know which did me in, but somehow I ended up asleep in my hotel room.
Last week we told you about Neil Young and Crazy Horse dusting off the electric version of Helpless for the first time in decades. Well last night they did it again as an encore at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, a fitting place considering some of the local references within the song.
The video we showed off of the Helpless bust out in Calgary wasn’t great, but there’s a fabulous clip of yesterday’s take thanks to YouTuber carsoni4. We couldn’t help but share it. Take a look…
Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Helpless
[Hat Tip - Kanada Kev]
This turkey week, I’m thankful for the opening act. Always try to get there in time to see a little bit of ‘em, you just might discover your new favorite band! Plenty of room on the bandwagon for these three… for now, at least.
Rare and special is the band that’s just as comfortable writing a catchy 2-minute ditty as playing a 9-minute jammed-out burner. But that’s just the kind of firefly in a bottle Prince Rupert’s Drops have captured on their debut. This is high-level psychedelica that plays well on repeat and begs the “if this is the debut, what’s the ceiling?” question. Perfect for the old Thanksgiving family freak out, should you and yours be so inclined.
Bandcamp: http://beyondbeyondisbeyondrecords.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: Prince Rupert’s Drops – Run Slow
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B009U4B6SC
Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/prince-ruperts-drops/album/run-slow
(alas, not available on Rdio & MOG as far as I can tell{/sadface})
A bit bold in choice of name, but an equally bold bit of music making. Kind of an updated, indie Moody Blues thing with a dash of southern rock. Yes, there are flutes and acoustic guitars, but plenty of wide open down-and-dirty to match. The end result is a very unique, very addicting sound that grows and grows on you each go around. And, oh, that opening title track! Are they amazing? I’ll leave it to you to decide.
Spotify: The Amazing – Gentle Stream
MOG: https://mog.com/m#album/67450637
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B0080T81P4
Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/the-amazing/album/gentle-stream/
Old timey music — bluegrass, jug band, gospel, country, et al. — gets a makeover every six months or so with an infinite number of new twists on the old sound. Then there’s folks like Brooklyn’s (yes, Brooklyn) Spirit Family Reunion that play it as it was intended to be played: gimmick and irony free and crackling with campfire authenticity. This is crowd-around-a-microphone, banjo-and-washboard, sing-from-the-soul music that’ll sound as good in 10 years or a 100 years as it does today.
Spotify: Spirit Family Reunion – No Separation
Bandcamp: http://spiritfamilyreunion.bandcamp.com/album/no-separation
(so indie, can’t find it anywhere else…)
Most New Yorkers have a special relationship with Madison Square Garden, but Beatles spawn Sean Lennon’s connection to the “World’s Greatest Arena” goes a step further. In a story recounted by Roger Friedman of Showbiz 411, when John Lennon shocked the world and Elton John by making a rare live appearance to perform with Elton at MSG on Thanksgiving Weekend in 1974 The Beatle was separated from Yoko Ono. Ono sent her husband a white gardenia backstage leading to their reconciliation and shortly thereafter to the procreation of Sean. Without that night in 1974, it’s possible Sean Lennon wouldn’t be here so between that and the fact that John Lennon played his last public gig at MSG, Sean’s relationship with the venue is deep.
Last night at the Garden Aerosmith welcomed Sean to the Garden stage to perform on one of his father’s classic songs – Come Together – a song they had a hit with in 1978. In over a decade of seeing Sean play with a variety of bands, we’ve never seen him so alive and into it. Check this out…
Aerosmith w/ Sean Lennon – Come Together
Here’s how it happened via Friedman’s article…
Sean and his girlfriend Charlotte had come to the Garden on a last minute invite from Liv Tyler, Steven Tyler’s daughter with Bebe Buell. No one had thought of the date or the meaning, and Sean had no intention on his way downtown to the Garden of playing with Aerosmith. But Tyler suggested it when he arrived, since Aerosmith had had a hit with “Come Together” years ago. Sean took to the stage with disarming confidence, and walked right into the number. The audience went wild.
Having now heard the first single, Frightened Rabbit cements itself on our short list of most anticipated albums of 2013. The new song, Dead Now - highlighted here with an accompanying video pieced together from tour footage - puts the band back right back where they left off on the Winter of Mixed Drinks. Whereas the recent EP State Hospital seemed a little spindly and underdeveloped, the forthcoming LP, Pedestrian Verse (February 2013) looks to be a more textural affair in the building anthem format that defines the Frightened Rabbit sound. After working with Peter Katis on the previous two full-lengths, Frightened Rabbit teamed up with Leo Abrahams for this project, a London Academy of Music alum who’s best known for his work with Brian Eno, David Byrne, and Jon Hopkins and playing lead guitar for Imogen Heap. Abrahams is a sonic guru and actually co-wrote Strange Overtones on Byrne and Eno’s Everything that Happens Will Happen Today, so the odds are fully in favor of this being a memorable one. Check out this video…
Since today is essentially Friday for many of our readers, we thought we’d move our Full Show Friday column to Wednesday this week. It didn’t hurt that an amazing fan-shot video turned up thanks in part to our own Parker Harrington. The show in question is from HT faves Ween and took place at The Conduit in Trenton, New Jersey on October 3rd, 2004.
2004 was one of the least active years of Ween’s career as they only played a handful of shows leading up to an appearance at the third Bonnaroo and then took the next few months off before kicking off a nine-show tour at The Conduit that were their last shows of the year. This show is best known for the only time Ween ever covered What A Fool Believes by The Doobie Brothers, Ween’s last-ever version of Puffy Cloud, a gorgeous acoustic Chocolate Town and its relentless setlist. Parker uploaded this entire show in three parts from a three-cam source that used taper audio. The results are fantastic.
Part One : Exactly Where I’m At, She Wanted to Leave, Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down), Happy Colored Marbles, She’s Your Baby, Take Me Away, The Grobe, Zoloft, Transdermal Celebration, Falling Out, Buckingham Green, Captain, The Final Alarm, The Argus, The Goin’ Gets Tough From the Getgo, Bananas and Blow,
Part Two: Fat Lenny, Stroker Ace, Chocolate Town*, Tried and True*, I Don’t Want It*, Roses Are Free, The Mollusk, Stay Forever, Demon Sweat, Touch My Tooter, Captain Fantasy, Don’t Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy), What a Fool Believes, Pandy Fackler, You Fucked Up,
Part Three: Homo Rainbow, Buenas Tardes Amigo Encore: Puerto Rican Power, The Stallion pt 5, I’ll Be Your Jonny on the Spot, Puffy Cloud, Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?, Hey There Fancypants, Doctor Rock
*acoustic
On Friday and Saturday night Strangefolk Reunion featuring the original lineup of the jam stalwarts will make their long-awaited return to The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester for what are the reunited band’s last currently scheduled gigs. Strangefolk, who have a history of performing with moe. dating back to the ’90s, will welcome moe. guitarist Al Schnier as the opening act on both nights.
Tickets are still available for both shows via TicketFly. Current Umphrey’s McGee LD Jefferson Waful will run lights both nights as he did for their performances back in March.
Roger Norville is back with another dispatch from the 25th annual Cannabis Cup…
I met God today, and his name is Theo Jansen.
No, I did not meet God while munching on space cake in a corner coffeeshop. I met him on a wooded hill in Delft.
After enduring a near-heroic early wakeup I was still an hour late leaving this morning. I took the inter-city train to The Hague and made my connection to Delft, a little city made famous for their blue and white ceramic pieces. After a short tram ride I set off on foot through a neighborhood of identical starkly square homes that looked like something out of A Clockwork Orange.
Rising out of this antiseptic environment is a small hill topped with trees. Littered about are the skeletons of a man’s life work, and nestled among them is a small green cottage. This tiny workshop is the birthplace of new life form. This is where the strandbeest was born.
Coming up the hill I was met by a smiling man with wispy, graying hair. Wearing a toolbelt and dressed for the fall weather in a thick workshirt, Theo Jansen was busily applying a new innovation to his creature.
“It started when I used to write for the local paper,” he explains. “I wrote a column suggesting that someone could use the PVC tubing that is so prevalent in The Netherlands to build creatures that could go off and live on the beaches.”
With the idea germinating in his head, a few months later Jansen decided to take up his own challenge. He began experimenting, building legs and joints out of PVC tubing, and in the process began the evolution of a new life form.
While his first prototype wouldn’t even stand on its own, twenty-two years of constant tinkering has produced some astounding results. The Strandbeests now resemble large winged insects made from thousands of PVC tubes interacting according to a vital 13-point motion equation (“The beest’s DNA code,” claims Jansen). These creatures can move along certain surfaces on their own, and by storing wind power in plastic bottles the strandbeests can move their tails, raise and lower their wings, and sense when they are approaching inhospitable territory, like water and soft sand.
It’s this detection system that Jansen is currently trying to improve. “I just came up with this yesterday,” he says. “With this evolution the creature can detect soft sand and water four metres further in both directions.” As he speaks the strandbeest lifts its tail and and flings it back down, seemingly of its own volition. Out of the tail extends a long thin tube, its new antenna. It looks to me like the new idea worked perfectly, but Jansen jumps into action, pulling clamps from his toolbelt and rearranging a mess of tubes.
“Usually my ideas are wrong, but the plastic shows me the right thing to do.”
I left the creator to continue with his work and explored the boneyard scattered among the grounds, a collection of earlier strandbeests bleached white by the sun. There are also some strandbeests in perfect health that can be pushed or pulled along. Up close it’s easy to admire the inherent simplicity in such complicated machines. Therein lies the trick in creating new life forms I suppose.
“When I began I thought this would take a year to complete,” says the happy inventor. “I still have twenty more years to evolve the strandbeests, it is a shame that I don’t have a million.”
Sauntering down the hill I looked over my shoulder and saw Theo Jansen had already re-engrossed himself in his new device. Punctuated by blasts of air pressure the strandbeest’s tail flapped up and down, Jansen tinkering with his scraggly hair blowing in the wind, a man gleefully engaged in creating giant brainless monsters that he dreamed of setting loose on the beaches to roam free, and I think I heard him whistling a happy little tune.
Back in The Hague I had time for only one of two planned outings. Though I was very excited to see the Louwman Museum, the world’s oldest automobile museum, I thought the art of MC Escher with his perspective-bending take on infinity would be a more fitting for a side trip from the Cannabis Cup.
Housed in a former royal residence, the Escher Museum is a three-storey immersion into the reflective world of one of the world’s great artists. While the collection isn’t huge, it certainly is iconic. So many pieces that have become ubiquitous in popular culture: the self-portrait in a silver globe, the impossible staircases, the birds morphing into fish, all the biggies are here, and the layout is accessible and informative.
[Photo by Andrew Crump CC 2.0]
Back on the quick train the Amsterdam central station I marveled at how busy and blatantly efficient the rail system is here in Holland. The trains run often and they run on time. There is signage everywhere that is updated in real time and you never see someone running for their connection. Here lies another bunch of great ideas ready for implementation in North America.
Back in the ‘Dam it was another scourge of the coffee shops to end the day. Visiting all twenty-four of the competing shops is a challenge that appears less and less plausible as the week begins to wane, but it sure is fun trying.
We couldn’t let Thanksgiving pass around these parts without our annual fluffage of the greatest rock movie of all-time - The Last Waltz
The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
From everyone here at Hidden Track, we want to wish all of our readers a very happy Thanksgiving!!!
We’re excited to bring back Hidden Flick, our column looking at under-the-radar movies penned by Randy Ray, for a special Thanksgiving edition.
Sometimes, one seeks answers, asks questions and ponders secret avenues, and the reality is that is the answer—to get your hands dirty in the muck of life IS life. ‘Tis what it is.
Rising from that very dirt, and commencing with life yet again is what it is also about, eh? Murky edges of human history provide clues of progress, but the sands and waters of nature (literally, in some cases), wash over all that has come before, as if nothing really endures.
And so, we move forward, hopefully as one positive, life-affirming unit. And there’s that word again—life. Post-final edition, we find ourselves back with a look at a film by my favorite director, Andrei Tarkovsky. This time, we gather together the roots of family and society and survival and the bitter and blissful and beautiful toll that nature takes upon us all—human, inhuman, god(s)-based, or otherwise—in this edition of Hidden Flick, Tarkovsky’s Zerkalo.
In this edition (special or otherwise, indeed), we take a look at a film that explores the depth of dreams, history, generational impact, and the bond between family and their very surroundings.
Zerkalo aka as Mirror, in its English translation, is told in a surreal stream of consciousness format with music, spoken-word poetry, famous painting motifs pierced through the thread of cinematic imagery, flashbacks, flash-forwards, more flashbacks, more dreams, more present day 1960s (or, is that the past?), interspliced scenes of actual World War II footage, and a rich and dramatically vibrant portrait of nature’s enormously silent yet powerful hold over all of us.
It took Tarkovsky ten years to craft the script, and one feels that, although he wasn’t quite sure what he was saying, or how he was going to say it, post-Solaris, his 1972 science fiction metaphysical masterpiece, he had all the right artistic tools to release all of his will to the camera, his settings, his actors, and his innate ingenious ability to craft a scene in the mind’s eye, which proves overwhelmingly touching and timeless in a way that is simply breathtaking.
Tarkovsky spent his entire career filming scenes of nature blended with paintings, actors standing against magnificent backgrounds of human toil and existence, and the dirt, the work, the art, which colored all of his oeuvre is, perhaps, solidified to a singular fine point in Zerkalo in a way that wasn’t quite so vague yet memorable in the rest of his work. Yes, Solaris towers above all of his work, like Kubrick’s 2001 does to his own creative output, but there is something about the seamless stream of consciousness that lifts Zerkalo to an especially formidable height.
Zerkalo transcends its form, and offers a new language of visual and audio poetry, which resonates when one thinks that not only does nature take away, it certainly gives life, as well.
Gratitude comes when the mind is at rest, and, at this time of the year, it is often difficult to just sit down and think about what one is truly grateful for, and why what is cherished is so important and valid to existence, but looking at the power of nature, and how it endures in ways that are both mysterious and incomprehensible, only add to its value and complexity in a manner that we can only skip a stone on the surface of its definition—and the reality is that quest is the answer.
Roger Norville is back with another dispatch from the 25th annual Cannabis Cup…
Activism is a natural part of being a marijuana enthusiast. It’s the nature of the beast when such a widely used product is so universally demonized; even the casual smoker can’t help but be caught up in the legalization debate.
Even here in Amsterdam pot is only de facto legalized; marijuana possession remains illegal though the city is tolerant to the point that the opposite seems true. And even this was a situation in jeopardy until very recently. In the last month two troubling changes were officially taken off the books in Amsterdam: the notorious Weed Pass that would limit marijuana and hashish sales to locals, and a rule that would force coffeeshops within 350 metres of a school to close down.
[Photos by @musicsumo]
With these issues at least tentatively put to rest the big buzz has been the recent legalization initiatives that have passed in both Washington and Colorado. In a timely coup the Cannabis Cup had booked a seminar with Mason Tvert, one of the main engineers behind the successful Colorado referendum.
Straddling the expo alley of booths is a white tent that houses a large lounge area and a seminar room. Nearly 200 people were seated in advance of the lecture and when the speaker was introduced it became clear that Tvert is a highly regarded celebrity among these circles.
And with good reason. The man had a well-planned strategy and he succeeded in a relatively short time where so many had failed.
In 2006 a survey was released showing a third of Americans thought that marijuana was more harmful than alcohol. Another third of those surveyed believed that the harm was about equal while a further third were aware that alcohol was a safer drug than alcohol. The stat that most intrigued Tvert was the fact that 75% of the latter group was in favor of marijuana legalization.
Tvert figured that if the public was educated on the relative harmlessness of marijuana they would naturally drift toward the legalization movement. He further realized that if someone was convinced that marijuana was harmful all the standard legalization arguments would fall on deaf ears. Who cares how much taxes the stuff would bring in if one is under the impression that pot is a harmful drug?
So the focus began with awareness. In 2006 Tvert started Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and after accumulating just $30,000 in donations he ran a successful ballot initiative eliminating criminal charges for adult cannabis possession in Denver. SAFER built the momentum by organizing media stunts, student initiatives, and hosting non-binding campus referendums. In no time they had a statewide ballot initiative up and running. This one cost SAFER $125,000 and was voted down.
“It takes millions of dollars to win,” says Tvert matter-of-factly. “It just does.”
The millions were forthcoming. When the state opened up dispensaries in 2008 the marijuana movement built in leaps and bounds. SAFER kept up with their media circus by calling out the major and the governor for their hypocritical support of alcohol and ran a thought-provoking family-oriented series of billboard ads. When the ballots were counted three weeks ago full legalization and regulation of marijuana was passed in Colorado with 55% of the vote.
You can imagine the applause in the seminar hall.
While there is no “silver bullet” to attack federal laws (ballot initiatives can not pass at a federal level), Tvert says that there is a blueprint – the end of alcohol prohibition.
“Most states will opt out of marijuana prohibition and the whole thing will come tumbling down,” enthuses the optimistic activist. Indeed, legislators in several other states are already drafting bills to loosen their own marijuana laws and the dialog level around this issue is high. The Amsterdam model proves that tolerance works and when people see this happening in neighboring states they are likely to follow suit.
Back at the expo the High Times staff was busy making sure everyone was having a good time, the booths were busy showing off their wares and an ever-present cloud drifted up from the crowd to the peaked glass ceiling of the former locomotive workshop. Seeds, grinders, pipes, bongs, everything is available here except the smokables themselves, that is offered up only in vapor form. That said, patrons are free to wander the hall smoking their own joints.
That freedom extends to the shuttle bus, the smokiest ride you’re likely to take. Dozens of huge joints burning at once, smoke billows out of the open ceiling vent making the bus look like a coal train. It’s good conditioning for the evening’s coffeeshop crawl, one smoky room after another, many of which are ventilated only when the door opens to admit another customer.
There was a fine mist later in the evening as I walked to Melkweg, the first rain I’ve seen. If it washed away any of the lingering odor from my clothes I became tainted again as soon as I entered the venue. The smoke fest continued right through the MF Doom show as marijuana and beer flowed through the bustling crowd.
The silver-masked rapper and his oversized sidekick spewed a constant rhythmic babble that approached speaking in tongues. The samples were sparse and interesting; MF Doom even sucked in the aficionados when he rapped over a Frank Zappa loop.
I’ll be straight, when it comes to hip hip I don’t know my shit from my shinola, but I’ve been around the music industry enough to recognize professionalism, and MF Doom has it down. Easily the most solid and, well, professional show I’ve seen in the last two years at Cannabis Cup, Doom pulled the energy that Ghostface Killah couldn’t and kept the crowd seriously moving for a solid ninety minutes.
On the way back to the hotel I stumbled into FEBO, a chain of ultra fast food outlets scattered about town. FEBO is basically a large vending machine, burgers and sandwiches sit behind little windows in a wall of compartments. One needs only toss a coin into a slot and warm sub-par food is in hand. It’s dirty, it’s fast, and it takes the human element out of the equation altogether. It’s the world’s most impersonal way to fulfill a basic human need.
[Photo by Alix Guillard - CC 2.5]
So fitting then that I detoured through the Red Light District on the way home. FEBO for sex. Scantily clad women sit in crimson windows waiting for someone to throw a coin in their slot, so to speak. Some ladies are actively trying to lure customers in while most sit idly reading a book or checking their text messages. Again, the world’s most impersonal way to fulfill a basic human need.
Rest assured gentle reader, I drew the line at FEBO, the rest was merely window-shopping.
There’s lots of repeats on the tube this weekend but when the likes of Ben Folds Five, Tenacious D, The Stepkids, Jimmy Cliff and Mumford and Sons are involved, these performances are worth a second view. On the “new stuff” side of the coin, AXS TV debuts a concert special featuring John Mayer jamming with Buddy Guy as well as live Lamb of God simulcast. We’ve also got our eyes on an hours worth of performances from the 2012 Hurricane Festival on Palladia this Saturday at 9PM. The Cure, Mumford and Sons, Wolfmother, Frank Turner, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Royal Republic and Rise Against are among the bands you’ll see on the one-hour program from the German festival.
Friday, November 23 [All Times ET]
Saturday, November 24
Sunday, November 25
It’s somewhat of a national retail holiday today, so did you really think we’d fill this morning’s video slot with a different song? Of course we debated between using the Levon Helm Band featuring Donald Fagen’s version of Steely Dan’s Black Friday but figured we’d go right to the source with a fantastic clip from a 2006 Dan show. Jon Herington’s guitar solo absolutely smokes. Take a look…
[Originally Published: September 27th, 2012]
Last weekend I walked into my local Berkeley coffee shop and Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row was playing on the stereo. I turned to my friend and asked if he had any way of identifying what verse we were at – but neither of us could place how far into the song we were, or how likely it was the song would still be playing when we left. It was, in fact, still playing when we left. Later that night, I saw Wilco at The Greek Theatre open with One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) – yet another song with numerous (albeit short) verses, and thus was born this week’s B List. Interestingly, both of those songs, and many listed below, share the characteristic of also not having a chorus.
Hurricane – Bob Dylan
There was a time in high school where I could recite all eleven verses from Dylan’s protest song for boxer and accused murdered Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. If I had time to dig through enough songs, we could probably make a B List of only Bob Dylan songs that have eight or more verses. In addition to the mention of Desolation Row in the intro, Tangled Up In Blue, Lily, Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts, the list goes on and on.
Remember The Mountain Bed – Music by Wilco, Words by Woody Guthrie
In the late ’90s, Billy Bragg & Wilco had the honor of setting old sets of Woody Guthrie lyrics to music and releasing two volumes of albums called Mermaid Avenue. Wilco has a number of these songs in their live rotation including California Stars, Airline To Heaven, One by One and others. One of the most rarely played is Remember The Mountain Bed and its nine incredible verses.
All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem
Plenty of words in this LCD Soundsystem classic, even when James Murphy forgets entire verses when he’s live and in the moment.
Esther – Phish
There is no perfect way to count verses. Phish’s Esther for example, has no chorus – but also has at least three different vocal structures. At a minimum Esther has eight verses if you only count the “A” section of the song which leads off and returns at the end. But the “B” and “C” sections of the vocals aren’t a chorus either – so should you count them as verses? With the strict definition of verse, there is no right or wrong answer – feel free to discuss this quandary at your evening dinner table.
Did you know Esther was Phish’s first music video? Phish.net song history will fill you in on the details,
Perhaps most enigmatically, “Esther” was also the first subject for a Phish video. The computer-animated piece was designed by an acquaintance of the band, Scott Nybakken. Playing more like a slide show of still images than a full-motion cartoon, the video was shown between sets at the 7/19/91 Somerville Theatre show.
Alice’s Restaurant – Arlo Guthrie
Multiple appearances from the Guthrie family in this B List – not very surprising. Does any song that indeed contains a chorus spend less time singing it than Alice’s Restaurant? It appears at the beginning and at the end, and is absent in the middle 20 or so minutes of the song. Listening to this song in its entirety is a Thanksgiving tradition of mine and it should be one of yours too.
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes – Crosby Stills & Nash
It’s no surprise that a long tune with the word “Suite” in the title would make the list. It’s a stretch – you have to include the outro, but when you do – it’s eight verses on the dot split up through a few sections.
Reuben and Cerise – Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter
“This song’s got a lot of words. I might, I might, I might not remember all of them” Jerry famously says to introduce this tune at Oregon State Prison with John Kahn in May of 1982. Reuben and Cerise stayed on the Jerry Garcia solo side of things with the exception of four performances by Grateful Dead.
Tyrone – Erykah Badu
You have to go to the extended version of this tale of a woman chastising her broke and self-centered boyfriend, but when you do – it more than makes the cut.
While this year’s Strangefolk Reunion gigs aren’t over yet – the band is scheduled to play The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York tonight and tomorrow – the recently reunited group don’t want the good times to end. The organizers of Snoe.down have announced that Strangefolk Reunion will perform at the festival on Saturday, March 24th at Rutland’s Spartan Arena.
[Photo by Wesley Rizzo]
Snoe.down 2013 will take place from March 21st – 24th at Vermont’s Killington Resort and in Rutland. Joining headliners moe. and the just announced Strangefolk Reunion set will be Eastbound Jesus and more acts to be announced later. Guitarist Al Schnier of moe. will open both Strangefolk Reunion gigs at The Cap. Tickets for Snoe.down 2013 are available now through Flynntix.com.
We’ll never forget the day in the late ’90s when it was revealed that avant-groovers Medeski, Martin and Wood were heading into the studio with jazz guitar legend John Scofield. This was a collaboration straight out of the dreams of many fans. The resulting album, A Go Go, stands among the best work by both artists. The project was too good to keep to just one album and tour, so thankfully the trio and Sco have teamed up plenty of times since that first album for tours and special shows.
MSMW will play a pair of shows in Colorado next month before making their Jam Cruise debut in January. Soundboard recordings of the group are fairly rare, so we were excited to see that Bear Creek organizers have shared an official recording of MSMW’s set from November 12th, 2011 at Big IV Amphitheatre for our listening pleasure. Listen as the quartet work through tunes from their two albums as well as a gorgeous cover of Lennon/McCartney’s Julia. There’s also sit ins from Roosevelt Collier of The Lee Boys and drummer Johnny Vidacovich. Check it…
Set: A Go Go, Down The Tubes > Hanuman, Little Walter Rides Again, Miles Behind, Julia, In Case The World Changes Its Mind (w/ Roosevelt Collier), Tootie Ma Was A Big Fine Thing (w/ Johnny Vidacovich), Hottentot
We’d like to thank Roger Norville for his daily reports from this year’s Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. Today, we present Roger’s last dispatch along with a list of the winners…
Spending the week caught somewhere between a haze and a whirlwind it’s no surprise that the closing day of Cannabis Cup came so quickly. Having spent the last four days hustling the coffeeshop crawl and getting the skinny on the competing strains I was ready to cast my vote.
And so, it seemed, was everyone else.
[Photo via @instant_follow_back]
At the expo the ballot lineup stretched outside of the building. Patrons spent the wait time discussing potential winners and puffing last-minute samples. After about forty minutes I found myself at the polling station and how fitting, it was 4:20 on the button.
While certain categories can only be voted on by a hand-selected group of individuals, the 2,500 regular judges were able to vote for the year’s best best coffeeshop strain, best import hash, best Nederhash, best expo booth, best glass and best new product. The votes were cast via touchscreen iPads, a first for the Cup this year, and with an ever-increasing number of judges it’s probably the most efficient way of getting everything tallied up.
The mood was a bit more subdued than usual on the shuttle back to central station, a week at the Cup can really take the spring out of your step. The bus was still thick of smoke, but even the smoking seems to have caught up with people; the ride was starting to sound like it was coming from a bronchitis convention.
The closing ceremonies are a popular event, Melkweg was jammed soon after the doors opened at 9pm. Welcoming the crowd was the Jimmy Buffett-esque Temple Dragon Band, an eclectic group led by this year’s Hall Of Fame inductee Steven Hagar.
The awards ceremony officially began with a ceremonial candle lighting, and the first order of business was to present a gift bag containing samples of every weed entry to all of the participating coffeeshop owners.
[Greenhouse Seeds Team and Jason Mraz - Photo by @greenhouseseeds]
The rest of the evening was spent announcing the winners in a variety of categories; First, second and third place winners were called by a series of celebrity presenters including Ghostface Killah and Danny Danko, with DJ Scram Jones punctuating the affair on the crowded stage.
While some winners left the stage after a quick wave and thanks, others had more elaborate acceptance speeches prepared. Accepting his award for Best Sativa, local legend Soma stayed on message with his signature ten-foot dreadlocks splayed about the stage: “Cannabis is a great thing. Cannabis is never going to go away, it is just going to blossom and blossom and blossom…”
Mason Tvert summed up his seminar from earlier in the week in accepting his award for Freedom Fighter Of The Year, telling the crowd that the key to success is dialog, while Nol van Schaik explained how the now-defunct Weed Pass started out as a misdirected solution to a parking problem.
In all dozens of marijuana businessmen, growers, activists and inventors crossed the stage to pick up an award. It was a ceremony of well-deserved back-patting within the industry and marked the end of a week-long celebration of all things cannabis. It’s an interesting time for this much-maligned plant, as the legalization movement spreads with unprecedented force buoyed by actual, bona fide success.
Who knows, maybe next year we can do the whole thing in Denver?
The winners:
Best Expo Booth:
1 – Big Buddha Coffeeshop
2 – Cali Connection
3 – ROOR
Best Product:
1 – Big Buddha goodie bag
2 – Puffit Inhalers
3 – Tiny Sister, ROOR
Best Glass:
1 – Drill Bill, ROOR
2 – The Puk
3 – MF Doom Borch, DNA Genetics
Dutch Masters Award:
Wernard Bruining
Nol van Schaik
Best CBD Strain:
Lions Tabernacle, Cali Connection
Best Nederhash:
1 – Lemon Crystal, Green House
2 – Grey Crystal, Grey Area
3 – MOG Ice, Green Place
Best Import Hash:
1 – Sharkberry Cream, Green House
2 – Twizzler, Green Place
3 – Moroccan Lemon Haze, The Bush Doctor
Outstanding Seed Company Hash:
1 – The Weezy, Reserva Privada
2 – Tangerine Compound, Rare Dankness Seeds
3 – Tangie, DNA Genetics
Freedom Fighter Of The Year:
Mason Tvert
Best Sativa:
1 – Amnesia Haze, Soma Sacred Seeds
2 – Sour Amnesia, Hortilab
3 – Green Shack, Strain Hunters
Best Hybrid:
1 – Loud Scout, Loud Seeds
2 – Rockstar, Bonguru Seeds
3 – Rugburn OG, Rare Dankness Seeds
Best Indica:
1 – Kosher Kush, Reserva Privada
2 – True OG, Elemental Seeds
3 – SFV OG Kush, Cali Connection
Counter-Culture Hall Of Fame inductee:
Steven Hagar
And here it is folks, according to an international panel of judges collected here in Amsterdam for the 25th annual Cannabis Cup, the best marijuana in the world for 2012 is:
1 – Flower Bomb Kush, Green House
2 – Shoreline, Green Place
3 – Evergrey, Grey Area
Rubblebucket at Williamsburg Music Hall – November 18
Words: Chadbyrne R. Dickens
Photos: Tamara Lee
“We are serious, never mysterious, we’re just the cold-up, loomed-up image of ourselves” exclaims Kalmia Traver within the stanza of Silly Fathers. Many in attendance at Rubblebucket’s sold-out show in Brooklyn earlier this month could recognize these patented quirky and contagious party bounce-athon anthems. The show marked the band’s umpteenth show in 2012 including stops at numerous festivals including Bonnaroo, Catskill Chill and All Good. The band provides a sound wide in depth and scope by exhibiting raw emotion while pounding power and displaying original creative energy. At a show, one may easily escape to whatever fantasy land the band may escort you towards that particular evening.
[All Photos by Tamara Lee]
Rubblebucket was founded by musical and life couple, Alex Toth (trumpet) and Annakalmia Traver (lead vocals, baritone sax) after they met in music class at the University of Vermont nearly 10 years ago. The current band has garnered respect as one of the most diverse and creative bands in the land and includes Adam Dotson (trombone), Darby Wolf (Hammond B3, Juno, Moog, Clavinet), Craig Myers (percussion), Ian Hersey (guitar), Dave Cole (drums) and Jordan Brooks (bass).
Having relocated to Brooklyn, it was apropos that the final stop of their local tour (with six more shows scheduled elsewhere this year) would take place at the Williamsburg Music Hall, the local definitive music venue for indie rock acts. Sitting alone during a telling one hour sound check, I witnessed a slice of the hard work it takes to be the quintessential party band. The brass section impressed with a vast vocal range and luscious harmonies during the warm-ups and stretching exercises. Traver periodically sat center stage to meditate and presumably find “that place” where she likes to be in preparation for a performance.
Despite another year of heavy touring, the band took the stage with their usual kinetic energy. The mic stands were adorned with pink and yellow scarves and the light show swirled in a psychedelic array of multi-colored bright patterns. The adventure had begun. Traver wore red thigh-high socks beneath jean shorts, a peace sign tattoo on her shoulder and a t-shirt with a fake hand adorned over each breast. Rubblebucket attacked the full Hall on Worker with no warm-up necessary as the crowd immediately bought into the prancing, pounding and bouncing. The front quarter of the house was stuffed with “Bucketheads” who screamed every lyric to Silly Fathers as the contagious ditty took the mood to one of elation.
The band is effective as a party band because layers of sound are impeccably layered upon each other for a complimentary tone. The addition of the brass section to the standard set up of four provides a deeper sound and when Kalmia throws down the mic to rip on her baritone sax, one is witnessing a real badass on the pipes.
Kalmia and her band mates are always open to on-stage miscues during a performance – whether a mic doesn’t work for a few moments or they are searching for a new place to go during a tune and Traver darts off searching for a new instrument or object, insightful fans witness a vulnerability from a band not afraid to take risks or push boundaries for the sake of a greater reward.
During the set, the band unleashed huge silver robots on the crowd (I discovered that the humans wearing the robot outfits are chosen among fans pre-show.) The robots are only part of the original and fresh ways the band entertains the audience. With a consistent flashing of a strong strobe light, Alex and Adam jerk about in frenetic robotic motions, reminiscent of David Byrne, another creative artsy fellow with roots in art and clearly an influence on this band. The strobe lights were affected during an eerie interlude that was reminiscent of an adventure with Scooby Doo in the Mystery Machine searching for an elusive mad man on a foggy night. Silly Father’s had three people dancing in metallic sleeping bags that creepily brought to mind the line, “I see dead people.”
The crowd reached a palpable peak during the band’s most popular song, the one they played on national TV on Kimmel, She Came Out of a Lady. Ms. Traver’s face may suggest an image of an older and edgier sister to Kristen Stewart, but her style and the band’s sound suggests a Blondie for the new millennium (they sometimes cover Heart of Glass) with a splash of Siouxsie and the Banshees, as the infectious rhythms persuaded even the biggest curmudgeon to smile or dance.
Despite Hersey’s gapped-tooth smile, his outward appearance and guitar chops brought to mind an early John Mayer and he provides an important foundation for the antics displayed by his brass section cohorts and Traver. Although there was screaming throughout the show, I had almost never heard it sound so good. During these anthems, Traver often holds a long note on vowels, allowing them to float and permeate the air in a manner which facilitates consistent fan participation.
One minute Traver is crawling on the ground ala Jim Morrison, and by the end of the show she is being carried across adoring sweaty fans while surfing the crowd after a stage dive. Kalmia even kicked a balloon off the stage like a pro. Rubblebucket’s energy is raucous and relentless as they are a band that challenges their audience to have as much fun as they do. When the band stomped up and down on stage, the crowd quickly followed their lead. Many songs simply induce audience participation with unfamiliar arrangements that make you feel as if the stage is about to lift off into orbit.
Chants of “One more song! One more song!” preceded the band reconvening for a love fest encore. With 18 people on stage, including the entire band and crew, former bass player Russell Flynn added further depth by playing a mean sousa, and a stellar sax solo was delivered by Drew Sayers of John Brown’s Body (to which Alex and Kalmia were once members.) It was strange to see more people on stage than Earth Wind and Fire and one female band member holding a pair of pink panties. The band and crew on stage hugged and kissed each other with true passion as it marked the end of a round of hard work. It was clear the audience soaked up the honest emotion.
After an arduous year of heavy travelling and the release of an EP, I asked Traver what her goal was for the band. She said, “We’ve always wanted to work hard enough to headline a stadium gig.” Her dreams just may come true, so I’d advise you to go see Rubblebucket in an intimate venue any chance you can as it may be your last chance. After Roth fumbled his microphone, Kalmia exclaimed, “Alex lost his mic and got transported to a different dimension.” Rubblebucket may be that magical band which can take us to another dimension – maybe even that mythical land, where The Jetsons sang Eep Opp Ork Ah-ah, that as children we only dreamed of reaching.
Set List: Worker, Bikes, Silly Fathers, Oooh Wa, Triangular Daisies, L’Homme, Pain from Love, Oversaturated, Don’t Exaggerate, Breatherz (Young as Clouds), Came Out of a Lady, Encore: Vox
