#29: We've Got It Simple
Deep In the Valley Festival, Minor Moon, Total Blue, and Phish Summer Tour 2024
Hey Folks. Long time, no speak. We’ve just returned from what is turning into a yearly summer tradition of travelling to the Teton Valley and soaking up that high sun and altitude. Highlights included exploring an insanely huge and dark cave at the end of a epic hike, meeting a nonplussed black bear on trail in Grand Teton National Park and living to tell the tale, seeing moe. and Melvin Seals/JGB at ~8000’ above seal level and great family time with my brother and nephew. Happy to expand on any of those teasers if we see each other at a show!
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As soon as the plane hit the ground at JFK, I started preparing a new radio program for y’all and it was a nice one. We continue with the exploration of regional progressive music of the 70s, this week highlighting some great bands/jams from Quebec. One thing that amazes me is that almost every band we featured from this scene had records on major labels, and yet they are wildly unknown outside of a small circle of nerds.
New music, of course, is always at the front and this week we played jams off new records from Elkhorn (VHF Records), Dialect (RVNG Intl.) and Luke Elliott (AKP Recordings) along with a bunch of other killer stuff.
Listen to the show here and check the playlist below.
1. Elkhorn - Inside Spider Rock - The Red Valley (VHF Records, 2024) 00:00
2. Dialect - Atlas of Green - Atlas of Green (RVNG Intl., 2024) 07:56
3. Luke Elliott - Shelter In Western Regions - Every Somewhere (AKP Recordings, 2024) 13:25
4. Danny Paul Grody Duo - Moon Garden - Arc of Night (Three Lobed, 2024) 18:25
5. Fogwood - Inner Chambers - Inner Chambers (Aural Canyon, 2024) 28:26
6. Cloudsound - Universe As But One Of ∞ Nuclei of the Goddess God Body - Nucleus Cosmos (Fluere Tapes, 2024) 35:17
7. Shelter & Orion - Les Chackras Ouverts De J-P Sartre - Here’s Where You Understand It’s Only Dreaming (Les Disques Omnison, 2024) 41:52
8. Contraction - La Bourse Ou La Vie - La Bourse Ou La Vie (Deram, 1974) 1:05:37
9. Maneige - Les Folleries - Ni Vent... Ni Nouvelle (Polydor, 1977) 1:23:40
10. Pollen - Vieux Corps De Vie D'Ange - Pollen (Kébec-Disc, 1976) 1:29:49
11. Dionne-Brégent - Campus - Deux (Capitol, 1977) 1:37:03
12. Sloche - C'Pas Fin Du Monde - J'un Oeil (RCA Victor, 1975) 1:46:50
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I don’t get out to gigs like I did before the kids. Sometimes this makes me sad. But, thankfully, summer presents a lot of family friendly concerts around the greater Hudson Valley. My absolute favorite the last couple of years is Deep In The Valley—the one-day festival perfectly curated each August by Andy of Raven Sings The Blues. Coming up in just a couple weeks, this year’s DITV features eight bands/artists covering the spectrum of underground sounds from experimental Appalachian folk to fried psychedelic blues to twangy romps and everything in between. The scene is super charming and DIY on the large rolling fields of the From the Ground Brewery in Northern Dutchess County. The food is good, the vibes are right and the sun is hot, so bring sunscreen and some portable shade if you can and make a day of it.
While on vacation in Southeast Idaho, a lot of the scenic drives we undertook were soundtracked by the previous night’s Phish show (more on that in a bit) but the mornings and evenings called for something different and two new albums perfectly soundtracked the big sky sun ups & downs.
The Brooklyn-based label Ruination Record Co. has been quietly releasing some of the best singer-songwriter and folk-rock albums around for a while now. I’ve been tuned out a bit on that kind stuff but felt the need to dive back in while in the Rockies. So I popped on their Bandcamp and noticed they recently issued a new one from Chicago’s Minor Moon. I worked on the radio promo for an older MM LP some years ago and remember being charmed so I gave the new one, The Light Up Waltz, a spin one morning. To say I was instantly smitten would be an understatement. The album opens with programmed drums before a sweetly picked acoustic guitar rambles in ahead of a full band jaunt and boom you’re choogling. There’s strong whiffs of JJ Cale, Neil Young and the more jangly Flying Nun stuff of the 90s here. The sound of the record is PHENOMENAL, as a matter of fact with every listen in our rental car (or my bluetooth speaker next to the barbeque) I’d lament not having my stereo with us on vacation. We got home at 2am after 10 hours of travel and rather than crash, I had to fire up the stereo to give The Light Up Waltz the watts and space it deserves and I’m happy to report it sounds as great in the living room as it did descending the Teton Pass or sitting around a campfire in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.
The other favorite of the week is from LA trio Total Blue. Their debut full length is self-titled and comes to us via the always excellent Music From Memory label out of the Netherlands. I was tipped to this one from my brother-in-ambiance Mitch who simply sent a link saying “loving this today".” Mitch is one of those musical friends who I take deeply seriously and those three words are all it took to cue up Total Blue. I honestly only just now discovered Total Blue was the work of a group (Nicky Benedek, Alex Talan, and Anthony Calonico) and not one person. I suppose I’ve gotten used to modern electronic musicians masterfully creating breezy and rhythmic new age jazz. Maybe I figured there’s no way to, in 2024, find three people in one town or city who worship Pat Metheny Group side projects who are able to be social but I’m so happy to be wrong. The album Total Blue is all liquid and sky—fretless bass bubbles, synths ebb and flow, and guitars glide and dive to make truly weightless music that is both danceable and meditative. There’s a lot of throwback to the sounds/textures of the 80s here but it still sounds extremely fresh and now. Highly recommended.
I’ve made it clear that I am a born again Phish person. I missed a lot of jams since they came back in 2009 but I’ve been pretty tuned in since the quartet’s emergence from the pandemic, listening to almost every show played and finding joy and challenges in almost every corner. For a band I was first introduced to 30 years ago to continue to inspire, surprise and delight is no small feat. Summer time is the best Phish time in my opinion with road trips to destination venues, lawns of smilers and twirlers and parking lots brimming with old friends & acquaintance, energy and excitement.
My only shows this summer will be a couple at Bethel Woods (hands down the best venue to see them in the state of New York) but I wish I could see more as the band has been on absolute fire for the first 8 shows.
For me, songs that are 10 years old are still new, new songs are really new and some songs debuted in 2004 are still kind of new. The song catalog is immense and seemingly impenetrable but the improvisation is wide open and the best way to get into this band. With that in mind, I’ll point you to what is pretty much undeniably the highlight jam of the summer so far; a 40-minute rendition of ‘Simple’—a song the band introduced to fans for the first time just over 30 years ago—performed on July 27 at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, WI.
A multi-faceted exploration, the Alpine Simple goes through several sections before culminating in a eye-watering peak. It’s the kind of music that defies easy description and yet it’s magnificence and complexity are accessible to all with ears and heart.
Check it out below but grab this crispy AUD recording in lossless quality here: