#61: What's Going Through Your Mind
The Future of Jam: Squeaky Feet and Riko & Whaler Collective
Hey Folks. We’re back!
We took last week off as my family indulged me on Father’s Day by taking a day trip to Southern Vermont for breakfast and a hike. If you’re ever in the Manchester area, I can’t recommend this little cafe called Up For Breakfast enough. After you’ve filled yourself on their insanely great homemade pancakes and syrup, take a walk up to Prospect Rock in the nearby Green Mountain National Forest and take in some great views. It’s a real good day.
We returned to the air and net waves this week with a new episode of the Trailhead. As it often does, the show started off quiet and contemplative with back to back pieces from Japanese artists Kenji Kihara and Rhucle. Northern California’s Constellation Tatsu has just released new albums from these two greats and I highly recommend spending some mellow time with them. Also in the first hour we heard new music from Andrew Pekler (Fatiche Records), Juho Toivonen (Discreet Music), Soda Lite (Aural Canyon), and a stunner from new cosmic american project Almost An Island from their self-titled debut on Indiana’s Past Inside the Present.
Set two kicked off with new sounds from Amsterdam’s David Mitchell. Mitchell is a fine guitarist and on his most recent self-released record, Turiyans, he expands the sonic palette and comes up with some amazing spiritual jammage. From there, we kept it psychedelic with a great exploration from the Chey Bots project on Aural Canyon before revisiting the rockier side of Herb Lore’s fantastic new record on Urthwork Recordings. We closed out the second set with a very recent live excerpt from moe.’s artistically amazing Summer tour. We heard their classic “Happy Hour Hero” melt beautifully into one of their oldest jam vehicles, “Recreational Chemistry”. It’s a great segment and so awesome to hear new keyboardist Nate Wilson add his proggy touch to these old tunes.
Listen to the show here and view the playlist below.
1. Rhucle - Shine On - No Wind (Constellation Tatsu, 2025) 00:00
2. Kenji Kihara - Mountain Pass - Winds of Eternity (Constellation Tatsu, 2025) 02:30
3. Andrew Pekler - Cymbals in the Mist - New Environments & Rhythm Studies (Fatiche, 2025) 06:03
4. Khaled Kurbeh - Jauqét Ajrās - Likulli Fadāin Eqāéh (Research Records, 2025) 11:29
5. Juho Toivonen - Rakkaus On Kaikkialla - Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari (Discreet Music, 2024) 18:55
6. Almost An Island - Wide Open (In Two Parts) - Almost An Island (Past Inside the Present, 2025) 24:27
7. Soda Lite - Manna Devour - Earthbound (Aural Canyon, 2025) 31:12
8. New Mexican Stargazers - Inspired Media Recreation - Thermal Narrative Report (NMS, 2025) 36:03
9. Mickey Hart & Bill Kreutzmann - Drums - Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN, 6/22/93 (LMA) 43:00
10. David Mitchell - Turiyans - Turiyans (Self, 2025) 57:09
11. Chey Bots - A Longer Year Than You Thought - Non-Signal Carrier (Aural Canyon, 2025) 1:08:28
12. Herb Lore - Voyage to Yesod - I (Urthwork Recordings, 2025) 1:16:37
13. moe. - Happy Hour Hero > Recreational Chemistry - Charleston Pour House, Charleston, SC, 6/19/25 (Nugs, 2025) 1:27:06
I recently waded into the waters that is r/jambands and, yes, it’s a place brimming with positivity and kids who never saw Phish in the 90s who are far too kind to Dead & Company but it’s a cool place overall. I joined the sub mostly to learn about smaller festivals and, to my surprise, my first visit yielded a great new-to-me band.
Philadelphia’s Riko & Whaler Collective are REALLY under the radar but that, of course, is how we like to find artists. It doesn’t seem like they gig ALL that much just yet but they’ve got a good deal of recorded music to get into. Sporting less of a debt to dance/electronic music than most newer jambands who have risen to to club level, Riko & Whaler have chops and healthy dose of jazz in their jams to stand out. Lovers of tape, this band seems to do a lot of basement recording to reel-to-reel and rocking to and for themselves. the release I’ve been returning to most of the smattering on their Bandcamp is the latest EP, Collective. The six tracks display a love of groove, experimentation and space, with the biggest obvious stylistic nod to Pink Floyd but there may be a slew of post-millenial influence there I’m just too grey to parse out. Like I said, I don’t know if these guy gig all that much so, sadly, there’s no trail on the Live Music Archive or Nugs to go down just yet.
Ultimately, I don’t hear a lot of fun, playful rock with such promise like Riko & Whaler these days, so I’m going to follow this crew closely and hope they play a backyard or basement within driving distance soon.
Denver’s Squeaky Feet are a band I wish I learned about more than a month ago. The reason for that is, I’ve been jamming their recent show from the Waterhole in Saranac Lake at least once a day for the last week and the thought of seeing an ascendent jam/prog group in the heart of the Adirondacks just thrills me so much. For me, a road trip to/through a mountain range with music at the end of the rainbow is one of life’s great pleasures and this is a lesson most heads learn early on. I don’t know if this joy is shared by post-hardcore or EDM lovers but it should.
Anyway, yeah, Squeaky Feet are doing something extremely cool and the couple shows I’ve heard (the aforementioned 6/15/25 andthe NYC show from 4/20/25) have me checking their socials often for some more East Coast shows. These guys are top flight musicians with a lot of Berklee on the resume but with a lot of character. The influence of King Crimson is strong, but there’s also Pat Metheny Group and Iron Maiden in there. Yes, I thought about calling Squeaky Feet’s music kinda “Iron Metheny” while listening to “Lucky Number” from the Saranac gig. Forgive me, guys.
The whole Saranac gig is insane but if you want the cream first, hit play on “Robot Run” and let the rest rip. This set has gotten me through 300 percent humidity earl morning runs. Their stuff is on Nugs as well but pay this young band a few bucks and get yourself FLACs of Saranac and the 4/20 show. These are beautiful recordings. Just do it, trust me.
That’s it for this week. A huge thanks to all paying subscribers and a gentle nudge to those of you who haven’t crossed that bridge yet: Just five bucks a month from you makes a big difference and helps make the radio show and this newsletter better by justifying spending what little free time I have on them.