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Zimba's Blog

April 05, 2008

Friday has come again and it's time for another musical themed entry. Yesterday, the director of one of the web design firms I met with admitted in conversation that he was a former Deadhead. Years ago he had been living on the east coast, had followed the Grateful Dead on one of their tours out west, and he never went back. He eventually settled in Portland for the high quality of life he found here. He, like many, appreciated many things about the Dead; the music, the culture, the freedom, and the experimentation. The Dead were non conformists and loved to experiment and improvise. Much of that adventure and musical exploration has been lost in music today. Radio demands shorter catchy songs in the 2:30 to 4:00 minute range. That leaves no room to experiment musically. Your journey, no matter how great the song, is very structured and brief.

While I was never a big fan of the Dead, I always appreciated their approach to their music. I have always loved bands who take a catchy riff or melody and expand and experiment with it. In a different way, it was why I enjoyed some classical music as a youngster because you were taken on an extended journey that explored the range of the particular composition.

I thought I would share some samples of some interesting groups. The first is the Grateful Dead performing Fire on the Mountain.

With with the demise of the Dead, some groups tried to take up the mantle, most notably Phish. I'm not as familiar with them and I quickly selected a song Farmhouse that captures a sense of their music.

This week I found a couple groups that are also into experimentation and jamming, carrying on the spirit of these earlier groups. They have very different music styles and backgrounds. The first Lymbyc Systym has a very electronica fusion feel with a very trippy video accompanying their song Truth Skull.

The second group is from Norway. They have many musical influences but also embrace the experimental and improvisational elements of these other groups. The group is Jagga Jazzist and the song is All I Know Is Tonight. Enjoy tonight's musical selections.

Entry Tags: the, and, that, music, dead, groups

Apr 5, 08 02:30:23

Heady Blog Brah

I just wanted to comment on how cool it is that you made this post. Maybe you're not as tightly wound as I originally thought.

There are a lot of good shows to stream (excellent background music for long poker sessions) at panicstream.com and nugs.net. Since you don't have to download a torrent first, streaming is a lot simpler to listen and navigate.

http://panicstream.com/nonwsp.htm is a link to the diverse collection of heady non-WSP samples. All of the available GD dates are at the bottom. I also must recommend the obvious WSP streams as well, they are likely my favorite band ever. Especially during the Houser(pre-summer '02) era.

Now get your jam on and go dance with the wookies!

worm311

Apr 5, 08 08:41:56

An old dead head here! My license plates sez 1dedhed and I have dead tatoos, I also use to travel around to watch them in numerous states, AH, the good ole days. To bad u all missed out!

bluandbrneyes