Going back to another idea I’ve toyed with here in past Postcards From Page Side columns, today I want to dig into the my past, and the world of now defunct bands that I grew up loving, and want to introduce to you. Instead of my typical “jamband,” I instead turn to the first “indie” or “alternative” band, besides the mainstream acts of the early nineties, that caught my ear: Luna.

Having heard a friend play a tune in a bar last week on the internet jukebox, I was inspired to re-buy 12 albums of the group’s from iTunes this weekend, and have been spinning their entire catalogue on a heavy rotation non-stop ever since. Coming from the Latin word for the Moon, the name Luna itself represents a natural satellite that not only rotates the earth, but also the insides of my mind and my visions and late-night memories of New York City.

Described by Rolling Stone as “the best band you’ve never heard of,” that certainly is how I feel a few times a year when I tear through the band’s catalogue and have a renaissance of mid-’90s Velvet Underground-esque sounds, before their final show in 2005. I’ve always associated Luna with a slightly cleaner and more romanticized lyrical version of the Velvet Underground, and that now makes sense after I learned they opened for them on their 1993 European summer tour. As their Wikipedia page also states (and I feel NAILS their sound to a ): “Luna combined intricate guitar work, traditional rock rhythms and poetic lyrics to elegantly capture the romance of the late night.”

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For this Friday playlist, we pay homage to the stoner holiday of April 20. 4/20 is a day widely associated with the wonders of weed, and I figured there’s no better way to celebrate that day than with a playlist to accompany your hazy day.

Starting off with Peter, Paul & Mary’s version of Puff the Magic Dragon, we light up this mix with a song that has been widely debated about its true meaning, from some of the squeakiest clean musicians to ever sing a note. Peter Tosh’s Legalize Itis the first of the reggae-tinged tunes, and pulls no punches in the message Tosh is preaching, and one that is extremely pertinent in the U.S. today.

Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth is a song that every suburban kid played while rolling up blunts in their drives around town, and the original version of Smoke Two Joints by The Toyes (and made wildly popular by Sublime later on), is about as straightforward in promoting toking as they come. Makisupa Policeman from Bethel is my obligatory Phish fix for this mix, and welcome us to the dankest of confines: Page’s House! Kaya by the Ganja Guru and amazing prophet and reggae pioneer, Bob Marley, pays homage to his sacrament in a beautiful tone. Before him was Bob Dylan, whose Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 boasts the line: “Everybody must get stoned!” – an appropriate anthem being celebrated on 4/20.

We close things out with the funkalicious Mary Jane by Rick James. If pot still made me feel like this song, I might just still smoke it. The bass line in this song is quite simply the headiest of all 4/20 nuggets. And we are closed out by an oft-overlooked masterpiece and message of none other than Afroman, showcasing the comedic perils of getting ripped, in Because I Got High. Happy 4/20 everyone – and remember, if you blaze this day, be careful! You don’t want the Makisupa Policeman coming to your house!

Cancer is a disease that has affected just about everyone in one form or another. We’ve all known someone who has had it or heard sad stories about the toll it has taken on many of its victims. This column is about one such story – but with a much happier ending. As my last Postcards From Page Side column mentioned, our friend Chris Cartelli has battled and survived a fight with cancer.

Our story begins at Perpetual Groove’s Amberland festival in 2008, where Cartelli met his future wife, Audra, or “Audi” as we all know her. The two fell in love through the power of music that we all share, eventually leading to the pair’s wedding a few years later. As the website I will get to in a minute says: “About two weeks after Chris and Audi were married, Chris was diagnosed with mediastinal testicular cancer. Being that the tumor metastasized in Chris’s chest, he was first believed to have lymphoma. Chris bounced between many different doctors, all giving him different opinions, before he met Dr. Feldman at Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. Dr. Feldman, an exceptional oncologist, offered Chris a spot in his clinical research trial which combats mediastinal testicular cancer. Chris was thankful for the offer and accepted. Although the treatment schedule was intense, and the combination of drugs were different than the typical chemotherapy used to fight testicular cancer, Chris came out on top. After four months, and two surgeries, Chris was officially in remission. Today he is not only an amazing husband and talented musician, he is also a cancer survivor.”

It is through the sheer willpower of Chris and Audi and the loving support of friends that Chris is doing great these days. In my recent talks with him, he has also mentioned that he was inspired to do something after his current battle, which led him to start Rocking Out Cancer. As the bio states: “Rocking Out Cancer Inc., the brainchild of Chris’s sister Trisha, was founded in March of 2012. Chris, his family, and best friend, combined the love that Chris has for live music, with the most important achievement of his life. Rocking Out Cancer aims to help fund the same type of clinical research trials that saved Chris’s life through Chris’s favorite past time – live music events. The power of music is indescribable. It can bring two people together, lift you up on a bad day, and empower you to keep improving. ROC hopes to empower others in helping fight a disease that affects so many.”

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This past Saturday night marked the return to New York of longtime Perpetual Groove keyboardist Matt McDonald for the first time since 2008, when he departed the band, until coming back into the fold during the band’s New Year’s run. The quartet did not disappoint. McDonald and his band mates played a two set affair with song selections culled from the band’s oldest and newest compositions, and featured the most poignant of encores. PGroove kicked off the performance with a recent entry into the band’s repertoire, Holy Ship, which showcased bassist Adam Perry on rare backing vocals, and was a great way to ease into a the show. By the end of the evening, attendees at the sold out performance, held at Brooklyn Bowl, were treated to a retina-blinding and ear, heart and soul-piercing relentless explosion from the Georgia-based band.

[All Photos by Mitch Manzella]

As the first set rolled on with a deliriously dark cover of the Butthole Surfers’ Pepper, my first true feeling that the PGroove of old was back was during the middle of Stealy Man. Led by his signature sonic swirls and knob tweaks and twirls, McDonald and guitarist Brock Butler guided the band through several verses of TV on the Radio’s DLZ. A powerful reminder that the band was an impulsive, improvisational group at heart, I couldn’t help but pump my fist and bang my head, quickly forgetting that it had been almost four years since I had seen McDonald with his band mates at Amberland in 2008, the band’s annual Memorial Day festival, which marked Matt’s last shows with PGroove until late 2011.

“I guess this is a time we can be very clear about this. We chose not to renew a contract. We didn’t fire anyone. On our end there was no ill will. We just didn’t see why we were giving [our management] so much fucking money.” – Matt McDonald

But, as McDonald would tell me the following night in an exclusive, in-depth interview on my couch, the second set was the best one he’s played since his return, and possibly one of his “top five ever.” Yes, it was that good. The closing stanza featured some of the biggest songs in the PGroove arsenal including the Mr. Transistor opener, the catchy TTFPJ and another fine addition to the group’s catalog, Man with All the Answers. The set spilled well over the boiling point in no time at all and came to a raucous end with the tune that always represented McDonald’s time in the band – Robot Waltz. Perpetual Groove closed out the show with their signature hand/rock gestures thrown in the air at the song’s conclusion, and was mimicked by nearly everyone of the 837 paid patrons in attendance at the sold-out show.

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I want to continue a recurring theme here on Postcards From Page Side, where in past columns I’ve discussed some of the recent technological advances that impact music fans. Each day, there are tons of new Apps created and released for mobile devices  and operating systems aimed for those of us who spend a good deal of time listening to music. This morning we’ll look at one such App, iAlbums, which is currently available for iPhone and iPod Touch App with iPad and Android versions in the works.

Released less than a month ago, the creators of iAlbums have come up with an inventive way to enhance the music listening experience on a mobile device. In a world where the wonder of flipping through albums, diving into that album’s insert, reading the liner notes and finding additional info about that artist have in large part vanished thanks to the all-electronic format, iAlbums brings these elements back to life for nearly every album in your mobile device’s music catalog.

There are many reasons iAlbums is an attractive App for music junkies such as myself. First, it’s free to download. Second, as soon as the App is downloaded and opened, it automatically scans your device’s music library and matches the albums you have with the proper album artwork and shows them in an organized, alphabetical, “bookshelf” sort of view. This feature has an immediate impact on the user, and brings you back to a view of your old vinyl and CD covers, albeit it in an electronic way. The App will even scour its database to add missing album artwork that you don’t have in your library.

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Sometimes, you find love. Sometimes, love finds you. In the case of Bruce Hornsby’s solo shows, and how they eventually, and literally, led me to falling in love with my wife to be, Erin, you simply can’t make this stuff up. Having had one of our first dates at a solo Hornsby show in 2007 at the McCarter Theatre on the campus of Princeton University, I decided it would be a nice sneak away, date night to recapture the magic of five years ago this past Friday, with the same performer on the same stage.

If you’ve never seen Hornsby solo, let me just be crystal clear and say this: make sure you do so, immediately! The man is a true “talent,” to borrow the word used by my loving fiance at the show, a maestro of every genre from Americana to rock to blues to classical to anything and everything in between. Bruce solo shows feature just a man and his grand piano, playing anything he desires, while honoring the many requests scattered about the stage and yelled out by the audience, while inviting you in with his quick wit and humor that are as much a part of the show as his dancing digits.

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For this Friday morning playlist, I have decided to pay homage the my hometown, and what I feel is the greatest city in the universe: New York City. With my Giants winning the Superbowl, and the passing of Mets’ legend Gary Carter yesterday, I felt it appropriate to remind you all of the simple electricity of the city that has it all to offer – 24 hours a day.

Kicking off with Ace Frehley’s New York Groove, which is the official anthem of the NY football giants, it’s a short rocker to set the mood. Next up is moe. with the straight-forwardly titled New York City. Always invoking loud crowd cheers when they play it here, this is a hometown staple for the jamband heroes.

One of my most talented friends, and feature in some of my Postcards From Page Side columns and mixtapes before, Brock Butler shares an amazing take on Simon & Garfunkel’s Only Living Boy in New York. A heartfelt piece that I find myself listening to a lot when I am pondering life, and its existence. It’s also a track that makes me realize just how many individual stories make up a city of over 8 million people. A remarkable tune and version by Butler here. In nothing short of a homage to Gary Carter and his passing yesterday, I included Yo La Tengo’s take on Meet the Mets, a song that symbolizes a better time for my favorite sports franchise.

To close things out, we go with the modern day anthem for this city, with Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind, followed by the anthem that has signified New York for over 50 years – Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York. For the exclamation point, I include my second favorite song of all-time with the Talking Heads’ This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), which boasts the line: “home, it’s where I want to be, but I guess I’m already there!”

So, please enjoy the playlist, and remember, whether you live here, or just come to visit, there is simply no place like New York City – the greatest city in the world.

With the three year anniversary of Phish’s “return” looming, and finding ourselves in between the madness of New Year’s and the announcement of Summer Tour, I felt it was a good time to take a look at the transformation of Phish’s scene in this day and age, and more specifically, what’s missing from outside the shows, more specifically the aspects of the scene and parking lots.

[Photo by Joel Berk]

While the days of packing up the car and doing a full tour are seemingly long gone with the two-leg breakdown, often requiring fans to fly, there is seemingly a LOT (pun intended) missing from the scene we once knew. Sure, there are many things still prevalent: from the tailgate mentality to the nitrous vendors looming in the shadows, the overall feel and vibe of a community on the road, traversing the highways of this great land just seem to be a thing of the past. Call me nostalgic, or a bit older, but most things that were tour staples are now simply a rarity, or gone all together.

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To kick off my one of my first columns of 2012, I felt it would be a great idea to put a wish list together of three things I’d like to see happen in 2012. Some requests may seem pedestrian and obvious, while others may be more unrealistic than hearing Hendrix rise from the grave and play a live show in New York. But, regardless of what this list asks for, one thing is music is clear: you just never know what the possibilities may hold, do you?

3.) Phish festival returns to Limestone

Lets’ face it: Phish festivals are the bees knees. They also redefined music festivals in this day and age as we know it, beginning with the out-of-the box thinking and setup of the real “first” festival – The Clifford Ball in 1996 (not counting events such as Ian’s and Amy’s Farm in earlier years on a much smaller scale). There has been no site Phish has visited for their annual festivals more than Limestone, Maine. Hosting The Great Went in ’97, Lemonwheel in ’98 and IT in ’03, Loring Air Force Base has boasted some magical and surreal Phish moments over the years – to say the least.

The reason I would love the band to return here is for several reasons and factors. First, it’s an adventure, plain and simple. I can still remember the Doniac Schvice (Phish’s old, print newsletter) arriving at my door in early ’97, announcing the Great Went in Limestone. Always the jokers, the band described it as “an easy drive from any direction.” Being at the northern-most tip of Maine, and having only one real route to get there, the joke is clearly on the attendees. Waiting in traffic for about 24 hours to enter, the car line takes on a party atmosphere all its own – and I’ve always had a blast.

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To end 2011, Phish returned to New York City’s Madison Square Garden for a four-night stand that marked their second New Year’s Eve year in a row (and their sixth overall) at the venue. With memories of a very impressive run to end 2010 at MSG, as well as to start 2011, with the first-ever show on New Year’s Day, things seemed to really be clicking for the band. Throughout 2011, they made huge strides in playing and jamming as the year stretched onward, which all led up to this standalone New Year’s Run following no fall tour this year. What were the results? Anti-climatic at best musically, but still a lot of fun overall.

[Photo by Michael Stein]

Now, let me say something and be very clear: there is absolutely no place in the universe I’d rather be than at a Phish show. The vibe, the ENERGY, the people, the ritual are all things I live for and have toured the country to experience for many years. But, sometimes expectations exceed the performance, which seemingly happened this past week for many in attendance (and some watching at home, as the shows were broadcast live via pay-per-view streams). Were there standout moments? Absolutely! The problem was, they were far less frequent than we have come to expect from Phish, on New Year’s runs, and especially at Madison Square Garden. But, on the flip side, did I enjoy these shows as much as many other barnburners of 2011 and years past? Definitely. Just for different reasons than the music alone.

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When I first started working for HeadCount in 2005 and 2006, one of my very first roles was pounding the pavement at shows, with a clipboard in hand, registering voters at those concerts.  Five-plus years later, HeadCount has taken things to the next level and analyzed all of the data they have collected both online and in-person since June 2011 as part of The HeadCount DNA Project. The report illustrates the differences and similarities between music fans in regards to their favorite bands, political leanings and more, a very cool idea and a valuable influx of data indeed. On a personal level, for those who volunteer for HeadCount, the DNA project allows us to see who makes up the people we speak to at shows and where their fundamental beliefs lie.

[How to Read: Out of 1,000 people who took the Fan DNA survey, 538 are Phish fans, 476 are Dave Matthews Band fans, and a 292 are Furthur fans. Of those, 148 are fans of both Phish and DMB, 122 are fans of Phish and Furthur, and 86 are fans of Furthur and DMB. 75 are fans of all three - via HeadCount]

I spoke to HeadCount Co-Founder Andy Bernstein about the results from the DNA Project. “It was interesting to see how answers varied from band to band and genre to genre,” he says. ”Indie rock fans were the most likely to be Democrats and show interest in different issues. Jam band fans were most likely to be libertarians or not party affiliated at all.” As Bernstein alluded to, the results from the DNA Project show that certain fans of certain bands (Maroon 5, John Mayer, O.A.R.) tend to be Republican heavy, while fans of the jam bands that HeadCount started their mission with (STS9, Disco Biscuits) tend to be more radical in their thinking.

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As I sit here in the early hours of my midtown NYC office, I can’t help but look at the window and stare at Madison Square Garden’s marquee and wait for Phish to get here. On top of that, add in the perils and meetings and deadlines that work demands as the holidays draw near, and the one word that comes to mind is: PRESSURE.

So, out of my normal “Hey, this is a cool Friday mix” mentality, here are some songs that either induce panic attacks, and seemingly put the Weight of the World on your shoulders. Don’t worry they won’t all scare you to death, as some songs simply refer to the world pressure. Kicking off with one of mine and HT’s favorites, God Street Wine and their appropriate track, Feel the Pressure, we get off to a start that tricks you into thinking this mix won’t go deeper. Toots & The Maytals’ Pressure Drop is another fitting tune, and the last breath of fresh air you will get before we go completely into the terror and darkness.

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String Cheese Incident @ United Palace Theater – December 3

Photos: Jeremy Gordon
Words: Brian Bavosa

After four-and-a-half years away from the Big Apple, the String Cheese Incident finally returned to New York City for a two-night run uptown at the United Palace this past weekend. Following the formula of several bands in our scene over the past years, SCI took time off the road in recent years before regrouping for smaller runs and mini-tours as of late. As this weekend proved, and especially the Saturday show which I caught, the band was firing on all cylinders and provided one of the most FUN shows I have seen in some time.

[All Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

Kicking off with a cover of  Talking Heads’ This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), the announcement was clear: the band loves New York and would certainly be pulling out all the stops on this evening. With a first set also boasting a raucous Miss Brown’s Teahouse sandwich that segued seamlessly, led by the night’s MVP keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth, into Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon and back again, the Colorado-based group was loose and poised to start the show.

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After a pair of solo shows in November that have fans abuzz about the world and playing of Mike Gordon, today we present the second installment [Part One Here] of Brian Bavosa’s chat with the Phish bass player, leading up to his final three solo performances of the year. Gordon and his five-piece band are set to perform at The Met Cafe in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on Friday, The Calvin Theatre in Northampton, Mass. on Saturday and The Egg in Albany on Sunday.

[Photo by Parker Harrington]

Continuing onward about his solo career, and his newest role, fatherhood, Gordon opens up about not only the future of his career, but about his songwriting process and the days of G.R.A.B. in 2006, where he played with fellow Phish bandmate Trey Anastasio, along with Joe Russo and Marco Benevento. So dig in and enjoy, as Gordon prepares to hit the road with his solo band before finishing out 2011 with four Phish shows at Madison Square Garden.

Brian Bavosa: Your band played two shows in November, how did it go?

Mike Gordon:  It was a whirlwind of activity getting ready and hitting the road for our first weekend in six months. There was a certain smoothness of intention which felt great in the first set – like instead of the music playing itself, our souls played themselves, or at least mine did. That may sound strange but that’s how it felt. There was a relaxedness and a tightness despite it being fresh, and it was also great to have a few new songs, including an epic cover and a new original, Sideways. That one in particular felt smooooth – it’s almost reggaeish, and yet dimented enough such that I don’t know what it is… A simple, haunting little ditty about the world on its side. Or something… Very cool to rehearse something and try so many subtle variations of groove and approach – tight vs. loose, repeating vs. improvised – and then remembering that it’s only on stage that the final element walks in the door – the magic.

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Music is about one thing: connecting. I, along with many others here at Hidden Track, have been lucky enough to form an extremely deep connection and establish close friendships over the years with many people and musicians, maybe none more so than the members of Perpetual Groove. So, while the news has now officially been announced of keyboardist Matt McDonald returning to the band after being away since May of 2008, where his last performance was at the band’s annual Amberland festival, we still felt it wise to take our time crafting a proper “Welcome Back” column this week, instead of just relaying the news across the wire.

After all, relationships – and connections – take time to hone and perfect. And we here at HT couldn’t be happier about this news and continuing our relationship with PGroove. McDonald, who will be replacing current member John Hruby over the band’s New Year’s Run in Atlanta and sitting in with the group tonight in Athens, was gracious enough to chat with me on Tuesday, along with guitarist Brock Butler and drummer Albert Suttle about the prodigal keyboardist’s return.

 New Beginnings, Old Form

When McDonald and I begin our chat, we both kind of laugh at how unexpectedly, yet easily things fell into place – much like an old relationship rekindled. Musically, at least. “Honestly, it was completely unexpected for me, too,” says McDonald. The friendships off the stage between his former – and now soon-to-be-again – band members, Butler, Suttle and bassist Adam Perry, McDonald says are stronger than ever. “What’s really important for everyone to know is that the past three-and-a-half years, it’s not like we said goodbye and got out of each others’ lives…There’s pictures of Brock holding James [McDonald's youngest son] the week he was born, several shows of mine Brock has shown up at and there’s pictures of Adam with my family last Thanksgiving. You know, we’ve all remained incredibly close. I’d definitely say, without any shred of doubt, that we are all much closer than we were three-and-a-half years ago.”

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