Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival has long been friendly towards jambands and that will continue this year as event organizers have just announced a batch of acts set to play the fest that includes Lotus, Lettuce and Eddie Roberts’ West Coast Sounds. The 2013 edition of the Fuji Rock Festival takes place between July 26th and July 28th at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata, Japan.

Mumford and Sons, Daniel Lanois, Gary Clark Jr., Tower of Power, Suzanne Vega, Kendrick Lamar and Aimee Mann are among the other acts added to the Fuji Rock ’13 lineup today. Headliners Nine Inch Nails, Bjork and The xx were previously announced.

Here’s the Fuji Rock Festival ’13 lineup as it currently stands…

AIMEE MANN, BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA, THE BAWDIES, BJORK, CJ RAMONE, COHEED AND CAMBRIA, DANIEL LANOIS, DAUGHTER, DEATH GRIPS, DJ SHADOW, EDDIE ROBERTS’ WEST COAST SOUNDS, FEED ME, FERMIN MUGURUZA KONTRAKANTXA, FLYING LOTUS, FOALS, FUN., GARY CLARK JR., HOT 8 BRASS BAND, HURTS, JACK BEATS (DJ SET), JAZZANOVA, JULIO BASHMORE, KEMURI, KENDRICK LAMAR, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, KYTE, LETTUCE, LOTUS, MAYA JANE COLES, MODESELEKTOR, MUMFORD & SONS, NINE INCH NAILS, OF MONSTERS AND MEN, TAMIO OKUDA, PORTER ROBINSON, ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, RON SEXSMITH, SPARKS, SUZANNE VEGA, TAHITI 80, TAME IMPALA, THE xx, TOM ODELL, TORO Y MOI, TOWER OF POWER, YELLOWCARD, YO LA TENGO

Tickets are available for those outside of Japan through the FRF Official Shop.

The lineup for this year’s Electric Forest has been announced and mixes jam, rock and a heaping dose of electronica. The event is set to place in Rothbury, Michigan from June 27 – 30. As usual, the String Cheese Incident will headline and play a total of three shows. HT faves Passion Pit, Lotus, Railroad Earth, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Pretty Lights, Femi Kuti and the Positive Force and Greensky Bluegrass are just a handful of the many bands on the bill.

Also of note, the fest will see the return of SuckerPunch featuring Marc Brownstein and Aron Magner of the Disco Biscuits with Jamie Shields of the New Deal and Mike Greenfield of Lotus. Electric Forest will also see Umphrey’s side projects Digital Tape Machine and Cosby Sweater as well as STS9 side project Pigs On The Wing featuring Murph.

Weekend tickets are available now for $259.

Here’s the complete initial Electric Forest lineup…

The String Cheese Incident (3 shows), Pretty Lights, Passion Pit, Empire of the Sun, Knife Party, Dispatch, Lotus, Benny Benassi, Yeasayer, Beats Antique, Madeon, A-Trak, Tommy Trash, Grimes, HOLY GHOST!, NERVO, EOTO, Railroad Earth, Headhunterz, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Kill the Noise, Emancipator, FEMI KUTI & The Positive Force, Baauer, Noisia, Michal Menert, RL Grime, SuckerPunch ft. Marc and Aron of the Disco Biscuits, Jamie Shields of the New Deal, and Mike Greenfield of Lotus, Danny Brown, Greensky Bluegrass, 3LAU, Digital Tape Machine ft. Joel Cummins & Kris Myers of Umphrey’s McGee, The Werks, Treasure Fingers, Boombox, Future Rock, Craze, Le Castle Vania, OLIVER, Jeff Austin & Friends, Ana Sia, Pigs on the Wing ft. Murphy of STS9, Reptar, Nick Catchidubs, The Pimps of Joytime, Clockwork, Ryan Hemsworth, Just Blaze, Doldrums, Nahko and Medicine for the People, Robert DeLong, Up Until Now, Helicopter Showdown, Moon Hooch, LowRIDERz, Milkman, Samo Sound Boy, Twiddle, Tumbleweed Wanderers, The Stepkids, Manic Focus, Party Supplies, Cosby Sweater ft. Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee, Christian Rich, Motion Potion, Bestfriends, Munson Meeks

Unlike their genre contemporaries, who they are consistently lumped in with, Lotus brings a more diverse and varied sound as evidenced in the new repertoire of music recently released on Build. The new album adds another layer of musings from the well-traveled and still burgeoning band.

[All Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

A live touring juggernaut, currently scheduled to be at a venue near you, complete with a stellar light show experience, a beat and melody that is unpredictable and a unique sound with a slow build-up, Lotus is jamtronica at its finest, a musical force known to pummel your senses and leave one gasping from air from the relentless euphoric grooves. It ultimately leads to a monumental crescendo that allows participants to bask in its afterglow.

Fresh off a successful turn at sold-out venues in New York City, Hidden Track caught up with guitarist and synthesizer player, Luke Miller.

Hidden Track: I have been enjoying the new album, Build. Can you share how it is different from the band’s previous studio albums?

Luke Miller: We try to record most of our albums live in the studio which does not necessarily mean that every instrument is played live simultaneously but we try to do the majority of it live yet some of the electronic elements are added afterwards. I think it is a little more focused, a little less eclectic than our last album. We recorded 2 1/2 albums worth of songs, so we chose songs with the same kinda up-tempo sound on this one.

READ ON

Lotus @ Best Buy Theater, January 26th

Photos: Jeremy Gordon

This past Saturday night Lotus sold out the Best Buy Theater in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square in New York City as part of the band’s 2013 national tour.

HT’ Jeremy Gordon was on hand and provided us with a gallery of stellar photos.

Setlist…

READ ON

Lotus @ Irving Plaza, May 10th

This past weekend Lotus returned to New York City for two intimate shows at Irving Plaza.  Playing before a near-capacity crowd on Thursday evening and a sold out venue on Friday night, the band treated fans to Moss Shoes (last played on October 6, 2007) and paid tribute to MCA and the Beastie Boys by covering In 3s and Sabrosa.  The jamtronica act busted out Moss Shoes at the request of fans, who took to the band’s social networking sites to make their request known.

[All Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

Next up for Lotus is a trip to Japan, where the group will play a week’s worth of shows. Then, they return to the states for sets at Summer Camp and Mountain Jam.

Setlists…

5/10/12 Irving Plaza , New York, NY

1: Blacklight Sunflare, Suitcases, Malabarista, Its All Clear To Me Now > Spiritualize, Blender
———
2: We are now connected > Nematode, Molluskunk, Nonstop in SF, In 3s (Beastie Boys), Lead Pipe > Jump Off > Zelda
———
E: 72 Hours, Harps

5/11/12 Irving Plaza , New York, NY

1: Bubonic Tonic> Golden Ghost, Ashcon, Livingston Storm, Let Me In (debut), Tarasque, Massif

2: Plant your Root> Tip of the Tongue, Neon Tubes, Moss Shoes> Sabrosa (Beastie Boys) > Greet the Mind, Break Build Burn, Wax

E: Disappear in a Blood-Red Sky, Bellwether> Umbilical Moonset> Bellwether

• Live Downloads: Lotus 05/11/2012

Here’s a full gallery of photos by Jeremy Gordon…

READ ON

Another journal entry from European jam fan Josh Bogen in Amsterdam…

Jam In The Dam 2012: moe., Mike Gordon, Lotus, Keller Williams and Dark Star Orchestra

Thursday, March 15

Our omen for the day was served with at breakfast, in the form of a “LOTUS” inscribed biscuit to accompany coffee, or maybe it was just a coincidence. The weather had improved and I was finally able to take out my shades, for a perfect day to see more of the city.

[All Photos by Jon Derow]

One should realize that Jam In The Dam is not Phish at Merriweather with the band’s fans taking over the city. Amsterdam is a major city and the festival is small. Add to that the fact that Amsterdam has more than its share of resident bohemians and backpack slinging tourists, as well as lower temperatures which keep the tie-dyes covered up by jackets, and it’s hard to even notice that we are here. It’s also possible that with the shows ending around 2 am, people are just barely managing to get up in time for the next night’s festivities. However, when you do arrive at the Milky Way, you are met by an unmistakable jam band crowd, tie-dyes bared and more than few over the top outfits.

Entrance has been smooth into the venue, so it’s really just a lot of old and new friends hanging out in the vicinity. Today, however, the line stretched out into the street an hour before the start time, as cardboard tube-wielding fans waited to get their official posters signed by their favorite artists. This is one of the perks, I guess, of an intimate destination festival like Jam In The Dam (try that at Bonnaroo; the line would stretch to the next state). All of DSO and moe. were on hand, as well as Keller. Lotus was still busy with soundcheck, and Mike Gordon’s crew didn’t seem to have made it.(In their defense, they did have the latest start time of the night and I am sure most of the festival-goers can sympathize that getting anywhere on time here is a struggle after a late night out.)

READ ON

Joshua Bogen of JamBandsEurope doesn’t get to catch many jam acts in action as a European resident, so he’s taking full advantage of Jam In The Dam. Each day he’ll provide a diary of his experience in Amsterdam watching DSO, Mike Gordon, Lotus, Keller and moe.

After a busy day on Tuesday I woke up late, which I think will pretty much be the case for the duration of Jam In The Dam. The weather has been unchanged, overcast but not uncomfortable, with more than a touch of grey. A quick breakfast/lunch and off I went into the city to actually see something today. We were now relatively oriented and it did not take too long to arrive at the Van Gogh museum, probably the can’t miss sight for Amsterdam. An amazing collection, well organized to make the tour really easy to follow. And in the middle, we discovered a little gem, an oil painting by Van Gogh titled Skull of A Skeleton with Burning Cigarette. If you haven’t seen it, here it is…

[Public Domain Image]

Yet another good omen for the festival, and possible evidence that Van Gogh himself may have attended the earliest incarnations of Jam In The Dam. After that, and despite a drawn out quest to try what are apparently considered possibly the best french fries in the world, which ended in failure as the place was closed, we made it the Melkweg on time.

At this point I should mention that the Jam In The Dam schedule is printed out in what, for me, is a completely backwards way. For each day’s schedule the times for the “headliner” of the day, the last band to go on, is printed first, and the start and end times for the “opener,” the first band to play, is printed at the bottom, with the other bands’ time slots listed in reverse order. If you can follow me, that means that the first time you see on the schedule is when the last band goes on, a set at midnight, and the last time you see, at the bottom, is the time that the first band is supposed to finish their set, at 9:30 PM. However, when I first glanced at the schedule, reading in a logical fashion, i got the idea into my head that each night started at 12 midnight and ended at 9:30 in the morning. (which actually if you think about it, would be quite convenient for the people coming over from the U.S., who would basically never have to adjust to European time). Thankfully, that is not the case, and the festival got rolling right on time at 8 PM.

READ ON

Well, we flip the calendar year over to 2011 and it of course takes me a little while to make the adjustment. Every week [errr, almost every week] when I go to write this piece, the first thing I do is do an Advanced Search on the Live Music Archive for the range of dates from last week. At first I put in 2010 and got a little confused. Right, 2011. OK, back on track. A lot of the selections this week all come from either Jam Cruise or moe’s destination concerts down in the Dominican Republic. A Caribbean edition if you will.

You can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to tonedeaf for this week's photo]

Little Feat – Fat Man In The Bathtub > Abba Zaba > Fat Man In The Bathtub
Date & Venue: 2011-01-03 – Infinity Hall – Norfolk, CT
Taper & Show Download: Dave Malloy (CTDave)

Well, since I got in alphabetical order – we’re actually leading off with the only selection not from a warm climate. But this is a very hot section of music from Little Feat’s encore which features their classic Fat Man In The Bathtub, a tribute to Captain Beefheart with Abba Zaba, and I heard a little bit of Scarlet Begonias in there too. Little Feat [tour dates] plays tonight at The Neighborhood Theater in Charlotte, NC.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

All That You Dream from a few nights later:

READ ON for tracks from Lotus, moe. and Stockholm Syndrome…

Thanks to our pal JRapp, we can premiere a number of fantastic clips from throughout Jam Cruise 9, which finished yesterday upon the MSC Poesia’s return to Fort Lauderdale. We start with Living Colour front man Corey Glover, who was on the boat with Galactic, singing Glamour Boys with ALO…

ALO w/ Corey Glover – Glamour Boys

Next, we’ve got a short clip of a George Porter Jr.-led version of Sneakin’ Sally from the Jam Room which featured Pete Levin, Ian Neville, Raymond Weber and Tony Hall on bass…

Jam Room – Sneakin’ Sally

READ ON for more videos from Jam Cruise 9 including Bobby w/ GSW, Brock’s LCD Soundsystem cover, Lotus on the Pool Deck, JHa joined by Butler and Berg on Dawes’ When My Time Comes and much more…

December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.

Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.

Better Than Ezra:

The Black Keys:

READ ON for lots more New Year’s Eve Setlists

Last week, we hit on a few of the highest profile Halloween shows, most notably Phish and their Little Feat musical costume, but this week we wanted to tie in some of our other faves from around the scene and highlight some of their musical excursions outside the norm. Across the live music landscape, Halloween has essentially become synonymous with cover tunes, so we thought we’d dump out our collective pillow case filled with musical treats and have ourselves a taste.

Lotus – Iron Man, Roseland Theater, Portland, OR,  10/30/2010

Quickly becoming one of the most festive young bands to go big for Halloween, Lotus kept up the Halloween spirit for two nights this year as they worked in a whole slew of video game tunes on Halloween night, but also treated fans to a Headbanger’s Ball on the 30th as they celebrated the 40th anniversary of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid album. Get a load of this monster rendition of the ultimate Sabbath song, Iron Man.

READ ON for more goodies from Halloween shows…

Originally Published February 3rd, 2009

I’m sure your first thought when you got the news that Phish played Killing In The Name at their July 4th tour closer was, “Hey, didn’t they do that for Cover Wars?” – Well – you’re right we did, back in February of ’09. A lot has changed in the last 17 months, including the audio playlists we used to use don’t work anymore thanks to the death of IMEEM. I’ve been meaning to go back through our old editions & fix the audio, & well – this is as good a start as any. There will be no voting this week, we’ve closed the poll as the Disco Biscuits won fair & square the first time around and even made it pretty far in the first annual March Madness Cover Wars Madness if you recall.

This track is from Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 debut self-titled album. The album topped out at #45 on The Billboard Top 200 in 1994. With this week’s artists covering the tune, it’s hard to determine if the bands are going for a legitimate angry performance or are going for a more satirical approach. Well, in some cases it’s clearer than others. Regardless of the intent, it’s always a crowd-pleaser.

The Contestants:

Audioslave: Since three of the four members that recorded the original version are in this group, I have decided not to include Audioslave as an available choice in the voting, ’cause that just wouldn’t be fair. But check below for an Audioslave performance from the Quart Festival in 2005. For those that might not know, that’s Chris Cornell of Soundgarden on lead vocals.

READ ON after the jump for the scoop on this week’s competitors…

Bonnaroo time has arrived once again, and after a few logistical malfunctions – so have I. I got on site yesterday afternoon and was welcomed by the always hot and muggy weather of middle Tennessee in June. Because of this, I didn’t hit Centeroo or the day’s activities until later in the evening.

My first stop was the Adult Swim Ragbag of Jollification. It’s midway carnival games at Bonnaroo, with the awkward twist that only [adult swim] could put on carnival games. I’ve wanted a midway carnival at Bonnaroo for years. I mean, how awesome is it to play putt-putt or ring toss at Bonnaroo? Let me tell you, it’s super awesome. The best part is that all of the games are free and if you win you get stuffed animals of the likes of Stewie and Bryan from Family Guy amongst other prizes.

[Dethklok's Wheel of Deth]

My musical journey of the weekend started with NeedToBreathe. They kicked off for a great night of music with their hit song Something Beautiful as well as a couple of covers including Tom Petty’s You Wreck Me and Zeppelin’s When the Levee Breaks. After checking out most of NeedToBreathe’s set, I made my way over to That Tent to check out Temper Trap. They managed to pull off an epic version of Sweet Disposition to open the set. Temper Trap impressed me but I wanted to give a band that I had no preconceived notions about a chance so I opted to check out Mayer Hawthorne & the County at This Tent. I arrived just in time for a cover of ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky. The song was fun but honestly I don’t think I’m a fan of their original material. At least I gave them a chance, which has become a tradition of mine for Thursdays at Bonnaroo. You never know what you can find the first night.

[Musical Carnival]

READ ON for more from Jennifer on Thursday at Bonnaroo…

Lotus @ Royal Oak Music Theatre – February 25, 2010

Lotus, the Indiana five-piece, came to the center of Michigan as they stopped off at the Royal Oak Music Theater. After a smoking Jam Cruise, Lotus have been embarking on a tour in support of the release of two EPs, Oil on Glass/Feather on Wood. The Michigan crowd was fairly young, but surprisingly sizable, presumably due to Lotus’ tireless performances at 2009’s Rothbury Music Festival. A blasting late night set and a secret show in Sherwood Forest seemed to create an influx of youngsters decked out to the nines for the Thursday show. With Rothbury on the shelf temporarily, hopefully many of the bands that made the festival so special will return to Michigan for some shows, and with some luck and enough support the festival will return as one of the premier events of the summer.

Lotus opened their two set Royal Oak show with the lively bounce of Juggernaut. Like most of their material, a playful electronic ping bounces off a hard bass line from Jesse Miller and is mirrored by guitar work from Mike Rempel. Juggernaut built to a frenzied pace, as it stretched things out slightly to catch the sizable Detroit area crowd’s interest early. The choppy, Golden Ghost came next, as Miller alternated some basslines and samples from his keyboard for the hip-hop flavored melody.

A first set highlight came at the tail end as the quintet started Trans-Am’s Obscene Strategies. The funky lasery piece from the Baltimore band was sped up and accentuated perfectly with pop fills from percussionist Chuck Morris. After it, would be The Strength of Weak Ties opening track Tip of The Tongue, which is centered around Miller’s catchy bassline and Rempel’s summoning of David Byrne on a dirty scratched wah-pedaled guitar hook. The catchy sing-a-long slowly ventured into some ambient improv before sliding into a medley of original Nintendo Zelda themes (they do both the main theme and dungeon themes for those of us lucky enough to still have the greatest system ever made.) It harnesses one aspect of Lotus’ diverse sound, “epic” electronic battle music. The well versed nerds in the crowd, reminisced about our 8-bit dungeon days as the band wound back into Tip of The Tongue before taking a set break.

READ ON for more from Pietro on Lotus in Royal Oak…

Let’s take a look at four recent tweets of interest…

Pearl Jam announced they will return to NBC’s Saturday Night Live to perform a couple of songs from last year’s Backspacer disc.

Todd Nance of Widespread Panic will join John Keane, Daniel Hutchens and other Vic Chesnutt co-conspirators for a pair of shows at Athens’ 40 Watt Club tonight and tomorrow to celebrate Vic’s life and legacy.

Lotus, the Disco Biscuits, Pretty Lights, The New Deal and other jamtronica acts at this year’s Starscape Festival in Baltimore, MD on June 5th.

Paste reports that Cardinals’ guitarist Neal Casal will release a collection of 200 photos he took during his time with Ryan Adams entitled Ryan Adams & the Cardinals: A View of Other Windows that hits stores in March.