The 2012 Summer Camp Music Festival is set to take place at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois from May 25 – 27. As usual, moe. and Umphrey’s McGee will headline. Primus, Gov’t Mule and the Weir, Robinson, Greene Acoustic Trio are also set to perform along with dozens of other acts. You will need a separate ticket for late night shows and details about how to purchase these ducats will be announced soon. Not So Early Bird tickets for the festival itself are on sale now.

While two more announcements remain, here’s what we know thus far:

2/28 = John Scofield
2/29 = John Scofield
3/1 = Rahzel + ?uestlove
3/2 = Jennifer Hartswick
3/3 = Marco Benevento & Jennifer Hartswick
3/6 = Skerik, Zach Deputy & Allen Stone
3/7 = Skerik and Zach Deputy
3/8 = George Porter Jr., Billy Martin & ?uestlove

There’s still two performances left (3/9 & 3/10) for which the guests have yet to be revealed. Both single-day and 10-show passes are currently on sale through Brooklyn Bowl’s website.

Mmmm…what I need is a nice long bath, a chilled Brompton Cocktail and a playback of my new Gorillaz track. “3 Artists – 1 Song”? Could work

Monday, January 30, 2012 11:12 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

With that tweet, Gorillaz member Murdoc made it known a new Gorillaz track was forthcoming. Damon Albarn, the human behind the band, hinted after their 2010 tour he may be putting the band to rest for good. However, as the recent tweets from Murdoc imply, there is at least one more track on the way, with at least two guests set to be revealed tomorrow.

Hand on my big black heart, this is the best tune I think Gorillaz have done. It rocks, it rolls, it’s got a motor of it’s own!

Monday, January 30, 2012 11:43 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Actually, this is the best collaboration I think we’ve done really. And the other artists don’t even know they did it! Is that wrong?

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 11:04 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

The track coincides with the release of the Limited Edition Chuck Taylor Gorillaz collection of sneakers. Murdoc has recorded a couple of transmissions to relay more information about the shoes and the “Converse 3 Artists – 1 Song track.”

My new Gorillaz shoes have just arrived! These ain’t for sale though. Size-9 Cuban-heeled leather Converse. Mmmm… Hand-made just for me!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 11:26 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Can’t reveal who the other artists on the track are though yet. They’re not very happy I stole their track. But it’s so much better now!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 12:22 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

(Not sure what to call this track yet…Maybe….”House of the Stinky Pink Fish?”….Hmmm..I’ll have a think)

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 12:50 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

I’m ignoring all the threats n’everything. Some people just don’t appreciate good music. Even when they’re on it. I’ll just rise above it.

Monday, February 6, 2012 1:44 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Well. It looks like they’re some way to tracking me down. Apparently one of them is going to ‘flatten my face with a skillet’. Charming!

Monday, February 6, 2012 1:49 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Just to say: I can reveal the identity of the two new Gorillaz collaborators on Feb 9th. Lips are sealed until then…

Monday, February 6, 2012 1:57 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

I don’t know why they’re so ticked off about me using their track. I think what I’ve done with it sounds amazing. Tarts.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 11:12 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

This Thursday. 9th Tune in. The gagging order’s off and I’ll let you know who’s on this track with Gorillaz. Big names! Big Deal!!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 11:16 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Someone just lobbed a grenade through my window! WTF?!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 11:22 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

A big hint was dropped about whom at least one of the secret guests might be with this tweet, which indicates either Big Boi or Andre 3000 of OutKast will be joining in on the track.

They’re treating me like an outcast. I’m not an outcast. He is though. Definitely.

about 8 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Great. There’s a baboon dressed as a postman at my door. Just handed us some notice. Some letter of some sort. I hate baboons.

about 8 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

‘Cease and Desist’ order. F**k ‘em. Don’t care. This track is coming out whatever…’Cease and Desist’. Good name for a remix that.

about 8 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Not long now….almost there…Tomorrow. The name of the track and the mystery guests. All will be revealed.

about 7 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MurdocGorillaz

Murdoc Niccals

Words and Images: Nick Irving

This past Friday, Connecticut rockers and jam legends in their own rights, Kung Fu, headlined a marathon six-hour, five-band bill at Sullivan Hall in New York City’s West Village. The homecoming was the icing on the cake of a week-long excursion through Colorado labeled “Occupy Colorado” that ended in a blizzard-riddled headlining show at Boulder’s Fox Theatre. Though they had just flown into NYC a few hours earlier, the band took the stage with the energetic authority fans have come to expect.

[All Photos by Nick Irving]

Playing to a packed house, Kung Fu delivered an improv and cover-heavy set that included numbers from Jeff Beck, Jimmy Herring and Van Halen, among others. One of the more interesting aspects of the evening was the ins- and- outs of the crowds for the four opening bands. Sophistafunk, Banooba, Easy Over and Stereopticon all had their own clearly present fanbases, and none sounded anything like the other. In a very fresh, high energy evening, time flew for Kung Fu in the most positive of ways.

Set: You Know What I Mean *, The Hammer, S’all Good, Scapegoat Blues @, God Made Me Funky +, Rocks %, Drop Dead Legs $, Bringing Up The Rear, Stratus €, Gung Ho

Encore: Paragon

* Jeff Beck
@ Jimmy Herring
+ The Headhunters
% Brecker Brothers
$ Van Halen
€ Billy Cobham

[via Kung Fu Facebook]

Kung-Fu returns to the stage this coming Friday and Saturday night at Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. Here’s a full gallery of photos from Sullivan Hall…

Also, check out this previous post with Joe Russo sitting in on drums at the Highline Ballroom.

[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.

Sure, you can still pack the car and catch a string of shows in the Southeast or Northeast, but the days of hardcore touring are just about extinct. Speaking with a dear friend over the MSG shows about how he did every single one of the 54 shows of Fall ’95, it got me thinking for a future column, the one I am writing today. Think about the logistics alone it takes to pack up a van with five or six people, a dog and a small amount of money and figuring out 54 shows on the fly. That’s what my buddies did. (For instance, they even had to replace the gas pedal with an empty tennis shoe taped to the floor once it broke off mid-tour. Phish kid ingenuity at its finest). So, how did they support themselves? They sold beer, grilled cheese and other stuff to make it from one show to the next. And – it worked!

[Photo by Parker Harrington]

Sure, today people still do the same, but not nearly to the same extent. In fact, the snapshot of the late ’90s, more specifically ’99 and ’00 saw an influx of shady characters on the lot at just about every show, selling hard drugs and god knows what else. But, it also gave the lot scenes before and after shows a certain vibe and element that let you know you were not in Kansas anymore when deciding to pick up and join the traveling circus known as tour. Yes, many folks have since grown up, had families or retired from Phish all together at this stage of 3.0, but I, for one, miss the elements of the lots that made the scene – as an overall whole — what it once was. That includes the good, the bad and the ugly/dangerous.

There was nothing like traveling all summer and seeing the same cars on the road, camping with people at Deer Creek and then running into them three weeks later on the road to Limestone or Great Woods. The sense of community, bond of camaraderie and general accomplishment and luckiness was something I wouldn’t trade for anything. It is still something we all share with one another at every show, but in smaller snapshots – the long hauls just don’t seem to be feasible anymore, and that starts with the schedules that the band plays. It’s logistically and geographically impossible to tour like we used to tour.

While the Grateful Dead gave an introduction into the jam band world and life of touring to a mass of high school and college aged music fans towards the end of the last century, with Jerry Garcia’s passing, that opened the portal for many of them to latch on and discover Phish.  However, in Phish’s case, since Hampton they have yet to truly capture a younger audience the way the Dead/Phish relationship spilled over, and it results in many of the fans ageing along with the band.  For instance 50% of YEMblog’s 4,000+ Facebook fans are between the ages of 25-34, while only 13% are between 18-24. A whopping 30% are between 35-44. When you looked around a typical Phish show during the late ’90s, you saw mostly college aged kids such as myself, that’s not the case anymore. Also, when you consider the age of those fans and that perhaps many of the males are married, the fact that 73% of YEMblog’s Facebook fans are males leads me to believe many fans can’t leave their wife and/or kids to “tour.”

Yes, I’m older and don’t spend as much time in the lots as I used to at a show, but I wish that those who do would realize it’s as much of an experience as the show itself sometimes. The buzz in the air as showtime approaches, the late night rest area gatherings with random fans who are on the same journey as you and especially the things sold in the lot at shows are all there – just in smaller doses (again, pun intended). One glaring example is the “lot shirts” and clothing lines of old. I remember tours when I had to sell an extra few beers to buy a shirt I saw five shows earlier and still have enough cash for a ticket and gas money and food. In addition to those fan-made pieces of clothing and art, there were tour staples like Be Good Family and seedleSs clothing lines that I remember on tour for years. Sure, again, they may still be there, but it’s just not the same in my eyes.

This again goes back to the scheduling of shows and geographical logistics. I’m sure it’s one reason that Phish’s management books the tour(s) the way that they do, to ward off hangers on that eventually brought the scene down and infiltrated the backstage, and it seems to be working. For that I am very thankful. I work hard and am able to travel in a little more comfort with my fiancé to the shows we want now, but for your Average Joe fan who relies on driving and selling shirts or selling beer to support themselves on the road, it’s much harder. Higher gas prices don’t help.

Overall, I feel that the main ingredients of that once amazing mixture of the cake known as tour are still there, but it seems like instead of picking it up fresh at the bakery on Sunday morning, with the smell wafting through the air and your nostrils, we are simply trying to make the same results out of a box bought on the shelf these days – at least in regards to certain aspects of the scene.

As the iconic line in Chalk Dust Torture asks: “Can’t this wait ’til I’m old, can’t I live while I’m young?” The answer is still most certainly yes! It just seems that that pace has slowed a bit, and the eats on the lot, or gear you just have to have to be the headiest kid at the show are a bit watered down. That said, enjoy every minute, because the same old band awaits inside of each venue. And in the end, that’s all that truly matters.

DropBox is awesome. We told you some cool things you can do with it last year. One of my favorites was the uTorrent automation. Being able to automate tasks to make life easier is pretty compelling. For example, if you are away from home and stumble upon a killer Grateful Dead show from eTree that you want to fetch the torrent for, you simply download the torrent to a DropBox folder and it is waiting for you when you get home. No need to open your browser at home, no need to find the torrent again, no need to even open uTorrent: all automated.

Now imagine this same type of automation for scores of other services & how convenient that would make your life. This is exactly what Dropbox Automator from Wappwolf does for you.  With many convenient automations including document editing, picture editing & social sharing, DropBox Automator can drastically reduce the amount of apps that you need to use on a daily basis and make your life more productive.

Sound cool…but what exactly is this again? DropBox Automator allows you to perform certain actions whenever documents, pictures or other items are put into specific DropBox folders.

What are some examples of automations? Just a handful of the automations include uploading documents to Google Docs, uploading pictures to Flickr, converting documents to PDF, sending documents to your Kindle, downscaling images, and uploading to an FTP server. Regardless if the tasks are relatively simple (uploading to Google Docs for example) or tedious and time consuming (individually converting a few dozen pictures), DropBox Automator will save you major time and inconvenience.

Sweet! How does it all work? Simply head to wappwolf.com/dropboxautomator and login with your DropBox account. It will request permission to link to your account and after authenticating you, display a list of all of your exisiting DropBox folders. You simply select which folder you want the action performed on and then chose which automation you want.

[Folder Selection in DropBox Automator]

That’s It? Yup. Select folder, select action, done. Some actions of course require a password & username for whatever service you are using and maybe a handful of options to select. For example, I read a ton on my Kindle but downloading an eBook outside of Amazon or a PDF used to be kind of a pain in the ass to get on my device. I would have to download the document, load it into Calibre (an amazing eBook management software application), convert to Kindle, find USB cord, connect Kindle & transfer to my device. Now, I can drop any eBook, PDF or Word Document into my Kindle folder on DropBox and the conversion is done automatically and sent to my device like magic in just a minute or two! Amazing!

[Document based actions after you select which folder to monitor]

[Kindle options]

What happens to the original files? If the resulting file would trigger the automation again, the file that needed action is processed, and moved to a subfolder named “Processed” within the folder that is being monitored. Otherwise, the original folder location in preserved.

How long does it take? Usually a minute or two. The folders are constantly being monitored and whatever action is needed usually only takes a small amount of time.

Other things to know: 

• DropBox automator is completely web based: the cloud does all the work for you. There is nothing to download to your computer and no application is needed. You don’t even need DropBox installed on the computer you are using since you could simply use DropBox web upload.
• If you have nested folders within folders in DropBox, you will have to create automations for every folder as they don’t work if you simply select the main folder.

Full List of Available Actions

• Documents

Convert to PDF

PDF to TXT

Upload to Google Docs

Send to your kindle

Upload to Slideshare

Sign PDF (electronic signature)

Convert eBook

• Pictures

Upload to Facebook

Upload to Flickr

Upload to Picasa / Google +

Downscale

Convert image

Rotate image

Write text on image

Photo effect

Stamp a logo on the image

Stamp a “dislike” on the image

• Any file

e-mail

Zip file

Rename

Upload to FTP-Server

Encrypt file

Decrypt file

View Existing Automations After you create automations, when you visit dropboxautomator again & log in, all your existing automations will be displayed. You can “Stop Automation” to toggle back and forth between having your actions executed if you want to temporarily stop, “Delete Automation” to permanently stop executing your actions or “Create New Automation” to create new ones.

Create as many as you want: it’s all free!

Enjoy your automations and all the time you will be saving. Have fun.

_________________________________

Hidden Track Technology Tuesday
email: parkerjh@gmail.com
twitter: @tmwsiy
voice-mail:  (781) 285-8696

Have an idea for an article? Product, app, or web service you are passionate about? Feel free to get in touch with me.

Here’s the list of the acts that will play at Orion besides Metallica…

Arctic Monkeys • Avenged Sevenfold • Modest Mouse • The Gaslight Anthem • Cage The Elephant • Fucked Up • Best Coast • Hot Snakes • Titus Andronicus • Gary Clark Jr. • Lucero • Roky Erickson • The Black Angels • The Sword • A Place to Bury Strangers • Liturgy

2-day passes will be available for $125 through the band’s Met Club fan club, while tickets will cost $150 for the general public when they go on sale on February 11 at 10AM ET. Metallica has a long history of performing at festivals across the globe, but this is the first time they are involved with curating and running the festival themselves.

The Metallica event is one of four for which promoter Starr Hill Presents has obtained permits. Two of the four are scheduled to take place in September, while the other – set for June 15 – 17 – will feature Phish according to Press of Atlantic City columnist Pinky Kravitz (who previously pegged the dates as June 22 and 23 so don’t go booking any non-refundable arrangements).