We arrived a bit late and missed Stephen Marley, the first act. I’ve seen him at Bonnaroo before, so I’ll vouch for him. He puts on a great show. Whenever you see any of the Marley brothers you always get an overwhelming feeling when they sing Bob’s songs. It’s like Bob sings through them now. It always gives me chills.

No tour could be called the Blazed and Confused Tour if it didn’t feature the old school West Coast connoisseur of smoking pot himself – Snoop Dogg. As soon as he hit the stage, a cloud of smoke hovered over the audience, much to Snoop’s approval. He was rocking a knuckle plate that read, “Snoop” that was three times larger than his hand. He was armed with a bassist, guitarist, drummer, DJ LT, and the Dogg Pound – Daz Dillinger and Kurupt. Not to mention two bodyguards in suits stood on either side of the stage. To make Snoop feel more at home, he lines the entire stage with fake cannabis plants.

Besides performing Gin and Juice from Doggystyle and Drop it Like it’s Hot from R&G (Rhythm and Gangsta): The Masterpiece to completion, Snoop bounced around his decades worth of songs, doing one verse from each. The crowd was pretty young but seemed to appreciate his oldest songs from Doggystyle the most. It Ain’t Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None), Who Am I? (What’s My Name), and his remake of Slick Rick’s Lodi Dodi were big sing-alongs. He even brought out Lady of Rage for her song Afro Puffs.

At one point he played Jump by House of Pain and several mosh pits broke out. After he rapped the first verse he said, “Damn, what you call them things? Whateva, it don’t matta, that s$@* was gangsta than a muf%$&*!” He also did a tribute to Pac with their famous collaboration on Gangsta Party. DJ LT spun Pac’s Hail Mary while Snoop gave his RIP shotouts.

Snoop wanted to make it extremely clear to everyone that his life’s passion is smoking marijuana. “I got a serious question for yall,” he announced, “How many of yall smoke weed?” Of course the crowd went crazy and Snoop let Kurupt step up to do Dr. Dre’s Let’s Get High from 2001: The Chronic. The Dogg Pound leader ends all of his shows by getting the crowd to sing, “Nah Nah, Na Na Nah Nah, Hey Hey Hey, Snoop Dogg!

The set changed over and the stagehands brought out all these props out on the stage. There were two giant skulls with marijuana leaves on them and all the giant psychedelic trees. Smoke billowed out from behind the drum set and a crazy light spectacle began as Slightly Stoopid started up.

The band consists of keys, bass, guitar, drums, sax, trumpet, and an aux percussionist. From the minute they began, the reggae vibe was on lock. They started out with some classics like Mellowmood, Colllie Man and Wiseman from the Everything You Need album. Then they moved onto songs from their latest album Slighly Stoned Not Stoned Enough To Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid. Sensimilla, Fruits “Legalize Them” and I Would Do For You brought the dub mode into full effect.

Slightly brought out several guests. A reggae singer Half Pint came out and did One in a Million. At the end Spragga Benz came out to do a dance hall rap. Trumping them both, Stephen Marley and his brother Julian came out to do their father’s Roots, Rock, Reggae. Even with all these big appearances during their show, Slightly shined the brightest. The band never skipped a beat and lead singers Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald, who switched off between bass and guitar/vocals for the encore, never stopped jumping up and down.

Slightly likes their punk rock too so they would go into a two minute punk rage every now and then. The Jersey boys loved it and Security guards scattered to break up the mosh pits. In true Blazed and Confused style, Slightly ended the night with a song from their album Closer to the Sun called This Joint. Blazed and confused, the crowd made their way to the beach where the moon was reflecting off the ocean, giving all the stoners the perfect conversational piece!

As the afternoon faded into the evening, master banjo player Béla Fleck and kora expert Toumani Diabaté took the stage. Diabaté had just flown in from his native country of Mali. The two artists hadn’t played together for over a month but they came together as though they had been playing all day.
They began with a call and answer number, each trying to outdo the others superb virtuosity. The banjo and kora sound great together. In case you’ve never seen a kora before, like I hadn’t until tonight, it’s a 20 or more stringed lute/harp made from a calabash gourd. Its strings are plucked with both hands. It’s typical of Western Africa. Diabaté is one of its most famous players. Here’s a picture.

After a few tunes Béla convinced Diabaté to play some traditional kora for everyone. The number of strings would provide a challenge for most but not for Diabaté. As soon as his hands began moving it was magic. Then Béla did a solo song he learned during his journey to Africa.

Béla had a pretty good sense of humor. He told the crowd that on his flight into the city from Seattle, a woman on the plane asked him what he was doing in New York. When he told her that he was playing at SummerStage she said, “Oh you must be in Béla Flecks band!” That woman was in the crowd and she began jumping up and down and waving to him. Béla said, “See! There she is, proving that my story is really true . . . or that I paid some lady off to make it seem that way!”

Afterwards the two reunited to play Throw Down Your Heart, the title track from the soundtrack of Béla’s documentary. They averaged something like 10,000 notes a minute! It was really a treat to see two incredible musicians come together to make music.

The layout for this show was a little different than most SummerStage shows. Everyone was sitting in preparation for the screening of the documentary. However, when the two ended the set with Dueling Banjos, in this case banjo vs. kora, the crowd jumped to its feet and started dancing! They left the stage to a standing ovation by everyone. Throw Down Your Heart was screened there after.

The documentary detailed Béla’s 2005 trip to Africa where he visited Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, and Mali to trace the roots of the banjo. He recorded with local musicians and learned about the ngoni and the akoting, both believed to be the predecessor of the banjo. The film was an interesting portrayal of the importance of music in African culture. After the film, Béla was available for album signings before running off to play with The Roots on the Jimmy Fallon Show. What a night!

RethinkPopMusic (RPM) is hosting a two-night competition asking artists to “Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Is.” The competition will put artists in front of industry experts who will choose the winners based on talent. The winner from each night will be given a performance slot at the RethinkPopMusic Stage during Midpoint Music Festival (MPMF) on September 25th in Cincinnati, Ohio. Additionally, the winner from each night will have their single included on a future RethinkPopMusic compilation album and will be in consideration to become a RethinkPopMusic Affiliated Artist.

Night-One
July 30th | 8:00pm | Crash Mansion (NYC)



Night-Two
Aug 7th | 8:00pm | Cameo (Williamsburg)



For more details about the event and to RSVP, go to www.rpm-rsvp.com

RethinkPopMusic may best be described as an artist collaborative record label WITHOUT an album sales business model. Founded in NYC by a group of young music industry experts disenchanted with the climate of gluttonous executives, misleading “Indie” labels and 360 deals, RPM intends to return creative control to the artists and reestablish integrity within the industry. RPM provides “Affiliated Artists” with all the marketing, publicity, booking, recording and legal tools necessary to “make a living making music”. RPM affiliated artists are under no contractual obligation to sell or distribute their music and retain all the rights and creative control of their art. Subsequently, the RPM business model utilizes experiential and integrated marketing initiatives that partner consumer products and artists via showcases, tours, music supervision and innovative projects.

Currently, RethinkPopMusic’s three premiere artists are: The Vanguard , The Aviation Orange and The Ambassadors (all NYC based).

For more information please visit www.RethinkPopMusic.com

The hot July sun was directly overhead. Music fans that had poured into the SummerStage area were baking like bagels at two in the morning in your local bodega. The sun didn’t melt away anyone’s spirits though. The crowd was amped and ready to go as soon as the gates opened at 3:00.

The theme of this show was that no act had anything to do with the other! A DJ from London, an electronic group from Sweden, a pop band from Harvard, and a legendary Mcee from Queens. None of the acts were very similar, but at the end of the day, they were all making music for the people.

Little Dragon from Gothenburg, Sweden was up first. They do electronic grooves with various random percussion instruments. Lead singer Yukimi Nagano smashed gongs, beat the woodblock and shook some kind of tambourine stick in-between verses. Erik Bodin played mostly synthesized drums. Fredrik Källgren Wallin handled the bass while Håkan Wirenstrand brought the rest of the electronic vibe on keys. Some of their songs sounded kind of jazzy and some were dancey. The highlight was definitely when Nagano started convulsing during a tambourine solo and almost fell of the stage!

In-between all the sets, Benji B from London held it down on the digital turntables. Britain can’t handle the wax? It was almost unnecessary to fly this guy all the way in from England. He didn’t scratch and hardly even mixed. He mainly just played songs when he wasn’t arguing with the guy at the board to turn him up.

While the sets were getting changed I noticed a kid walk by with a skateboard. I remember thinking that was odd because there is a huge sign of what you can’t bring in to SummerStage, with skateboard at the top of the list. But when Michael Rapaport is your father and he’s got his skateboard too, I guess its okay. Rapaport walked by looking for the VIP section. It seems that he brought the whole family out for some Saturday music fun.

Chester French was the second act of the day. Although lead singer Andrew Wallach and guitarist Maxwell Drummey have been together since 2003, they are still relatively unknown. Their new album Love the Future and their free-to-download-online mixtape Jaques Jams, Vol. 1: Endurance are sure to change that. The mixtape has big callabos with Talib Kweli, Diddy, Jadakiss, Pharrell Williams, Jermaine Dupri, and Common.

They started with their first single off the Love the Future album – She loves Everybody. It’s a song about a girl that he loves. He know she loves him, yet its hard to believe because, “She loves everybody.” I loved this lyric – “I use protection/ Because she craves affection!”

They continued on with songs that had mostly the same kind of lyrics. One song was about MILFs and how, “No one will find out!” They remind me of Chromeo, but less electronic and more main stream pop. Wallach was trying desperately for some crowd interaction but he wasn’t quite in position to do so yet.

Q-tip on the other hand could have said, “Go get me a sandwich,” and everyone in the crowd would have run off and returned with a 12” hero. Q, accompanied by DJ Scratch, a bassist, guitarist, drummer and keyboard/saxophonist used his star power to get the crowd going. Starting with Shaka from 2008s The Renaissance, Q-tip found all kinds of ways of getting the crowd into it. Who wouldn’t want to do what he said when he’s rapping and dancing in a bright orange coat in 85 degree weather?

It wasn’t hard even hard when he did the old Tribe Called Quest joints like Oh My God and Electric Relaxation from 1993s Midnight Marauders or Scenario and Check the Rhime from The Low End Theory. Tip had everyone swaying side to side or doing the old Naughty By Nature “Hey . . . Ho!” while waving hands back and forth. He also kept having everyone throw up one finger for our fallen soldier J-dilla on one hand and another finger for Michael Jackson on the other.

Q-tip is an electric performer. Sometimes he would scream an, “Owwwww,” remininescent of Michael Jackson, after a verse. He never stopped bouncing and brought insane energy the whole show. During Midnight Marauder’s Sucka Nigga, he was vibing hard to a sick guitar and bass solo. The crowd was right with him, knowing every lyric, even when he took it all the way back to 1990 with Bonita Applebum from People’s Instinctive Travels and the Path of Rhythm.

The band did a great job covering the backup tracks. DJ Scratch only played the entire beat to a few songs. My personal favorite track by Q, Let’s Ride from his first solo album in 1999 Amplified, was executed perfectly by the guitarist. Find a Way from Tribe’s fifth album – The Love Movement, featured some cool singing of the chorus on a vocoder by the keyboardist. Perhaps the greatest element of having a full band as apposed to just a DJ came on We Fight/We Love off The Renaissance. The bass is sick in that song and Q’s bassist was playing it slap style. Q-tip, without any backup singers, sang the chorus, which is done on the album version by Raphael Saadiq. He’s no RnB star, but he can sing better than most Hip Hop guys. The fact that he’s willing to sing at all puts him on another level from Mcees that just yell into the mic.

After a long Tribe Called Quest detour, Q-tip got back on track with one of his most commercially successful joints – Vivrant Thing from Amplified. At the start of the song, the keyboardist hopped up grabbed his top piano, threw it over his kneck, and started shredding the riff keytar style! The crowd was dancing and singing along when Tip started rhyming, “Yo, Look at me . . . Yo, Look at Puff,” over and over again. Suddenly Diddy jumps up on the stage and shows off those Bad Boy dance floor pro moves. The females behind me were screaming and having a hissy fit! As if the whole thing were staged Q yells, “Freeze” and him, Diddy, and the band all stop right on point!

Puff ran off the stage and Q-tip remained frozen for like 45 seconds. Finally DJ Scratch let the record spin and on of the most classic Tribe joints Award Tour starts up to the absolute hysteria of the crowd. Even though they brought it back and started it over three times, the song was over too soon. The band walked off stage and the audience pleaded for more.

Finally DJ Scratch came back on and showed off his beat juggling skills, going behind the back, under the leg, and pulling a 360 while juggling Ante Up by MOP. Q-tip came back out to thunderous applause to do two more cuts off The Renaissance – Gettin’ Up and Life is Better. After introducing the crowd to his mom, Q was down in the crowd giving everyone a chance to sing the chorus.

People didn’t want to leave when it was over. After witnessing two up and coming bands and a truly legendary Hip Hop innovator, we were in a state of nirvana. I made my way for Columbus Circle with the old school raps of the Abstract Renaissance man dancing in my head.

Alex’s Picks

Chris Garneau – No, that’s not an angel you’re listening to, it’s Brooklyn based musician Chris Garneau. Chris uses a combination of Baroque Pop and circus music (I know right?) to create a an absolutely unique and inspiring sound. Sounds like: Patrick Watson

Listen to Chris Garneau: No More Pirates

Bombay Bicycle Club – These guys threw around a couple decent sounding EPs over the last few years, up until the release of their LP I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about them. Sure enough this album proves them as artists to watch out for. Sounds Like: The Macabees

Listen to Bombay Bicycle Club: Always Like This

Jay Electronica – Mr. Electronica takes samples from movie scores and turns them into hip hop tracks. The dude is a master of the sample and incredibly creative. Best of all, the album is free. I’m a huge fan of supporting this form of business model, so if you enjoy his stuff support him by going to see him live when he’s in your area. Sounds like: older Nas

Listen to Jay Electronica: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)

Tor / Sufjan Stevens – Keeping up with the free album tip, I present you with Tor. We all know Sufjan Stevens but no one expected his melodies to transfer over to hip hop so incredibly. Tor takes well known Hip Hop acapellas and places them over Sufjan Stevens Loops to create something magical, similar to deep fried oreos. Get the album here.

Listen to Tor / Sufjan Stevens: Star of Wonder/None Shall Pass (feat. Aesop Rock)

Frontier Ruckus – Two words: musical saw. There really isn’t much not to like about, Michigan based band, Frontier Ruckus. Finally a group of artists to fill the void in my heart from lack of banjos. Frontier Ruckus you complete me, in a Tom Cruise Jerry Maguire sort of way. Additionally, I have a huge crush on, harmony singer, Anna Burch. Sounds like: Calexico on steroids

Listen to Frontier Ruckus: Dark Autumn Hour

Chris’s Picks

Buildings Breeding – These guys and girl have been around for quite a while (3 LPs and an EP) but continue to remain under the radar. Their sound ranges from summer sweet to ultra dark, but they still manage to transition between the two beautifully. Definitely one of my new favorites.

Listen to Buildings Breeding: Rushing Red

Jeremy Jay – This Album (Slow Dance) just goes for days man. This may sound a bit cliche, but ole’ JJ is the new Smiths… At least if you are searching for a similar sound with a fresh spin.

Listen to Jeremy Jay: Where Could We Go Tonight

Foreign Born – Foreign Born is relatively new to me, but they grow on me like ivy. 1st listen they sleep, 2nd listen they creep, and third listen they leap. They have such a full sound; what great instrumentalist they are. I would watch out for any band that comes out of Secretly Canadian Actually.

Listen to Foreign Born: Blood Oranges

Cymbals Eat Guitars – Trust me, believe the hype, cause this album (Why Are There Mountains?) flipped my world upside down. CEG ride the fence that separates sanity and chaos like a bucking bronco. They are that pet tiger that you think you have under control until it rips your fucking face off. Great lyrics, great composition, shredding guitar riffs, build ups, break downs, uhhh uhhh uhhh ohhh!!!… just made a boo boo in my pants.

Listen to Cymbals Eat Guitars: Wind Phoenix

Real Estate – Fake Blues [7-inch]

Really? New Jersey? Really? This band has a spectacular low-fi vibe without being punky and dated and obnoxious. Gritty and soothing at the same time. Watch out for these doods cause they are on the up and up.

Listen to Real Estate: Fake Blues

After two straight late appearances to concerts, I managed to get to Central Park for this show hours early . . . and it paid off. As I ran to claim my spot, the ushers at SummerStage yelled at me for running, so I slowed it down to an Olympic speed walk. Alas! Victory was mine and my gold medal was front row, center stage for what was to be undoubtedly the best benefit show of the 2009 SummerStage season.

Two titans of summer music festivals squared off in rock fest of eardrum exploding, brain melting jams, and scanted angelic praise. While waiting for the show to start I noticed that Umphrey’s sports Star Wars bobble heads on top of their amps. Yoda, Darth, Chewy, and R2 were all there. As soon as the group walked out on stage, you could tell the force was strong with these guys.

The shredding and endless jamming began and rarely ceased until they had completed their nearly two hour set. For those of you not familiar with Umphrey’s Mcgee, they’re a progressive rock jam band from South Bend, Indiana. They thrive on the virtuosic qualities of all the members and their ability to jam like strawberry spread.

Umphrey’s began the day with an older song Proffesor Wormbog from One Fat Sucka (2001), which soon transitioned into a newer song Cemetary Walk on this year’s Mantis. Brendan Bayliss, who does most of the vocals and plays guitar, was practically inaudible in comparison to Jake Cinninger’s lead guitar. In fact it was hard to make out much of anything beyond his ear piercing solos, though rightfully so because the man shreds with the best of them.

As the sun began to sink below the skyline and the temperature cooled, Umphrey’s heated up. Nemo from Safety in Numbers (2006) and Walletsworth from Anchor Drops (2004) got the crowd dancing and singing along. Mulche’s Odyssey another selection from Anchor Drops displayed the guitarists harmonic abilities in an epic jam that must have lasted 25 minutes! Just when they built the song up to the highest octave you think possible, they will held it and took it even higher. I swear at one point Cinninger left the fret board and was playing notes half way to the bridge!

Sensing that everyone’s ears were bleeding from the severe rocking, Bayliss announced that it was now officially a party due to the fact that a tiny beach ball was being knocked around the crowd. In perfect timing Umphrey’s did Higgins off of Bottom Half (2007), a reggae tinged song that seemed to foreshadow the evening’s headliner.

It was interesting to watch the group from so close up. Anyone that’s played in a band knows that they don’t read each other’s minds when deciding to end their 20 minute jam sessions. Cinninger or Bayliss would give 4 to 5 different hand signals. The number of fingers indicated going up so many steps or octaves while signaling it up or down meant higher or lower notes. The ever-popular fist usually meant for Ryan Stasik (Bass) to groove with Kris Myers (Drums) and Andy Farag (Aux Percussion) while the guitarist regroovinated themselves for their next flurry of notes.

With the sun all but gone for the day, Cemetery Walk II began an electronic rave dance party reminding me of those late nights at Bonnaroo. It was also the first time we had really heard very much from Joel Cummins, the band’s keyboardist/vocalist. He set the electronic mood with dancey noises from his Moog.

Cummins really shined though on the group’s final song of the evening I Want You (She’s So Heavy) originally recorded by the Beatles on their legendary Abbey Road album in 1969. Umphrey’s gave the Lennon and Mccartney a run for their money too. Stopping as a whole several times to build up furious anticipation from the audience, the crowd pled for more. Surely it didn’t hurt to throw in the Mcgee touch and lay it on thick with the Hammond B3. Need visual proof that the Mcgee boys rocked the spot? Here’s Myers’ drumstick after an evening of ripping hard on the skins!

While the stagehands disassembled Umphrey’s Mcgee’s play land of audio, the crowd was in awe over the raising of a gigantic Matisyahu banner with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. Later on Matisyahu eventually announced to an electric crowd, “It’s good to be home!” Matisyahu, or Matthew Miller was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania but grew up and spent many of his days in White Plains, New York; a bit north of Long Island.

Accompanied by Aaron Dugan (Lead Guitar) and Rob Marscher (Keys) and Dub Trio, Matisyahu opened with Escape from his yet to be released Light. As with many other shows I’ve seen by Matis, he begins with ambient guitars and a phat reggae bass line. As the song transitioned into Dispatch the Troops from his most commercially successful album Youth, the crowd wailed along. This song transitioned to another ambient session where Matis did his signature beatbox and then rapped the lyrics to Aish Tamid.

In the midst of the ambient chaos, Dugan starts up the chord progression to the crowd’s favorite Jerusalem. With the power of Israel the band laid it on thick while Matis impressed us with his lighting fast raps, circle dancing, and sweet kicks.

You might have heard that the white man can’t jump, but a Hasidic Jew can fly! During the rock out section of Youth, Matis walked right to the edge of the stage and signaled to us like he was going to come down and get into the crowd. We immediately went wild with cheering. First it looked as though he was going to safely step down off the stage and then climb the barricade to get to us but no! Air Matis was scheduled for take off!

He surveyed the gap for a second or two then ran back to the drum set. The security guards freaked out and gathered at his landing point. I’ll estimate the gap to be a good 8 feet at the least. Add to that about 6 feet of height to the stage and what do you get? A dangerously star-powered move that could easily go wrong. But do you think we’d drop Matisyahu? Hell no! The already jam-packed crowed compressed into a package of sardines in preparation to catch a rather tall man. He’s got to be at least 6’5” or taller.

I don’t know if it was the aero dynamics of his yamaka or the fact that he recently chopped about a foot off his beard, but Matisyahu ran towards the edge of the stage and took off! He landed just inches short of the barricade on the crowd’s side. Instantly everyone grabbed on to him and chaos ensued! The security guards fought off the fans to drag him back to the stage. Eventually Matis climbed back onto the stage and finished the song. Then he told the crowd, “Wow . . . that was a lot further than I thought! My grandfather would be proud . . . he always wanted me to play basketball!”

After the flying yamaka incident, the crowd went wild! The band moved the set along with Exaltation from Shake of the Dust . . . Arise! before Matis invited a few local friends on stage. A guy named Pete sat in on drums for a bit and then Kosha Dillz came up to rock the mic. Matis made him freestyle using words that the crowd shouted out like “love” and “yamaka!” His most memorable line was, “The non-stoppa/ girls call me the Jewish Big Poppa!”

Matis finally dawned another new track on us from his upcoming album, which is also the single One Day. The lyrics speak of freedom, peace, and change. It was a perfect way to end the evening by summing up the majority of his lyrics in one song. But wait! No Matisyahu show would be complete without a little King Without a Crown encore; the song that first got him into the lime light.

Matisyahu and his band managed to pull of a killer show. After the two titans had long left the stage and the dust had settled, I had a very hard time hearing anything. However, I don’t think hearing loss was the most important lesson I took away from this show. The moral of the story is that with the correct beard length and thickness and a strategically positioned yamaka, anyone can take flight!