Budnick sez: A professional jamhead talks music

By John Uhl

Daily Music Editor

Since Labor Day, John Scofield played at The Ark and The Slip and Deep Banana Blackout performed at the Blind Pig. Ekoostik Hookah and The String Cheese Incident were at the Michigan Theater last weekend, while the Disco Biscuits will play there this weekend. Medeski, Martin & Wood and moe. will swing through town before the end of the semester.

Since the break-up of the Grateful Dead and the rise in popularity of the group Phish, an entire subculture has evolved around bands that mix several types of music and a penchant for lengthy improvisations into a groovy, rock-heavy stew. And Ann Arbor has become a standard stop on the criss-crossing routes of these bands' many tours.

The following is from an interview with Dean Budnick, editor of the Website jambands.com and author of the books "The Phishing Manual" and "Jam Bands."

The Michigan Daily: In a couple sentences characterize the "jam band" scene. What makes a jam band a jam band?

Dean Budnick: The jam band scene of today encompasses a range of different sounds. Bands that are committed to improvisation but draw on a number of elements, including folk, funk, bluegrass, jazz, psychedelic rock, electronica and that are sort of unified by their commitment to bring improvisation into a live setting.

The jam band thing is also unified by the fans, because there's nothing inherently similar between The Slip, the Disco Biscuits and String Cheese Incident, except the fans of all those groups are certainly looking for similar things in terms of what the bands produce in concert.

TMD: Would you say that this movement got started at one particular time?

DB: I think it's sort of come in waves. I was a big Phish fan, actually I grew up in New England in the late-'80s. In '92 they had the very first H.O.R.D.E. tour. They only did a couple dates, but it was Phish, Widespread Panic, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors. And that was to some degree the first sort of unifying of the scene and that was done on a very grass roots level before the H.O.R.D.E. tour became the big amphitheater bloated monstrosity it would eventually become.

I would say that something has changed in the last two or three or four years where there just have been many, many more bands. It's a very sort of chicken and egg circular relationship. There are many more fans who are being drawn to this type of music, partially led by bands like Phish and Widespread Panic and certainly String Cheese is coming on strong, gaining momentum. But as there were more and more people going to these shows, this offered more and more bands the opportunity to quit their day jobs, to focus on their craft, which only made their music and their stage shows and their performances better.

TMD: I've been listening to the Allman Brothers forever and when I entered high school I really started listening to Phish a lot and tried to catch a couple of their shows a year. But in terms of this current thriving scene, it's really something I've noticed fairly recently.

DB: I think there's no question that the scene is exploding, but I think it has a long way to go as well in terms of getting more mainstream recognition. I think it's great to have a vital, supportive scene. On the other hand, I think it's great when these musicians can make albums and sell hundreds of thousands to really help support their art.

TMD: I wanted to ask you just a bit about the question of whether or not Phish is breaking up. I talked to John Polansky of Ekoostik Hookah last night, asking him how he thought that might impact his fan base or the scene's fan base in general. He thought that the middle-level bands, not any one of them in particular, but that a whole bunch of them might pick up some of the slack leftover from Phish not touring as regularly. He felt that sometimes the fans get disenchanted when the arenas get bigger and they don't get to see the bands in as intimate of a setting.

Do you have any opinions on whether this is such a grass roots phenomenon at this point that people are going to be more faithful to the medium-famed bands or that the scene has the possibility to produce a slew of bands that sell a million records and sell out huge arenas or stadiums?

DB: I think this is an interesting time for that very reason. There are a lot of great bands that have the potential, I won't go so far as to say play stadiums, but that could move up to arenas.

There is an immediacy that one gets from the clubs or the theaters when you can see what the guitar player's doing. When you can feel the energy, when you can feel physically what the drummer's doing and it vibrates off your chest. These bands thrive in the living setting and when one can actually see what they're doing, it makes the experience all the better for them.

TMD: I wanted to get back to Phish. Some of the publications make it sound like they're breaking up, which, from what I know, has been blown out of perspective.

DB: The dichotomy between the word "break" and the word "break-up" I think confused some people. It's tough, though, when The New York Times publishes it .... I'm a little older, I'm about the age of the band members. You know, I have a young daughter. So it's much easier for me to understand how after all this time they want to regroup and charge their batteries. The great thing in some ways is that, while they're taking a break as Phish, they're not going to take a break from music.

One thing that I really enjoyed as a fan was when Trey Anastasio did that solo tour. And I have every expectation that he'll do that again this spring. Fishman will certainly be out, Mike will probably be working on his film stuff. I think it really will make for a lot of interesting opportunities for fans.

TMD: The New York Times predicted that String Cheese would rise and take Phish's place. Do you think that any one band is going to benefit from getting a big hunk of their audience or that it will be dispersed between all the bands?

DB: I guess there will be some distribution, but I do think that the few bands that are poised to take over their mantle are the ones that do certain things that Phish does irrespective of their music. Phish really focuses on production: They have great sound, they have a great light show.

A band like String Cheese Incident does the same thing. They bring their own sound system into venues, they have a wonderful light show. A String Cheese live experience is one that, in addition to their music, on a number of levels captures a lot of the possibilities of what a great arena show can be.

Obviously a band like Widespread Panic is already at arena level down in the South, but in the Northeast they're still sort of building their core. I can't speak for the Midwest...

TMD: They're doing about the same here.

DB: I think you're going to see a lot of people come out and see them in the spring. And I think the same sort of thing will happen for a band like moe., which again is playing sort of larger theaters now in most parts of the country.

Courtesy of Capricorn Records

Bands that incorporate lengthy instrumental improvisations, like Widespread Panic, are rocking more and more people these days.