E.O.T.O -- Inspiration is a Nightly Affair

**** For those of you that want to enjoy a whole SET of E.O.T.O., dive in!! (with guest guitarist Michael Kang of The String Cheese Incident) ***

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**** For those of you for whom a smaller sample might do the job, try this:



**** A very interesting live interview with Jason Hahn:



**** Groovy stuff, mannnnnnn!!!



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In late 2006 I received a CD from the String Cheese Incident's record label. It was an SCI so called 'side project' from their drummers Michael Travis and Jason Hahn called E.O.T.O (an acronymn for "End of Time Observatory") -- it was a live, improvised studio session that went straight to production when finished. As a big fan of the String Cheese Incident and of percussion and bass music in particular, needless to say I was intrigued.

What unfolded was a clearly inspired album called "Elephants Only Talk Occasionally" -- a sound that came across as much, much larger than the two man ensemble that put it together. How could a sound so rich, diverse and exciting come from such a seemingly limited outfit?

Taking a page out of the jamtronica soundbook of bands like Sound Tribe Sector 9, Lotus, Signal Path or the New Deal, EOTO took bass and guitar lines and looped them repeatedly through a lap top, sampled electronically generated beats and integrated it all with the original drumbeat being laid down by percussionist Jason Hahn. The one key element was that, although as a duo they have rehearsed many, many approaches to drum and bass, obviously, each session, each show would be completely improvised -- they would feed off of the mood of the crowd and try to generate an organically live music and dance experience for that crowd. According to Hahn: "The only time we really talk about that is at the beginning of a set. We're like, "What does it seem like the mood wants to be in here right now?" (StringCheeseRadio.com interview April 1, 2009)

As a touring band, the challenge is obvious: to improvise and create something unique most every evening. Yet, EOTO has managed to do just this. A constant on the North American college and jamband music scene since 2007, EOTO is tireless. Performing most festival hotspots like the Wakarusa Festival, Rothbury in 2009 as well as smaller festys like the Summerdance Festival in Garrettsville, Ohio or Phan Fest in Kempton, Pennsylvania, EOTO has shown a willingness to play everywhere and anywhere to get there approach to music out there to the people. Jason Hahn demonstrates EOTO's approach to shows and fans with his quote: "You can't mess around. Especially since performing is so much about doing it for the fans. And always play the best show you've ever played night after night. Hopefully we just do all the preparation we need to be able to pull that off". And "pull it off" they have done, logging in excess of 250 shows -- largely in clubs and campuses -- from Hawaii to Maine in the last 3 years as well as putting out 3 albums. This is a working band working on a new brand.

And what is it, precisely, that EOTO is working with? As an instrumental, electronica band that specializes in creating a dance environment, EOTO crosses over into the realm of the live club DJ who mixes and spins tunes to create that vibe, except that it is a live performance. According to Hahn: "when I've heard dance music done really well with live instruments it feels really powerful and has that extra edge to it, just the way live music should". Out of the myriad of titles for so-called 'club' music -- jungle, drum and bass, house, glitch, trip hop, breakbeat, etc, etc, etc -- EOTO has taken to specializing in House ("Most people as a collective "get" house") and a reasonably newer genre called Dubstep. House is an easy means to get the crowd moving and the Dubstep takes them to a whole other level of groove once they are into it. The other thing that EOTO will do for you -- or to you (depending on your perspective!!)-- is employ a guest artist to join them who will then layer their instrumentation on top of the drum and bass lines that they lay down. Guest artists such as Steve Kimock, Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz or SCI alumnus and guitarist Michael Kang have all graced the stage with EOTO and blown the roof off with their additions to the improv stew. Either way, Hanhn and Travis -- and whomever else dives in -- give you an instant dance party that ebbs and flows with the vibe of its audience night after night with enthusiasm and originality.

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The best place to find EOTO's music is at www.livedownloads.com -- all three of their studio efforts are there plus the plethora of live club and festival shows that they have performed over the last three years. In addition, check out http://www.archive.org/details/EOTOband if you would like some free listens first...in particular check out a show from Buffalo, NY in October 2007 that is an absolute face melter! (http://www.archive.org/details/eoto2007-10-09._sbd_flac16)

Tanya Stephens: Strength Pon Di Mic!

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Tanya Stephens got a young start in the music business so it seems like she might have been around for longer than it she actually has, but in her time she has left a large footprint on the reggae dancehall -- within Jamaica and without.

Bored with school and yearning for something more interesting to do, Tanya Stephens dropped out at 16 and began moving with some music minded friends. By 1994 she had issued "Big Things A Gwan" and by '97 and '98 she had issued the albums "Too Hype" and "Ruff Ryder". It was immediately obvious that Tanya Stephens had no intention of being intimidated by the overpowering testosterone and ethos of the Jamaican Dancehall scene. In fact, any woman engaging in this world had better come strong or not at all with the inherent hype and male braggadocio that pervades this music -- all the jokes, wisecracks and insults aimed towards any perceived personal or professional weakness in skill or presentation can be lethal...just ask Shabba Ranks.

The difference with Tanya Stephens was that it was obvious from her lyrics that she was no 'babe in the woods', no innocent disabused and misused by the world and now wallowing in regrets, self pity or remorseful hindsight -- no, here was a woman clearly empowered by her disappointments and experiences and not ashamed to share them with the world. She had strength and insight and she had no desire to shrink from the world with it (See her version of Helen Reddy's 70s classic "I am woman" at the top of the page). Her sexuality had a raw energy to it that must be shocking to many: it did not pander to stereotypes, it did not ask to be pandered to. Here was a woman who knew what she wanted from a man and was not shy to tell the world how often and in great detail how she had been disappointed!! Witness "Draw Fi Mi Finger" from her 1998 release, "Ruff Ryder" -- here is a song that outlines how the men in here life are all talk and not enough action when it comes to her satisfaction, and how she is isn't afraid to get the job done herself and on her terms...and not feel any particular way about it.

By the new millennium Tanya had continued in her progression forward but needed something to distinguish her from her colleagues -- as strong as her songwriting might be, the riddims and the production that she was working with was not setting her apart in a way that any original artist craves. Until 2004. Working with the so called Doctor's Darling riddim -- amid homegrown critics who thought that using a european reggae riddim spoke of a lack of "artikkle" culture -- Stephens recorded a smash hit called "Its a Pity" -- a touching and heartfelt story of impossible love between two people already committed to other relationships. Again, free of all naivete, innocence or even guile, it is an incredibly honest, heart rending depiction of practicality in the face of passion.

The follow up album, "Gangsta Blues" did not disappoint -- full of varied, rich and deep life experiences, Stephens put herself out there much like Steve Miller's "Gangster of Love" type of personality. Though she refuses to take full credit for all the content of the songs saying that some are borrowed from other peoples' experiences, she touchingly tells the stories of a young woman making her way in post millennial world -- on her own terms and within her own expectations. She is brutally honest about the state of the music industry and the state of man and woman. "Gangsta Blues" is a landmark album in today's reggae scene which has so often been fraught with criticism for its lack of originality and for its obsession with themes such as homophobia, materialism, consumerism and for its lack of "culture" -- that is, a bona fide roots reggae disposition a la Bob Marley, Burning Spear or even Buju Banton. While no one paintbrush can accurately paint a music scene as diverse as reggae as a whole, it is myopic to say that much of the criticism of dancehall is unwarranted. Even Tanya herself says that she has to close her ears to the lyrics sometimes to enjoy a song that might be otherwise rhythmically nice.

But this is precisely what Tanya brings to the table with "Gangsta Blues" and its awesome 2006 follow up effort, "Rebelution" -- intelligent, well thought out stories and lyrics produced with infectious and equally original riddims. She has managed to distance herself from many in the industry and stand alone with strength and vitality in a crowded field that is full of talented performers, in a music scene that produces an incredible volume of talent on a yearly basis. To do it with integrity and independence speaks volumes of the strength of her character and determination.

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Here are some excellent interviews with Tanya Stephens that can provide you with further insights into this dynamic performer

http://www.jahworks.org/music/interview/tanya_stephens.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/dancehall/xtra/tanya.shtml

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2006-09-14/music/viva-la-rebelution/

http://micapam.innariddim.com/music/tanya-stephens-interview

Sound Tribe Sector Nine: Dreamscapes in Progress

In October of 2003 a friend and I attended the Harvest Fest at Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida to take in some jammy music and to enjoy camping in what is Florida's prime weather time after the humidity breaks and before the winter chill sets in at night. Unfortunately for us it rained ALLLLLLL day long and night!! Bummed out and down on the whole thing, the only redeeming part of the day to this point was that the Miami University Hurricanes had beaten the FSU Seminoles in the monsoon that was heading eastward towards us -- until the late night show under the canopy of 200 foot pines at the Peach Stage. That night, dragged out of my tent by my friend, we witnessed a musical performance that changed me -- I was so moved by this band that at the end I could just stand there slack-jawed at having seen and heard -- no, FELT -- music like I had never before been a part of. The incessant rain seemed to disappear as a I locked onto this group of 5 musicians painting a soundscape of beat and groove like an artist rendering a new painting on a canvas. It seemed so original and organic and like I was a part of it. In the end, they thanked us "for letting them play under these beautiful trees"

Sound Tribe Sector Nine is a group that is absolutely unique from its sound, to its dedication to progressive musical innovation, to its roll as a cultural force with the capacity to effect positive directions within society.

STS9 was formed in the late 1990s when bassist Dave Murphy returned to his home base in Atlanta, Georgia -- disillusioned from touring with various musical enterprises -- and met up with childhood friend and guitarist Hunter Brown and drummer Zach Velmer. After meeting up with keyboardist David Phipps at a show at Georgia Tech and learning the ropes of touring locally in the Redneck Riviera area of northern Florida and lower Alabama and Mississippi, STS9 were introduced to percussionist Jefferee Lerner -- a drum tech for Leftover Salmon -- who joined the band in 2000 to establish its current configuration. Determined that this is what they wanted to do, they hit the road to establish a style and place of their own in the musical sound and landscape of America -- and eventually the world.

In their early touring experiences with Gary Gazaway, Sound Tribe played alot of his Acid Jazz numbers. As big fans of Medeski, Martin and Wood, and as Atlanta kids taking in such homegrown talents such as Herbie Hancock, James Brown, and the Aquarium Rescue Unit (Kofi Burbidge and Jimmy Herring), for example, they saw a place for themselves as beat based instrumentalists -- that it was possible to make music that rendered the traditional role of the vocalist unnecessary. According to Murph, "when we started to really be called a jam band and started being exposed to this jam band scene that existed out there, everything we saw, we loved the music, but we hated the singers. I don’t know whether it was the fact that we didn’t like what they were singing or that some of these bands, it seemed like they started having singers because they thought that they needed to…" (http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2007/09/qa_david_murphy_of_sound_tribe.php) Thus, eschewing the need for a vocal presence, STS9 began to tour with a collection of 20 or 25 songs that they would stretch and contract as the moods moved them. Collectively, organically, improvisationally, they began to have musical conversations on stage of which every member was a part -- if one of them felt the need to move off in another direction, the rest covered for him. It was this type of musical innovation that pushed Sound Tribe to explore their sounds into unknown territories night after night -- and established their reputation for intelligent and original music artistry.

And artistic it was. In early shows, especially, Sound Tribe embraced the idea of a collective of artistic talents above and beyond their own. Their stage was often a repository of crystals and floral arrangements as well as lights and sound. Artists such as J.Garcia, Kris Davidson and Alex Gray would create (and sometimes continue to this day) improvisational paintings on the sides of the stage that would try to capture the musical mood occurring onstage. As an audience member watching, it is quite moving to see the symbiotic relationship between the two sets of artists. Yet, it is all just a part of the ongoing, organic vibe of an STS9 show. According to a 2001 interview with Lerner, playing an STS9 show is like: "being part of a greater consciousness, playing a musical role in a larger event. I think it's a collective path that comes from wanting to offer that space through music." (http://www.westword.com/2001-12-20/music/transcend-this/)

When STS9 speaks of being part of a collective, it goes beyond the musical venue within which they are performing. Sound Tribe and their members have long felt a collective responsibility to be a force for change in society at large. They have partnered with, and always encouraged fan participation with, the Conscious Alliance which collects canned food for the homeless in the town that they are playing in. As well, in 2004 they were quite loud in their encouragement of their fans to vote in the upcoming election. In fact, at the 2004 Langerado Festival, Murph sounded almost indignant and angry in his end of the show exhortation to the fans present as he told them "get over there and register to vote!!" as he pointed at the MoveOn.org voter registration booth at the rear of the crowd present. Their 2007 touring goal was to be carbon-neutral by offsetting an estimated 138,000 lbs of carbon emissions by donating renewable energy credits. After Hurricane Katrina they staged a benefit concert that raised over $20,000 for victims of that natural disaster. Social activism is as much a part of the STS9 tapestry as their funky grooves and beats.

All this nouveau hippy stuff made for heady times in the early days of STS9 but they, like most bands making a career out of their love of music, were longing to break through what they had established and build upon it in a way that would allow them to continue to innovate musically and to grow as artists. Out of their search for new directions came their 2005 album "Artifact". "Artifact" and their most recent follow up to it, 2008's "Peaceblaster: 1968-2008" represent a more dialed in Sound Tribe that saw them experimenting with different types of electronic instruments, gizmos and beat machines. According to Murph: "I think we all got to the point where we thought, it's cool that we can go and play a three-and-a-half-hour show where we only played five songs — but we all have a real desire to actually write songs," Drummer Zach Velmer referred to "Artifact" as "our first real album," in reference to the fact that STS9's first 3 or 4 albums were largely collections of the best of their live material that was polished up and presented. While much of 2001's "Offered Schematics Suggesting Peace" was a studio effort, Zelmer's point is made.

In fact, I had noticed this very trend when i continued to see STS9 over the years and I noticed that in and around 2006 and 2007 the band was becoming more and more compact and consistent in its presentation of its songs. Gone were the 20 minute jams and ethereal dreamscapes of earlier on in the decade, and indeed the newer material hit you harder and was more biting and akin to danceable funk and groove, albeit, done in their own inimitable fashion. At their core, they have always been a groove-monster band, but their sound was definitely more polished and hard hitting. Whether you had a taste for the new age hippy transcendentalist sound of the early part of the decade or the new, more locked in sound of today, there is no denying that Sound Tribe Sector Nine continues to move forward as musical innovators and creators of some of the most brilliant soundscapes to be heard in today's music scene.

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For all things STS9 check out http://www.sts9.com or http://www.myspace.com/sts9

for an awesome collection of STS9 shows check out: http://www.archive.org/details/SoundTribeSector9 +++

+++ It should be noted that there are waaaaaaaayyyyy too many variations on their music over the years to recommend one show over the other -- it is a matter of individual taste...some shows are funkier than others, some are more compact than others, some are spacier than others...being an STS9 fan is often an exploratory experience!!