Monsters of Neoclassic Rock
The country's best rock band is the biggest underground sensation you've never heard of.
Still mostly in their twenties, the six members of Chicago's Umphrey's McGee have been shuffling and re-dealing rock history at thousands of live shows over the past decade. Most rock groups tend to have about one good idea or, if they're really ambitious, two. Umphrey's McGee, on the other hand, contains multitudes. Their music is anthemic, melodic, witty, and danceable; it's also virtuosic, experimental, complex, and emotionally fulfilling. Guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss shred with seemingly effortless authority. Keyboardist Joel Cummins is a rocking jazzbo with a knack for analog electronics. Drummer Kris Myers and percussionist Andy Farag can swing as hard as they pound, while bassist Ryan Stasik holds everything together with movie-idol poise.
What Umphrey's McGee do best, as they demonstrated Friday night in Times Square's Nokia Theater, has everything to do with accessible complexity in the name of pure pleasure. During nearly three hours onstage, they took advantage of a thousand different sounds ranging from quiet and meditative to head-banging ecstatic. Tunes like "In the Kitchen" and "Divisions" begin with emotional Bayliss vocals reminiscent of Sting before launching into composed sections marked by turn-on-a-dime beats, immaculate guitar shredding, irresistible dance beats, and improvised rave-ups before returning home. Instrumentals like "Jajunk" and Atmosfarag" can go almost anywhere. They covered Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" because it was Friday the 13th, oozed out a psychedelic instrumental cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and concluded "Mulche's Odyssey" with a coda borrowed from Zep's "Moby Dick."
Umphrey's McGee played only three songs from their new album, The Bottom Half, which is about par for improvising rock bands like UM, who mix things up at every show to the mutual benefit of both the musicians and their loyal fans. Released as sort of a B-sides sequel to the Umph's 2006 album Safety in Numbers, The Bottom Half stands solidly on its own. It also contains an entire bonus disk's worth of demo versions, alternative takes, and inside-baseball banter. It's nothing like seeing them live, of course, which is why you should find out where they're playing soon here.
Comments
Harvey Steinfeld says:
These whipper snappers aren't half bad!
07/13/07 04:22 PM