Les Claypool's Fancy Band

         Beside being lead man of the great Primus, Les Claypool has had many different side projects working with all sorts of different musicians. All of these collaborations consist of some pretty amazing musician. Some of Claypool’s other sides projects have been, Sausage, Oysterhead, Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Bucket of Burning Brains and many more, but the one I am going to talk about today is Les Claypool’s Fancy Band.

The Band consists of Claypool, Skerik, Mike Dillion and Paulo Baldi. On certain tours Jay Lane and Gabby La La have joined the band. The band touring for 4 years from 2004 until 2008. 

The band plays songs from The Frog Brigade’s album Purple Onion, plus many un-recorded originals. They also had another tour in suppot of Claypool’s solo album Of Whales and Woe. The bands heavy sound, mixed with the vibraphone create a very unique sound. Gabby La La in known for playing the Theremin, while Claypool usually whips out his Whamolla at least once every show.

Since then many of the members have continued collaborating with each other, playing with other side projects. 

Furthur

        Some might debate that this is not a jam band collaboration band, but either way they need to be on this blog. The incredible line up, the amount of talent on the stage, reaches out all over the jam band community.

Furthur is a band formed by former members of The Grateful Dead Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. After The Grateful Dead disbanded shortly before Jerry Garcis’a death, the bands members continued playing which each other and touring under different names such as The Other Ones, The Dead, Ratdog, and many more. 

In 2009 the group known as Furthur came together consisting of Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, John Kadlecik (Dark Star Orchestra), Jeff Chemeti (Ratdog), Jay Lane (Primus, Ratdog) and Joe Russo (the Duo). In 2010 Jay Lane left the band to go back on tour with Primus, and they now have Sunshine Becker and Jeff Pehrson on vocals.

The group has a very large following as all of the dead heads continue to follow all of the side projects of all the different members of The Grateful Dead. There show’s usually consist of mostly Grateful Dead songs, but the band does have some original songs which they perform frequently. The band has not recorded any studio albums, but have done a ton of touring the three years they have been around. 

Motorboat

This past December I was lucky enough to win tickets to the 15th anniversary celebration at Lincoln Park’s Aliveone. I love aliveone and have been going to the bar to see live music since I moved to Chicago three years ago. I was there on a random Thursday to see Spare Parts, a great jazz trio, who play there every Thursday. During the intermission they had a raffle and I won tickets to the party.

The 15th anniversary party featured a great jam band collaboration group playing together for the very first time. The group called themselves Motorboat, featuring Brendan Bayliss and Ryan Stasik (Umphrey’s McGee), Chuck Garvey (moe.), Cody Dickinson (North Mississippi All Stars) and Kevin Kozol (Spare Parts).  This was the first performance by the group. 

The bar had built a custom stage in the front room and moved their pool table making the bar look and feel much different from their regular shows. Because it was a private party for the bar’s 15th anniversary there was an open bar til midnight. Free tickets, free drinks, amazing music, what more could you ask for.

Set One: Manic Depression, Cocaine, London Calling, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Time, Bell Bottom Blues, Freedom of ’76, Crossroads

Set Two: Bennie and the Jets, Girlfriend is Better, Fool in the Rain, Lively Up Yourself > How Many More Times > Lively Up Yourself, Baby You’re A Rich Man, Godzilla, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?

Encore: Ophelia

Encore 2: I Wanna Be Sedated

Oysterhead

Oysterhead

Oysterhead is the definition of an “all star” band. Featuring Trey Anastasio (Phish) on guitar, Les Claypol (Primus) on bass and Stewart Copeland (The Police) on drums.  All three are legends coming from different parts of the music scene with a lot of similar ties. 

The band formed in 2000 to perform a single show. While preparing for the show the trio came up with a lot of material in which they decided to record the next year creating their album, The Grand Pecking Order. 

The band had a small tour in the fall of 2001 in support of their album (with a stop on Conan) but then all returned to their other acts and did not play as a group again until 2006.

In 2006 the group reunited for one single show at Bonnaroo. This has been the only show the band has played since 2001.

The very different styles can clearly be heard through out the album. All three of them contribute vocals to the album.  Some songs are very Trey, with their story telling lyrics and soft, pretty guitar melodies, while other songs are heavy Claypol slaps and screaming lyrics, while Copeland matches all the sounds with perfection. Their collaboration creates an incredibly unique sound that only three masters of their art would be able to create. 

Garage A Trois

Garage A Trois

Garage A Trois looks a little bit different today then it did when it was formed by Stanton Moore in New Orleans back in 1999.  Moore, of course coming from New Orleans's finest Galactic, originally founded the group as a trio with Charlie Hunter (guitar) and Skerik (saxophone). The band recorded their first album which was released in 1999, Mysterfunk.

In 2003 Matt Dillon on percussion and vibraphone joined the group and collaborating for their next album, Emphasizer. The band then later in 2007 picked up Marco Benevento and Hunter left the group. The now power quartet has released two albums in the past three years and have had some very memorable tours. 

This past October I was able to see the group for the first time, when they played here in Chicago at Martyrs. I have seen everybody in the band play with other groups, but I had never seen this collaboration before.  I have seen Skerik play with Les Claypol’s frog brigade, so I was ready and excited for all of his crazy antics. Matt Dillon who also plays with the Frog Brigade brings a very unique sound with the non stop upbeat vibraphone. I have also seen Benevento play before with a couple of different groups, but it was great to see how he brought its more laid back key skills to this very upbeat band. Stanton Moore is obviously incredible, the funk that he brought to this high energy, heavier metal show was exactly what it needed to be all brought together. 

Garage A Trois had a large fall tour for their newest album, Alway be Happy, But Stay Evil, but currently have no tour announced. They will be going out on Jam Cruise 10, but have no shows after that.  Garage A Trois are sure to continue collaborating and making great jams in the future.

The Rhythm Devils

The Rhythm Devils

        The Rhythm Devils are an incredible collaboration group formed in 2006 which combine two of the scenes most popular bands, The Grateful Dead and Phish. The group features Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann who are The Grateful Dead’s two main percussion/drummers. Also from the Dead is Steve Kimock on Guitar and on bass is the one and only Mike Gordon of Phish. The band also features Sikiru Adepoju (percussion) and Jen Durkin (vocals). 

The Rhythm Devils is what the pair Hart and Kreutzmann have been called since the 70’s. They would have appearances under the name the Rhythm Devils featuring other members, but it was never an official group until 2006.

The band formed and had a tour in 2006 drawing a lot of attention with the stacked line up. After a summer of shows and small fall tour the band did not play together for a few more years.

In 2010 the band played a performance at the Gathering of the Vibes . This performance featured appearances by Keller Williams and Andy Hess in place of Steve Kimock and Mike Gordon. The group toured with this line up for a the next year, which Kimock sitting on on a few shows. The are currently no future shows for the band right now. 

The Everyone Orchestra

The Everyone Orchestra

The next group going to be featured here is probably one of the most well known collaboration groups out there THE EVERYONE ORCHESTRA.  The group formed a little bit over a decade ago, by the main founder/conductor Matt Butler. The group features members from many of the most popular bands in the jam band scene. 

The Grateful Dead, Phish, moe. Umphreys McGee, DMB, String Cheese Incident, The Flectones, ALO, Tea Leaf Green 

The band was the idea of founder Matt Butler who started forming the idea in 2001. The first official show was booked for NYE Dec, 31, 2001. The band then had appearances over the next few years at different festivals and shows, always having a different line up but still consisting of a few key members. In 2006 the band started playing a lot more frequently adding more and more members to the group. 

On there website www.everyoneorchestra.com/alumni they have every show listed and every participant. There are literally hundreds. You can sort by member and which shows they have played at. It is a really cool way to look through the different members and when they collaborated with the group.  It is incredible how many amazing musicians have collaborated on this single project. 

The bands next performance is at the Jam Cruise 10 which takes off in two days from Ft Lauderdale FL. They have also just released the news of their first ever studio album. They have released a single featuring Jon Fishman (Phish), Al Schnier (moe.), Steve Kimock (The Grateful Dead), Marco Benevento (The Duo), Jeff Coffin (DMB, The Flectones), Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green), Jennifer Hartwick (TAB), Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project) and Jans Ingber (The Motet). 

2012 is looking like a great year for The Everyone Orchestra which is to be filled with their first studio album and what is promised to be some very unforgettable shows.