Buzzfeed recently reported on a curious feature that Google offers as a part of its Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) product.  Many spreadsheet jockeys have been known to start a series in the first two cells of a worksheet (e.g. Days Of The Week, Months of the Year, etc.) and use the autofill feature to [...]

Contributed by: Chris Murtaugh It was a family affair at Chicago’s Vic Theater on Black Friday. Following a turkey stuffed evening, Cornmeal returned to Chicago for their annual holiday show, a homecoming of sorts for the band and presumably many in attendance. With the departure of the Nowak brothers announced in late summer, I was [...]

On their recent swing through Chicago, two members of Yonder Mountain String Band, bassist Ben Kaufmann and guitarist Adam Aijala, dropped by Chicago Music Exchange to try their hand at some of the store’s inventory of classic instruments.  Kaufmann is excited to try an Ampeg double bass, claiming this is the second time in his [...]

Lots of great reports coming in from this one…  Check out videos for The Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog” and “40 Miles From Denver” below.  Night two at the HOB Yonder Mountain String Band October 20th, 2012 House Of Blues – Chicago, IL Set One Up On The Hill Where They Do The Boogie, Roll On Blues, [...]

Jam filled night in Chicago with Trey and Yonder playing a few short blocks from another.  Check out the video below where Jeff dedicates a tune to his new friend Phil Lesh. Yonder Mountain String Band October 19th, 2012 House Of Blues – Chicago, IL Set One Train bound for Gloryland > Sideshow Blues, Fingerprint, [...]

Update 9/20 with band lineup It certainly seemed like TAB was going to make a habit of hitting Chicago’s Riveria Theater in February.  After two wildly successful and stylistically diverse shows in 2010 and 2011, we were let down when a winter tour wasn’t routed through here in 2012 — and even more disappointed when [...]

The 30db / Van Ghost pairing was just one of the many inspired double (sometime triple & quadruple) bills that the Abbey Pub has been programming lately and certainly one of the most high profile, considering the national prominence of the artists involved, yet a strong sense of Chicago hung in the air all night.  [...]

This feature has been updated (February 2012) since its original publication in April of 2010.  I swapped out the ninth band and added some honorable mentions.  The remainder of the text remains largely untouched. We can crank up the amplifiers and layer on the production, but the acoustic guitar — natural and authentic — just [...]

Yonder Mountain welcomed good friend Brenday Bayliss of Umphrey’s McGee to the stage at their stop in Chicago last week.  Some video has surfaced, complete with enthusiastic crowd response.  Brendan sat in for the first set closing “One More”, followed by a jammed out version of Talking Heads’ “Girlfriend Is Better”.  Have a look.  See [...]

More than just about any band (and I’ll throw the Beatles, Dead, and Zappa in there too), Talking Heads have provided direct inspiration to the jamband community.  Attribute it to their rhythmic ideals, engaging melodies or passion for innovation, but with only 8 studio albums to draw from, the variety of tunes covered and interpretations [...]