Papadosio 2010-08-21

Papadosio 2010-08-21
Camp Barefoot Music and Arts Festival
Bartow, WV
(Stream or download)

I've always been a big fan of the so-called "Livetronica" movement, listening to bands like Sound Tribe Sector 9 (I posted a show of theirs back in 2008), Brothers Past, The New Deal, Particle, Club D'Elf, The Histronic, and so on. The best electronic/techno is designed to pull you in, to work you into a frenzy of anticipation during the build and the break, and then explode in that nearly orgasmic release known as "drop". When it's done well, it's like mainlining a drug. It's everything that, musically, we're programmed to react to emotionally and chemically, distilled and purified a thousand times. Livetronica combines that with everything I love about the free-form and improvisational elements of a traditional jam band, in order to form a more perfect union. It's fantastic stuff and I'm honestly surprised that it's not more popular than it is.

Livetronica, by its nature, is very well suited to live recordings, since the entire point is about the experience created for the listener at each show. If you can't make livetronica outside of a studio, you're not going to last very long, and indeed some of these bands don't even record studio albums. It's also a genre with a very taper-friendly culture, and it is very well represented on share and trade sites like archive.org. Touring is the bread-and-butter aspect of this music, and any savvy act is going to gladly trade a free live show for a new fan that's going to buy a ticket to see them the next time they come to town.



Papadosio is one of the up-and-coming groups representing the genre. Hailing from Athens, Ohio, they've been around for about four years. I actually found this show while looking to see if recent dance music icon Deadmau5 was represented on archive.org. He's not, but Papadosio has chosen to be and it so happens that they periodically do a great cover of the Deadmau5 remix of "I'm Not Alone".

Papadosio is excellent at really ranging across the different sounds of the genre. They've got a chameleon sound, for sure. At times, you'll think you're listening to Sound Tribe. The next track, you'd swear it might be The New Deal. On a cut like "On Cue", you could easily convince yourself that you're listening to Umphrey's McGee. I wouldn't honestly say that they're breaking a ton of new ground just yet, but the meld of existing styles is a very interesting one and they do quite a good job with it. This is a band that is still developing their sound and yet sounding really good as they do it. Mark my words, you will be seeing and hearing these guys on the big festival circuit quite soon, so get in on the ground floor with me. You can sound smart when they show up at your favorite fest and you are able to tell folks you've been listening to them for a while...!

This set is from a live late-night performance at the Camp Barefoot Music and Arts Festival, the late hour of their set is immediately apparent when they start out by apologizing to anyone trying to sleep. "On Cue", "I'm Not Alone", and "Eyes Have Eyes" are personal favorites of mine.

Sound quality is an A for sure, it's a super-clean soundboard recording with some crowd sound from right in the front.

Sound Tribe Sector 9 2002-12-5

Sound Tribe Sector 9 2002-12-5 The Catalyst Santa Cruz, CA (Video Stream/Download)

I had intended today's offering to be a New Year's set featuring Sound Tribe Sector 9. I love a good New Year's show to get pumped up for the next 365 day haul, and STS9 has done a number of them. However, I've realized that a good number of people even within the festival and taper community actually aren't that familiar with them, and the experience simply isn't complete without the colorful visual aspect they bring to their shows. STS9 offers a unique multimedia experience to the live showgoer, on stage there are likely flowers, rocks, and gems. They also invite painters, floral arrangers, and even mechanical typewriter-artists to participate.

Jefree Lerner (Percussionist) "There are lots of forums for live music, but there's not too many forums for live painting. We kind of wanted to open up the stage as a platform for any type of art. We've had people typing on a manual typewriter behind us. We have had everything from people reciting poetry to offering flower arrangements. Basically, we want to maintain the stage as an opportunity to showcase different forms of art, as well as interpreting music. "Sound Tribe" refers to a collective of artists and musicians. They are all part of the family."

Luckily, a great primer for the Sound Tribe experience has already been created: A one hour set graciously provided for our free, legal, non-commercial enjoyment by the GrooveTV crew over at SCCTV, a community television station in Santa Cruz, CA. It is with great pleasure that I present the Jive Father's first video post. But first, a bit about the band...

Sound Tribe Sector 9, as a sonic entity, really defies labeling. At this very moment, I tremble anxiously at the prospect of genre tagging this post as I know I must do when I finish it. (I'm hopeful another beer might help...?) They've been embraced by many in the "jam band" crowd, but they only really fit that mold based on audience. It's a sort of ambient electrojam, I suppose. Whatever it is, they do it very, very well. Listen for one or two minutes, and you might find yourself saying "What is this noise, and what drugs was Chris on to recommend it?!?", but give it another few minutes and you'll start to hear the elements pull together: Zach Felmer doing his best Jon Fishman impression, holding a robotically precise drumbeat; Dave Murphy making sonic glue with his bass lines; David Phipps adding dimensions of depth on keys; Hunter Brown with his ethereal guitar work; and Jefree Lerner with his percussive work. Listen through the show, and I hope you are wondering why you've slept on them before or why you haven't seen them live lately.

They are truly greater than the sum of their parts, and they play like some universal force brought them together to make this beautifully eclectic mess.

The set is a crisp and wild one hour investment. The show vaults from good to excellent as soon as they hit "Tap In" and its electrifying intro, and the greatness doesn't stop from there. The track listing looks like this:

Moonsocket, Call > Tap In, Ramone & Emiglio > Eb > Ramone & Emiglio. End credits: Baraka

David Phipps - Keyboards, Hunter Brown - Guitar, Jeffree Lerner - Percussion, David Murphy - Bass, Zach Velmer - Drums

Sound quality is A+, video quality is an A- as long as you download the MPEG1 version, which I highly recommend. Please resist the urge to stream this show, it's convenient but the quality isn't there. Sound credits go to Marco Walsh and GrooveTV. Photo credit.