Go Phishin' ... again

Well, it happened and I am sure you heard about this already (I didn't get to a PC until now, sue me!) The (in)famous rock/jam band Phish will be playing three shows in early 2009:

Phish returns to the stage for three concerts at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia on March 6, 7 and 8, 2009.

Their main page is showing a flash video of an artist creating what will most likely be the poster art for the shows along with enigmatic "Phish 3 678 9" before revealing the dates at the end. The traffic to the page is undoubtedly massive ... as will be the ticket pages/outlets when they go on sale.

For more information on this, CLICK HERE

Move over Farmer Ben ... Meet Farmer Dave!

The South Coast Gazette posted an article this morning highlighting a Farm Aid panel with produce farmer Dave Purpura, owner of Plato's Harvest in Middleborough, MA. What does this have to moe.? Well, during the panel, Purpura was joined by our very own Al, Rob, and Vinnie.

The panel was part of the Homegrown Village stage of Farm Aid, where Purpura discussed his sucess and qualms with the produce industry.

The message: buy local, support family farmers rang out from both the artists and concert goers.

It's not just about fresh food and sustainable agriculture. Food that's shipped from South America uses up a tremendous amount of natural resources making its way across the continent. moe. guitarist Al Schnier, said, "If we all were part of the equation, supporting local farmers just a bit more, the environmental impact would be remarkable."

Despite ribbing from the band moe. who dubbed him Farmer Dave, Mr. Purpura said it wasn't a mid-life crisis that made him turn from an engineering career to organic farming. "It was kind of planned, it was always my intention."

I highly recommend readers to check out the full article by CLICKING HERE.

For more information on Farm Aid, CLICK HERE.

First moe. set from moe.down IX Up on IClips

The Org is showing the following message:

Check out the Friday night moe.down set on iClips - includes Bela Fleck sitting in on "Shoot First".

That evening's setlist was as follows, according to our moe.rons.com setlist forums:

8-29-2008
moe.down IX
Turin, NY
One Set

Spaz Medicine, Blue Jeans & Pizza, Funky Reuben*, Letter Home > Okayalright, Darkness** > Shoot First*** > Bathtub Gin jam > The Road > Rebubula

Encore: Sensory Deprivation Bank

* played one other time on 02/15/92
** w/ "Bathtub Gin" tease
*** w/ Bela Fleck

Again, for the message at moe.org, CLICK HERE

Al to Tour with the Transamericans

Sorry, I was a bit busy yesterday afternoon and didn't get to the tipline mail, so this story is a day late.

The Al & The Transamericans Myspace page was updated yesterday with all of the information about the shows coming in November. It was also reported on by Jambands.com, which is the link most people sent me. Here is what they wrote up:

With moe. scheduled to spend the rest of the year off the road Al Schnier has confirmed an extended tour with his longtime sideband Al & the Transamericans. The country-rock outfit features a number of familiar faces, including moe.’s Vinnie Amico (drums), Kirk Juhas (keyboardist), Eric Glockler (bass) and Gordon Stone (banjo and pedal steel). The group’s upcoming tour is scheduled to kick off at Utica, NY’s Electric Company on Halloween, before making stops in Albany (11/1), Portland, ME (11/5), Newmarket, NN (11/6), New York (11/7), Teaneck, NJ (11/8), Ithaca, NY (11/10), Pittsburgh (11/11), Annapolis, MD (11/12), Baltimore (11/13), Stroudsburg, PA (11/14) and Syracuse, NY (11/15).

Al & the Transamericans will share the stage with a few different bands along the way, most notably Tea Leaf Green and American Babies. moe.'s only upcoming appearance is at Farm Aid on September 20.

For Al & The Transamericans Myspace page, CLICK HERE (And CLICK HERE for our own page!)

For the Jambands.com snippet, CLICK HERE.

Again, thanks for all of the email tips. Remember, if you have news on moe. or the moe. community that we have missed, send an email to tips@moerons.com

moe. featured as part of Relix's new V Cast video channel

Relix announced today that they are partnering with Verizon Wireless to "offer customers both live music video clips and original recordings, including concert footage, backstage videos and in-depth interviews."

Right now, moe.'s performance of TGORM from the Jam Band Chronicles: Summer Camp DVD is being featured.

For the press release, CLICK HERE.

For Relix's V Cast page, CLICK HERE.

Vinnie to perform several shows w/ Sonic Garden

Sonic Garden's MySpace page lists a few of their upcoming shows as having Vinnie as a "special guest drum[mer]"

October, 10 2008 at The Electric Company with Vinnie Amico of moe on special guest drums 700 Varick St., Utica, New York 13502

October, 11 2008 at Valentines - with Vinnie Amico of moe on special guest drums
17 New Scotland Ave., Albany, New York 12207
Cost : $10

October, 17 2008 at Club Infinity with Vinnie Amico of moe plus original/old Sonic Alumni & Acoustic Forum
8166 Main Street, Williamsville, New York 14221

The also add a rumor-ish "Maybe Al will show up too?" to the October 10th show as well. October 17th's show, as you can see above, will include "original drummer Vinnie Amico of moe and original/old Sonic Garden alumni: Rolph Witt, John Yakovu, Joe Bellanti, Dave Ruch, & more".

For Sonic Garden's MySpace page, CLICK HERE.

moe.down takes over NY mountainside

The Daily Collegian, published daily for the University of Massachusetts, had a write up about moe.down IX this morning.

On the last weekend of the summer of 2008, most University of Massachusetts students were relaxing and rearing for their trip back to the Zoo.

Yet, on a small, ski mountain in Turin, NY, Moe-rons (a self-given nickname for fans of the band "Moe") were raging hard, flaring and grooving wildly to top-notch groups such as The Presidents of the United States of America, The Yonder Mountain String Band, U-Melt, The Benevento-Russo Duo, The Sparrow Quartet featuring Abigail Washburn & Bela Fleck, Levon Helm, Fishbone, The Brew, The Macpodz and of course the explosively titillating rock-blues-experimental-cowboy-free-flow-space-jam band: Moe (or jam-band for short).

If you can get past the misspelling of the band name, there is some "interesting" writing in the piece:

One Moe-ron, Jeff, called out in the spirit of Moe-rons everywhere for an evolution in consciousness. He claimed that the world has had too many revolutions already and it is time for our species to evolve. Revolutions bring nothing but more of the same. From his perspective, every action has a reaction. There are so many actions taking place so why not try to make them good ones? For our actions really do matter. In fact, every action has the potential to change the world. If this is true than we can also control our own destiny to some extent?

I am bit curious how he knew about the .down (and if he was at it or just reporting). No matter; to check out the rest of the article CLICK HERE.

Les Claypool's "National Lampoon" jam band movie at movie festival

Well, I consider myself pretty well versed in media, especially movies and television, but I had no idea that Les Claypool was writing, directing, AND staring in a movie that "spoofs" the jam band genre ... and includes some famous musicians in the scene. And it is a "National Lampoon" branded movie? Color me surprised.

Often described as "Spinal Tap meets the Grateful Dead" because it uses the same mock-umentary style of Spinal Tap and focuses on the jamband scene, "National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: The Quest for Festeroo" features rock legends such as the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, Phish's Mike Gordon as well as Warren Haynes and Matt Abts from Gov't Mule.

"This is a huge honor for this film to be chosen, the buzz around 'National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo' has been growing and we are delighted to be able to feature the picture at the festival," stated Daniel Laikin, National Lampoon Chief Executive Officer in announcing the selection.

It also features classic cameo appearances from Seth Green (Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Italian Job) and "South Park"'s Matt Stone. The movie was produced by Jason McHugh (producer of debut features for Trey Parker from "South Park").

Carrying the mantle for the Grateful Dead and Phish are Electric Apricot, Claypool's alter ego's band, as they hit the road to "Festeroo," the fictional pinnacle event of the jam band scene - and possibly, E.A.'s career. Electric Apricot pokes loving fun at the heirs of classic jam bands and their loyal fans.

Anyway, this snippet is from a wire news story about how the film is being premiered at the UK Raindance Film Festival that is upcoming.

5k moe.rons were at the Artpark show

The Niagara Gazette published an article today highlighting the fact that Lewiston's Artpark concerts, specifically the "Wednesdays at the Gorge" shows, were a success this summer. moe. even got a nod for the crowd they were able to bring in ...

The eight-week Wednesdays on the Gorge series, in particular, grew by leaps and bounds, showing a 99 percent spike from 2007 with a total patronage of more than 26,000. Flagship events featuring the Buffalo-born jam band moe. (July 9) and Canadian import Sam Roberts (July 30) each attracted 5,000-plus concertgoers.

Not too shabby, and they got the name of the band right, so kuddos. To read the rest of the article, CLICK HERE.

A recap of the setlist for the Artpark show:

7-9-08
Art Park
Lewiston, NY

Set I: 32 Things, Tambourine, Not Coming Down, It, Faker > Brent Black

Set II: Kids, Time Ed > Skrunk, Bring You Down, Cathedral > Plane Crash

Encore: Stranger Than Fiction

moe.down IX article/review up on Jambase.com

Jambase.com has nice little write up about last weekends moe.down IX. Here is the opening paragraph:

It's an old adage really, but it works nonetheless: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Nine years running and as fervent as ever, moe.down lured over 10,000 fans from around the country to beautiful Upstate New York over Labor Day weekend. As if on a schedule of rain every other year at the event, Hurricane Faye worked its way up the coast on Friday, yet dissipated by the time it reached New York State. A gray fog hung over the mountain on Friday and dropped a sprinkle of rain that glazed the grounds. Otherwise, we were graced with glorious sunshine.

For the full article, CLICK HERE.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new moe.rons.com news/blog page!

We hope to make this an easier page to view, post, use, ect. With that said, I hope to have the rest of the moe.derators (Tonya, Dave, Jen, ect.) on board soon posting "breaking" news, interviews, and other stuff as well as a few other surprises.

Again, welcome to the new site and I hope you stick around for the fun. As always, find us at our forums located at http://www.moerons.com/forums/

Cheers!

~ Sean (aka Atreyu)