Post BWGK Media Reviews Here

[sydneyDMBfan]

DMB returns with new look, old sound
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ) 5 June 2009

Last year, the Dave Matthews Band received the kind of jolt that few bands must endure when saxophonist LeRoi Moore died in the middle of a tour from injuries sustained in an ATV accident.

Moore had been expected to recover, though he was unable to continue touring after the accident and was replaced on the road by Jeff Coffin. This album, named in part after Moore (whose nickname was GrooGrux), was begun before Moore died, and features him on some tracks, with Coffin (of Bela Fleck's Flecktones) playing elsewhere.

The band has dealt with the transition smoothly, and is currently on one of its usual summer tours. But it has stopped short of reinventing itself. This is a solid DMB album, but no revelation. Like U2's "No Line On the Horizon," it's the work of a veteran rock band working comfortably in styles it already has perfected "" the kind of album that inspires respect rather than excitement.

"Alligator Pie," for instance, might be more notable if it weren't so similar to what the band previously did on "Louisiana Bayou" (from 2005's "Stand Up"). And it's hard to listen to "Squirm," with its Middle Eastern flavor, and not think of the similar "The Last Stop" (from 1998's "Before These Crowded Streets"). The overly repetitious "Seven" sounds unfinished.

Still, the band does a great job of negotiating the steamy funk of "Shake Me Like a Monkey" and the slippery pop of "Funny the Way It Is," even if the latter's lyrics are more well-intentioned than profound. "Funny the way it is, if you think about it/Somebody's going hungry and someone else is eating out," sings Matthews, sounding a bit like Alanis Morissette on "Ironic."

Matthews has some better moments as a lyricist on "Dive In," which attacks environmental complacency ("Wake up sleepyhead/I think the sun's a little brighter today/Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the water rising"), and on "Time Bomb," which has one of the most arresting opening verses ever written.

"I'm a ticking time bomb/Waiting to blow my top/No one would ever know/Not until I blew up," sings Matthews. How could anyone stop listening after that?

[sydneyDMBfan]

What rocks, what doesn't; Dave Matthews Band, 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King'
The Courier-Journal (5 June 2009)
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett

Dave Matthews has experienced his share of tragedy. He was 10 when his father died; his sister, Anne, was murdered by her husband; two years ago, bandmate LeRoi Moore died unexpectedly after an ATV accident; and he was born with a voice that sounds like a chipmunk with the hiccups.

In spite of all that, or maybe because of, in some cases, the Dave Matthews Band has finally made a pretty good record. Compared to much of DMB's past work, which largely got by on pleasant enough tunes and beer-buzz grooves, "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" has an intensity of feeling that's reflected in the strength of the music. Matthews sounds as if he means it.

Matthews sings about love, lust, friendship and acceptance of life's infuriating randomness. Anger occasionally surfaces, but the band dances around it with music that sometimes recalls Earth, Wind & Fire, sometimes Tears for Fears, a combination unique to DMB. Matthews fans should note that three stars from me is equivalent to 11 or 12 elsewhere and buy this immediately.

Frat-house jams: 7

Actual songs: 6

[sydneyDMBfan]

Dave Matthews Band and Bachelorette release records worth hearing
By Patrick Ferrucci
New Haven Register, Conn. (5 June 2009)

When you really think about it, Dave Matthews Band is one undervalued act. In a time when so few groups are stable long enough to last multiple decades, DMB has chugged along for almost two decades, making record after record and crisscrossing the globe during numerous soldout tours. In terms of contemporaries, only Pearl Jam can boast a run that began in the early '90s and is still successful. Although, DMB has easily been more popular over the same time period.

And like many classic rock acts before it, DMB has continued to release competent albums over the last decade, but has largely been in rut. Since 1998's "Before the Crowded Streets," the band, let by singer/ songwriter Dave Matthews, has seemingly been OK with putting out mediocre discs that found the musicians happily toning down the jamming and idiosyncratic traits that made them stick out so much. Leave it to death to snap DMB out of its funk, as "Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King" is the finest work the band has completed since 1998.

In late summer 2008, saxophonist and original member LeRoi Moore died from complications from an ATV accident. At the time, DMB had been in the studio creating what would become "Big Whiskey," and the tragedy jolted the band. DMB continued its tour, even performing on the night Moore passed, but then retreated to the studio to finish the disc, now a tribute to Moore -- he is the "GrooGrux King" of the title.

The 13-track album opens with some sax noodling by Moore, before exploding into an earthy, tight rumination on death and love, all the while showcasing Matthews' best writing in a very long time. This is a band taking its craft seriously, returning to the wellplanned Jethro Tullish rock of "Before the Crowded Streets." Gone are the pop leanings, the obvious Top 40 radio wannabees and the marginal filler of records from the last decade.

On "Alligator Pie," the group -- which also includes Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard and Boyd Tinsley -- shows off jamband aptitude in full style, one of many examples of this on "Big Whiskey." But unlike numerous other acts that worship at the altar of the Dead, DMB has never lost sight of the fact that a song has to be a good tune first, before it can be pulled apart with noodling and solos. And here, on its seventh official LP, DMB has got its groove back, just unfortunately it's at the expense of losing a founding member.

[sydneyDMBfan]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-the-week.html

The Sun (UK)
5 June 2009

OK, I've tried. I always had Dave Matthews down as the most boring man in rock with the most boring name in rock.

You couldn't call his seventh studio album title boring so I thought I'd give the South African-born star who's shipped squillions of records in the States a chance.

The songs are impeccably played and a touching tribute to the band's late saxophonist LeRoi Moore but you're guaranteed to yawn before first song Grux comes to close.

I'm sorry Dave, the album is like catching the last train to Dullsville.

2.5 stars

[sydneyDMBfan]

Daily Mail (UK)
5 June 2009

A STAR in the States, Matthews has struggled to make the same impact here. And this album, which shuns long jams in favour of concise rockers, is unlikely to change matters. As a vocalist, he has an uncanny similarity to Sting and even shares some jazzier leanings. His approach works well on Dive In and My Baby Blue, but some decent tunes are swamped by their complexity.

[Xavid]

Originally Posted by sydneyDMBfan

What rocks, what doesn't; Dave Matthews Band, 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King'
The Courier-Journal (5 June 2009)
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett

Dave Matthews has experienced his share of tragedy. He was 10 when his father died; his sister, Anne, was murdered by her husband; two years ago, bandmate LeRoi Moore died unexpectedly after an ATV accident; and he was born with a voice that sounds like a chipmunk with the hiccups.

In spite of all that, or maybe because of, in some cases, the Dave Matthews Band has finally made a pretty good record. Compared to much of DMB's past work, which largely got by on pleasant enough tunes and beer-buzz grooves, "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" has an intensity of feeling that's reflected in the strength of the music. Matthews sounds as if he means it.

Matthews sings about love, lust, friendship and acceptance of life's infuriating randomness. Anger occasionally surfaces, but the band dances around it with music that sometimes recalls Earth, Wind & Fire, sometimes Tears for Fears, a combination unique to DMB. Matthews fans should note that three stars from me is equivalent to 11 or 12 elsewhere and buy this immediately.

Frat-house jams: 7

Actual songs: 6

Yeah, Puckett has notoriously panned all things DMB if memory serves (although I think he liked Busted Stuff). He, like so many others, can't seem to get away from stereotypes(fratboy stuff) and disdain for Dave's voice(which I think shows they've not really listened to much of the music-just the hits). This 3 rating is generous from him (out of 4). I cant help but want to shove his "Frat-house jams:7" quote straight up his ass though.

[solsburyhill]

Originally Posted by sydneyDMBfan

Daily Mail (UK)
5 June 2009

A STAR in the States, Matthews has struggled to make the same impact here. And this album, which shuns long jams in favour of concise rockers, is unlikely to change matters. As a vocalist, he has an uncanny similarity to Sting and even shares some jazzier leanings. His approach works well on Dive In and My Baby Blue, but some decent tunes are swamped by their complexity.

Ok, so the music is too good?

[Dankguitar]

here is one of the more well done reviews ive seen. it was done at absolutepunk.net (it was good to see DMB on a site like that, but it is one of the biggest music sites I've seen):


It's only fitting that the first album the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) releases without departed band member LeRoi Moore opens and closes with a sax solo. That opening song is "Grux," a two-minute instrumental, whose title is a shortened nod to "GrooGrux," a moniker Dave and bandmates gave LeRoi during his 15-year run with the band. It's a brief, spicy and accelerated introduction to an album that is easily the band's most daring, buoyant and emotional. It's also their best.

The ultra-funky "Shake Me Like a Monkey," is a sweaty, busy and frenetic romp with sharp edges, dizzying verses and a rollicking chorus that's arguably as sharp and sassy as anything the band has ever put down in the studio. Quite simply it's swerving energy is impossible to deny. Lead single "Funny The Way It Is," opens with a nuanced guitar, and Dave's trademark howl. The soaring and ecstatic chorus details the highs and lows of a life and it's a sentiment that seems to be most appropriate for a record such as this. While Moore was alive during pre-production, he never saw the finished product and that bittersweet sentiment is exactly what the lead single hits on.

The slow-jam "Lying In the Hands of God," begins with a hushed vocal and while melodically it doesn't really go anywhere, Matthews' vocals are crystal clear during the chorus and it may serve as one of his better vocal triumphs. It's chill and tame nature is a perfect companion to the band's prior repertoire, sitting comfortably next to the elegiac "Sister," and "Out Of My Hands," to name but a few. The album moves along with "Why I Am," a song that serves more or less as the title track, and whose lyrics prove to be a nod to Moore and his vibrancy for life. That energy is paralleled nicely with the funky guitar lines, blistering horns and its groove-based jam. There's even a fiery guitar solo and a soaring bridge to kick it into overdrive. While many Dave songs can sound like one giant party, "Why I Am," is the epitome of that exact sentiment.

The intricate horn work on "Spaceman," welcomes a poignant lullaby with a stylized acoustic opening that's soft and light and hearkens back to the band's breakthrough debut Under the Table and Dreaming. While the gooey sentiment of "Just remember, I love the way you move. I love the way you love me baby," is a bit trite, Matthews has always been known for throwing in his fair share of corny verses. The swampy, banjo-fueled rocker "Alligator Pie," is a self-indulgent, zydeco-like boogie with a clever guitar run and a batch of lyrics about his daughter Stella, and while it's an enjoyable song, it doesn't offer much to the album's full framework. It's a groove song, first and foremost, but then again so too are "Grey Street," "Two Step," and "The Best of What's Around," and they remain crowd favorites.

"Squirm" or as Matthews prefers, "Skworm," is a driving rocker with a huge horn-fueled chorus and an urgency and tension that brings the song to a simmering boil. Matthews is always at his best when he allows his vocals to soar to an impassioned degree that borders on seething and "Squirm," is a fine example of how he can do such a thing without compromising the song. He tries that energy again on "Time Bomb, " while chanting rather angrily, "I want to believe in Jesus," and for someone who has endured as much pain as he has, it's a rather believable declaration. Is it a bit overwrought? Absolutely, but no work of art is ever free from its shortcomings. "Seven" much like live favorite "Corn Bread," features vocal gymnastics, a slight scream, and far too much musical chaos. It's as painful as listening to someone with laryngitis and it's far too repetitive, self-indulgent and sex-obsessed to be considered memorable. The album ends exquisitely with "Baby Blue" and "You and Me," both shimmering examples that the band's best work may still be unwritten.

Rather comically, Saturday Night Live's Cheri Oteri once said "if Virginia is for lovers, it's because DMB got them all smashed," and while it's hard to argue that line, it's even harder to argue the band's place in American contemporary music. Now more than 15 years into what has been a landmark career and one that has rewritten the history books, DMB are proudly forging ahead and doing so valiantly without one of its founding members. Is the album as good as their prior efforts? That's certainly hard to quantify. All of them have a rightful place and truth be told, the buoyant and syncopated nature of this release is as solid as anything they've ever done. And yes like much of the early press has documented, it is certainly their heaviest album. But unlike most musicians, the quartet never deviates from their trademark: an innate ability to fuse a cornucopia of worldly sounds into a palette that traverses ethnicity, race and culture.

On Big Whiskey, producer Rob Cavallo (Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, My Chemical Romance) certainly allowed the band to up the sonic ante and the results are tremendous. Matthews offers his consistently sexy vocals, Carter Beauford bangs out elaborate, propulsive beats; bassist Stefan Lessard whips up thick and creative bass lines; and violinist Boyd Tinsley provides lively and spine-tickling violin runs. Though they certainly have their fair share of haters, there are enough that find merit and value in what they do and it's that devoted fanbase that has propelled them to six, incredibly consistent, organic and wholly original releases. Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King is a worthy successor to those six and it's that intensity that makes the anticipation for number eight all the more exciting.

Vocals 8.5
Musicianship 8.75
Lyrics 7.75
Production 8.75
Creativity 8.5
Lasting Value 8.5
Reviewer Tilt 8.5
Final Verdict: 85%

[sydneyDMBfan]

A clear view; Strong performances give purpose to the latest action-packed album by the Dave Matthews Band
Montreal Gazette (6 June 2009)
by T'CHA DUNLEVY (Gazette Music Critic)

Dave Matthews speaks softly, with thoughtful pauses. There is an arresting honesty to his voice. He doesn't give interviews often, I am told later by the label rep; perhaps, as a result, he comes across as genuinely engaged in our conversation.

I tracked down the South African-born American rocker in Boston on a tour stop last week, and spoke to him by phone. The first topic was the untimely death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore, in an ATV accident last summer.

Moore's solos open and close the Dave Matthews Band's just-released seventh album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, the title of which is dedicated to his memory. "I'm glad you said 'Groogroo,' " the singer said, approving of my pronunciation while explaining that he and his entourage pronounce the "x."

"Grux was a nickname of Roi's. We liked putting it together like that. We thought in New Orleans, people would either say 'Groogroo' or 'Groogrux,' depending on the street they live on. It's dedicated to LeRoi and New Orleans. He loved New Orleans."

There is a vaguely New Orleans flavour to the album, from the Matthews-drawn cover art of a Mardi Gras-style parade (featuring a banner of Moore's face) to the festive-yet-existential songs therein.

"I feel really good about it," he said of the album. "I'm confident my old friend LeRoi would have felt the same way I do. He would have thought it's our best record so far. His presence on the album is very musical, but he was certainly a great inspiration to us after he was gone. The important things he said became more important, and the unimportant things turn to dust."

Matthews and his band rock harder on the new release. Opener Shake Me Like a Monkey rides a charged, bluesy groove lifted by funky horns. Next, on Funny the Way It Is, which moves with similar urgency, he reflects on the state of the world.

He gets philosophical on ballads Dive In - "Tell me everything is all taken care of / By those qualified to take care of it all" - and Time Bomb, which gives way to a raging climax.

All in all, it's a characteristically action-packed Dave Matthews Band album, marked by greater unity and a stronger sense of purpose.

"I just think it's clearer," he said, "that the performances are really strong, the music is as heavy as we've been, and the depth of the music and of the emotion in it is the deepest we've gone. If I just listen to it, I don't have any questions about it. I don't have to explain or justify anything about it.

"If someone listens to this music and doesn't get anything from it, either they're not listening or they're not well brought up."

He's joking, of course. But behind his humour lies the passionate engagement of an artist who has thrown himself fully into his latest work as he tries to express something larger than life.

The point of entry, as always, is the music. The ever-evolving arrangements veer from one genre to the next, often within the same song, in a way that has earned Matthews and his mates the nagging "jam band" tag.

"I love the musical turns," he said, in his own defence. "I love to surprise myself with how, in the same way math can be surprising or language can be surprising with a turn of phrase, there is such a freedom in music.

"It's unlike a lot of things. It's strange the way it sneaks in the back door of our hearts. It doesn't require us to decipher, in an active way, things we see and do. Our ears are very open. So when we're lucky enough to find those turns inside music, it's very thrilling for me, and the listener. It changes the way the world feels."

Helping focus the band's diverse interests on the album was producer Rob Cavallo, known for his work with Green Day and My Chemical Romance. Cavallo beefed up the band's sound, but he also brought something more ephemeral to the table.

"He has this innocence and eagerness," Matthews said, "and a love of music that is so genuine. It's really quite infectious. ... He brought that eagerness, a belief in us; and very fortunately, we were in a good space to be able to hear it."

[sydneyDMBfan]

'GrooGrux' is King
By Matt Pais, Metromix.
Chicago Tribune (6 June 2009)

(3 out of 4 stars)

Yes, hearing Dave Matthews' voice is like entering a time machine set for the mid-'90s, and, no, I haven't had much interest in listening to the band in close to a decade. But I can't lie: The group's new record, "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King," has brought me back.

This isn't the polished and frequently cheesy jam band I remember. DMB, whose saxophonist Leroi Moore passed away midway through recording the album, now sounds both electrified and genuinely wistful, more connected to life's struggles.

"Shake Me Like a Monkey" soars along a funky horn section, while first single "Funny the Way It Is" tackles fate with a bittersweet question mark that doesn't feel sentimental. The soul-shaking "Squirm" is truly exhilarating, packing an urgency that's a credit to producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day). He also helps keep the band loose on dramatic midtempo pieces like "Dive In" and pushes the sound towards something that's more authentic and less deliberate, sincere instead of earnest.

In the past, Matthews sometimes grew tiresome because it sounded like he was sitting and pondering his wordy ruminations too long. On "Big Whiskey," a tribute to his fallen comrade, Matthews discovers the benefit of just opening up and letting the emotion flow.

MATT PAIS IS METROMIX MUSIC AND MOVIES PRODUCER.

[sydneyDMBfan]

Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King; Dave Matthews Band
Billboard (6 June 2009)

"Big Whiskey" is a big moment for the Dave Matthews Band—it's the act's first album in four years and first since the sudden August death of founding saxophonist (and titular king) LeRoi Moore. But this eulogy is a celebration, and "Big Whiskey" is a dense, humid album that, befitting its New Orleans origins, shrewdly cuts its melancholy with exuberance and vice versa. "Shake Me Like a Monkey" is classic DMB stutter-stepping funk, "Squirm" is an Eastern-flavored epic, "Why I Am" is a radio-directed bottle rocket with a sneaky little time shift, and "Time Bomb" unfolds into a full-blast rocker with Matthews doing his best Eddie Vedder.

Moore's ghost haunts throughout—the saxman's fluttery work appears sporadically, most visibly on the sweet, sad "Lying in the Hands of God"—and the band clearly poured grief into the swelling carpe diem tune "Dive In." Matthews' lyrics can be of the make-love-shine variety, and there are a few meandering detours as usual, but "Big Whiskey" finds the band at its most pointed and purposeful in years.

[sydneyDMBfan]

Dave Matthews Band finds life after death
The Salt Lake Tribune (8 June 2009)
David Burger

Grade: B+

The Dave Matthews Band's new "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" is the group's first album since the death last summer of founding member LeRoi Moore, a jazzy saxophonist known as the GrooGrux King. Death is a cloud the shadows much of the music -- notably in brief instrumentals featuring Moore that open and close the album -- but ironically, the rest of the band has never sounded more immediate and alive. Producer Rob Cavallo, known for his hard-edged work with Green Day, coaches the remaining quartet out of what might have been a funk. Instead, the band is a melodic, textured guitar-fueled punch that has the sting and strength of cask-strength whiskey. To paraphrase Bono, they kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.

[sydneyDMBfan]

The top 10 selling singles and albums sold on iTunes
By The Associated Press
10 June 2009
Associated Press Newswires

iTunes' top 10 selling singles and albums of the week ending June 8, 2009:

Albums:

1. "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King," Dave Matthews Band

[sydneyDMBfan]

Dave, Dirty, Ray & more
The Philadelphia Daily News (9 June 2009)
By JONATHAN TAKIFF

DMB On Top: "If this is the last album I make, I hope it's the only album people listen to," shares Dave Matthews in the DVD documentary packed with the deluxe edition of "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" (RCA).

I pass that message along because, frankly, I agree with it. This set, years in the making and filled with special emotional gravitas, really jumped out and grabbed me.

It opens and closes with snippets of lyrical saxophone from DMB's LeRoi Moore, who passed away last August. Gulp. Also inspiring the guys - most obviously on the "water's rising"-themed "Alligator Pie" - parts were written and recorded in New Orleans, a city still tottering on the brink.

The album is filled with songs that muse about fate and human frailty, that tug at our collective empathy gene. "Funny the Way it Is" sets the yin/yang tone, musing about how one man is down when another is up, how somebody else's sad story "became your favorite song."

We hear it again in the driving dichotomies of "Why I Am" and the Led Zep/Middle Eastern-flavored "Squirm." Ironically, the track I bet you'll hear the most on the radio is the carnal-lusting, live-for-the-moment "Shake Me Like a Monkey." Ain't the music biz always that way?

[sydneyDMBfan]

Victoria Times Colonist (10 June 2009)

Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King has emotion on its side -- saxophonist LeRoi Moore, whose playing and spirit define the album, died unexpectedly last year -- but power, restraint, joy and foot-stomping goodness are also part of the band's strongest set of songs in almost a decade.

That it was produced by Rob Cavallo (of Green Day fame) helps wake Matthews and his bandmates from their collective slumber, although nothing here sounds like an awkward stretch. Matthews sings beautifully and writes purposefully (the spirit of Moore pops up often), and his longtime bandmates match his fire. Big Whiskey swings and zings like a natural extension of Crash and Before These Crowded Streets. By any yardstick, that's a very good thing.

Rating 4

[sydneyDMBfan]

Pretoria News (1 July 2009)

World’s premier jam-band pays tribute to fallen brother by righteously rawking

AFTER a few years spent in the wilderness with ambivalently received albums, DMB hit back with Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, a sprawling, compelling disc that harnesses the energy of their live performances while showing off some of Dave Matthews’s best songwriting skills.

In a eulogy that might be lost on inattentive listeners, the album explodes with energy and life. The passing of saxophonist LeRoi Moore, the titular GooGrux King, has inspired the band to celebrate his life through joyous music.

The recording sessions were wrapped up in New Orleans and that city’s voodoo energy hangs over the songs.

First single Funny the Way It Is is a poppy gem strengthened with a muscular riff in the bridge. Why I Am is an exuberant jamboree that sees Matthews singing that “Heaven or Hell/ I’m going down with the GrooGrux King”.

There’s also space for tender love songs such as Lying in the Hands of God and the cute You and Me.

The departure of Moore seems to have galvanised the band and thrown things into sharp perspective.

This album zings with the strangeness of joy coming from pain, miracles from tragedy and music from silence.

Play on.

– Zane Henry

[sydneyDMBfan]

Dave's big blast
DNA - Daily News & Analysis
India, 1 July 2009

Rating:****

It all starts with the love making between LeRoi Moore's saxophone and Carter Beauford's drum rolls. It's a fitting start to an album which transcends into something else as it repeatedly refers to the death of Moore last August. On the album cover, Matthews portrays Moore as a giant laughing head on a Mardi Gras float, leading the delirium on a French Quarter street. And the effects of Moore's death loom over the record through many subtle references like 'Still here dancing with the GrooGrux King' in Why I Am (hinting at holding on to Moore's memory) and some direct ones like "Doesn't everyone deserve to have the good life? But it don't work out?" in Spaceman.

Great art is born out of adversity. This time DMB goes large, goes on to touching larger issues and looking at the bigger picture, bringing their environmental and social consciousness to the fore which they have caressed a few times before, with songs talking about global warming in Dive In and the way of the world in Funny The Way It Is. But not without a dash of their amusing sexiness in Shake Me Like A Money: "I like my coffee with toast and jelly, but I'd rather be licking from your back to your belly."

Then there's also the addictive romance between the sax and violin weaved into Matthews compelling voice and hot rusted electric guitar. The addition of Cavallo to the band brings the classic-rock edge but with an unconventional twist. It's safe to say that it's the best DMB album till date and one of the best records of our times.

* Don't even go there! (poor)

** Just about ok or no great shakes (below average)

*** Give it a shot (average or good)

**** Must listen (very good)

***** It rocks! (excellent)

Stand up, 2005

It is DMB's sixth album. It was their fourth straight number one album in America, the same number of U2. Stand Up is a collection of tight, groovy and breezy tunes that float and sometimes too easily. DMB has always operated on a pleasure principle and this time too it works in their favour as they set of on the adventure with their instrumental skill of jazz music in a framework your average rock fan can understand. But there's also the slow, guitar-heavy You Might Die Trying. The band made a quiet expression of displeasure over the Iraq War on Everybody Wake Up as it goes: 'The man with a bomb in his hand with a four-minute percussion-packed communal.'

Busted stuff, 2002

Nine out of the eleven tracks on this album are re-recorded versions of songs that first appeared on 2000's abandoned project now known as The Lillywhite Sessions. Where Are You Going which was not from those sessions, was the first single and went on to became the most popular track on the CD.

[sydneyDMBfan]

Dave Matthews goes back to his indie roots
Cape Times, South Africa (3 July 2009)
Jane Mayne

IT’S NOT often that we get the opportunity to celebrate real local achievement on a global scale – but that all changed the day Johannesburg born-and-raised Dave Matthews decided to form a band.

Eighteen years later, Matthews, as frontman of one of the world’s most successful bands, along with original members Carter Beauford (drums), Stefan Lessard (bass) and Boyd Tinsley (violin), are celebrating their fifth consecutive Billboard Number One album release titled Big Whiskey and The Groogrux King.

After the extraordinary number of 16 live albums, Big Whiskey is the band’s seventh studio recording, which Rolling Stone magazine hailed “their most electric album yet” and rated four out of a possible five in early June.

Ironically, Matthews performs before tens of thousands of adoring fans four nights a week, but is seldom available to discuss the great music he and his band have been making for close on two decades.

“I’m not turning in my thesis just yet,” he admits on the line from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the start of another gruelling North American tour that will see the band play 41 shows in little more than 12 weeks. “It did seem like, for the first time in a long while, we were all facing the same direction,” he says of the band’s current focus and direction.

Known as The City of Bridges, Pittsburgh was then a rather fitting launching pad for the new tour that will take the Dave Matthews Band across the US and right around the world in 2010. The album and tour will bring fans from all walks of life together in shared support and appreciation for a collective that has earned incredible respect for their musical and social contribution to our first-world reality.

“It’s important to give back,” Matthews points out, in reference to his band’s many programmes that help to uplift needy communities around the world.

Through their Bama Works Village Recovery Fund, the group partnered Care (a leading humanitarian organisation fighting global poverty) in 2005 and assisted tsunami-struck communities in eastern Sri Lanka in putting their lives back together. “We matched the donations we received through our website, dollar for dollar, and were able to make a real difference by empowering local organisations to help people recover their lives and their dignity.”

Commendable and undeniably addictive in musical delivery, the new album came together quite naturally.

Midway through recording the new tracks, tragedy struck the band. LeRoi Moore, their saxophonist, died in August, 2008, from complications after a quad bike accident sustained earlier, in June. “Up until that point and after, the entire band had worked incredibly hard – harder than ever before – so we had a suspicion it would do well when it was released. The fact that it is doing as well as it is now is a fitting tribute to a great player and sadly missed friend.”

Each new album the Dave Matthews Band records seems to benefit from prolonged touring. “We’ve grown up in a live arena where a culture of celebration has complimented the music we write for our albums.

“It never made sense to us that, although we capture our essence live, we’d never been able to harness that in the studio,” he continues. The fact that the band has released more than 15 live albums did little in helping their cause to be applauded for their studio work. “Our critics labelled us ‘better live’. We’ve never really done ourselves any favours,” Matthews laughs.

“I adopted a ‘f*** you’ attitude before we went into the studio (this time) and because of it we very quickly found a way to achieve the same wild abandon we create live,” he explains. “I wrote more than 30 songs beforehand. A day after we walked in, every single one was tossed out. What ensued was spontaneous invention.”

“LeRoi loved what we came up with early on in the recording process. He used to remind us all that whatever we did, it needed to be honest. If you’re going to contract something, let it not be dishonest, was what he said – that stuck with me right throughout the recording process, long after he was gone.

“In getting to what we made here, I effectively crashed, but rebirthed with a new-found respect for what I do. My attitude was and remains that all I want to do is get this band to its best.”

It also helped a great deal that producer Rob Cavallo gave the group the space to mourn. “Rob didn’t interfere with what we were all going through in dealing with the loss of LeRoi. He left us to our own devices,” he says, smiling.

The initial success of Big Whiskey and The Groogrux King is a fitting tribute to the profound influence of Moore. With so much to now celebrate, Matthews has only two regrets in arriving on top of the world. “My friend didn’t think there would ever be a black man in The White House. I wish that he could have lived long enough to have experienced that. He also didn’t get to hear the finished album.”

After a long history with RCA Records, today Matthews and his troupe have once again returned to their indie roots, choosing to release their latest delivery themselves, licensing it out to like-minded labels around the world. In South Africa, Just Music is championing the album and first single, Funny The Way It Is.

Will he ever play SA? Matthews quips, “Hold me to it! The more you ask, the more pressure I can put on my manager to make it happen. I was last out about 18 months ago with my son, but next time I’ll bring the band with me and make it a time to remember.”

[sydneyDMBfan]

Dave Matthews Band carries on without saxiphonist
The Idaho Statesman
24 July 2009

What's the difference for the Dave Matthews Band between playing indoors and outdoors?

"If you have an open-air place or just sort of a covered stage and a vast audience where people can come up to the stage, that's exciting," Matthews said the other day before going onstage - outdoors- in Bilboa, Spain.

"I like that feel, because you have an energy, because whoever wants to hear you comes as close as they can. I also like that you get to play for an audience that isn't necessarily there for you. Certainly, we've experienced that here in Europe."

The big difference on this tour is that it's DMB's first without saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died in August of complications following an off-road ATV accident.

Moore was Matthews' most difficult friend. He had strong opinions and had a hard time loving himself, the singer said. "He was a tough guy and he could make his way to the bottom of a bottle pretty quickly," Matthews told TV host Charlie Rose.

DMB had already started work on its next album when Moore's accident occurred. In fact, since he was expected to recover, the group pressed on, playing some concerts with Jeff Coffin, a Bela Fleck sideman, sitting in. After Moore's passing, the group decided to build its album around him - use his recorded saxophone parts (even from demos and rehearsals), write songs about him and honor him by titling the disc "Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King."

The cover art - illustrations by Matthews himself - depicts Moore, whose nickname was Grux, as the King of a Mardi Gras parade. Matthews' illustrations cover all four panels of the CD cover as well as 16 pages of the inside booklet containing the song lyrics.

"I put a lot of fun effort into it," he said. "Someone sent me a photograph of the surviving members standing in front of a tree and said, 'This is the cover,' and I said, 'You're out of your mind.' That sort of inspired me to go in a different direction. And I think taking charge is one of the things where the band is right now, confidence in what we're doing."

It's the kind of confidence that compels Matthews to call "Big Whiskey" the best album by DMB.

"We stopped being tentative," he said. "I don't think the band could survive another album of halfway."

Some of that vibe can be attributed to the band itself, and some to new producer Rob Cavallo, known for his Grammy-winning work with Green Day and My Chemical Romance.

The passing of Moore apparently will not derail DMB's momentum. Not only is the group the top dog of outdoors, but it's also the most successful U.S. touring act of the '00s, having sold more than $450 million worth of tickets. And, unlike with the Eagles, Neil Diamond or Cher, a DMB ticket rarely tops $75.

Dave Matthews says he enjoys the energy of performing outdoors.

[Socks]

god some critics are fucking dumb

Ok, so the music is too good?

I agree it's a dumb statement, but remember that complexity does not equal quality

[Dutch2]

Thank you sydneyDMBfan for all your effort. It's been appreciated!