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Camp Bisco 8: Win a Pair of Tickets
Mike McKinley
June 29, 2009
The winner has been picked, and this contest is now closed.

State of Mind and Music Allies want you to have fun at Camp -- fill out the form below for a chance to win a pair of tickets. The winner will be selected July 6th.

Artists: The Disco Biscuits - All 3 Nights‚ Nas & Damian 'Jr. Gong' Marley‚ STS9 (2 nights)‚ DFA Disco Tent‚ Twisted Records All Star Tent‚ Chromeo‚ Dr. Dog; K'Naan‚ The Orb‚ Younger Brother‚ Special Disco Version James Murphy & Pat Mahoney of LCD Soundsystem‚ Flying Lotus‚ Pretty Lights‚ Shpongle; EOTO‚ Holy Ghost‚ Orchard Lounge‚ John Brown's Body; Telepath‚ Boombox; Martyn‚ BioDiesel with KJ Sawka‚ AC Slater; Phantogram; MO2; DJ Haitian; Fort Knox Five; Kill the Noise‚ Prometheus‚ Ott‚ Starkey‚ Bluetech‚ Indobox‚ Roots of Creation‚ Joe Nice‚ Tuphace‚ Otherwise‚ and Dirty Paris. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's Take on Bonnaroo
Mike McKinley
June 20, 2009
Hilarious...

Part I


Part II
Street Sweeper Social Club
Adam King
May 20, 2009
I'm an enormous Rage Against the Machine fan‚ and nothing stoked me more than them playing shows again the past couple years. Not to mention the fact that Audioslave was a disaster in my opinion‚ proving that Chris Cornell is just a self-rightous hole in the wall. So I'm excited to see that Tom Morello is doing something new and badass for the first time in a little while. St. Sweeper's got Boots Riley from The Coup on lead vocals‚ and while he's no De LaRoca‚ he's got some nuts and sway. It's pretty anthemic shit though‚ and really fun actually - most of the album is streaming at http://www.myspace.com/streetsweepersocialclub.

I'd put up an original‚ but I've been hung up on their cover of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes." They're got a couple rough cuts up on Youtube‚ but here's a sweet one that has Wayne Kramer of the MC5 sitting in. The band's opening up for the Nine Inch Nails/Jane's Addiction tour this summer‚ we'll see how the kiddies react.

Hey Gillian Welch & David Rawlings...
Mike McKinley
May 18, 2009
Record this fucking song already!!!

I saw Michael Chorney and Seth Eames cover "The Way It Will Be" by Gillian Welch/David Rawlings on Saturday night at Radio Bean here in Burlington. The song crushed me. Chills, hair standing on end, etc. Out of nowhere - like great live music often does - I felt inspired. My mind started wandering and the ideas started overflowing. Oddly, I wanted to leave in the middle of this great performance because of the immediacy of my thoughts. You know, that feeling like you have to get them all out as quickly as possible or else they might forever escape.

State of Mind co-editor Matt Bushlow showed me this video of Gillian and David a few weeks back -- the same week Chorney turned him on to Neil Young's On the Beach. Gillian has said this song comes from listening to that Neil album way too much. Man, just look at them get into it in this video:

Refreshing Air: Amy Poehler Talks Comedic Improvisation
Mike McKinley
May 16, 2009
I had lunch with Mike Gordon last week. When the two of us get together we tend to have good life conversations that usually end up relating back to our work -- more interestingly‚ his work as a musician/artist/improviser. When I wrote the cover story on him last summer‚ we had a series of conversations about improvisation‚ especially covering the more abstract areas like peak spiritual experiences‚ how improvisation can trigger different dream sequences and how it can even channel different emotions and experiences all the way back to childhood.

I like to discuss improvisation with every musician that I interview. After getting incredible insight from musicians like Phil Lesh‚ Bill Frisell‚ Ron Carter‚ Kurt Rosenwinkel‚ Jenny Scheinman and so on‚ I still feel like I'm just scratching the surface even though I've heard such vastly different perspectives. I remember years ago Marc Friedman from The Slip telling me improvisation is a lifelong study. So true. Investigating it doesn't end either.

After lunch with Mike‚ I took off in my car and caught the end of NPR's Fresh Air with guest Amy Poelher. I went back and found the interview online because it was so fascinating. About 32 minutes in‚ Amy gets into it with Terry Gross. It was incredibly refreshing to hear her perspective on improvisation from the comedic standpoint‚ and it sounded just as profound as the conversations with Mike‚ but from a different angle. At one point she said‚ "It felt like… you're in control‚ even though you had no control over what was happening at the same time."

Similar to music‚ she also discussed the communal religious experience that comes from it. Great stuff. And then Terry Gross ends the interview. "No!" I exclaimed. We have rules here at the SoM Headquarters - once you get a person talking that passionately about spiritual aspects of their work through practice and improvisation‚ you try to dig deeper and hope that they tell you more. But shit‚ we're no Terry Gross either.

Still‚ it made me think of a whole new line of questions about the exhilaration that comes from performing in the moment without a net.

Group Improvisation - Monkey Boners


Group Improvisation - Weekapaug Boners

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