Jam bands put out lame studio stuff

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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The Grateful Dead is the first to come in mind. I struggle to listen to a whole studio album. There will be a few good pop tunes, then they seem to degenerate to mellow drivel. Their best album, in my opinion, was Shakedown Street, the one most deadheads dislike, go figure. Deadheads must be averse to anything funky. It had a different, more experimental sound.

With that said, there is a GD cover band that plays regularly in Houston that is quite good to listen to.

I heard some Phish lately. Not impressed, but I know people who love them and I do not doubt they put on a good show. I hear lots about Widespread Panic but have heard none of their music. The Black Crows are a jam band that actually puts out respectable studio stuff, but their stuff has more an old Humble Pie, Mott The Hoople, mixed with a southern rock sound.

Do these bands just put out stuff that can only really be appreciated live?

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cooldude. Both the dead and Phish are acquired tastes. I don’t know how long you’ve been listening to them, but keep listening. I actually hated Phish when I first heard them! Then, I sat down to listen to them and…wow! I’m hooked now. Also, I’ve never seen Phish live and, unfortunately, only got to see the Dead a couple times before Jerry died. Phish show planning is in the works.

Anyway, I think jam bands take some active listening to get into. You can’t really start by passively listening. I like to get each little note and hear each little change in the music. After you know the music is when you can put it on and enjoy it without paying attention. This all may sound pretty wierd, but it’s how I approached both the Dead and Phish.

Oh yeah, smoking a bowl beforehand doesn’t hurt either.

:smiley:

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I can’t resist but put in at least one of my $.02, maybe both.

Jam rock is not studio music. It’s live music. Its power and appeal are based on the interaction between themselves and the crowd, as well as between themselves and themselves.
In the studio the music is only engineered to a minimal degree and overdubs are sort of frowned upon. In general, the songs are basically platforms which serve as a foundation for, when played live, long sections of improvised rock solos. In a sense, jam music is kind of untrained jazz - same concept of interaction, but with rock rhythms and harmonies.

I have to disagree with your opinion in GD studio albums. Blues for Allah is one of my favs, brilliant IMHO.
Anthem of the Sun is also high up on my list, and this album does, at certain points, employ a more studio-music type of philosophy (i.e. overdubbs, sound effects only possible in the studio). Terrapin Station is also a very studio oriented album, arranging parts for strings and vocal choirs at various times.

Phish was my favorite band for years, but I have since moved on, rarely listening to them these days, if ever. Again, Phish’s appeal is in the spontanaety (sp?) of their live performances, which can’t be represented in the studio. There’s almost nothing spontaneous about making a recording in the studio.

I prefer to think of studio music and live music as 2 very different art forms. It’s a good way to think if you don’t want to be dissappointed by the studio work of a live band or vice versa.

BTW cooldude the bands you listed aren’t jam bands, or aren’t good examples of jam bands anyway. Check out Moe (no my username has nothing to do with them, nor the Simpsons, nor do they have anything to do with the Simpsons as far as I know), a great jam rock band with a hint of bluegrass, a pinch of Allman Bros., and a ton of energy. Medeski, Martin, and Wood are a great jam rock/jazz trio (jazz but with a strong jam rock appeal). The Zen Tricksters are very good. They were a GD cover band for years and years, and have, in the last few years, made their way into the scene with their originals - good stuff.

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The Dead were better live than in the studio, at least in the early days. As they got more proficient, though, their studio albums were just fine.

The J. Geils Band also worked that way. Great live act, but their early albums never captured that (except for their live album, “Full House”). Part of it was that they tempo of the songs were, for some reason, slowed down in the studio. By “Centerfold,” though, they could do a great studio album.

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There is one group who is/was great both live and studio: Santana.

The Beatles might be on the list, but the screaming fans on the tapes makes it for me hard to determine.