Gear: How Mike Gordon Gets That Cactus Sound [Source Audio]
6/23/2010 - The night that we brought Mike an updated model of the Soundblox Bass Envelope Filter, Phish tore through a cover of Robert Palmers ‘Sneaking Sally Through The Alley” that featured a righteous jam at the end that let the BEF shine. Bonus: see Mike stomp his BEF, which sits on the floor for this show, at about the 2:54 mark during their Doobie Brothers-esque vocal jam.
Mike Gordon: Phil & Friends FOB 04/08/2000 Boston, MA
A tour opener for one of my favorite Phil Lesh & Friends lineups, this show features Mike Gordon on the Wolfman’s Brother encore. Check out this most excellent previously uncirculated recording of a fantastic show. - ScottyB
Cactus: Mike Gordon to return to moe.down over Labor Day Weekend [Hidden Track]
As you can see, Mike Gordon will return to moe.down for the third time on Labor Day Weekend. Cactus had previously performed at moe.down VII in 2006 with Ramble Dove and at moe.down V in 2004 with the Benevento-Russo Duo. This time the Phish bassist should have his kick ass solo band in tow and plenty of material from his forthcoming new album to play.
Guest Spots: Mike Gordon Sits In With Leo Kottke [Jambands]
Mike Gordon sat in with his frequent collaborator Leo Kottke last night at South Burlington, VT’s Higher Ground. The bassist emerged at the end of Kottke’s set for the songs “William Powell,” “Living in the Country” and “Rings.” Both “Living in the Country” and “Rings” appear on the Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon album Sixty Six Steps.
Mike & Page: Mike Gordon & Page McConnell Ready New Albums [Jambands]
Mike Gordon and Page McConnell are currently working on new studio albums. The two musicians not only share a band in Phish, but also a collaborator in Jared Slomoff. He has been spending time with both artists helping to craft their efforts. Gordon’s disc is expected to hit in the early fall, while the street date for McConnell’s recording is still unknown.
Mike Gordon: 03/13/2010 DAUD Northampton, MA
Taper Scott Bernstein was the only taper on hand to capture one of the Mike Band’s best shows of the recently completed March tour. - ScottyB
Reviews: Mike Gordon Band at Pearl Street [Hidden Track]
Mike Gordon’s solo project combines a good dose of funk with a lot of boundless improvisation. The band stopped at the Pearl Street nightclub in Northampton, MA on Saturday to prove how capable and willing they are to put on a fresh, exciting, and unique show. In a post-show conversation with percussionist Craig Myers, “Mike is constantly pushing new sh**. Sometimes the hits come late, but then other times we’ve just created something new.” And more often than not, they’re creating something new.
Reviews: Mike Gordon @ the TLA [Ordered Chaos]
As the second set started, I realized that the band didn’t play many songs (remember the obvious point I missed? JAM BAND!). I finally had the “Duh!” moment during the second set because the band really settled into complete “Jam” mode. For the next 90+ minutes, I would be lying if I said they played more than 5 or 6 different songs. The Jam got loser than the first set and they let the music go where it wanted to. Tom played one of his original tunes which he modified for jam-ocity and it was excellent\very “sing-a-long” as Gordon rightfully put it.
Mike Gordon: TLA [Scott Murawski's Blog]
Last night was a great gig! We had some folks from The Chieftains sit-in with us during the first set, and that was cool but I thought that second set raged!
It was a rainy day in Philadelphia but I walked to a coffee shop anyway and skyped with Cheryl for a bit. South street is a pretty cool neighborhood.
Mike Gordon: More From The Mike Gordon Band [Jambands]
Last night, Mike Gordon and his band performed at Baltimore, MD’s Ram’s Head Live. The show opened with a unique improv jam that featured drummer Todd Isler on frame drum and percussionist Craig Myers moving over to N’goni.
Mike Band: Mike Gordon Band @ Revolution Hall - Setlist [Hidden Track]
Last night in Troy, Mike Gordon and his five-piece band kicked off a quick March Tour at the sold-out Revolution Hall. For show number one, Cactus and his band mates mixed material from various points in Mike’s career with three covers throughout their two lengthy sets. As far as originals, there was Another Door, Andelman’s Yard, Traveled Too Far, Radar Blip and Dig Further Down from The Green Sparrow; Only a Dream – which the band debuted during their 2008 New Year’s Run as well as Spiral and Can’t Stand Still that the group debuted last Fall. Covers included Rhymes (Al Green), Walls of Time (Rowan/Monroe) and Ain’t Love Funny (JJ Cale).
Interviews: Mike Gordon Starts His Own Eight-Date Tour [Berkshire]
“But my solo career is extremely important to me in many ways, maybe even more important than Phish in certain ways because it’s a different kind of expression for me.”
Gordon’s musical life seems to be in order. One of the reasons Phish broke up was that it was consuming the band member’s lives. But five years away from the constant demands of nomadic touring have taught Gordon a few things.
“Now what I’m trying to do is time manage so there’s not too much of each thing, maybe more baby time and a little less Phish and less distractions and more just working on the stuff I want to be doing,” he said.
Interviews: Phish-less Gordon at Sherman [Pocono Record]
PR: How does playing solo differ from playing with a group?
MG: I am playing with the group. It’s a five-piece band. Playing solo with that group is different than playing with Phish. We have 27 years of experience together. With my own band, I don’t have as many years of chemistry, but that’s what makes it exciting. It’s something new to be discovered. There are different songwriters in the band. Unlike Phish, I get to sing most of the songs. There hasn’t been too many times I played completely solo. I have a lot of admiration for people that can do that. I would like to try more. The thing about playing in a group is it’s like getting the telepathy going. A solo artist doesn’t get that.
Contests: Win Two Tickets to See Mike Gordon on 3/11 [TheButterRoom]
Thanks to the mighty fine folks at the Phish organization and Red Light Management, we are running a contest for two tickets to Mike Gordon’s March 11 show at the Jefferson Theatre in Charlottesville, Virginia. Two runner-ups will receive a copy of the new double-disc Buffalo CD.
Interviews: Phish’s Mike Gordon Primes Fans For Solo Disc [Rolling Stone]
As for Phish, Gordon says it’s likely that the jam-band kings will head out for a tour this summer. “It’s looking like that kind of thing is in the talks,” he says. “We knew we wanted to wait until summer to do something. Nothing’s set in stone yet but I think it’s a promising thing.”
Interviews: Mike Gordon Brings His Own Band to Troy [Times-Union]
Q: What is it like playing to audiences that weren’t even born when Phish started?
A: It’s pretty cool, in the sense that I’m still alive and still doing it enough to get older and have younger fans. It can be funny sometimes when we’re playing a song that we heard a lot growing up and people assume it’s an original song because they’ve never heard it before. It’s nice that the demographic isn’t so narrow that there is only one type of person that comes to the shows.
Previews: Mike Gordon - Sharing In The Groove [The Weekender]
“People are surprised sometimes,” Gordon, in a recent phone interview from his Burlington, Vt., home, says of his solo shows. “First of all, I’m singing all the songs, but I’m also talking between songs, which I never do at a Phish concert, and I’m jumping up and down a lot. … Fans definitely (see) a whole different side of Mike.
“One thing I like about Phish is that it’s the opposite of that. There’s someone else that’s the bandleader, the singer, the songwriter, the soloist, and because of that I get to get into this Zen state and play the bass lines and just concentrate on the bass. I get to really get wrapped up in that, and in my solo career I’m really trying to flex those other parts of my personality.”
Mike Gordon: Listen to This - Mike Gordon Band Rehearsal [Hidden Track]
This Friday, Mike Gordon and his band hit the road for an eight-show tour that includes stops in Troy, New Haven, Stroudsburg, Baltimore, Charlottesville, Philadelphia, Northampton and Lebanon. Over the past few weeks, the five-piece band (which includes Scott Murawski on guitar, Craig Myers on percussion, Tom Cleary on keyboards and drummer Todd Isler) has been hard at work rehearsing for the upcoming shows. As a preview of sorts, they have shared a track with us from one of these rehearsals.
Interviews: Catching Up With Mike Gordon [Dartmouth Independent]
And as for his other band’s upcoming plans? “It hasn’t been planned, but if I had to guess, I would say that we’ll probably do some stuff in the summer,” Gordon says. “Eventually, I think the idea is not just to keep playing old songs but really for Phish to reinvent ourselves just like we’re trying to reinvent the other aspects of our careers and find the uncharted territory. There’s been talk about trying to find ways to record differently than we have before and write differently, so that’s what excites me – the different possibilities.”
Contests: Giveaway - New Mike Gordon Band Live Album [Hidden Track]
As Mike Gordon’s solo band prepares to take the road for an eight-show tour next week starting at Revolution Hall in Troy, NY; the bassist has announced the release of a blockbuster show from his last tour with the five-piece band, 10/03/2009 from the Town Ballroom in Buffalo, on CD and as a download (in both MP3 and FLAC formats) at LivePhish.com.
Cactus: From the Archives - Mike Gordon’s Bass Player Interview [Oh Kee Pah Blog]
How did the Hampton shows go?We might have been trying to prove something on the first night. We started with “Fluffhead” and played a lot of other orchestrated material, so it was a little difficult to get the groove going. I was surprised at how much I loved the other two nights. They were the highest-energy concerts I have ever experienced—period.
Cactus: Mike Gordon Announces March Tour [Hidden Track]
I guess the members of Phish aren’t into spending too much time off the road these days, as we’ve got a second band member hitting the road this winter. Phish bassist Mike Gordon has just announced an eight show run with his solo band that kicks off on March 5 at the tiny Revolution Hall in Troy, NY. Tickets for all eight shows are currently on-sale now through a real-time fan pre-sale at mikegordontickets.rlc.net.
Interviews: Another Side of Mike Gordon [Boston Herald]
When visitors approach, the loops are triggered. It’s pretty trippy. But no more so than a Phish concert - or Minkin’s art.
“I often describe my mom as my biggest influence, partly because she’s always been into stretching limits,” Gordon said. “A typical day growing up would be coming across Mom using rollers to spread 10-gallon buckets of acrylic paints across giant canvases.
“About 20 years ago, we first thought about how cool it would be combine her visuals with my music,” he continued. “Since I was very little I liked the idea of combining the visual with the auditory.”
Miami: The Man of Miami - Mike Gordon MVP [Phish Thoughts]
Mike Gordon annihilated Miami like a like a bass-driven assassin, owning his instrument in a display likening a musical Harlem Globetrotter. While leading most jams of the weekend, Mike cast down bass line after mind-expanding bass line, defined by his one-of-a-kind phrasing and unparalleled fluidity. From nuanced effects to ludicrous runs up and down the fretboard, Mike’s mastery jumped from the stage in Miami, and continues to surface with every shows’ re-listen.
Mike Gordon: Another Side of In Exhbit in Boston [Boston.com]
The museum yesterday announced a new exhibit that’s a collaboration between Phish bassist Mike Gordon and his mother, visual artist Marjorie Minkin. Called “Another Side of In,’’ the interactive exhibit, which opens Jan. 16, involves sound, light, and movement.
Mike Gordon: Page Lends a Hand to Phish Bassist [Hidden Track]
The Mike Gordon Band ended their second tour last night at the Higher Ground in South Burlington, VT; where Gordon’s Phish band mate, Page McConnell, sat-in on keyboards for a rollicking version of Sugar Shack. As with most shows on this tour, the MGB played two full sets in the bassist’s hometown including a nice mix of covers and originals.
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