We've had a change in our band calendar for this week: Popular up-and-coming Nashville band Moon Taxi (who you've probably seen at Dave's Dark Horse Tavern) will play the Main Stage @ State Theatre this Friday instead of the Glitter Boys. Last week, Moon Taxi opened for Warren Haynes & Gov't Mule...
Moon Taxi: Live Ride
By: Dennis Cook
Jambase.com
Nashville's
Moon Taxi
redeem the notion of a "jam band," a descriptor that's grown into an
epithet in the larger musical world that implies endless, limp noodling
and lack of compositional or vocal substance. Not so with Moon Taxi,
who are a jam band in the same way Little Feat or Bob Marley & The
Wailers are jammers. Like these ancestors, Moon Taxi synthesizes
divergent elements into a cohesive, concert-ready rush. It's pumping
hard onstage where the real animal emerges in such bands, which makes
Live Ride
(self-released) a prime intro to this vibrant group who incorporate
roots rhythms, Latinismo, Phish-y riffs, complex fusion and gutbucket,
blue collar rock (a la early Doobie Brothers, actually…) into a pretty
enjoyable ball they hurl with serious gusto.
Live Ride follows their studio debut,
Melodica, and
features eight previously unreleased songs as well as fan favorites.
The crowd roar that hits when you press "play" seems indicative of the
uplift they generate in concert, and these performances capture some
part of that energy, a going-for-the-jugular dedication that looks for
the folks in the back of the room not getting off and strives to make
them pop. While I've never seen Moon Taxi with my own eyes, this set
makes it easy to imagine the amorphous, joyful roiling in front of the
stage. In their mixture of interesting time signatures, feel good
melodies and genre-snubbing diversity, they are kin to archetypal jam
bands like God Street Wine, String Cheese and the aforementioned Phish,
but, like those bands, possess their own identity, their own way of
handling the raw materials. Most aspects of this set are boldly
delivered and curved with modern touches that recall
Cafe Tacuba's tweaking of dance floor fare and slow burners.
What one finds on Live Ride
is well played, well sung music with clever, satisfying touches galore
tucked into songs – the smooth boogie piano breakout at the end of
"Here To Stay" and the livetronica tail on "Morning Time" being just
too highlights. Moon Taxi seems interested in music without borders,
and that alone marks them as one to keep an ear bent towards in the
future.
Moon Taxi is hitting the road with New Mastersounds and DJ Logic starting April 22 in Asheville, NC. Should be a hell of a bill. Full Moon Taxi tour dates are here.
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Check out Moon Taxi @:
http://www.myspace.com/moontaxi
 | Currently listening:
Live Ride
By Moon Taxi
Release date: 2009-05-05 |
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