Headstash

Higher Learning Releases Free Debut Album

It’s definitely not easy to break into jamtronica world, but Atlanta based Higher Learning is showing their merits to do just that in their debut album “Future Memories”.

Their music is described as “. . . an exploration in sound. They seek to paint a picture in your mind with audio, and every song is a different image. With a sonic palette of rock, electronica, jazz, hip hop, ambient, and world music, Higher Learning utilizes many styles to create a finely tuned, stereo atmosphere. So open up your subwoofers and let the textures flow out!”

Find more information about the band and download "Future Memories" via their official website.

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Source: Higher Learning

Levon Helm in Final Stages of Battle with Cancer

It is with heavy hearts that we here at Headstash bring forth the news of legendary drummer and fantastic all-around musician Levon Helm’s ailing health. He has been battling with cancer since the 90s, but now is reportedly in the final stages of his fight.  

Helm will best be remembered for his work with The Band and The Midnight Rambles, which brought together some of the greatest musicians of many generations together in his Woodstock, New York studio.

An official report from his daughter and wife was released on April 17 via his official website:

Dear Friends,

Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey.

Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage...

We appreciate all the love and support and concern.

From his daughter Amy, and wife Sandy"

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Source: Levon Helm Family

iClips To Air UM Bowl III and Leftover Salmon Doc

If you don’t have a ticket to get into UMBowl III, don’t fret. iClips will be streaming Umphrey's McGee's sold-out musical phenomenon for the third year in a row. Unfortunately, only attendees of the show will be allowed to text in their requests, however. (Contrary to an earlier mixed report).

But for this year, not only will you be able to watch the entire show for $10.99 (if you pre-order), but you can also get the stream with a limited edition poster for $53.99, or the streaming plus the same poster signed for $78.99.

Still don’t know what UMBowl is? Let Brendan Bayliss, Ryan Stasik and Siri describe it to you:

iClips also recently teamed up with famed Colorado-based quintet, Leftover Salmon, following them in Portland, Oregon while they recorded their first album in eight years, "Aquatic Hitchhiker." The due date for the album will be May 22. For this special occasion, iClips will be offering a five-song download along with two tracks only available through their appropriately titled documentary "Salmonlandia."

The episodes will be released once a week leading up to the actual release of the album, and is available for download for $5.99.

Below is the airing schedule and a trailer for the five-part series:

Episode 1 “Here Comes The Night” airs April 17
Episode 2 “I Don’t Know You” airs April 24
Episode 3 “Gone for Long” airs May 1
Episode 4 “Little Maggie” airs May 8
Episode 5 “Keep Driving” airs May 15

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Source: iClips.net

Bassnectar Adds Flying Lotus, Diplo for Red Rocks

Today, the incessant touring machine with a propensity for blowing minds and melting faces known as Lorin Ashton, aka Bassnectar, announced the openers for his two-night stand this June at Red Rocks in Morrison, CO. After selling out the Saturday, June 2 show in record speed, Bassnectar saw no choice but to add a second night on Friday, June 1.

Friday's show will be opened by producer Diplo and livetronica outfit Keys and Krates. Tickets are available for the Saturday show via Bassnectar's official website.

The real treat remains for those lucky enough to already have tickets to the sold-out Saturday show. World-renowned super-producer Flying Lotus and EDM veteran VibeSquaD are set to warm up what is sure to be a heater. Expect less heavy dubstep and more techstep, glitch-hop and experimental sounds on this evening. 

Bassnectar promises another legendary show this year saying, “Minds will bend, ears will melt, mantle will quake and split."

And with support acts like this, it would be wise to believe Mr. Ashton on this one. 

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Source: Bassnectar

REVIEW: Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band “Doin it Hard”

There are some days when I sit down at my computer and struggle with the question, “Should I listen to some electronic, jam or funk music today?”

With Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band’s new release, “Doin’ it Hard,” I can now eliminate this question and enjoy all three genres at the same time.

Formed in 2002, the group has spent their entire career experimenting with different sounds to attract followers. As a six-piece from the Southern United States consisting of a bassist, saxophone player, trombonist, keyboardist, guitarist and drummer, they already have all the necessary components to produce a colorful, funky style.

“Doin’ it Hard,” their second studio album, has added a new electronic synth sound, presenting the music as a little more current and up-to-date, while still maintaining a wholly organic, technical and personal feel.

The album begins with “True Battle,” which starts off with a fading synthesizer and a light drum beat and eventually blends into a dirty horn line used as the basis for the song.The song starts the album off with a bang, with some soaring guitar and sultry vocals punctuating the track.

[FOLLOW Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band on Facebook.]

“Horn Stars,” the sixth track off the album, begins with a smooth electronic jam and eventually turns into a soulful horn duet, showing off how the band can play funk powerfully as well as with finesse and soul. Though still up-and-coming, the band shows glimpses of greatness in this studio effort with as many catchy hooks as jammed-out segments.

The female vocals in "Lovin'" were a welcome change of pace and evoked images of 60s counter-culture with the dripping bass and flute-like high-end.

“@$$” and “Hot Pizazz” showcase the silly, fun side to the band without making listeners forget how musically talented the group truly is. Any song that utilizes the word "badonkadonk" in a serious manner is worthy of a listen.

The album as a whole is a fun take on the genre with equal parts ridiculousness and expert playing. It's the kind of music you envision playing at an old-school block party. It's an odd mix of futuristic sounds and a retro style.

As catchy and amusing as the album may seem, almost every song is over five minutes long, and can sometimes be a tad repetitive. Their consistent style is both a blessing and a curse. Still, this is an enjoyable, funky record and certainly worth the listen.

“Doin’ it Hard” was released in stores on March 27, and can also be downloaded on their Bandcamp for any price you name. Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band will also be spending the rest of the spring and summer touring the Northeast to support the album. For more information on the band, visit their official website.

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"Doin' It Hard" Track List

1. True Battle
2. @$$
3. Lovin'
4. Neat Little Package
5. Sunday Afternoon
6. Horn Star
7. Chaos
8. Cancion Del Fuego
9. With True Feeling
10. Lucky
11. Hot Pizazz
12. Shadows & Sunshine

Upcoming Tour Dates

Apr 12: Athens, GA- The Melting Point
Apr 13: Wilmington, NC- The Soapbox Laundro
Apr 14: Greensboro, NC- Blind Tiger
Apr 20: Winthrop Lake, SC- Winthrop Lake
Apr 21: Athens, GA- Sweetwater 420 Fest
May 2: Huntsville, AL- Humphrey's
May 3: Starkville, MS- Dave's Dark Horse Tavern
May 4: New Orleans, LA- Howlin’ Wolf
May 5: Elberta, AL- Pirates Cove
May 5: Destin, FL- Funky Blues Shack
May 11: Charlotte, NC- The Neighborhood Theatre
May 12: Raleigh, NC- Lincoln Theatre
May 18: Carthage, NC- Shady Grove Music Festival
May 24: Charleston, SC- Charleston Pourhouse
June 2: Asheville, NC- Beer City Festival
June 8: Allentown, PA- Blues, Brews, & Barbecue
Jun 14: Chattanooga, TN- Riverbend Festival
Jun 16: Nashville, TN- Exit In
Jun 21: Ferguson, NC- High Country Motorcycle Camp
July 17: Nantucket, MA- Chicken Box
July 18: Nantucket, MA- Chicken Box
July 26: Lone Jack, MO- Dawg Daze of Summer Fest
July 27: Lone Jack, MO- Dawg Daze of Summer Fest
Aug 10: Prospect Hill, NC- Possum Holler
Aug 11: Beech Mountain, NC- The Festival of Gnarnia

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Source: Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band

Enter To Win A Pair Of Tickets To WAKARUSA

For four days this summer, Mulberry Mountain in Arkansas is clearly the place to be if you’re a music fan. With an eclectic mix of jam bands (Umphrey's McGee, Slightly Stoopid), rock bands (Primus, The Avett Brothers) and electronic acts (Pretty Lights, Big Gigantic, EOTO), Wakarusa's lineup has enough to satisfy a wide range of festivalgoers.

Music goes all day and night and this year, the conflicts of year's past will be lessened with so many artists given more than one set to perform. Check out the promotional video and more headliners below.

Other acts slated to perform this May 31 to June 3 include Weir, Robinson and Greene Acoustic Trio, Girl Talk, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Fitz and The Tantrums, G. Love and Special Sauce, The Del McCoury Band, Matisyahu, Ghostland Observatory, Perpetual Groove, The Travelin' McCourys and many more.

For more details on Wakarusa including camping prices and the complete lineup, check out the festival's official website. Tickets are now just $179.00 for GA and $635.00 for VIP.

Contest is over. Congratulations to MINDY NGUYEN. Check your email, Mindy.

Stay tuned to Headstash for more contests and find more information on your favorite festivals including complete lineups, ticketing information and analysis in our 2012 Festival Guide.

Good luck!

ART COLLECTIVE: Christian Jaxtheimer – Live Painter

Name: Christian Jaxtheimer

Trade: Live Painting

Highlights: Creating art on stage with STS9, String Cheese Incident, Papadosio, Zoogma, Emancipator and at Electric Forest, Rootwire and Bear Creek.

Like so many people in the live music community, Christian Jaxtheimer was inspired by the ubiquity of art that he found in the lot.

His interest in art and animation inspired him to attend Savannah College of Art and Design in 2005. It was there that Jaxtheimer really developed his artistic skills. While attending SCAD, Jaxtheimer geared many of his projects toward poster design, as he got more involved in the live music and festival scene.

By 2007, Christian was on the road.

“I was on the road with my girlfriend, and we had a poster for every festival,” he said. “It just felt good meeting so many people who loved artwork.”

While his artistic skills were rooted in figurative illustration, his aesthetic gravitated towards geometric abstraction after graduation.

“I think where I’m at now is just a combination of everything I’ve been doing, and I’m just trying to build on it,” he said.

During his time at SCAD, Jaxtheimer met Andrew Wagner, a fellow artist and live music enthusiast. After a brief and unfulfilling stint with a screen printing company, he moved back to Savannah and started live painting with Wagner in 2009.

“I did my first three or four live paintings with him,” Jaxtheimer explained. “They were just real big and colorful and full of geometry and layering. I absolutely loved it because it was a way to interact with the crowd.”

Jaxtheimer has now painted live with some of the biggest artists in the jam and electronic scene, including STS9, The String Cheese Incident, Papadosio, Emancipator and Zoogma. He’s also painted at Electric Forrest, Rootwire, Bear Creek, Blackwater and AURA festivals.

“You get such a great reaction from people [while live painting],” he said. “I’ve had conversations with people at festivals about how our galleries and our paintings were their favorite part of the entire weekend.”

Jaxtheimer has also given back to the community, working with Conscious Alliance to create a collaborative poster with fellow artists Wagner and Andy Reed for a Colorado Papadosio run.

“I feel like that was a moment where I had gotten to another level,” he said.

Most recently, Jaxtheimer teamed up with Conscious Alliance again to create a poster for STS9’s first Great Cycle Spectacle in Denver.

“I had done the painting at Bear Creek Festival a couple months before, and it felt like it had the right physical quality to it befitting the Great Cycle Spectacle,” he said. “It turned out to be one of the best-selling Conscious Alliance posters they’ve had in three or four years. I felt super humble about that. I think they sold out of them before the show on the first night.”

Jaxtheimer has also recently had his work displayed alongside top-name artists at Northern California’s Tribe 13, an art gallery at the forefront of the visionary art movement.

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Look for Christian this summer at Electric Forrest and Impulse Music Festivals and check out more of his art on his official website, where he has more pictures of his work, along with prints and apparel for sale.

Are you an artist looking to be featured in our Art Collective series? Email editor Nick Rhodes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and let us know.

Bassnectar Releases New Album, "VaVa Voom"

Today, bass music pioneer Lorin Ashton, aka Bassnectar, released his ninth official full-length studio album titled, "VaVa Voom." The 11-track album, on the heels of the highly successful "Divergent Spectrum," is filled with incredible beats and collaborations, with special guests ranging from hip-hop star Lupe Fiasco to dubstep innovators Jantsen and ill.Gates and even a tribute to California punk-rock band Pennywise. Check out the tracklist below.

In typical Bassnectar fashion, Ashton blends elements of dubstep, hip-hop, breakbeat, and other genres into his own unique sound. He even includes a beefed-up 2012 version of the classic "Laughter Crescendo." Stream the album for free via Rolling Stone, or download it via Bassnectar.net.

And for those of you just can't get enough Bassnectar, be sure to catch him on his VaVa Voom Tour, rolling through cities nationwide this spring and summer. With headlining performances at festivals like Camp Bisco and Electric Forest and two dates at the world-renowned mecca of live music, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, fans can be sure to get their fix of earth-shattering bass. Check out our 2012 Festival Guide for more info on these events and others like them. See the full list of VaVa Voom dates below.

As Lorin puts it ever so eloquently on his website: "By combining sound and force with weight, the Bassnectar experience engulfs the senses. It is as physical as it is auditory; the adventure has no rules, no limitations, and no hesitation in fusing the familiar with the strange or the classic with the cutting edge."

Featuring state-of-the-art light shows and a booming soundsystem, each show is guaranteed to assault patrons with deliciously crunchy basslines and breathtaking visuals. Check out VaVa Voom for just a preview of the Bassnectar experience.

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VaVa Voom Tracklist:

1. Vava Voom (feat. Lupe Fiasco)
2. Empathy
3. Ugly (feat. Amp Live)
4. Ping Pong
5. What (feat. Jantsen)
6. Pennywise Tribute
7. Do It Like This (feat. ill.Gates)
8. Laughter Crescendo (2012 Version)
9. Butterfly (feat. Mimi Page)
10. Nothing Has Been Broken (feat. Tina Malia)
11. Chronological Outtakes

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Bassnectar 2012 Tour Dates:

4/11 Indianapolis, IN — Egyptian Room SOLD OUT
4/12 Kansas City, MO — The Midland SOLD OUT
4/13 Madison, WI — Exhibition Hall @ Alliant Energy Center
4/14-4/15 Chicago, IL — Congress Theater SOLD OUT
4/17 Burlington, VT — Memorial Auditorium SOLD OUT
4/18-4/19 Boston, MA — House of Blues SOLD OUT
4/20 Philadelphia, PA — The Liacouras Center (Bass Center V)
4/21 Rochester, NY — Rochester Armory
4/24 Norfolk, VA — The NorVA
4/25 Richmond, VA — The National SOLD OUT
4/26 Knoxville, TN — Knoxville Civic Coliseum
4/27 Greenville, SC — Bi-Lo Center
4/28 Birmingham, AL — Boutwell Auditorium
4/29 Tallahassee, FL — The Moon SOLD OUT
5/03 Santa Cruz, CA — Santa Cruz Civic Center SOLD OUT
5/04 Sacramento, CA — Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
5/05 San Jose, CA — San Jose State University Event Center
5/10 Blue Lake, CA — Blue Lake Casino
5/11 Portland, OR — Roseland Theater SOLD OUT
5/12 Seattle, WA — WaMu Theater (Bass Center VI)
5/19-5/20 East Rutherford, NJ — Electric Daisy Carnival New York
5/24-5/28 Silverado, CA — Lightning In a Bottle
6/1-6/2 Morrison, CO — Red Rocks Amphitheatre
6/28-7/1 Rothbury, MI — Electric Forest
7/12-7/14 Mariaville, NY — Camp Bisco
7/13 Louisville, KY — Forecastle Festival

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Source: Bassnectar