Listening to northeastern synth-tinged rock band Jimkata, it’s obvious that these boys want to add their own special blend of spice to the standard of indie fare that’s become business-as-usual in an increasingly predictable genre.

Canadian-based jam band Days Of You is set to release their first album in over a decade, after taking a 12-year hiatus throughout the 2000’s. The band’s upcoming LP release, You Belong Where You Go, marks a triumphant return to the scene for the Canadian pioneers. Mixing elements of rock, blues, jazz, reggae, and folk, on top of improvisational experimentation, Days of You quickly gained success through community radio and word of mouth.

This November 11, Boulder, Colorado’s Fox Theatre hosted Xavier Rudd, one of Australia’s most iconic voices, for the last American stop along his Spirit Bird Tour. Behind his custom drum set equipped with two didgeridoos, Xavier Rudd appeared like a mythic creature from an aborigine creation story. Rudd embodied the totem spirit vision as half-man and ecstatic bird with colossal tusks.

One of the more humorous developing attitudes of newer bluegrass acts is that they don’t like applying the label “bluegrass”. Though their instrumentation, song selection, and style all point to an existing form. The trend seems to be that up-and-comings feel marginalized by being cornered into accepting the label. In certain ways I understand this fear. Donning the title of a “bluegrass” band makes its musicians pressured into accepting a certain catalogue of songs and a limiting context in which they can expand and improvise their instrumentals.

Beats Antique brings us a new 8 track EP bursting with many styles of world music and theatrical composition, its impossible not to get into it.  Beats Antique was formed in San Francisco, California and in 2007 created their first album.Beats Antique's music can’t be classified to one genre.  The track The Allure gives off a spooky vibe.  Like it should be in a haunted house frightening children on All Hall

There are bands that throw a CD Release Party, and there are bands that are a party every time they take the stage, no matter what night of the week it is.  Cincinnati bred fastgrass up and comers The Rumpke Mountain Boys, the region’s ultimate newgrass party band, took over the stage of the Beachland Ballroom, where Yonder Mountain String Band got their start

The Canadian jam band Days of You has gone back to the studio to record their first album in 10 years. While release is not due until March 2013. The first 5 singles are available via their website.The band sends a mixed signal with the songs that are currently available. "Waves" and "Anyway Way the Wind Blows" seem to fall out of the traditional jam band sound and roll into a more Pop Rock sound.

Sometimes all that a band needs to do is throw a small party before your tour, inviting your closest friends to wish you luck as you head out on your first major tour across America.  Or you can do things like The Dayton, OH bred psychedelic powerhouse band The Werks, who after their now legendary performances at their own festival, aptly named Werk Out, immediately launched into tour mode, leaving for their coast to coast US tour before all the paper w

In a move that excited many DSO and Furthur fans across the country, Phil and Friends have pulled off a trade for Rob Barraco, keyboardist for Dark Star Orchestra, sending keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to the chilly east coast to play four DSO dates in New York, Maine, and Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Bluegrass has become more obscured than ever. Is there even such a thing as “pure” bluegrass? Some would argue that the music of Bill Monroe and his alumni are as accurate of a way to directly describe the genre. In truth, there is no such thing as “pure” bluegrass since it’s inherently a hybridized form. Sure there’s context and history, but bluegrass is actually an amalgamation of blues, folk, country, and spiritual music, none of which can be encompassed by one definitive style or form.