Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum

To say world percussionist Mickey Hart is embarking on a new adventure is like saying the Pope is going to church this Sunday. Author, student, artist, composer, Mickey’s musical curiosity in all things cosmic has produced seventeen discs for Rykodisc’s “World” series, two books on the history and mythology of rhythm and countless shows and solos. His latest disc, “Supralingua,” continues to explore new worlds with a strong bent on digital technology and sampling. While best known for his association with the Grateful Dead, it soon became evident that the only past he was interested in conjuring happened long before there was any Haight-Asbury scene.

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Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks

Dan Hicks has been performing an eclectic mix of staccato, alt-jazz guitar over the brushed swagger of his swing band The Hot Licks for over 30 years. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hicks has just released “Duets,” a download-only album featuring collaborations with Tom Waits, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, and Rickie Lee Jones. Hicks spoke with Maximum Ink about the new incarnation of The Hot Licks, his first band The Charlatans, and working with filmmaker Ralph Bakshi.

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Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon was a founding member of The Animals in Newcastle, England in 1962. The band quickly became one of the most popular bands of the British Invasion. With hits like House of the Rising Sun, the anti Vietnam anthem Sky Pilot, and Boom Boom, The Animals are certainly legends in the music industry. Eric also was a member of the band War while living in San Francisco in 1969 and reunited with War for the first time in 37 years to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London on April 21, 2008.

Eric Burdon has also had a rather successful solo career with the Eric Burdon Band (later changed to Eric Burdon’s Fire Department) which lasted up until 1980. He was inducted into the Walk of Fame in L.A on his 60th birthday and has appeared in several films, including a small role in the movie The Doors.

Eric also worked in television appearing on shows like China Beach, has two autobiographies and recently formed a new group of Animals featuring Billy Watts on guitars, Terry Wilson on bass, Red Young on keyboards and Brannen Temple on drums.

Maximum Ink: Can you tell us a little about where you came from and how it influenced to become who you are now?
Eric Burdon: I came from a working-class family in Walker, Newcastle Upon Tyne.  I was born on May 11, 1941, supposedly during an air raid. I found out just recently that the situation at the time of my birth was worse than I realized and that a lot of people were displaced at the time. Our house was within walking distance from the Tyne river and I could often be found taking long walks along the river and daydreaming about it being the Mississippi River in New Orleans. From an early age, I was planning my escape to the birthplace of the Blues.

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Canned Heat

They were the Scotch-and-Marlboro Blues voice of the Summer Of Love. Canned Heat’s story endures with their cross-generational appeal as the dynamic blues band that played the theme song to Woodstock and backed up John Lee Hooker. From Woodstock and the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival to Hell’s Angels club tours to festivals and bike rallies, drummer and founding member Adolfo “Fito” De La Parra has re-formed Canned Heat a dozen times with reoccurring members, blues legends, and new faces. He has been touring constantly and releasing new records for 37 years, and is currently promoting the new album Friends In The Can. Fito spoke with Maximum Ink about the new line up, his autobiography Living The Blues, and pushing forward in the mission of delivering boogie music to people who will listen.

In 1969, Canned Heat manager Skip Taylor was booking the band nightly on opposite coasts. “We were [sleeping] in the cargo area of the planes between gigs,” said Fito, “I was sleeping on the floor of the airplane hangar while the helicopters were taking off.” They had to commandeer a helicopter from a news crew to get to the festival. “Fuck you, we’re going to MAKE the news!!” Bear was quoted in Living The Blues. He then hurled the reporter through the door, “We are The Canned Heat. It is more important that we get there than you, so we’re taking this helicopter!” When finally in the air, Taylor shot off a random photo of the crowd as they flew onto the grounds. Later, it became the cover of Ravi Shankar’s Woodstock album. The roadies made it through the sea of people and met the band with their gear as they landed. Later while on LSD, Taylor negotiated an on-site contract for royalties and film rights, and stole a limo for their gig in Atlantic City the next night. Going Up The Country was forever after the theme song for Woodstock. “We’re more infamous than famous,” said Fito, “But we really don’t care.”

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Ratdog

Maggot infested skulls on bony blood-dried bodies, skulking graveyards in midnight mists is how people usually picture the rise of the dead. Bushy-beards and wonky wa-wa waves on a six-string, tie-dye twists and baby boomers lighting up, is however, the reality.

Far from the grave, ex-Grateful Dead frontman Bob Weir and his solo project RatDog, have scoured the sphere, playing over seven hundred shows since 2006. Along with a slew of brilliant musicians such as lead guitarist Mark Karan and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, RatDog has dug deep into the core of improvisational riffs and melodies, and is safely the most musically comprehensive jam band formed post-sixties. A chunky brew of blues, jazz fusion, progressive bluegrass, and folk, RatDog delivers with an equally diverse palette as the latter day Grateful Dead. Weir channels Garcia in numbers like “Black Muddy River” and “Scarlet Begonias.” Yet the spectacle lies in the audience. The peace-loving, daisy-smelling youth that once swarmed Dead shows have become the stock-broking, suit wearing, SUV-driving dads, moms, and grandparents who come see Bob Weir to remember the days of freedom and hope, if just for a couple songs. 

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The Shtetlblasters

A shtetl is defined as a small town with a large Jewish population, “You know, like Fiddler on the Roof”, Sam Harmet laughs, while describing the name of his band, THE SHTETLBLASTERS. A play on the term, “ghettoblasters” because of their introduction of funk into Klezmer, the traditional European Jewish dance songs (like the kind you’d hear in the aforementioned Fiddler musical.) So, West Coast meets Eastern Europe in THE SHTETLBLASTERS.

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