Hard-touring Grand Rapids jam band to call it quits for awhile in hopes of re-energizing shows and music; up-and-coming teen duo gets boost from Marshall Crenshaw and Stewart Lerman in New York.
THE LOCAL SPINS MUSIC NEWS UPDATE: Aug. 31
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Popular, award-winning West Michigan jam band Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, which has traveled the country for years with its nationally acclaimed live shows, will take an “indefinite hiatus” starting in early December.
The band will play its final Grand Rapids concert on Dec. 5 at The Intersection.
The hard-gigging Grand Rapids jam band, which plays more than 150 concerts a year from coast to coast, needs an extended break and some personal time to re-energize and focus on songwriting, percussionist Casey Butts told Local Spins.
“We’ve been touring hard for six years now and we’ve been a band for 10 years and we’ve never taken a break before,” Butts said. “We’ve been playing some of these same songs for the entire time and sometimes three or four times in a week, and it’s just getting to the point where it’s getting hard to find the inspiration to bring to these songs.”
It’s uncertain, Butts said, how long the five-member band affectionately known as UV Hippo, might stay off the road and out of the limelight.
“We’ve never said this is permanent decision. But at the same time we haven’t even talked about when we’re going to come back. We’ll at least take the winter off. I’m sure we’ll probably still get together and possibly practice and write, but I think everybody just wants to do their own thing for a little bit. It might be a while,” said Butts, noting it could take a year to write enough music for another album if that’s the direction the band goes.
“It could be two years from this last show before we get back out on the road, but it could be six months, too. … I would like to see the whole thing happen sooner than later, but at the same time, taking a break right now is really good.”
On its website, UV Hippo described it as “a grand pause.”
In addition its stellar jam-band reputation, the band — Butts, Russ James, Brian Samuels, Joe Phillion and Dave Sanders — has earned a host of awards for its studio recordings, including WYCE’s Jammie Award for alternative album of the year and Local Spins’ Local Spin of the Year Award for the 2013 album, “Translate.”
But Butts noted that even many of the songs on “Translate” are at least two or three years old, and have been played by the band in concert for a long time.
“We are at the point where we just need to re-forge our sound and the way that we approach shows and our music,” he said, adding that dealing with the ups and downs of the music industry outside Michigan has frustrated band members too.
“The music business is brutal, especially when you get outside your home territory. It’s cut-throat out there and people take advantage of you any way they can.”
Although the hiatus is liable to disappoint many loyal fans, taking an extended break from the rigors of the road and developing new UV Hippo material could add “freshness” to the band’s performances, Butts insisted.
“We’ve got families now and wives and most of us are in our early to mid-30s and I don’t know if we have the endurance to do it the same way we were doing it six years ago,” he said. “Mostly, it’s just hard to find time to write or find inspiration to write when we’re constantly touring. We just feel we need a lot more new music and take some personal time.”
The much-beloved band will still perform its traditional, eagerly anticipated Halloween show (this one at Kalamazoo’s State Theatre with Andy Frasco and The Crane Wives) as well as the farewell show at The Intersection on Dec. 5. Details about that show online here.
THE ACCIDENTALS TAKE NEXT CAREER STEP IN CONTRACT WITH NEW YORK PAIR
Traverse City’s The Accidentals have signed a contract with Grammy-winning New York producer Stewart Lerman and respected songwriter Marshall Crenshaw to produce four albums and pitch the up-and-coming string duo’s music to record labels and “various industry” outlets.
The eclectic and talented string duo of Savannah Buist, 19, and Katie Larson, 18, already have recorded three songs with Crenshaw and Lerman in New York City, with hopes of completing a full-length album and follow-up to 2013’s much-praised “Bittersweet,” which was partly recorded in Nashville.
“It’s really exciting,” Larson told Local Spins. “We’re going to continue to write and to make music and put out albums.”
The multi-instrumentalists who graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy have turned plenty of heads with their energetic infectious blend of folk, rock, bluegrass and gypsy jazz, touring extensively the past two years to play several hundred live shows and being named 2013’s “Red Hot Best” of northern Michigan music by Traverse Magazine.
They also recently performed at the summer’s final Tuesday Evening Music Club show at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and for music industry representatives during a showcase event at New York’s Rockwood Music Hall that drew attention from several record labels.
Read more about the duo, which now often performs with drummer Michael Dause, in this Local Spins Artist Spotlight.
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