Umphrey's McGee

Umphrey's McGee is an American progressive rock band, active since 1997.

They count King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Genesis, Iron Maiden, The Police, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Frank Zappa among their influences.

The band also performed during the Zappa Plays Zappa concerts, where they covered Willie The Pimp, Dirty Love and City Of Tiny Lites. They also covered Inca Roads, because it "had a little bit of everything in. It contained all of his mathematical concepts, his sort of humor and just blowing out a next blues solo at the end of it, in between the sections." The band also mentioned they liked "Zappa's early stuff, like anything of Lumpy Gravy, when he was he playing with a lot of tape machines and foretracks and a lot like speeding up things and slowing down things playing like a symphony on double speed and playing like a drum kit over it slop, like slop beat."

"As a guitarist, Zappa played very linear, kind of like Ravi Shankar, almost like modal blues sitar riffs, a lot of open strings. It’s like a hammer tapping idea, very legato. His speed and accuracy were amazing—-just how twisted his mind would go in places where you really wouldn’t tread on the guitar. As far for my own compositions, he’s the guy that showed me how to fit any random number of beats inside a bar of music. That’s sort of where math and science and music all come together. He’s also the guy that kind of opened up rock n’ roll, making something so “out” actually groove. I feel people are finally starting to scratch the surface and understand what Zappa was all about." - (Jake Cinninger from Umphrey's McGee on December 21, 2010 in a interview with Jambands.com).

See Also

• Wikipedia:Umphrey's McGee
• http://www.united-mutations.com/u/umphreysmcgee.htm