Jam Friendly Edition Part 3: The Greek Theater, Once And Future Band & Träd, Gräs Och Stenar
By Aaron Stein Jun 7, 2017 • 8:34 am PDT
The Greek Theater: Broken Circle
Alright, after a week off, I’m back to wrap up the three-part Jamfriendly RecommNeds set, this week shading toward the prog-rock side of things. Not all the best new-jammers come from Sweden, but sometimes it feels that way. The Greek Theater is, at its core, the Stockholm-based duo of Sven Fröberg and Frederick Persson, and their new record, Broken Circle, is a proggy-psych-folk jam friendly masterpiece. The album is far-reaching and gets to many different places along the way, pedal steel-flecked melodies here, jazzy freakouts over there and plenty more of the kind shit in between. Enjoy!
Träd, Gräs Och Stenar: Tack För Kaffet (So Long)
While we’re jamming out in Sweden, I gotta hip you to the new album from Träd, Gräs Och Stenar. These guys are the original, old school, Swedish jammers, making their name in the 1970s. The band had reformed in the past couple decades, but sadly a couple members have passed on. This new record, Tack För Kaffet (So Long), [I believe translates to “Thanks for the coffee (so long)”] is a bit of a goodbye to old friends, as well as a hello to new ones who play on it. The jams were recorded live on the fly in the studio and are almost uniformly pretty excellent. They open with a 20-minute slow-rumbler and take it from there. Highly recommended.
Once & Future Band: Once & Future Band
Finally, let’s get back to some jam-roots. Nothing says jam friendly quite like a deep prog band and no place is quite as jam friendly quite like the Bay Area. So, the self-titled full-length debut from Once & Future Band has gotta be the call. The record is a perfectly-realized prog-jammer: orchestral arrangements, otherworldly harmonies and a free-ranging, multi-layered ideascape well-suited to the most discerning of headspaces. Go get you some!
