As an Arizona resident for the last sixteen years, there are a handful of things I look forward to each year – one is October, when the triple digit heat finally gives up and goes away for eight months or so. Another is Spring Training baseball – AZ is home to the Cactus League, where 14 major league teams come to train. Quickly inching its way up the list is the McDowell Mountain Music Festival, two April days of fun in the sun, great music, cold beer, and tasty food – all in my backyard, up in north Scottsdale at the Westworld grounds. I know it’s four and a half months away, but hey, I get excited, okay?

The festy launched a slick new web site today, with some lineup announcements, including Michael Franti & Spearhead as the Friday headliner. The Saturday headliner is yet to be announced, as are a few other slots on the bill. But so far, McDowell has a handful of national acts booked: Railroad Earth, Hot Tuna, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Assembly of Dust, and Young Dubliners.

The two headliners for Saturday are still pending, so I’m expecting that it’ll be worth the wait (I threw in my 2 cents, recommending Band of Horses). It shares the weekend with the first weekend of New Orleans Jazz Fest, which swallows up scores of talent, but I’ll have faith! So far, this year’s lineup hasn’t knocked my socks off, but I find that I always end up enjoying every set regardless – something about Arizona, April, beer, and music.

If you’re in the southwest, come on down… McDowell is still small enough that you won’t get swallowed up in a crowd, the people are great, it’s very well organized, and you may even bump into me as I stumble out of my rented RV! YoW!

McDowell Mountain Music Festival – 2009 (Web Site)

Friday, April 24th

• Michael Franti & Spearhead (Video: “Say Hey“)
• Hot Tuna
  
• New Riders of the Purple Sage
• Assembly of Dust (MP3: “Speculator“)
• Delcoa
• TBA

Saturday, April 25th

• TBA (headliner)
• Matisyahu (* just added 1/7/09)
• Railroad Earth (Video: “Elko“)
• Indigenous
• Young Dubliners
• Random Karma
• TBA

For those of us in the southwest U.S. who can’t make it to Prince’s Coachella debut this weekend, a great alternative exists with the 5th annual McDowell Mountain Music Festival in Scottsdale.

I’ll be heading out Friday to see the Subdudes, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, and Friday headliner Gov’t Mule.

Saturday’s lineup includes the John Butler Trio, Blues Traveler, the Wailers, and J.J. Grey & Mofro.

So grab the sunscreen (forecast of 90 degrees), hit the noon to 4pm happy hour ($2 beers), and catch some quality tunes with Ickmusic! (or Pete, as I’m known in these parts)…

On to the second act of next Friday’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival. In my opinion, you just can’t go wrong with a good horn section. In the last year or so, I’ve had the chance to catch some mighty impressive horns: Springsteen and his Seeger Sessions Band, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. So I consider myself spoiled.

The 2 Tone Lizard Kings, a ska band local to the Phoenix area, is a 7-piece outfit made up of a three piece horn section: sax, trumpet, and trombone. I see they have some Specials songs in their repertoire (another band that I had the privilege of seeing a few years ago). Hard to be a ska cover band and not have some Specials on the set list, I suppose.

The Lizard Kings will be kicking off their set at 2:30 in the afternoon. Get their early to drink $2 Sierra Nevadas and catch some live ska action.

2 Tone Lizard Kings: Nite Klub (mp3) – Specials cover

Visit the 2 Tone Lizard Kings web site | MySpace

A handful of more mp3’s available here.

Current lineup:

Adam – Vox
Anthony – Trumpet
Grant – Bone
Mario – Drums
Jack McGroin – Sax
Pat McGroin – Bass
Oliver McGroin – Guitar

Previous Profile: Gelatinous Groove

So my girl and I will be spending next Friday, April 27th – all day, all night – at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. From noon to 2pm, Sierra Nevada (the sponsor) is throwing a little kick off happy hour with $2 beers. It’s the perfect opportunity to get soused in the 85 degree heat before the first note is even played. Look out!

The music kicks off at 1:30, and goes through 11pm. The lineup for the day is:

Gelatinous Groove (1:30-2:15)
2 Tone Lizard Kings (2:30-3:15)
Tea Leaf Green (3:45-4:45)
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (5:15-6:30)
The Neville Brothers (7:00-8:30)
Bob Weir & Ratdog (9:00-11:00)

I thought I’d spend the next week or so profiling each band in Friday’s lineup. So we start tonight with the festival opener, local band Gelatinous Groove.

They came together in early 2004 in my former home of Tempe, where I spent six years living dangerously close to ASU hang-out Mill Avenue and great local bar Casey Moore’s. The boys in GG lay down the laid back jam-bandish vibe. Usually these types of bands thrive in the live environment, and I haven’t seen them yet, so it’s hard to judge them from the three tunes available on their MySpace page. I’ll give you some better perspective after the show next week.

The band is made up Mike Roberts (keys, vox), Matt Vestal (bass), Steve Allen (alive and well! on guitar and bass), Mike Hatley (guitar), and the lead vocalist drummer Cory Yardley. And you can’t forget Richard the head. They rave about Richard on their MySpace page, and have a song all about him. Richard apparently goes everywhere with them. I’ll make sure to get an in depth interview at the show. You can see Richard representin’ in the pic above.

Gelatinous Groove: Big D and the Darwin Theory (mp3)

Check out their MySpace here.

Join me at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival in Scottsdale, AZ.