moe.

Dangling the term "jam band" in front of the wily guys of moe. doesn't do justice to their polymath abilities. While it's true that a ferocious guitar solo cornerstones many tunes off The Conch, the details in the surrounding architecture add up to some rather elaborate and surprising constructions. The band augments its raring, dual-guitar attack with a modernized, subtly dubby digitalization; tracks like "Tailspin" and "Wind It Up" find Zappa and Van Halen holding hands and traipsing down the Cannabis Trail. With their eighth album, moe. summarizes the sound of Generation Bonnaroo.

"Round on the ends and high in the middle": That line in "Where Does the Time Go?" from
Moe's first album of new songs in four years, is an accurate description of the band itself
onstage -- a rolling turbulence with twin tangled spikes of guitar. The Conch has plenty of
that sunlit tangle, often in the least likely settings -- punching through the spaced-cowboy
dismay of "Lost Along the Way," parting the dread in "Wind It Up." More than any... More >