Jam bands.

The very name of the genre furrows my eyebrows and makes my mouth scowl in disgust. No offense, Phish fans, but I cannot stand jam band music. At least, not much of it. I blame it on my college days. Not that I particularly cared for jam bands then, but so many students around me did and it completely turned me off to them. I like a good instrumental section just as much as the next dude, but noodling around on one song for over 30 minutes is not my idea of a good time.

For the sake of fairness, I should acknowledge that I’m a huge fan of Pink Floyd, The Mars Volta, and Coheed & Cambria, all of which are given to extended periods of jamming madness. But for the most part, there’s an energy and barely controlled chaos that inhabits even their most meandering tracks.

At any rate, I approached Umphrey’s McGee and their new album, Mantis, with a certain amount of trepidation. Having never heard of them before, I looked them up online to get a little background and the dreaded “jam band” tag was one of the first things that came up. Naturally, I wondered what to expect when I popped the CD in…and I was very pleasantly surprised.

While I can’t speak to UM’s previous releases, this one is actually a pretty solid amalgam of prog rock stylings (which really is probably what jam music was before getting all high and hippie). These guys really know how to, uh, jam and their skill as musicians shines through on every track. Soundwise, I’d compare them to Pink Floyd, dredg, Genesis and even Joe Satriani.

From front to back (all 54 minutes of it), this is a very diverse and sonically interesting album. It’s got an upbeat feel and some incredible vocal work, to complement the technical prowess of the instrumentation. Check it out!