Umphrey's McGee - Zonkey

Release Date:05/26/2017;Notes:Vinyl LP pressing. After 19-plus years of performing more than 100 concerts annually, releasing nine studio albums and selling more than 4.2+ million tracks online, Umphrey's McGee might be forgiven if they chose to rest on their laurels. But then that wouldn't be consistent with the work ethic demonstrated by the band, which consistently attempts to raise the bar, setting and achieving new goals since forming on the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, IN in 1997. After releasing their eighth studio album, Similar Skin in 2014, the first for their own indie label, Nothing Too Fancy, the group continues to push the envelope and test the limits. Their latest studio album, The London Session, was a dream come true for the members having been recorded at the legendary Studio Two at historic Abbey Road. The stealth recording session yielded 10 tracks in a single day, proving once again, the prolific UM waits for no one. As a follow up to The London Session, the envelope pushing continues with the release of Zonkey. Umphrey's McGee has been arranging and performing original mashups live for over eight years. It was only a matter of when, not if, some of those innovative concoctions would find their way into a studio. An album of 12 unique mashups, conceived and arranged by the band, Zonkey is as seamless as it bizarre, playful as it is razor sharp. Bits and pieces of classic songs are culled from 40-plus years of popular music from '70s reggae to '80s pop to '90s metal and everywhere in between. From Radiohead mashed with Beck, The Weeknd with Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads with Bob Marley, Metallica with Gorillaz... nothing is off limits.