This week on KPFA‘s crytically acclaimed radio show Dead To The World, Bela Fleck And The Flecktones stopped by for an incredible little performance. The Flecktones went on hiatus in 2005 and now they are back on the seen and just as good as ever. During 2005, Future Man put out a solo ablum called Evolution de la Musique, Jeff Coffin put out a new solo album called Commonality, Vik had a baby, Bela toured with Case Dreissen, Bryan Sutton, Stanley Clarke, and Jean Luc Ponty. Right before the Flecktones went on hiatus they recorded a new album called The Hidden Land which they’ve just released. These guys sure seem to stay busy! This show is a must listen. If you’ve never listened to the Flecktones you are really in for a treat. The set is mostly acoustic.

There is a great Grateful Dead Performance from September 20, 1991 at the Boston Garden in the first hour which I highly recommend, but if thats not your cup of tea then just skip forward in the stream half an hour.
Listen to Bela Fleck And The Flecktones on Dead To The World 2/15/2006 stream here.

If you haven’t checked out Zilla yet, do your ears a favor and queue these guys up! Zilla is a trio from Colorado comprised of String Cheese Incident drummer Michael Travis, hamer dulcimer guru Jamie Janover, and jam virtuoso Aaron Holstein. Their sound is completely different from anything I’ve heard before. Everything about Zilla is improv, they have no written songs and everything they do is composed on the fly. The idea sounds a little strange before you hear it, but removing the confines of a written composition and melody has freed these guys to take the music to some really cool places. I love the sound of the hammer dulcimer and Janover takes a really beautiful approach to the instrument. Its great to hear the dulcimer sound in a trio format with drums, bass, guitar, keys and a sampler. Check them out:
Zilla MP3 here:

And a killer soundboard recording:
Band/Artist: Zilla
Date: January 29th, 2006
Venue: The Jellyphish Lounge
Location: Houston, TX

Source: Matrix (MG200/M20* > V2) + (SBD >Behringer Composer Pro >TCE M1) > MX 602 > DA-P1
Lineage: DAT > HHB 800 > CD > S.F. 5.0 > CDR
Taped by: Stan Smith
Transferred by: Stan Smith

Get it here: