EOTO with Michael Travis and Jason Hann perform their song "Second Story" in this music video recorded at the SecondStoryGarage.com studio inside the Daily Camera newsroom in Boulder, Colorado.
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The interesting thing about the electronic music scene in Colorado is not that it is ballooning in a state that produces jambands and banjo players by the bushel.
It's how the state's rootsy sensibilities are getting plugged into the electronics. Boulder is home to two electronic acts — Big Gigantic and GRiZ — that add sax to their onstage operating systems. Other local computer-boosted acts, such as SunSquabi, are as likely to be shredding guitar as twisting a knob during shows.
EOTO takes the idea a step further. Its performances, which feature live instruments as well as computers, are all improvised, start to finish. It's basically an electronic jam band. But you've never heard sounds this danceable, this heavy, this groovy, this badass from the jam bands your dad listens to.
Michael Travis and Jason Hann, members of the quintessentially Colorado jam band The String Cheese Incident, comprise EOTO. Although the music of the two acts share a spirit of spontaneity, they sound very little alike and they put on different kinds of concerts (look for a new tour schedule soon). EOTO brings crazy visuals, as well as crazy sounds to the scene. A couple of years ago, they went around with a lotus-like stage setup that cradled the guys as they played as if they were some sort of demigods.
When they came to the Garage, Travis and Hann made up three songs on the spot, as is their specialty, and therefore the songs didn't even have names. So, we call them "Let's Go," "Rainstick" and "Second Story" (Hann gives a shoutout to the Garage in that last one). They also gave a mini-lesson in their technique when they sat down to chat with guest host Moose.
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