Hot Phish: Umphrey's McGee

For the Chicago jam band Umphrey's McGee, there is no rock without laughter. "If it's not fun," says singer-guitarist Brendan Bayliss, 28, "it's not gonna get done." Example: An early lineup of the group, started in 1997 by Bayliss and bassist Ryan Stasik, cut its self-released debut album six weeks after its first gig. The record was called Greatest Hits, Vol. III; the artwork included fake Billboard chart positions for each track. Then there is "Miss Tinkle's Overture," on the band's sharp new album, Anchor Drops; the song refers to keyboardist Joel Cummins' poor aim (he accidentally pissed on Stasik's sleeping bag in the tour van). "We're Midwest Budweiser-drinking guys who started out making jokes with music," says Stasik, 27. In six years of playing up to 160 nights per annum, Umphrey's McGee -- also featuring guitarist Jake Cinninger, drummer Kris Myers and percussionist Andy Farag -- have become odds-on favorites in the next-Phish sweepstakes by challenging jam-band cliches, combining crisp song construction and vocal-harmony sunlight with a high-speed, improvised daring onstage. "One major critique is that we don't stay in the same place long enough," says Bayliss. Stasik blames groupwide attention-deficit disorder: "We're ADD guys -- in constant communication with each other. We have a lot of hand and eye signals." Such as? "Rubbing a nipple," says Bayliss. "That means 'milk it,' because the music sounds so good."

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