Fans 'LOVELIVEDIE' with Perpetual Groove

In just five years time, Perpetual Groove has established itself as one of the most talked about jam bands now touring.

The only problem with that happens to be the fact that the guys — Adam Perry, Brock Butler, Matt McDonald and Albert Suttle — don't necessarily think of themselves as being a jam band.

"I've had a problem with the over-generalization of the term jam band," McDonald said. "We all use improvisation and that's really all we have in common."

The improvisation McDonald speaks of, however, is the fact that a P-Groove's (as the group's fans refer to the band) show is unrehearsed. The set list changes from night to night, and the band is known for playing songs fans haven't heard for months. P-Groove will also add an unexpected cover song to the mix (which in itself, has become expected).

That and, well, the band's loyal fan base migrates across the country with the group from city to city for days, sometimes weeks, and even months at a time.

"We'll make you dance, pump your fist in the air, laugh, maybe cry," McDonald said. "More than anything else, people continually got to show after show of ours because they get something emotional out of it — something they carry with them.

Formed six years ago in Savannah, the band has since relocated four hours northwest to the college town of Athens, which is most notable for being the home of R.E.M., The Drive-By Truckers and the B-52's.

Known for the group's intense soundscapes coupled with emotional wordplay, P-Groove's song selection is far more structured than contemporary jam bands like Widespread Panic or Phish, and more closely associated with seminal groups such as the Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers.

In any case, the band prefers to more specifically label its sound — a funky blend of jazz-rock, neo-psychodelia, R&B, trance electronica, as well as progressive and anthemic rock — as "trance arena rock."

"We're the same band you have come to know and love," Butler said. "But like any good artist, we change. Where we are in our lives changes, so what we write about changes."

Speaking of which, the band's latest album "LOVELIVEDIE," released in March of this year, was written with a darker sonic landscape then the group's previous albums — "Sweet Oblivious Antidote" (2003) and "All This Everything" (2004) — but the band still used Butler's soaring vocal range to maintain the P-Groove quality.

"I would say it's the most focused and concise record we've ever made," Butler said. "We went in with the attitude of really using the studio. … I think the album is a good blend of that and our live show energy."

Added McDonald, "It certainly has been received well by our audiences. It's a little more rock 'n' roll — a little edgier — than previous albums.

"There's always been a little more rock sneaking into our choice of covers. Eventually, that made its way into our songwriting."

For the recording of "LOVELIVEDIE," the band really had a chance to work in the studio, to the extent that the group wrote all the material in the space.

Like the band's previous efforts, it was produced by Grammy-nominated producer Robert Hannon (Outkast), and he offered an immediacy that you can hear in the music. Although the group doesn't plan to wait three years — as they did this time — before they write, record and release another album, P-Groove won't write its forthcoming album, which they hope to release in '08, in the studio.

"The material is already there," McDonald said. "We just have to focus on how we want to record it and present it."

Keith Ryan Cartwright is a Nashville-based freelance entertainment journalist.