Q & A with New Orelans’ Garage A Tois
SaY caught up with New Orleans jazz improv group Garage A Tois for a Q & A. Photo by Greg Aiello
Garage A Tois is a group of highly talented and professional musicians. On their résumés are reference names like Roger Walters (Pink Floyd), Fred Wesley, Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Matt Chamberlain (Wallflowers) and the main-brain behind Primus, Les Claypool. SaY caught up with Mike Dillon of the group in between shows for a Q and A with one of the most creative jazz improv groups out there.
SaY: Can you guys explain why you don’t like the word jam as a description of your music? I’m just curious for your take.
Garage A Tois: Truthfully, I could care less about the term jam. When my band, Billy Goat, had a record deal in ‘92, we were always being compared to the Red Hot Chili Peppers by critics. Our fans new what we were about and more importantly, I knew what we were about.
[Garage A Tois' Les Claypool experiences, how they write songs, click more]
Florida’s Awesome New Republic releases new track
Awesome New Republic just released a track from "Hearts"
Awesome New Republic’s new album,“Hearts,” is out next week, and they just released the first track from it. “Alleycat” solidifies the group as a dance-music generator.
“Don’t be embarrassed when you get up and dance, you won’t be able to help it,” the group’s news release said. “That’s the way ANR likes it.”
[Downlaod MP3, tour info below]
Neon Indian worth a listen, checking out on tour
Neon Indian has a new album out
Friend Justin Donahue sent me a heads up on this band, Neon Indian. They’re not exactly something I would probably listen to a lot, but I like what they’re doing for the style it is. I thought it was worth a share. They’re from Brooklyn/Austin, yeah, like a indie-music phenom, right?
The group is on an extensive tour, and I bet they have every club dancing. It’s fun stuff, and has “real funky energy” as Justin said. Click here for tour. Click here for the whole album stream.
Louisiana group to release album Oct. 27
Garage a Trois
Garage A Trois, a New Orleans, La. improvisational rock group, just released a track from its upcoming album, “Power Patriot.” There’s so much fuzz, noise and oddity, Les Claypool would be proud.
The track, “Fat Redneck Gangster,”is a strange hybrid of saxophone and fuzzbox guitar and even what sounds like a xylophone. It’s a hellish sound, one best described by the idea of a “fat redneck gangster.”
“Power Patriot” is set for release Oct. 27 from Brooklyn-based label The Royal Potato Family. Garage A Trois has a few tour dates lined out for November and December to support the new album.
The album will have ten songs (tracklisting below) of instrumentally-New Orleans inspired improv music.
The entire country will get a taste of Garage A Tois, form Live Oak, Fla., at the Bear Creek Festival to Portland, Or. Entire list of tour dates below.
[Download MP3, tracklist, tour info, click more]
Details on RJD2’s new album coming in January
RJD2 has a new album coming out in January.
RJD2 has had so many first lately it’s hard to keep track of what ground he’s breaking next.
His new label, Electrical Connections, will be releasing his newest album on Jan. 10, 2010. “The Colossus” is an album that looks forward with a clear reverence for the past, according to a news release from the artist.
“The Colossus” is RJD2’s fourth album, and the first he’ll release on his own label. RJD2 recently announced he had acquired his master recordings and was re-releasing his albums on vinyl, due out Oct. 10. All this in celebration of the success of RJD2’s career, and finally being free.
“I am now a free agent, working for myself,” RJD2 posted in his MySpace blog. “(It has) been a long time coming, and it is truly one of the most exciting moments of my career.”
A press release points out that that the ast album,” The Third Hand,” was his first truly solo album, with no guest performances and very little sampling. Now RJD2 decided to move in the opposite direction and create an album that is as collaborative as possible, while also being an overview of all the different types of working approaches RJ has used over the years. Some songs are strictly sample-based, some are live, and other songs are completely instrumental while others are vocal songs, some featuring guest vocalists, with RJ taking on the duty in others. He brought a few rappers on board, as well.
[Tracklist and included artist on the album, click more]
Desktop making partying easier with free EP
Desktop released another free EP, and that means dance. Click to download.
Desktop is so fresh off the last EP that some of us still have our dancing shoes on, but still the same, here comes the remix. How many groups release a physical EP and celebrate with a new digital one?
This EP, “My Boo,” will sit as a Desktop favorite, because it puts the group’s kinky personality into a song so loved by the American 20-somethings, Ghost Town DJs’ 1996 classic, “My Boo.” This EP flourishes with enormous synth sounds, incredible bass riffs and is a hip-hop and synth-pop hybrid from the mash-up generation. Johnny Headband’s remix of “Fired Up” will become an instant favorite among friends, and Dave Shettler’s squeeze of “Too Much” is a nice cap to a solid EP.
[MPfree, click more]
The Diogenes Club pump out synth-pop EP
The Diogenes Club brought some funkadelics to the table.
Sample entire EP for free, download MP3
After releasing an instrumental EP, Britain’s The Diogenes Club are at it again, but plus one song-writing vocalist named Paul Giles. The result: Fruitful, funkadelics.
The new EP, “Do You Know How To Feel It?,” starts off with a hellacious pulsing bass riff, one that would make Les Claypool proud. It’s also old-school dirty enough that even the greats like John Entwistle and Geezer Butler would admire. This song is “Come Back To Us” and it’s all about the bass, and it’s almost sad to hear it fade to the overbearing synth. Don’t worry, it comes back.
And “Come Back To Us” pretty much sets the pace for this smooth EP. If you’re not a fan of synths, you may not like what you’re getting into, but they are almost always balanced with a clean, electric bar chord or the sound of more free-falling bass.
Sample this entire EP by clicking here. Also, enjoy the free MP3 below.
The Diogenes Club – The Ageless
The Disco Biscuits ending summer in South
The Disco Biscuits is finishing up its tour in the South soon.
The Disco Biscuits are closing out summer with a few shows in the South.
Tonight, the group will play at Jupiters in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and from there the show moves to Oxford, Miss., Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga. The Carolinas get a few shows, and then the gig moves up through Virginia. The tour is nowhere near over, but it is moving on to other parts of the country.
[Listen to band, get tour info, click more]
Chad VanGaalen bringing the B-sides from LP
Click to download the EP.
Artist giving away nine MP3s
A year after Chad VanGaalen released “Soft Airplane,” he decided to offer a companion EP. The best part about this album’s friend is it’s easy and free.
Fans can visit the EP’s Web site and download all nine tracks, no credit card or account sign ups necessary.
The B-sides are made up of “playful impromptu tunes, or rough first takes” according to a news release. All of the songs on the LP and the EP were recorded in VanGaalen’s basement.
VanGaalen’s music features raunchy acoustic guitar, high pitched-man vocals, laced with the sound of an intergalactic space chase and the sound of a couple pop radio stations crossing together. A few of the new EP’s songs sound as if VanGaalen is playing an acoustic guitar in a room full of computer malfunctions.
VanGaalen is not on tour in the U.S. right now, so download the “Soft Airplane” B-Sides and be content.
Chad VanGaalen – Are You Sleeping?
Video of Passion Pit playing 3 songs in basement
It seems like all of the music series are very predictable and undisguised by their name. Juan’s Basement, a video series by Pitchfork, is probably just as you thought – band’s playing in a basement.
But it’s a really cool series and this chapter is exceptional as well. Passion Pit performed “Sleepy Head,” “The Reeling,” and “Little Secrets.” The above video is “Sleepy Head” and the others are posted below. “Little Secrets” is especially fine.
