MP3 Better Than Street Racket - Bandemic

Instrumental jazz/funk/rock fusion for listening and grooving

6 MP3 Songs in this album (36:09) !
Related styles: JAZZ: Jazz Fusion, ROCK: Funk Rock

People who are interested in Herbie Hancock Chick Corea should consider this download.


Details:
Better Than Street Racket â Bandemic. Questions for Bob

What prompted you to put out a CD now?
· Weâve recorded a lot over the years, but about nine months ago I noticed that the music was taking a nice jump in how good it sounded to me. The band was also getting more comfortable in the original material we play, and our playing was getting tightly synced to each other. I wanted to do a well-crafted production of the music that we could present to the world.

Is there a theme to the CD?
· I think there are a few themes and common threads throughout it. First, itâs all instrumental music with a good deal of improvisation, too. Some of the harmonies are jazz influenced but at the same time the grooves and feel tend towards rock and funk in most places. The next theme is that this is the sound of a band playing together. We rehearsed hard and went into the studio and did most of the tracking over one weekend. We did add percussion and the acoustic piano parts later, but what we really wanted and felt that we got was the sound of a band playing together.

One of the songs is âThank You Chickâ â whatâs that about?
· Chick Corea has been a great musical influence for me over the years. Last year, Todd and I saw him in Portland with the reconstituted Return to Forever band. It was a really inspiring show, and the next morning I wrote that song as a thank you to Chick for everything he has shown us musically.

What was going through your head when you composed the songs?
· It varies of course â for âThe Peopleâs Keyâ we were joking around at practice and Todd said that the key of âEâ was âthe peopleâs keyâ because itâs so accessible for beginning guitarists and bassists. I thought it was funny that you could label a key and even politicize it â kind of like you could wave a key around like Maoâs little red books were during those mass rallies photographed in China. So of course the song is strongly in the key of E â and though the harmonies get a little extended in the bridge section, the underlying method is that itâs a descending bass line but the note on the top of changing chords is always an âEâ.
· For âKeep a Clean, Green, Sceneâ - one day I was driving around the Mt Hood Forest area with my wife. We got a car garbage bag at the ranger station that had a picture of a âbear as humanâ â you know, wearing pants and standing on two feet and talking and pointing â kind of like Smokey â telling us literally to Keep a Clean, Green, Scene. Iâm as big a sucker for anthropomorphization as the next guy â this stuff really seems real to me, and I certainly want it to be, too â and that inspired me to write something that captured the feeling of being in the forest. The funky parts of the song came later.
· For âThatâs Not Allâ â the title is lifted from the tag line of those insidious low budget TV commercials advertising household gadgets âBut Wait â Thatâs Not All!!!â But I think the idea of the phrase âthatâs not allâ really matters when youâre coming to end of a phase in your life or a project or whatever youâre doing. Though it may appear to be the end, there are still going to be things flowing from that experience afterwards. So the theme is kind of nostalgic in a way, and invokes a kind of âsumming upâ but I hope still invokes the possibilities of the future.

Any comments on particular songs?
· Actually Iâd like to hear that from you, the listener. Tell us which ones you like best. Iâd like to keep that in mind as we create music for the next album.

About BTSR â when did it come about?
· Todd, Skip, and I have been playing together since 2001. Todd and I met back in the late 80âs through a mutual friend who played with Todd in a blues/rock band. Todd and I played together in a few different configurations during the 90âs. I met Skip when we worked at Intel together designing and marketing a couple of MP3 players in the halcyon pre-dot-com-bust, pre-iPod days. Weâd played with different guitarists at Toddâs rehearsal space â where we record almost everything â but when we had Russ over a couple of years ago the music clicked really well as his great tone and musicality fits in just right with how we play. The full band name â âBetter Than Street Racketâ came about when we were wondering if the neighbors were OK with our volume level. Todd lives on a moderately busy street and they felt we were certainly better than the street racket. Plus weâre humble guys that believe in truth in advertising, and we can brandish this name with the confidence that our music is indeed better than street racket. Also itâs serendipitous that in acronym form it spells out the initials of our names.

How about a quick intro of the members?
· Bob Jacobs â Keyboards. Bob composes the bandâs original music. His acoustic and electric piano and organ work was honed at Berklee College of Music and extensive performance.
· Todd Ommert â Bass. Toddâs über-solid playing is derived from years of work in Portland blues and rock bands.
· Skip Landis â Drums. Skipâs driving drumming developed anchoring rhythm sections in Southern California and Portland.
· Russ Boyles â Guitar. Dr. Russ authoritatively delivers searing lead lines hard-earned from working in numerous R&B, rock, and jazz bands.