Marco Benevento: TigerFace (The Royal Potato Family, 9/11/12)
Though still within his melodic, keyboard-driven wheelhouse, the first two tracks on Marco Benevento’s TigerFace might have thrown fans for a loop last year. Featuring warm, poppy vocals from Rubblebucket’s Kalmia Traver, “Limbs of a Pine” and “This Is How It Goes” added a new wrinkle to Benevento’s catalog, showing what he can do with a strong front-woman.
Last month ALARM presented its 50 favorite albums of 2012, an eclectic, rock-heavy selection of discs that were in steady rotation in our downtown-Chicago premises. Now, to give some love to tunes that were left out, we have our 50 (+5) favorite songs of last year — singles, B-sides, EP standouts, soundtrack cuts, and more.
Though much of keyboardist Marco Benevento’s new album traverses familiar territory, the opening two tracks will take listeners by surprise, offering playful pop with guest vocalist Kalmia Traver from Rubblebucket.
Tomorrow is the third Saturday in April, which means that independent record stores across the world will face an influx of limited-edition vinyl, avid fans, and rabid audiophiles. With myriad releases hitting shelves, we’ve provided you with some of our most anticipated picks to make Saturday’s shopping (relatively) quick and painless.
On a weekly basis, The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.
Garage a Trois: Power Patriot (The Royal Potato Family, 10/26/09)
Garage a Trois: “Rescue Spreaders”
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Garage a Trois is the improvised groove child of saxophonist Skerik, drummer Stanton Moore, and 8-string guitarist Charlie Hunter. The trio made a grand debut in 1999 with Mysteryfunk, a raw EP of completely improvised recordings, foregoing interest in post-production effects and multi-tracking. In 2002, percussionist and vibraphonist Mike Dillon was added to the mix, giving the group a new tonal texture, and the band began rooting its music in powerful repetitions à la Critters Buggin, Skerik and Dillon’s former band. The departure of Hunter in 2007 led to a temporary void that was filled by rotating musicians, most notably John Medeski. Soon after, jam keyboardist Marco Benevento was chosen to permanently fill Hunter’s place.
Groove/jam-rock quartet Garage a Trois is an all-star cast of players, featuring saxophonist Skerik and vibraphonist Mike Dillon (each of Critters Buggin and Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade), drummer Stanton Moore (Galactic, Corrosion of Conformity), and keyboardist Marco Benevento (Benevento/Russo Duo).
The group can rip off wailing solos when warranted, but it brings some seriously hard-hitting riffs that translate to major live energy. Photographer Jon Shaft captured some shots from the group’s recent stop in Chicago, track suits and all.
Garage a Trois: “Rescue Spreaders”
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Inspired less by drummers and more by instrumentalists such as John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, and Ornette Coleman, drumming virtuoso Zach Hill begins his journey as a bandleader with Astrological Straits.
Following an auspicious solo debut last year, post-jazz keyboardist Marco Benevento (of Benevento/Russo Duo fame) recently released Me Not Me, another solo outing that mostly features personalized versions of cover material.
Click onward for a chance to win two tickets to see Benevento’s trio in Chicago this Thursday, April 9.
More details emerge about the upcoming Supermachiner release; the Shrinebuilder super-group begins recording; Mono announces a new album; Orange Tulip Conspiracy announces a full US tour for May. Get these and 10 other news bit after the jump.
It would have been killer to see Femi Kuti & Positive Force on Saturday, but the Afrobeat star’s US tour has been postponed until he recovers from illness.
The cancellation, at least, gives us a chance to catch two other strong options: the heavy, beat-driven jazz-rock of Doppler Shift and the keyboard-fueled Led Zeppelin covers of Bustle in Your Hedgerow.
This year promises to be a great one for music. Isis, The Bad Plus, Mastodon, Dan Deacon, Coalesce, Jerseyband, Converge, and at least three Mike Patton creations (Mondo Cane, Fantômas, Crudo) are slated to release new albums.
Get the ETA on these and other anticipated albums after the jump.
Jam keyboardist Marco Benevento (Benevento/Russo Duo) is releasing another solo album on February 3, only this time, covers outnumber original material. Benevento’s solo debut, Invisible Baby, was a passionate release from his post-jazz trio, but it certainly didn’t include any renditions of Deerhoof songs.