Thursday Aug. 19 at Twilight Concert and W Lounge
Sitting on park benches in Montreal, Canada, back in the day, wasting time whistling harmonies, Chromeo’s Dave1—Dave Macklovitch—and P-Thugg—Patrick Gemayel—couldn’t have imagined they’d eventually spearhead the revival of ’80s music, let alone electro-dance music. Best friends since high school, the two were too engrossed in hip-hop to mess with the genre. Things changed when, in the mid-90s, they met local Montreal DJ/producor Tiga, who introduced them to Daft Punk and a new musical world.
The two-man band with Dave 1—guitar and vocals—and Pee Thug—synthesizers, talk box and bass—aided by a vintage drum machine, hit stardom with 2007’s Fancy Footwork, but they’ve been pumping out ’80s-style dance tunes since signing a record deal in 2001. Now, Chromeo’s musical agenda is to enlighten the masses about the music they missed, wrote off as cheap electro-glam or weren’t yet alive for, all while not being too pretentious. “It’s like a reference book we have in our heads about every band and every style post-’70s. That’s our little pot where we have influences, riffs and ideas. We try to raise up the best of it and not make it too serious. We’re going to keep it light-hearted,” P-Thugg says. Their rise to fame was perfectly timed with the past decade’s hipster-scene’s deep connection to music blogs and desire to ride the crescendo to “the next big thing.” That, apparently, was to be sweat- and soul-drenched, dance-floor-ready funk.
However, P-Thugg says the duo was often ridiculed for their musical sensibilities and subsequent sound, pulling from Hall & Oates, The Time, Rick James and New Edition, among others. “People thought it was funny,” P-Thugg says. “It’s not funny; Rick James is a musical genius. It was hard to make people take Midnight Star seriously and Hall & Oates was still very tongue-in-cheek, but from the beginning, we said these are great songwriters
“Retro music comes back in trends and doesn’t always reflect what was happening when that music came out. For example, disco in the early ’80s,” says P-Thugg, who, despite criticism, persisted in reintroducing synth-heavy electro-funk to the mainstream. “Now it’s very high-brow and intellectual, but back then it was music for guidos—like trance today. The perspective changes with time, and to put a tag on certain music is ridiculous.”
By sticking to their vintage sounds, they’ve captivated an audience and garnered respect from peers. Two years ago, Chromeo performed a two-day session on Hall & Oates main man Daryl Hall’s web series, Live From Daryl’s House—the duo’s first encounter with their idol. That led to a combination performance earlier this year at Bonnaroo, where they alternated songs from both catalogues. “Just to be on stage playing those huge hits they have ... replacing the choruses with my talkbox (on “No Can Do”) and Dave singing with Hall (on “Adult Education”), it was surreal. We owe a lot of our songs to [Hall], so it was cool to hear him playing ‘his parts’ in our songs,” P-Thugg says.
Playing with Hall helped shape their upcoming September release Business Casual. Hall’s ability to piece harmonies quickly and effortlessly inspired the band. And P-Thugg began to delve further into chord progressions, while both musicians started scrutinizing song structure like never before. “There’s more work musically, more progress, on the album, but without losing our candidness. There’s more ballads, too,” says P-Thugg.
New material’s slowly seeped out at Chromeo’s live performances of nonstop dance music, which will be no exception at this week’s Twilight Concert Series. Although growing up fully engrossed in the style, Chromeo has never opened for a hip-hop artist, and P-Thugg says he’s excited to see what happens when they are paired with Big Boi. The W Lounge after-party DJ set might be even livelier, as well as more sweaty and intimate. “We go on with the ’80s hits ... you have to keep the crowd dancing,” says Pee-Thug, who, varying from nontraditional club songs to classics on their laptop, takes cues from the audience during DJ sets.
Fri. Sept. 3 at Deer Valley
Brother
bands have a unique connection. Take, for instance, The Allman
Brothers, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, the Everly Brothers, Kings of Leon,
Radiohead—the list goes on.
Sure,
traditionally, some blood relatives, even playing music, don’t endure,
due to petty bickering—The Black Crowes—and fiery breakups—Oasis. By and
large, though, there’s an unmistakable harmony that can be achieved
when brothers join musically. Perhaps it’s derived from the adolescent
years of playing together (and vying for attention from cute neighbors).
Add The Avett
Brothers to the list of brother bands that work. Somehow they’ve managed
to avoid the tired brother-band cliches while reaching semi-stardom
with their major label debut, I and Love and You.
The Concord, N.C.,
country-punk/folk-rock trio is comprised of Avett siblings Scott
(banjo) and Seth (guitar), along with nonbrother bassist Bob Crawford.
Crawford doesn’t object to being adopted into the clan to join the band,
though.
“It’s glorious,”
says Crawford, who’s been holding down the Avetts’ one-man rhythm
section for nearly a decade. “The brother relationship is so fair. Scott
and Seth are so good to each other—there’s no jealousy or rivalry, no
tension. Which creates the same vibe for me and everyone around them ...
I don’t feel alienated at all. It’s not too unlike getting married. If
everyone is well-intentioned, it can make for some nice chemistry.”
Crawford says he’s
only seen the Avetts in minor disputes a handful of times. He
attributes the Avetts’ smooth relationship to good parenting: “They
instilled the feeling that in this world there are going to be people
that don’t have your best interest at heart, and they needed to be each
others’ best friend, care for each other, and they’ll be stronger for
it. They bring that to what we do.”
Success has come slowly, and after five full-length albums and two EPs, their 2009 Columbia release hit No. 16 on Billboard’s album-sales chart. I and Love and You’s
13 tracks diverge from the gritty country-punk riffs and shouted vocals
of their older material, instead ambling along for a softer, more
refined listen. “The lyrics are getting better, deeper and more
well-crafted,” Crawford says.
“The Perfect
Space” and “Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise” are prime
examples, while “I and Love and You,” “Kick Drum Heart” and “Slight
Figure of Speech” have a tuneful, ready-for-radio playability.
However, with
success comes disappointment, and some long-term die-hard fans of the
raw, early Avetts think the band has “sold out.” Crawford disagrees. “I
think of it as the next evolutionary, maturing step that we have taken.
Then, the next step will be the next step,” he says.
Their newfound
musical sensibilities paired nicely with producer/Zen master Rick Rubin,
a veteran of projects with the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and
Johnny Cash. “He was mostly a silent partner, there to preach patience
and to help us realize if there’s an idea, it’s worth trying,” says
Crawford. Rubin encouraged taking as much time as they needed for each
song, letting each develop thoroughly.
With that
mentality, Crawford says, each song dictated its own instrumentation and
recording method, thus becoming more nuanced than on previous albums.
“We were never much for being musicians, [but] we are getting good at
what we do. With more time in the studio, you learn the possibilities of
the studio. You treat that differently than you would live,” Crawford
says.
Crawford’s come a
long way since majoring in jazz guitar and auditioning for the band.
Those fledgling days were filled with street-corner folk revivals and a
spontaneity Crawford misses. And now they’re opening for the epic
jam-band rockers Gov’t Mule. “To be a small part of a big rock show, to
touch its cloak, it’s a dream come true,” Crawford says. “When you’re up
there playing these sort of shows, you hold on to them. Everything is
fleeting. It’s an honor.”
