The band still carries his name, but G. Love is taking a step back from the spotlight.
G. Love was as synonymous with the Special Sauce as a Big Mac and fries, but he’s now touring with The Juice, and the move signals a shift in musical direction, both in his music and the way he approaches it.
“Special Sauce has been great, but I’d been thinking about a bigger band for some time,” G. Love said in a phone interview for BandWagon. “It was a chance to play with a lot more soloists instead of just a trio. It was a lot of fun for me.”
“Little by little, my own tastes came through for Soulfly,” Max Calverra tells BandWagon. “As I get older, you’d think I’d get more mellow. But I like the heavier and heavier stuff. When you get older, you play what you like. You play what you feel.”
“Riffs are my church,” he said. “That’s my paradise. I will spend hours riffing on the guitar and just chugging on the guitar. I call it Chug Life. When you finally find a killer riff, man, it’s like you’ve won the lottery.
On the last day of 2021, David Wimbish, a millennial, posted a viral video on TikTok. It’s is a perfect snapshot of what The Collection does best. The instrumentation is catchy and Wimbish inhabits the unambiguous emotion of the song with his vocal performance. The lyrics are intense, vulnerable and painfully relatable (“another lockdown stuck inside this shit town I can’t find a way round my intrusive thoughts now”).
“I went from someone who was trying to please everyone, to someone who is outspoken about my sexuality,” Wimbish told BandWagon later. “Why are you so afraid of pleasure,” he sings in their new single ”Get Lost,” and this celebration of pleasure is on full display at the Collection’s live shows. Wimbish twirls his mic stand theatrically from among the folds of flowing white clothing and band members bounce around the stage wildly during instrumental breaks. Huge grins and perspiration are the band’s unofficial uniform.
“LowDown Brass Band has roots in the Jazz education world,” MC Billa Camp tells BandWagon, “but the Jazz education world has the habit of treating Jazz like an island. As if – Jazz isn’t birthed from the same struggle as Hip Hop. As if they are not Black father and son, born fighting the same fight.”
Lowdown Nights, the latest and most future-leaning record from LowDown Brass Band, was appropriately released during Black History Month. It takes things further out of the pigeonhole and into the pan-genre stage, using the history of the African American experience as its guide.
Especially with the hit single “Be The One Tonight,” they go mainstream – and that’s a good thing. The collective has enough talent within its ranks to deliver a show with as much variety as Beyoncés 2018 Homecoming at Coachella. It’s the multi-lingual, multicultural, multi-genre kind of mainstream pop and dance music that encapsulates the musical stew of 2022.
Zachary Williams, whose powerful voice drove him out from the Brooklyn Bar4 open-mic world and onto the international stage, is best known as the belting leader of The Lone Bellow. His new solo record Dirty Camaro is indeed an escape from that band’s gravity; one that’s weird, head-turning, soulful and fresh.
Williams says “I’ve wanted to do it for a long time – really, right after Jim James from My Morning Jacket released his solo record.” He says James had “graciously come out to a couple of my shows,” and the two connected.
What began as a two day trial session resulted in the full length record. The album is rich with expert pedal steel guitar, orchestral strings, saxophone and a Texas-band backbone that really cooks.
“A lot of bands say ‘well, we can’t box ourselves into a specific genre because we play funk and jazz and rock or whatever,’” Hunter James & the Titanic says. “It’s nice to be in a band that says, ‘we play rock and roll 109% of the time.’”
Hunter James & the Titanic refuse to be lured into the post-genre vortex despite that impossible percentage and their lineup of eclectic players. They play Americana — no caveats. Well maybe a couple.
“I really wanted to have this band feel really focused.” Hunter James explained. “But, there’s something inside of me that won’t let me just write like that. But, we always sound like us no matter what.”
In just three years, the band has put out an EP, five singles and two full-length LPs. Their latest album, 2021’s La Liberté, finds the band settled even deeper into a roots rock sound.
“There was a point where I was trying to end my whole life,” Evan Thomas – aka TX2 – tells BandWagon. “I felt worthless. And I had friends help me out. Once people feel like they’re alone, they need someone to talk to. I feel like that helps save lives.”
In addition to putting on cathartic, high energy pop-punk shows, Thomas is the founder of The X Movement, an online safe space for his fans (and anyone struggling) after battling with his own mental health.
A few years ago, Mom Rock booked their first gig at The Garden, a notorious house on the Boston DIY basement show circuit. They were ecstatic… until they saw the 6 pm time slot. Barely anyone would be there. What happened next cemented the quartet as a fixture in the scene.
“We went up to play and the crowd was electric,” guitarist/singer Josh Polack told BandWagon. “It was the first time I ever crowd surfed during a guitar solo.”
“Our fans are the best people on earth,” guitarist/singer Curtis Heimburger said.
