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Vinyl's latest release, 'Fogshack Music Vol. 1,? is a departure from its retro sound. It's the band's fifth album.
Paul Liberatore Posted: 02/22/2007 Vinyl's latest release, 'Fogshack Music Vol. 1,? is a departure from its retro sound. It's the band's fifth album. Vinyl, the popular homegrown Marin band, has always prided itself on being old school, paying homage to classic funk, reggae and R&B, going so far as to put out its albums on vinyl as well as on CD. But the band's latest release, "Fogshack Music Vol. 1," its fifth album (available at www.vinylgroove.com), is a departure from the retro sound that has made the instrumental seven-piece group a favorite Bay Area live act, a top-drawing club band over the past 11 years. Vinyl came out of a Mill Valley garage in 1995 with a rootsy sound inspired by the records band members grew up listening to from the classic rock emporium Village Music in their hometown. "Our name and our whole history has been on getting back to the days of good old rock 'n' roll jamming with Hammond organ and Fender guitars and real horns and real drums playing groovy tunes," says Vinyl co-founder Jonathan Korty. "It was a response to the '80s, a backlash to the era of drum machines and fake horns. Now it's almost like we've come full circle. Our sound is so organic and old school. We wanted to know what would it sound like if we got digitized a bit and looped and buffed out. And we're very pleased with the result." A remix of outtakes from Vinyl's "Flea Market" album, "Fogshack 1" takes off in the direction of electronica and hip-hop, a disc that DJs are starting to spin in dance clubs and is getting played on college radio. "They're such a danceable band, but they haven't been explored by the DJ world as much as other bands playing danceable music," says Jim Greer, who remixed the record with his partner, Brandon Arnovick. Calling themselves the Rondo Brothers, Greer and Arnovick have remixed songs by Patti Page, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald - unlikely artists for beat box treatment. But check this out: As an example of making even the most corny song hip, they scored a hit on iTunes with a remix of "Frosty the Snowman." For the Vinyl remix, the Rondos scoured 10 hours of free-form jams recorded six years ago at the In the Pocket Studio in Forestville with former Parliament/Funkadelic and Talking Heads keyboard guru Bernie Worrell sitting in as a guest artist. The Rondos built this first "Fogshack" release around Worrell, whom Korty describes as "a father figure to us." "Bernie Worrell's like a poet," Greer says. "He'll play by himself or rhyme. We treated him as if we were sampling him. We stretched and twisted and pushed and pulled his bits to make them work in ways we thought were cool." As far as I'm concerned, they succeeded. "Fogshack" is interesting musically, stripped down and different. I totally dig the huge, fat bass and drum sounds on a Funkadelic song called "Moonshine Heather," a tribute to Worrell's early days. But perhaps most important, this new product gives Vinyl a much-needed shot in the arm. After a decade on the jam band circuit, the group is older now, members are raising families and cutting back on touring. So they're looking for new ways to stay vital and market their distinctive sound. "They are so original, so Marin County, a mix of Grateful Dead and Tower of Power," says Vinyl producer Tony Mindel, who came up with the idea for the "Fogshack" project. "But they're a jam band in a genre that's grown exponentially, and it's easy to get lost in the crowd. This is new and fresh." Vinyl - Korty on keys, bassist Geoff Vaughan, percussionist Johnny Durkin, drummer Alexis Razon, guitarist Billy Frates, trumpet player Danny Cao and Doug Thomas on saxophone and flute - just returned from a two-week tour of the Rockies. They'll be at 19 Broadway in Fairfax tonight. The band has plans for a second "Fogshack" remix, this one featuring the virtuoso bassist Les Claypool. Recently, they've been experimenting with vocals, occasionally adding singer Marcus Scott from the R&B cover band Pride & Joy to the lineup. Scott, who will be performing with the band tonight in Fairfax, has added songs from the Stax catalog like "The Breakdown" and "Funky Broadway." "This is our 11th year together," Korty points out. "We're getting just as much love as we've ever gotten on the road. We were packing in 500-person rooms across Colorado. So it feels like the ball is still rolling and we want to keep it rolling. We want to continue to look for new ways to innovate and shift to avoid stagnancy. This thing with the Rondo brothers is one. Marcus Scott is another. We're looking for ways to keep Vinyl changing and innovating." It's easy to get discouraged the music business, as Mindel, the producer on this project, knows only too well. But the important thing is to keep going and have faith that hard work and talent pay off. Paraphrasing the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, he says, "Like bad architecture and an old prostitute, you get respect if you stay around long enough."December 2006
SF WEEKLY
- Jonathan Zwickel
"For a city as obsessed with latex and leather as San Francisco, it's a surprise that Vinyl has stuck around so long. Then again, the freaky and the deaky alike are pheromonally attracted to high-potency funk and sweaty good times, which are what the reigning kings of Bay Area groove are all about. Vinyl follows in the tradition of fellow S.F. funkateers Tower of Power, spiking saucy sax and trumpet with boogaloo bass lines and Latin-leaning percussion, all bound by the members' unswerving dedication to leaving dance floors well buffed at the end of the night"
December 31 2004
Vinyl's Variegated Hues
Chris Clark - jambands.com
Funk is a sound that countless bands attempt; some fail, some prevail.
Often, a band will no more than mirror the sounds of their predecessors, with nothing added to the pot but a touch of new flavor and an all too distinguishable resemblance to something else that came before.
Since forming in the Bay Area over eight years ago, Vinyl has progressively proven to be a band capable of achieving and sustaining full-on sweaty dance parties, night after night, with their brand of left coast, upbeat funk. But for the seven instrumentalists, their funk is copiously saturated with tastes of Latin, jazz, Afro-Cuban, reggae, blues, dub and hip-hop to name a few.
"If people aren't having fun, it's a drag," said Doug Thomas, whose sax and flute unite with Danny Cao's trumpet to produce a vibrant Vinyl horn section. "However, it seems to come naturally to us. Once we start a set of music, we get people into a nice frame of mind. As a musical group, of course we want to sound good and be tight musically, but ultimately, we want everybody to be stoked." ....[more]....
Jan 3, 2007
Fogshack Music Vol. 1
- Jonathan Zwickel
As products of San Francisco's mid-'90s acid jazz heyday, Vinyl has both succeeded and suffered thanks to its pedigree. The six-piece ensemble enjoys huge popularity within the cadre of holdouts from that mostly forgotten era; these are the same heads who salivate over a new Charlie Hunter record and stand in line for tickets to Galactic. But Vinyl's reputation as hardcore slaves to the groove also rendered the group sort of invisible — it's easy to forget about a local mainstay that plies limitless, chops-heavy dance jams once you're out of college and into, like, songs. Someone in Team Vinyl must've realized that going beyond the band's circle was necessary for freshness, so Fogshack Music Vol. 1 relies on the tried and mostly true method of remixers remixing. Local production duo the Rondo Brothers (perpetrators of last year's Hawaiian hip-hop experiment No Time Left on Earth) blow up eight new Vinyl tracks here and the result is the band's best recorded work. Clean and concise but still raw and funky as hell, these tracks ride the Rondos' whiplash drum programming and exaggerated electronic thump but still swell with the horn-heavy, percussion-driven foundation Vinyl was built on. Veteran P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell, sitting in throughout, adds incontrovertible soul to up-jumping opener "Give and Go" and renders the old Parliament nugget "Moonshine Heather" as genuine as can be. "Imperial Majesty," a syncopated cut 'n' paste burner, proves how sexy you can get with just a rim shot and a slinky trumpet line. Vinyl is still a slave to the groove, but Fogshack is a much-needed update thanks to the new guys cracking the whip.
November 2006
NascentMag.com
"Vinyl is ostensibly a funk band that can't stay away from jazz, R&B, and reggae.
The emphasis on funk means more similarities to George Clinton and P-Funk than to the Grateful Dead, while frequent excursions into other upbeat genres further distinguish its sound among jam bands. P-Funk founder Bernie Worrell is actually a close friend of the group, and frequently plays keyboard and sings for them both live and in the studio."
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October 30 2004
Review of All the Way Live - Vinyl
Matt Brockett - jambands.com
Fewer bands have a more fitting name than Vinyl.
Their sound blends body moving percussion, ripping guitar licks, smooth horns, and hip-shaking Hammond work to create everything from tight funk grooves, to Afro-Cuban rhythms, to dub, to straight-up reggae, to good old rock n' roll.
With their latest release, All The Way Live, recorded over two nights at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, Vinyl preserves the spirit of their namesake not just in their music, but in the innovative album packaging as well. The cover art of a flooded temple and the sea creatures that inhabit it, along with a winged and clawed Victrola-beast, evokes the feel of the big old school gatefold record albums, complete with psychedelia and fantasy landscapes. The most noticeable thing about this tight-as-a-drum seven-piece is the fact that their sound never gets boring, mostly because their songs never get boring. They just start on a basic groove, and then some or all of their players take leads one at a time, letting each song take twists and turns around its main theme. They keep it all exciting and fresh, by not letting themselves fall into the realm of repetitive simple songs that limits so many groove-based bands.
On All The Way Live, Vinyl is joined by a slew of guest musicians, including Huey Lewis, Bernie Worrell, Rob Wasserman, Sugar Pie DeSanto and Cochemea Gastelum. Since Vinyl is an instrumental group, they bring in several guest vocalists to give more variety to their songs. Sugar Pie's unmistakable vocals on "In The Basement" immediately transport the listener to a smoke-filled basement R&B club. Pop legend Huey Lewis lends his talents not vocally, but with his harmonica, on the awesomely titled "Skumbo," a New Orleans style tune who's intro seems to draw influence from the theme songs of old sitcoms like Blossom and Mr. Belvedere. The reggae side of Vinyl shows up on tunes like "Things I Could Do," the rootsy "Truth and Rights!," featuring guest vocalist Jethro Jeremiah, and "Mokpok," a dubbed out powerhouse of a tune. Vinyl even seems to have a bit of a ska influence, visible on tracks like "Mole Rat" and, to a lesser extent, in the relaxed funk of "Whedawedat." The backbone of Vinyl is no doubt, the funk, and they bring it in every way possible. Funk drips off of tunes like the ripping "Animal 57," and the oddly edited album closer "Vinyl Party." On "Turtle," the absolute best song on the album, they blend oozing organ funk with vintage '70s guitar sounds and raging hand drums as the song builds to a reggae-tinged ending that gives the listener no choice but to bop along.
Even if Vinyl isn't for you, there is no denying the absolutely mind-blowing tightness of this relatively young ensemble. The booty-shaking grooves of All The Way Live is a perfect snapshot of the total dance party that Vinyl brings with them wherever they play.
September 12 2006
VINYL: FOGSHACK MUSIC VOL. 1
Brian Heisler - jambands.com
Vinyl, one of the Bay Area's many well-kept secrets, has quietly launched another smooth set of genius. Anchored by the band's signature horns and funky grooves, Fogshack Music Volume I moves like the late hour of a hip jazz club. As the album cover art suggests, Bernie Worrell is featured on the album. At times Worrell is not particularly noticeable amidst the already full funky sounds of Vinyl, but his soulful voice and funky keys are the grounds for much of the album. The singing is minimal on FMVI, occasionally lyrics are looped and the groove develops around this in a euphoric sort of way
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SF WEEKLY - Jonathan Zwickel
SF WEEKLY - Jonathan Zwickel "For a city as obsessed with latex and leather as San Francisco, it's a surprise that Vinyl has stuck around so long. Then again, the freaky and the deaky alike are pheromonally attracted to high-potency funk and sweaty good times, which are what the reigning kings of Bay Area groove are all about. Vinyl follows in the tradition of fellow S.F. funkateers Tower of Power, spiking saucy sax and trumpet with boogaloo bass lines and Latin-leaning percussion, all bound by the members' unswerving dedication to leaving dance floors well buffed at the end of the night"Vinyl has 6 albums
1997 Vinyl self-titled debut.
1998 Live at Sweetwater recorded at the band's legendary hometown club.
2001 Flea Market, which weaves its way in and out of grooves and dub interludes with the help of musical guests Les Claypool and Bernie Worrell.
2004 All the Way Live is a live double-album recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. It captures Vinyl at its grooving best and includes guest appearances by Huey Lewis, Bernie Worrell, Rob Wasserman, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Terry Haggerty, and many others. Recorded over two sold-out nights, All the Way Live showcases Vinyl's adaptability to different styles and players, illuminates their talents as musicians and growth as a band, and confirms their place as one of the more vital live bands playing today.
2006 Fogshack Sessions #1, explores the realm of creative remixing and production compliments of The Rondo Brothers and Tony Mindel. Add legendary P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell to the mix and you have an album laced with sick beats, keyboard wizardry, interplanetary vocalizing, deep dub reggae, all flowing with Vinyl's trademark positive dance vibe.
2009 Fog Shack Two. Bay Area producer team known as the Rondo Brothers (Dan the Automator, Galactic) and long-time Vinyl Producer Tony Mindel had free reign on master reels from old studio sessions of Marin County band Vinyl. The signature instrumental grooves feature bass player and musical force Les Claypool (Primus/Les Claypool's Frog Brigade/Oysterhead), Legendary Blues singer Suger Pie DeSanto. Hip Hop musician/singer/mc Felonious and bass player and producing legend Yossi Fine. The Vinyl originals were given new life to make an album full of uniquel songs and sounds that will appeal to fans across multiple genres of music.
Vinyl: "Fogshack Music Volume Two"
This is the second remix of instrumental tracks from Vinyl's ?Flea Market? album sessions in 2001, a rich vein of music mined once again for sonic riches. For ?Volume One,? Vinyl producer Tony Mindel and the Rondo Brothers, aka Jim Greer and partner Brandon Arnovick, remixed tracks from the ?Flea Market? sessions and added P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell to the instrument stew. On ?Volume Two,? the Rondos and Mindel again took out-takes from master reels from ?Flea Market,? remixed them in their signature style and laced them with the thundering bass grooves of former Primus funk master Les Claypool. Lyrics from Don Wolf and Tommy Shepherd of Felonious add to the listening experience, as does the authentic blues wails of Sugar Pie De Santo on ?Spill the Wine? and the guest playing of bassist Yossi Fine, DJ Quest on turntables, vibraphonist Riz Rizza, percussionists Antonio and Sean Onorato and saxophonist Doug Thomas. Vinyl ? keyboardist Jonathan Korty, trumpet player Danny Cao, guitarist Billy Frates, bassist Geoff Vaughan and drummer Alexis Razon ? has been tightening its sound since the Marin band came out of a Mill Valley garage 11 years ago. Although they were originally inspired by classic funk, Latin percussion, reggae and R&B from vinyl records they dug from the bins at the now defunct Village Music, Vinyl isn't afraid to place their music in the capable hands of others to update it into something modern, fresh and new.