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Hip-hop, funk & adventure rock in Summit County

Kimberly Nicoletti and Daily News staff reportsummit daily news

Who: FunkiphinoWhen: TonightWhere: Snake River Saloon, KeystoneWhere’d the name come from? Funk if I know …Home base: Boulder/DenverType of music: We are a 13-piece horn band playing funk, R&B and old skool.If your music were a tangible item, what would it be, and why? Money! There’s so much you can do with our music. When we hear fans say that they’ve been excited for weeks, knowing that they’re coming to see us, or people fly out to make a show, that’s huge! Our music is our medium of exchange, our currency. We play, and what we get back, the value, is the real deal. We’ve made life-long friends, we’ve been able to travel, and we get a rush from jamming together. Plus, it pays the bills. What more could we ask for?Why do people love ya? We’re real. We’re not pretending to love the music, and we’re not just being self-indulgent. We are truly fortunate to have 13 of the very best musicians in the region, all in one band. It’s not a normal situation. The folks in the band are hard workers, excellent players and great people. When we’re in Summit County, which is our “home-away-from-home,” we’re in our element. It’s great to play for people who, over the years, have become our friends. Summit folks work hard, party hard and treat us very well. We feed off the crowd, and with the infectious energy in Summit County, we’re sure to have a killer show.How do you keep it fresh? In the band, we’re always trying to up the ante. We’re tough on ourselves, and we expect 100 percent from each other. Whether it’s preparing new material or new arrangements, we need to keep it fresh for our own sanity. When we’re doing 110-130 shows a year, it’s nice to have the challenge of knocking out a few new tunes at a show. We have a very full schedule, and we’d go completely crazy if every show was exactly the same. The band has an insane repertoire of songs “in the bag.” Some tunes get a little tired and over-played, so we put them back “in the bag” for a while and bring them out again when we’re psyched to play them again. Our band members are also so musically diverse. We have folks that rap, accomplished jazz musicians, a few rockers and everything in between. Each person gets to shine, in his or her own way, and it helps mix it up.Best, and weirdest, experience: We flew out to Kansas City for a big private event last spring. We decided to hook up a show at a club the Friday before the KC show. When we arrived at the venue, in Levenworth, it was like a scene from “The Blues Brothers.” The cigarette smoke in the room was thick, and the crowd (many of which work at the penitentiary) was leather clad and burly. They were looking for a rock band, but Funkiphino showed-up, horns and all! We started to play to a room full of dead stares. But by the end of the first set, friends and family had summoned everyone in that small town to the most rockin’ party ever. We played all night to a packed house. We were told that we were the best band they had ever seen, and they said our singers were, “even better then the ones on ‘American Idol.'” We were later introduced to a guy’s younger sister who he said could, “suck start a Harley!” She looked like she done it before. Yuck. Anyway, they were the nicest, most gracious crowd. They really made an impression on us.

Who: Eric LindellWhen: TonightWhere: Warren Station, KeystoneHistory: Born in San Mateo, Calif., in 1969, singer/songwriter/vocalist Eric Lindell spent countless hours in San Francisco, soaking up the musical sounds of the city, which lead him to pick up the bass and then the guitar. Lindell left California for New Orleans in 1999, where he quickly discovered the roots music scene. Before long he met up with Galactic’s Stanton Moore, and the two jammed together often. Some of New Orleans’ finest players, including keyboardist Ivan Neville and drummers Harold Brown and Johnny Vidacovich, often joined him on stage. Galactic bassist Rob Mercurio began sitting in as well, and word of Lindell’s immense talents quickly spread around the city. Stars like Branford Marsalis, The Neville Brothers, John Scofield, Chris Chew (North Mississippi Allstars), and Wally Ingram (David Lindley, Stockholm Syndrome) began showing up at his gigs and embracing this fresh California kid’s funky music. According to Lindell, “It’s a great feeling to be recognized for your music in New Orleans.” National scene: Lindell first hit the national music scene with his 2006 Alligator Records debut “Change In The Weather,” which critics and fans alike hailed as the arrival of a roots rocker with dozens of unforgettable original songs. Charisma: His combination of sweet, blue-eyed soul with foot-stomping R&B, swamp pop, funk and blues won him critical and popular acclaim across the country, with reviews and features in Relix, OffBeat, The Chicago Sun-Times, Harp, Guitar Player, Down Beat, The New Yorker, The New York Press and many other national and regional publications. Live shows: Lindell’s live shows draw as much attention as his material. His unstoppable grooves, rocking, deeply rooted, original songs and excellent musicianship never fail to fill the dance floor. With the release of “Between Motion and Rest,” Lindell and his band will continue to tour heavily, giving the rest of the country the chance to discover for themselves what a growing number of people already know: Lindell is a musician bursting at the seams with talent, with the uncanny natural ability to come up with one instantly classic song after another and the desire to take his music to every corner of the music-loving universe.

Who: The IndoboxWhen: TonightWhere: three20south, BreckWhere’d the name come from? If we told you, we’d have to kill you.Home base: BostonType of music: Some people call it dance-rock. We call it adventure rock.If your music were a tangible item, what would it be, and why? Booty on the dance floor because it’s hot.Why do people love ya? Because we rock so hard for you.How do you keep it fresh? Two parts Jello mix, three parts whiskey, one part apple sauce.What’s the craziest thing you’ve done/weirdest experience? Starting a rock band that drives around the country in a van.



Who: Dilated Peoples When: TuesdayWhere: three20southAn intro: As hip-hop culture (DJing, MCing, b-boying, graffiti art and beatboxing) evolved in the late 1970s and early 1980s, two things were hallmarks of the movement: DJing and lyrical excellence. In the last several years, no rap group has boasted more to champion those elements than Dilated Peoples. The Los Angeles-based trio of Rakaa, Evidence and DJ Babu inject their music with humor, insight and social commentary, and DJ Babu’s cuts add an additional layer of excitement and complexity to the group’s material.The trio’s first three albums – 2000’s “The Platform,” 2001’s “Expansion Team” and 2004’s “Neighborhood Watch” have been hailed as exemplary examples of quality hip-hop. So after enjoying the biggest radio and television exposure of its career with the 2004 hit “This Way,” produced by and featuring Kanye West, Dilated Peoples wanted to make a point that they had a clear vision for their music, hence the “20/20 “title for their new album.”We’ve done a lot of experimentation, worked with a lot of different people and tried a lot of different things,” Rakaa said. “With this record, we wanted to really get back to a real, uncut pure vision and get back to the pure, boom-bap sound that really made us all get together as people and want to make music together.”Lead single “Back Again” perfectly illustrates this point. With DJ Babu (also a member of the World Famous Beat Junkies) accenting the thumping cut with his precision scratching, Evidence and Rakaa update their fans on their musical agenda and highlight their dedication to the art of rhyme. “Don’t worry if I write checks, I write rhymes,” Evidence says on the cut, playing off a famous line from Diddy. Evidence felt it was important to draw attention to lyricism with the group’s first single. “In today’s rap game, people are worried about whether or not I’m making money, but it’s not glorified that I’m writing my own rhymes or making my vision clear,” he said. “I just felt it was a bold statement and needed to be said.”Capitol Records signed Dilated Peoples in part because of their live show, which is among the best in hip-hop. After the success of the 1997 single “Third Degree” and the addition of DJ Babu to the fold a year later, Dilated Peoples became a fixture on the tour circuit. Their shows, typified by tag-team rhyming between Rakaa and Evidence and turntable supremacy from DJ Babu, demonstrated that hip-hop shows can be entertaining and prominently feature a DJ.”We’re one of the groups responsible for helping correct one of the most serious rap wrongs, which is the DJ being regulated to a stage prop,” Rakaa said. “We make sure that Babu is up there with us and gets the equal shine because the DJ is the backbone of the culture, and he’s the backbone of our group, too.”


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