Pigeons Playing Ping Pong
Live at 9:30 Club
July 3, 2014
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Tomorrow night the Baltimore based jam rock outfit, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong will celebrate the release of their first album in four years. They will be joined by B-Side Shuffle and Cabinet to start the party groovin’ early. PPPP has been touring extensively across the country and have become a familiar name on festival bills this summer. Only big things ahead for these guys. To get you ready for tomorrow night, here is a brief mini-interview of sorts the group did with LiveMusicDaily. Full post-show coverage will be featured on the site next week.
AM: You’re a jamband at the core but there’s so much straight up funk in your sound. What are your biggest funk influences ?
PP: Phish, Talking Heads and Lotus always comes to mind. Our bassist Ben Carrey’s first CD purchase was the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Greatest Hits. He was immediately impressed with Flea’s energy and unique approach to the bass guitar’s role in modern music. Our drummer Dan Schwartz grew up on Jock Jams and 311. I was a classic rock kid with a theater background and our guitarist Jeremy Schon pulls from the guitar playing of Phish and Soulive. Nowadays, we listen to The Motet, Lettuce, Turkuaz and tons of other great bands.
AM: What would you point to as a facet of your sound and band dynamic that distinguishes you from other funk-rock acts on the jamband scene?
PP: Energy!! We leave it all on the stage. It’s just one of those things that you have to experience to understand. Ask a Flocker, they know what I’m talking about…
AM: Working with an agency like Hoplite is unique. They have a very hands-on approach that not all agencies offer. How has their structure fostered an environment for growth on the road for you all as a rising top notch jam act on the Mid-Atlantic scene?
PP: It’s all about having a strong team in place with anything in life. Before joining Hoplite, our guitarist Jeremy Schon did all the booking and it was a lot of work. It became a full-time job. So when Hoplite took over in January 2013, it freed his time to work on music and it’s made our lives much easier. Jeremy and I still spend the bulk of our time managing the band while Hoplite fills our calendar, but we’re working on outsourcing more of our managerial duties so we can focus on writing new music and strategizing our tours with Hoplite. Things are shifting in the right direction, and we already have a lot of new material to show for it.
AM: What is it like to be a headlining act on the bill at the 9:30 Club for your CD release party, a venue right near your hometown stomping grounds ?
PP: It’s hard to put in to words… we’re super jacked up about it! Three out of four of us are from Maryland and we’ve all been going to the 9:30 Club for years. We’ve seen some of our favorite bands and most memorable shows there and it’s a huge honor to join the ranks. Headlining there for the first time is definitely a milestone in our career and we’re completely ready to tear it up Pigeon-style.
AM: With your emphasis being on live performance it makes sense that you guys have been focusing on touring recently rather than recording. However, you will be releasing Psychology, your second full-length studio album, could you tell us a bit about the album? What was the best way to put these live songs into studio format, and how did you translate these songs into the studio recordings?
PP: We recorded a lot of Psychology as a group, then went back and added funky layers and overdubs to embellish and accentuate the different parts. It took some time to finish because of our hefty tour schedule, but I’m thrilled with the result. Studio 10 is an incredibly accommodating studio, Ilia Kobrinsky did a great job mixing and Anthony Thogmartin of Papadosio was incredibly attentive when mastering the tracks, resulting in a polished, fluid and dynamic album. We’re stoked!!
AM: What plans do you guys look forward to as you embark on even more extensive touring in support of your new album for 2014 ?
PP: We have a great remainder of the year lined up, including tons of awesome festivals, a few post-Phish late nights and some massive holiday shows in the works. We can’t wait to tell everyone about it…
B-Side Shuffle
DC’s thriving music scene is full of diverse acts ranging from the gypsy rock stylings of rising stars like Black Masala to underground hip-hop offerings of Asheru to the jam based acts that thrive on live improvisation. B-Side Shuffle has emerged as one of the top rising blues-jam-prog-rock acts not only in DC, but in the region as a whole. They’ve shared the stage with highly notable talent, have released a very strong sophomore album, and garnered a strong regional following. Best of all, the band is just getting started and has no plans of slowing down soon.
Andrew McConnell of LiveMusicDaily spoke with the band about their formation, Farmalade, their upcoming July 3rd show with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at the 9:30 Club, and much more.
Could you start by telling us about the unique “first sessions” and the “out of the box” locations where you first started?
Geoff Browning: Jasper and I rented a small room in the back of a pie shop in D.C., bought lots of beer and pie, and invited random people to come over and sit in. Carter and Nik have considerable music-ninja skills, so when the group clicked, it felt apparent to all of us. We eventually graduated from the Pie Shop to our own real practice space, at which point we started getting really ambitious, haha. It’s been a wild ride from there.
Even as a relatively new band you guys have honed your sound very quickly. How do you feel that you’ve grown closer together, in terms of on-stage chemistry, since you first started ?
Jasper Drisko: That’s a good question. I think as we started playing bigger stages and outdoor shows last summer, we got more comfortable in general, both individually and as a group. We all learned a lot about how to feel as ready as possible to perform and play our best. Once we got that foundation, it allowed us to relax and have fun, which comes across in how we sound and the energy of our set.
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Cabinet
About Cabinet
Cabinet is a band with roots firmly planted in the Appalachian tradition. They wear their influences like badges, honoring the canon of roots, bluegrass, country, and folk, weaving these sounds into a patchwork Americana quilt. But this music isn’t romanticizing or rehashing the past. Cabinet makes it mark on today. The steady aim of their harmonies soar straight onto target each time, the soaring vocals giving voice to the story of each song. Their music takes the long way home, treating its listeners like passengers on a ride through scenic back roads. Their live shows are inclusive, celebratory, and community-building. Everyone will want to get on the wagon with Cabinet. Members Pappy Biondo (banjo, vocals), J.P. Biondo (mandolin, vocals), Mickey Coviello (acoustic guitar, vocals), Dylan Skursky (electric bass, double bass), Todd Kopec (fiddle, vocals), and Jami Novak (drums, percussion), all live and love music, and their polished sound belies their young age.
The band‘s latest offering, THIS IS CABINET – SET II, a seven song effort – six originals and a cover of The Byrds’ “Mr. Spaceman” – was recorded in March of 2013 at Stage One in Fairfield, Connecticut, and Club Metronome in Burlington, Vermont. The set is diverse yet cohesive, ranging from the melancholy of “Caroline,” which unfolds into a purposeful jam, to the modern Americana rock of “Heavy Rain,” which closes the album. Along the way, we have the ambling “Doors,” the upbeat and fun “Poor Man’s Blues” — which would not sound out of place at an Old And In The Way show — the snaky, reggae-tinged “The Dove” and the instrumental “Susquehanna Breakdown,” another Cabinet contribution to the tried-and-true bluegrass tradition. The group’s take on “Mr. Spaceman” is relatively faithful, but with some Cabinet flair, and offers a glimpse into the band’s myriad influences.
By now, Cabinet’s ability to get a festival crowd dancing and rip tasty instrumental breakdowns is a given. With “Set II,” the band displays its continuing development not only as players, but as songwriters who know how to get to the point – and have some fun going down that road.
Cabinet formed in 2006, bringing together players from various musical and personal backgrounds. Some of the members were barely old enough to drink legally, but their thirst for older music was unquenchable. Whether its rustic “American Beauty”-era Grateful Dead or old-timey bluegrass, Cabinet has digested it all. But that is not to say that Cabinet recreates older styles. No, this is music that might have its roots in the past, but it is current and vibrant, with a sense of celebrating the now.