It’s not every day that the Purple One asks a band he’s never seen to fly nearly 1,000 miles to fill in for a group at his club.
But that’s exactly what Prince did a couple of years ago, which is how the Austin, Texas-based Latin funk band Grupo Fantasma ended up on a first-name basis with one of the biggest names in pop.
“It came out of nowhere,” Grupo Fantasma guitarist Adrian Quesada said by phone.“We’re still humbled by it all.”
Humbled maybe, but not overwhelmed by the relationship they’ve struck up with Prince or the doors that have opened since they did a two-month stint at his now-defunct Las Vegas nightclub in 2006.
The 11-member band has a new live album, “Sonidos Gold,” that features sax great Maceo Parker and salsa legend Larry Harlow. Following recent appearances at the Bonnaroo and Coachella festivals, and a gig for the band’s horn section backing up Prince on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” Grupo Fantasma comes to the Museum of Fine Arts’ Calderwood Courtyard on Wednesday night for a concert under the stars - all of which is a bit more than the band’s members imagined when they were playing in living rooms for friends.
Quesada grew up on the Mexican border in Laredo, Texas. Everywhere he turned, he heard the modern folk dance music called cumbia, the sound at the core of Grupo Fantasma’s music. But as a hip-hop, hard rock and salsa fan, Quesada brings an eclectic mindset to the group that’s shared by its other members.
“Our two biggest influences are Fania records’ stuff and James Brown,” he said.
Which is probably why Prince dug what he heard on a CD his promoter was given by an old friend who just happened to be Grupo Fantasma’s manager. The band ended up backing Prince at a Golden Globe party in Los Angeles that included guest spots by Marc Anthony, Mary J. Blige and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. That led to opening for Prince on some of his tour dates.
“We play with him once in a while now,” Quesado said. “Every couple of months we get a call out of the blue from Prince. He’s never specifically told us why he likes us, but he has said that he remembers a time when you could be at a concert where James Brown, Santana and Earth, Wind & Fire are all on the same bill. We can go halfway through a salsa tune and then bust out into a James Brown tune, and I know he liked that for sure.
“A lot of young Latinos are into reggaeton today,” Quesdao continued, “but the idea of a little Latin rock orchestra is a dying breed. We started out playing house parties before we became an official band. We’re trying to re-create that vibe when we perform. The least we can do at a show is to make people feel better than when they got there.”
Just like they did for the Purple One.
Grupo Fantasma, at at the Museum of Fine Arts, Wednesday, 7:30. Tickets: $25; members, seniors and students, $20; 617-369-3306.
Monday 30 June 2008
Glassjaw
Artist: Glassjaw
Genre(s):
Hardcore
Metal
Rock
Alternative
Discography:
El Mark (iTunes Ep)
Year: 2005
Tracks: 3
Worship Tribute
Year: 2002
Tracks: 11
Worship And Tribute
Year: 2002
Tracks: 11
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence
Year: 2002
Tracks: 12
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Ep)
Year: 2001
Tracks: 5
Long Island, NY-based progressive hard-core isthmus Glassjaw was formed by singer Daryl Palumbo and guitarist Justin Beck in 1994, longtime friends world Health Organization began collaborating as teens. Roster changes regularly plagued the influential group during its shaping years, with guitarist Todd N. Weinstock, bassist Manuel Carrero, and drummer Sammy Siegler completing the batting order for Glassjaw's 2000 debut album, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence. Siegler was replaced by ex-Orange 9MM drummer Larry Gorman for the band's summer enlistment in support of the Deftones. Carrero was also replaced by Dave Allen. Two years later, Glassjaw inked a deal with Warner Bros. and issued Worship and Tribute in July 2002. The band easy became less and less active, visual perception more than membership changes in late 2004 when Weinstock left to prosecute his have band, the retro-dance outfit Men, Women and Children, and Manuel Carrero rejoined in home of a departed Allen. Singer Daryl Palumbo's side project, Head Automatica, also took Gorman off, Durijah Lang coming on in his place. After about a biennial foramen, Glassjaw played a handful of shows in 2005 and got back together once again in former 2006 for a stretch of tour dates.
Rob Sparx
Sunday 29 June 2008
La Guns
Artist: La Guns
Genre(s):
Rock
Discography:
Walking The Dead
Year: 2002
Tracks: 10
L.A. Guns was formed by former Guns N' Roses guitar player Tracii Guns in 1987. Teaming with ex-Girl vocalist Phil Lewis, onetime W.A.S.P. drummer Steve Riley, bassist Kelly Nickles, and guitar player Mick Cripps, Guns adhered to the Aerosmith-derived commonness of his former band. L.A. Guns released their self-titled number one record album in 1988, however it wasn't until the undermentioned year's Cocked and Loaded that they truly stony-broke big. On the strength of the dispatch single "The Ballad of Jayne," Cocked and Loaded went gold. Released two geezerhood later, Hollywood Vampires managed to hold their audience's attending, peaking at number 42. Nevertheless, the band set depleted for quaternity years, waiting for dirt to evanesce away. When L.A. Guns released their quarter record album, Evil Circle, in early 1995, they maintained a core radical of followers, notwithstanding it failed to capture the mainstream's attention; it was their weakest-selling album to day of the month and proverb the beginning of several batting order shifts, with Johnny Crypt taking over bass playing duties and Guns left over the band's sole guitarist. Featuring new lead story vocalizer Chris Van Dahl, 1996's American language Hardcore fared no better; Sterling Hits & Black Beauties, a compendium of re-recorded favorites and unexampled substantial, followed in 1999 later a ecological succession of new vocalists that included Ralph Saenz (on 1998's Wasted EP) and Love/Hate isaac M. Singer Jizzy Pearl. That same summertime, the group released a Gilby Clarke-produced compendium of unexampled substantial, entitled Shrinking Violet, with Pearl as lead vocaliser. For 2001's Man in the Moon (once again produced by Clarke), Phil Lewis and Mick Cripps returned to the lineup, connection Guns, Riley, onetime Pretty Boy Floyd fellow member Keff Ratcliffe and new bassist Muddy.
Snoop Dogg's wife arrested for DUI in S. Calif.
Saturday 28 June 2008
FUN FACTORY
Artist: FUN FACTORY
Genre(s):
Techno
Rock
Dance
Rap: Hip-Hop
Discography:
Close To You
Year: 2005
Tracks: 6
ABC Of Music
Year: 2000
Tracks: 16
All Their Best
Year: 1997
Tracks: 14
Next Generation
Year: 1996
Tracks: 11
Fun-Tastic
Year: 1995
Tracks: 12
Doh Wah Diddy
Year: 1995
Tracks: 5
Pain
Year: 1994
Tracks: 4
Nonstop! The Album
Year: 1994
Tracks: 12
I Wanna B With U
Year:
Tracks: 5
Dance-popsters Fun Factory experience scored with a series of similarly catchy singles that manipulation elements of reggae, techno and rap but never wander far from pure pop. Comprising French diva Marie-Anett, Italian social dancer Smooth T, German social dancer Steve and American doorknocker Rod D, the mathematical group debuted in 1995 with debut album Not Stop! and released their indorsement, Fun-Tastic, exactly one twelvemonth afterwards. By 1997, the mathematical group had sufficiency hits for the release of a best-of compilation, All Their Best.
Michael Hoppe and Martin Tillman and Tim Wheater
Artist: Michael Hoppe and Martin Tillman and Tim Wheater
Genre(s):
New Age
Discography:
Afterglow
Year: 1999
Tracks: 13
Illdisposed
Artist: Illdisposed
Genre(s):
Metal
Other
Discography:
Burn Me Wicked
Year: 2006
Tracks: 11
Four Depressive Seasons
Year: 2003
Tracks: 9
Kokaiinum
Year: 2001
Tracks: 9
Retro
Year: 2000
Tracks: 11
Submit
Year: 1995
Tracks: 9
Helvede
Year: 1995
Tracks: 12
Return From Tomorrow
Year: 1994
Tracks: 4
One of Denmark's near respected and longest persistent death metallic element bands, Illdisposed were formed in the townsfolk of Ã…rhus in 1991, and managed to secure a record deal on the forcefulness of their very first gear demo, entitled The Winter of Our Discontempt. Led by unusually named vocalizer Bo Summer (specially unusual for a death metallic element ring!) and guitarist Lasse Bak, the group was rarely able to sustain a regular card for very long, but however recorded a cosmic string of albums, including 1993's Four Depressive Seasons 1994's Refund from Tomorrow EP, 1995's Give in, 1997's There's Something Rotten in the State of Denmark, and 2000's Retro covers set. In 2001, Bo Summer began splitting his fourth dimension between Illdisposed and competing Danish death alloy favorites Panzerchrist, but that hasn't stopped up him from reconvening his original ring for subsequent albums like that same year's Kokaiinum, 2004's 1-800 Vindication, and 2006's industrial-leaning Burn Me Wicked.
Scozbor
Artist: Scozbor
Genre(s):
Trance: Psychedelic
Discography:
Scozbor
Year: 2003
Tracks: 15
'Billy Joel' wins Stars In Their Eyes
My Morning Jacket Announce Huge New Year's Eve Show
My Morning Jacket will see the year out by holding a New Year's Eve show in New York.
Held at the huge Madison Square Garden venue, the December 31st event is being billed as 'An Evening with My Morning Jacket'. Tickets will go on sale on Friday June 27th at 10am, via Ticketmaster.
On the actual day, doors will open at 8pm and the show will then start at around 9pm. The gig will be a late-night event.
My Morning Jacket released their fourth album 'Evil Urges' this week.
See Also
DJ Excalibah
Artist: DJ Excalibah
Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Tales Form The Legend
Year: 2004
Tracks: 1
The Archangel
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