Cover Story: Invisible Jet and the Class of 98
The Second Bi-Annual Good Citizen Progress Report. We picked ten bands who are helping to put the Vermont music scene on the map. Bands who are touring extensively. Bands who are getting their songs played on radio stations all around the country. Bands who are getting noticed by the music industry. Bands who are making progress. We looked at all the genre's, and found some dramatic stories and some slow, steady climbs. Here's the list: Invisible Jet, Strangefolk, Tammy Fletcher, Smokin' Grass, Zola Turn, Chin Ho!, Belizbeha, Dysfunkshun, Gordon Stone Band and viperHouse. "
Way back in 1996, we got all self-important and decided to do an issue of Good Citizen that focused on the bands from Vermont who we expected to make it, whatever that means. We've never been a big fan of contests, competitions or polls that pit one band against another. In fact, we'd have to say we've gone well out of our way to avoid intra-band mud wrestling competitions. So, how to illuminate the few bands that really work their asses off to get ahead? In Issue #5 of Good Citizen we unveiled the first Good Citizen Progress Report. Instead of saying "So and so is kicking so and so's ass," we decided to just pick the bands who we thought were making, well, um, progress. Of the twelve bands and performers that we selected back then, five are re-appearing here: Dysfunkshun, Chin Ho!, Tammy Fletcher (and the Disciples), Belizbeha and Strangefolk.
These five bands are all kicking some serious ass and getting some serious attention from the industry. Four of the bands that we predicted would be huge have broken up (The Fags, Rocketsled, Twelve Times Over and Five Seconds Expired) but ALL of those bands have had members become vital parts of today's Vermont musical landscape and can now be found as members of Bag of Panties, Non Compos Mentis, Drowningman and Minimus, among others. James Kochalka Superstar was on the cover of Good Citizen #8, so you know where he is. And the other three, the Pants, Wide Wail, and folk-singer Tamah, have all been laying low and woodshedding, but we expect to be hearing a lot from them very soon. And so now, our very unscientific, completely prejudiced, and downright incestuous Second Annual Good Citizen Progress Report: The Class of 1998.
1. Invisible Jet
Invisible Jet is almost the perfect Burlington band: formed by UVM students out of countless campus jams, the group that was born as "Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet" in the early 90's spent more than four years relentlessly woodshedding and honing their unique sound before finally releasing their eponymously titled debut album earlier this year. While most bands come of age gigging in front of a handful of friends at their local bar, Invisible Jet was spending countless hours working on their music. A 1995 appearance on the very first Good Citizen CD turned a lot of heads and had some very serious industry people calling on the band, but Jet made a conscious decision to stay in Burlington, graduate from college and perfect their sound. Well folks, if you haven't heard it yet, Invisible Jet, the album, truly delivers on years of promise. Soaring, almost anthemic, melodies and grooving guitars fly high over one of the tightest rhythm sections anywhere. Pick a time signature, any time signature: these guys can play it. And play it they will, if new manager Brian Ross of Hoboken, New Jersey-based Ross Artist Management has anything to say about it. Ross has the band on the road toward building an inevitable fan-base, and record labels have been sniffing around, so as 1998 melts into 1999, expect Invisible Jet to make the national scene in a very big way. We predict that Invisible Jet will fly, high.
2. Strangefolk
Back in 1994, we asked Strangefolk to be on the first Good Citizen compilation of Burlington bands. Most of the bands on the disc, the now out-of-print Good Citizen Soundtrack to the Zine Volume One, were alt-rock or hardcore, and when someone asked me why we put a groove band like Strangefolk in the middle of it, I remember saying that I thought they were the hardest working band in town. We smelled success, we sensed something great - and they were wicked nice guys. We even got a thank you letter from the band after our two-night CD release party at Club Toast. Wicked nice guys. We ran a feature article on them in the fall of 1995, and we included them in our first Progress Report in 1996. Talk about progress. Where do we begin?
Since we last checked in with our groovin' friends , the band that almost literally lives on the road has continued their gradual climb with a constant schedule of live performances. Averaging about 150 shows a year, Strangefolk has successfully become a national act, in a manner not unlike that of our piscean bretheren Phish - strong word-of-mouth, an intensely loyal fan-base and legendary live shows that pack 'em in and make 'em dance. Currently booked by Boston's Pretty Polly Productions, Strangefolk sells out clubs and theaters in San Francisco, Chicago, Oregon, Colorado and throughout the northeast and in the fall they will be moving to Monteray Peninsula Artists, already home to fellow Burlingtonians Phish as well as Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band and Big Head Todd and the Monsters. And the biggest feather in the Strangefolk cap? Probably the recent signing to the Disney-owned (but still cool) Mammoth Records. Mammoth has the money of a major label, long-term indie cred, and the recent success of the Squirrel Nut Zippers under their belts. Strangefolk has a kick-ass management team (including Russ Weis, who wrote the article about the band for our Good Citizen #4 and then went on to work for them) and Mammoth Records will be re-releasing the Weightless in Water album in the fall. Look for a new Strangefolk album on Mammoth (and available everywhere) in the Spring of 1999.
3. Tammy Fletcher
Tammy Fletcher has had quite a year. Four sold out shows with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Dublin, Ireland. A legendary, impromptu appearance with Phish at Burlington's Flynn Theater. Red Square SRO Sunday Gospel Brunch. Gospel Tent on rain-soaked North Beach at Discover Jazz Festival. The list could go on and on, and it does, because every performance that Tammy Fletcher gives, with or without her top-notch band the Disciples, is spectacular. The woman has got soul: honest, from-the-heart, gut-busting soul. Pure soul. Tammy's soul is as real as they come, and it was her other legendary appearance a few years back, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, that seemed to give her the confidence to really go for it. Since then, she and the Disciples have played their hearts out and made their fans the old fashioned way: they've earned them. And so they go: on August 23rd they'll open for Taj Mahal at the Mad River Music Festival in Waitsfield, on September 12th they'll headline the Cambridge River Music Festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and soon they'll release the second Disciples album Live from Mad River.
4. Smokin' Grass
Burlington's "newgrass" heroes Smokin' Grass hit the ground running in 1998 with a New Year's Eve show at the Wetlands in New York City with local buddies Strangefolk. Since January, Smokin' Grass has played over 100 shows in 16 states, and throughout the past few months the band opened for the highly touted Jazz is Dead tour (featuring Billy Cobham, Alphonson Johnson, T Lavitz and Jimmy Herring) in 1000-2000 seat venues and theaters all over the east coast. The band hired on a kick-ass manager named Chris Cate, their critically acclaimed CD Take Yer Pick has earned accolades and respect, and the Smokin' Grass live shows have helped build a swelling fan base. On the Fourth of July, Smokin' Grass played at the NORML/National Hemp Coalition's march on Washington, DC, and the summer sees the band heading down south for their third tour of that region. This fall, the band has planned their first national tour, including a special Halloween show in San Francisco. By year's end, Smokin' Grass will have played over 200 shows in 25 states. In one year. These guys can't be smokin' that much grass if they're working this hard.
5. Zola Turn
Zola Turn got a huge kick in the ass with the addition of drummer Rachel Bischoff a little over a year ago, and since then the Burlington-based band o' babes hasn't looked back. In July of 1997, the band hooked up with Eclipse Recording's Joe Egan to record their first full-length album, the polished and hook-filled Cousin Battie, released on Halloween of last year. Zola Turn became the first band to gain the support of Burlington's new "alternative" radio station WBTZ when their single "Bulletproof Vest" was added to regular rotation, and they played to a packed Memorial basement during a WBTZ concert event upstairs. Cousin Battie got great reviews, including a rave from the influential Northeastern Performer magazine, and the band hooked up with Boston-based radio promotion company Planetary Group to service the album to national college radio. Encouraged by the response, the members of Zola Turn have expanded their record label, Vicious Rhombus, and each band member has taken primary roles in the band's management, booking, publicity, merchandising and sound. And with a new EP already in the works, Zola Turn approaches the fall of the year optimistic and excited, ready to rock.
6. Chin Ho!
In the last year, Chin Ho! has played over a hundred shows throughout the northeast, released an EP called Low Flying Planes that made the playlists of over one hundred and fifty college and commercial radio stations around the country, and appeared on close to a dozen compilations. Major in-roads in the Pennsylvania and New York markets have helped elevate Chin Ho! to an act with regional status, and with the help of major Boston radio stations like WKPE, WAAF, WFNX and WBCN, Chin Ho! has made a major impact in the Boston area. Energetic live shows with acts like Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Rustic Overtones, The Elevator Drops and Naked have helped the Ho!'s find their audience outside of Burlington, and the buzz on the band has grown to the point where their New York City shows have been literally littered with record company weasels. Prolific songwriters, group founders Andrew Smith and Dave Morency also helped start the alt-groove band that the Burlington Free Press called a "supergroop" (sic) called (sic), and the fall of 1998 will see new releases from both Chin Ho! and (sic). You can run, but you can't hide. They're everywhere.
7. Belizbeha
The seven-piece collective Belizbeha still calls Burlington it's home, but it's not like they're actually here anymore. Try getting founder and keyboard king Jeremy Skaller on the phone sometime and you'll see what we mean - the band is always on the road and has averaged 150 gigs a year for the last three years, both nationally and internationally. With their long-awaited second album Void Where Inhibited, produced by Rob Stevens, finally released to follow-up the remarkable success of their Charlie's Dream CD, Belizbeha is likely to spend many more nights on the highways of America, spreading the good vibe. The band can already boast sell-out gigs from Connecticut to California, and a recent appearance at the Montreal Jazz Festival put the band in front of more than 10,000 Canadian music lovers. With those kind of numbers, and a 25 city national tour scheduled for July and August, three things are obvious: the music is good, the band has a great team and they all work their asses off. What more can you say?
8. Dysfunkshun
1998 has definitely been an eventful year for Dysfunkshun so far, and things look to be on the upswing for the longtime Burlington crossover crew. For starters, Dysfunkshun celebrated the release of their long-awaited second CD, Gravy, in grand fashion opening for the legendary band Fishbone at Club Toast in late April. The first recording to come out of Toast co-owner Justin Wygman's Rock It Science Studio in Jericho, Vermont, Gravy documents the evolution of the Dysfunkshun sound since the release of their 1995 CD, Home on the Range, and finds them right at home with their potent mix of groovy hip hop reggae rock that they have continued to develop and fine-tune, both live and in the studio, over the years.
As the cat in the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon says, "this time we didn't forget the gravy," and the results of Dysfunkshun's recipe are surely smooth not lumpy, due in part to the addition of some new ingredients into the mix in the form of second guitarist Jason Pratt, who jumped in about a year ago, bass player Tyler Neilsen and scratchmaster DJ Frostee, a one-time member of the band who has since left but appears as a frequent guest on the album. Gravy ladles up nine new Dysfunkshun songs - as well as an updated version of their classic song "Get Out Of Babylon" ("Babylon '98") and also the ever-popular "Hip Hop Girl" off the Good Citizen Burlington Does Burlington CD (along with some funky little interludes) - that showcase the band's musical prowess as well as their growth in the songwriting department, making it clear that Dysfunkshun has gotten a lot more comfortable both in the studio and also with their direction musically. With exceptional producion and a phat, analog sound, Gravy offers up a fun and cohesive mix of a wide range of styles that is sure to make you move.
The latest news to come out of the Dysfunkshun camp is that the recording has helped the band to attain the services of entertainment lawyer Wayne Rooks - of Serling, Rooks and Ferrara in New York City - who has already begun to shop the CD to record labels and management companies (in late June, Dysfunkshun played at CBGB's in New York for reps from Virgin and Universal Records). He has also gotten interest in the band from manager David Connelly, who represents Boston band Fatbag (Polygram Records), which should hopefully be worked out by the end of the summer. This past spring Dysfunkshun also got word that the Don Law agency will start doing the booking for them at the end of the summer, which would hopefully enable them to put together a tour of the eastern seaboard and south - where they were extremely well-received the first time around a couple of years ago - and possibly out west. Needless to say, the band is keeping their fingers crossed that some of this stuff will work out, but the ball is already moving. In the meantime, Dysfunkshun continues to tour throughout New England and New York - booking themselves while they all still hold down full-time jobs - averaging about 5-6 shows a month, and have been winning over fans in places like Portland, Maine, and in Boston, where they have been hooking up with other like-minded bands that have helped them to develop an audience in that area. Dysfunkshun has also had their own PA system for the past year, which has made it a lot easier for them to do out-of-town shows, and they've recently upgraded it yet again so its now even bigger and more powerful-sounding than ever. And, in true Spinal Tap tradition, Dysfunkshun has yet another new bass player in the form of Paul DeGasta (Die Trying), who played his first show with the band at Toast last month and brings a more heavier funk edge into the mix and seems to be working out really well.
Dysfunkshun also has a new website which can be found at www.accessvermont.com/dysfunkshun and provides tour dates and the latest news, etc. (like the fact that the new t-shirs are ready!). And be sure to check them out during the Burlington Music Conference at Toast on July 30 along with a bunch of other great bands in what should be a great night of music. "Savoir Faire is everywhere!
9. Gordon Stone Band
Gordon Stone has been a fixture on the Burlington music scene for twenty-odd years now. Follow Stone from the 70's era of the blue-grass Pine Island to the 80's era new-wave band the Decentz, to the 90's era blue-grass combined with jazz, latin, world beat and funk music of the Gordon Stone Band, and the evolution of his music is clear. The Gordon Stone Band (also featuring Josh Stacy on guitar, Russ Lawton on drums and the amazing Andy Cotton on bass) plays original, instrumental and progressive music that focuses on composition, interaction and improvisation, and the band has found a healthy market on the groove-rock circuit as well as a more traditional blue-grass audience. Friendships with fellow Burlington bands Strangefolk and Phish have opened some exciting doors for Stone, and he plays banjo and pedal steel on the former's album Weightless in Water and has appeared on two Phish recordings to date. Stone has opened sold-out Strangefolk shows at Wetlands in NYC and the Paradise in Boston, and he's built his own circuit as well, and regularly plays some of the regions cooler clubs like the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA, and the Knitting Factory in NYC. Stone's new album Even With the Odds has been getting rave reviews since it's recent release, and he is composing the film score for Mud Season, an independent film shot in Vermont due for national release.
10. viperHouse
Michael Chorney understands the way of the weasel. He has looked long and hard at the music industry, and the business of music, and decided that he doesn't want to play the game. As the founding father of the eclectic jazz-funk orchestra called viperHouse, Chorney has helped the band steer clear of the traps of the biz, and he has helped them focus on the music. Let him speak: "According to conventional wisdom, we have made the 'mistake' of focusing most of our attention on our music and letting the 'hype' aspect of things largely take care of itself."
Despite the lack of "hype," viperHouse has released three CD's and gradually developed into one of the biggest draws in the Burlington club scene, and the band has made legendary appearances from NYC to Toronto (where all of their gear was stolen). Since January of this year, the band has played over 50 shows - "some here, some far away, some incredibly inspired, some downright awful. This is in the nature of what we are attempting to do. Our approach assures that no two shows will be alike. If we deemed all of our shows great, we would be nervous."