Disco Biscuits

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The Disco Biscuits
The Disco Biscuits performing at Red Rocks Amphitheatre 2010
The Disco Biscuits performing at Red Rocks Amphitheatre 2010
Background information
OriginPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
GenresTrance fusion, livetronica, jam band
Years active1995–present
LabelsIndependent Label Group/Diamond Riggs
MembersJon Gutwillig
Marc Brownstein
Allen Aucoin
Aron Magner
Past membersSam Altman
Websitehttp://www.discobiscuits.com

The Disco Biscuits are a band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania known for their live performances and light shows. The band consists of Allen Aucoin (drums), Marc Brownstein (bass), Jon Gutwillig (guitar), and Aron Magner (keyboards, synths).[1]

The band incorporates elements from a variety of musical genres into a consistent base of electronic and rock. Their style has been referred to as trance fusion or livetronica.[who?]

History

When the Disco Biscuits formed at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1995, they incorporated a distinctive blend of music, quickly attracting attention on a national level by not only supporting established musicians in the jam scene, but headlining their own performances in the country's best-known clubs.[citation needed]

Today the band is selling over a quarter of a million tickets annually and has founded the successful summer music festival, Camp Bisco.[citation needed] Notable performances have included Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre and New York City's Best Buy Theatre, where they have held five night residencies leading up and into New Year's Eve in both 2008 and 2009.

In 2005, following Camp Bisco IV at the Skyetop Festival Grounds in Van Etten, NY, Sam Altman left the band to attend medical school. In the following fall, Allen Aucoin, former drummer for bands Skydog Gypsy, Juiceman, and 922, was announced as Altman's replacement. The first Camp Bisco took place in Cherry Tree, PA in 1999. In 2011, on the festival’s 12th anniversary, the 7 hour entry lines in 90 degree heat yielded the first ever sellout of Camp Bisco. "For the 25,000 people in attendance, this would be an excruciating experience both in and out of the gates, not to mention the four hours of torrential rain and ensuing mud bath that was pretty much everything (really though)," wrote Jules of DUBCOmusic.com. "However, aside from losing one's shoes to a quicksand-like material and a contamination of the water supply, the hardships were all but microdots compared to the wealth and variety of musical talent which graced the 5 stages throughout the event’s 72 hour period."[2]

The Disco Biscuits have always attracted a diverse audience,[dubious – discuss] and their broad taste is reflected by the lineup of the Camp Bisco music festival.[citation needed] Since its launch in 1999, Camp Bisco has included performances by Snoop Dogg, LCD Soundsystem, The Roots, Girl Talk, Ween, Pretty Lights, Dr. Dog, Kid Cudi, Infected Mushroom, Nas and Damien Marley, Cut Copy, Wiz Khalifa, Ghostland Observatory, MSTRKRFT, Chromeo, Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9), Umphrey's McGee, various projects from Simon Posford’s Twisted Records including Shpongle and Younger Brother. The 2012 lineup features Skrillex, Bassnectar, Amon Tobin ISAM, Crystal Castles, Atmosphere, and Big Boi from OutKast, among others.

The band has toured both nationally and globally, headlining their own performances and anchoring major music festivals such as Bonnaroo, Ultra, Japan's Fuji Rock, Lollapalooza, Rothbury, High Sierra Music Festival, Gathering of the Vibes, All Good Music Festival, Jam Cruise, and Wakarusa among others. The Disco Biscuits also founded Caribbean Holidaze, along with Umphrey's McGee, in 2007 and the festival was held in Runaway Bay, Jamaica for three years before moving to Puerto Morelos, Mexico in 2011 when the festival name changed to "Mayan Holidaze."

Style

With influences ranging from the classical masters to modern day hip hop, The Disco Biscuits created a style of music best described as a blend of electronic music combined with just about every other genre on the planet.[citation needed] Music with similar qualities has slowly entered the mainstream, as today's artists are finding the beauty and effectiveness of electronic music and modern technology that The Biscuits have always harnessed.[citation needed]

For the forthcoming album Planet Anthem The Disco Biscuits absorbed everything from hip hop to pop to indie rock into their sound.[citation needed] The band collaborated for the first time with multiple producers, songwriters, and outside musicians, including Don Cheegro and Dirty Harry (Ludacris, Chris Brown, Beanie Sigel) and Damon Dash, (co-founder, Roc-a-fella Records).

In a live setting, The Disco Biscuits explore their songs by performing them in different ways. They pioneered the concept of "inverted" and "dyslexic" versions of their songs, allowing them to split up songs into different sections and play them at different times during the show (in reverse order). This allows for endless setlist possibilities, as the band has never repeated the same setlist throughout 17 years of touring and over 1000 live performances.

Planet Anthem

Planet Anthem is the product of three years of labor, during which the Disco Biscuits absorbed everything from hip hop to pop to indie rock into their sound.[citation needed]Previously, each member would bring his own songs to the table; this time everything was collaborative. The band invited multiple producers, songwriters and musicians to join the “committee” by working on isolated ideas (a beat, a break, a bridge, a chorus or even just a sound) and assembling them into focused songs. In contrast to some of the band’s beloved patchwork compositions, this time, every part had to be a perfect fit and every song had to sound like a singularity despite the many hands who got it there.[citation needed]

As a result of that policy, not only are these tracks their most collaborative yet, the band members all maintain that they are some of the best songs in their entire canon.[citation needed] In the past, the Disco Biscuits would try to convert their most recent live songs into studio versions, but with Planet Anthem the band is eagerly attempting to do the opposite — taking these studio compositions and making them a seamless part of their live repertoire.[citation needed]

Diamond Riggs Studios

After purchasing the former Old City Philadelphia studio space of DJ Jazzy Jeff in 2006, the band found themselves with an abundance of resources, and came to find out that there are a lot of local musicians that needed a place to congregate and work. In part, this helped launch the unique collaborations that made up the Planet Anthem sessions.

Side Projects

To honor their own diverse musical influences, the members of The Disco Biscuits have kept active with a multitude of side-projects, many of which have come to contribute staple songs to The Disco Biscuits' setlist.

Current and past Disco Biscuits side projects include:

  • Tractorbeam - a live, instrumental only version of The Disco Biscuits featuring all four members of TDB focusing on the light show and long trancy jams.
  • Conspirator - a drum n bass and electronically influenced duo featuring Marc Brownstein, Aron Magner. Conspirator has typically featured a variety of guests over the years.
  • Barber - a dubstep project featuring Jon Gutwillig. Previously Titled M80 Dubstation.
  • Dr. Fameus - an electronically influenced drum and percussion project featuring Allen Aucoin.
  • Brain Damaged Eggmen - a Beatles and Pink Floyd cover band consisting of members of The Disco Biscuits and Umphrey's McGee.
  • Past and less active side projects include: The Perfume; The Maui Project; Santa Cruz Hemp AllStars (featuring Aron Magner and members of STS9, Estradasphere, and Netwerk:Electric) Sucker Punch; Jon and the Cookie Dusters; Moshi Moshi; Moshi Moshi Baby; Kitty Splitter; and Acoustic Again (a Disco Biscuits, Brothers Past, and classic rock cover band performing in Philadelphia during the holiday season featuring Aron Magner and Tom Hamilton).

Community Involvement

The Disco Biscuits have long given back to the communities they are a part of. Bassist Marc Brownstein was instrumental in the founding of the non-profit, civic engagement organization HeadCount and continues to serve as co-chair of the organization. The band has also actively participated with groups such as The Conscious Alliance, Rock the Earth, and The Fund for Wild Nature.

In 2010, the band partnered with HeadCount and Philadelphia's Albert M. Greenfield Elementary School on the volunteer initiative Bisco Power Mission. Culminating in a benefit show at New York City's LEED Certified Brooklyn Bowl, the project plans to raise $15,000 to install a solar power system at the Greenfield School. The collaboration also hopes to engage and inspire fans of the band and others to their own acts of community involvement and includes a planned community day at the Greenfield School to commemorate the installation of the solar power system.

Discography

Filmography

  • Live at the Palladium (2004)
  • Camp Bisco IV (2005)
  • Jam in the Dam (2006)
  • Progressions (2007)
  • Bisco Inferno 09/10 (2011)

References

  1. ^ Allmusic biography
  2. ^ http://dubcomusic.com/?p=1420

External links

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