With two hours ’til the tourbus arrives, the DBs share an oral history punctuated by a stolen 8-track cassette recorder, seed money from a pool shark, their first drummer leaving the band for med school, and, somewhere along the way, sartori: Marc: “One hippy dude followed us round –“ ‘Davey Jones’ recalls Jon – “for ten shows, and we were like, alright we got it, this is us: Disco Biscuits, ten-show tour [with] one hippy dude doing the whole thing, that was the start of it; that was the moment I knew we could have 40 hippie dudes, or 60 modern hippy dudes, or 500 modern hippy dudes coming ’round.”
As Camp Bisco 9 hits the 12,000 mark with serious headliners playing for all kinds of sounds for all manner of lifeforms — far beyond just hippy dudes — herewith, the story of The Disco Biscuits, in their own words.
The story of The Disco Biscuits, Pt. I (click the “480p” button on the lower right of the video player)
The story of The Disco Biscuits, Pt. II (click the “480p” button on the lower right of the video player)
The Disco Biscuits, self-described makers of “electronic dance improv music” are like a jamband action-hero team made up of ordinary guys, each with his own personality: founding co-member Marc Brownstein sounds like Dr. John and his classic beard and hat make him kinda like that weird substitute music teacher that you only see once but remember forever, for better or worse.
Lead Singer Jon Gutwillig seems eternally collegiate, but not sophomoric, and when he says “If you wanna start a band, you have to drop out of school” – adding that starting a festival is “not that hard; we figured it out, and we’re the least qualified to do so”, it’s worth noting that any appearance of flippancy in his tone is counterbalanced by a growing business reality: these are the cats who, on their own terms, took up the mantle of the hard-touring jamband — and more importantly, took it to its logical extension, using the road’s energy to make for a proper festival, putting their personal listening playlists where their stage is, and creating Camp Bisco, now in its ninth year and fully ensconced in the summer schedule in the Northeastern region, which is itself a feat.
Affirming and riffing off of his singer’s lead like any good keyb player, Aron Magner derives a maxim from Jon’s observation: “It’s never too late to drop out of school” he quips. In a world of appearances, Aaron seems the least crunchy, tho’ he is a total Jazz sophisticate, as acknowledged – initially grudgingly – by Marc, who admits, in a moment of not inconsiderable candor, to initially feeling “confused and angry” when Magner showed up, appearing more like a “frat boy” than the “older Jazz cat” they expected.
Nonetheless, he states, with as much directness as his prior confession, Aaron “knows every note to every jazz song, who wrote the liner notes…” and he emphasizes that “The day that Aron joined the band was the day that the Disco Biscuits became The Disco Biscuits. Before that it was just a buncha dudes with a buncha names.”
And of course, as per classic rock band backstory, they lost a drummer along the way, tho’ in this case, said drummer, Sam Altman, went to med school, which is apparently, a pretty common occurrence: “I can think of five examples” one member notes, in a matter-of-fact tone. Allen Aucoin, their second drummer, was chosen unanimously by the band, and fans online. His silent grin is a kindly wisened one, oddly reminding me – and likely only me – of the gnome-like countenance of the protagonist in Almost Famous. And like the hero in AF, before he knew what happened to him, Aucoin was jumping on the bus, with “sold-out huge theaters” serving as debut stages.
“I completely forgot the songs…it was probably one of the two most nervous points of my entire life” he admits — and automatically, but with palpable sincerity, Aron says in a brotherly tone: ‘We’ll, you did good, kid”, and all agree that they didn’t notice any flaw in his playing on those nervous nights, and, as Marc notes “it doesn’t even feel like there ever was another drummer”.
After purchasing DJ Jazzy Jeff’s studio in Philly, the DBs created a space for a kind of musical collective where, as Jon notes in the opening of part two of their on-cam history: “What it really is is a group of people in Philadelphia living off music and all of them putting their energy and time into it, and their thoughts, and their lyrics, and different musical parts.”
This same m.o. informed their line-up selections for Camp Bisco 9, which they discuss at length, along with how they feel the music biz, in its emphasis on the live show has “kinda caught up with us”. From there, they tackle more than a few other topics, which I’ll leave you to see and hear for yourself.
NOTE:
The Disco Biscuits have partnered with MixMatchMusic and URB for a remix contest. By way of an important notice to anyone whose never even done a remix: some of the greatest remixes of all time have been submitted by first-timers. The interface for this contest is ridiculously easy — you can just cut and paste music (just like you would with text) right there on your screen without downloading anything, and within seconds you will creating new soundforms, so please, get busy, and we’ll see you at Camp Bisco 9!
Working now, nevermind!
Sounds like a cool interview but I can’t seem to get the sound to work.