The Disco Biscuits bring their brand of jamtronica to Rams Head Live in Baltimore tonight. The date is the start of a Halloween weekend run of shows. The run ends Sunday in Charlottesville, Va.
I do not like the Disco Biscuits.
The Philadelphia jamtronica band is a fierce competitor on the list of the Worst Bands of All Time. If the group isn’t the No. 1 Worst Band of All Time, it certainly rests comfortably in the top three.
Despite my strong dislike for the jam band, last week I spoke with bassist Marc Brownstein.
I was hoping talking with a member of the group would change my opinion of the band. I had hoped Brownstein would wow me with generosity, kindness and intelligence in an effort to deconstruct my perception of the Disco Biscuits and its fanbase. I was also hoping to discuss with him, in detail, the very things I hate about his band.
I intended to write an in-depth piece about the group in time for publication before tonight’s performance at Rams Head Live in Baltimore.
Unfortunately, Brownstein only half-met my expectations. He was fairly affable on the phone and seemed to have a genuine passion for the Disco Biscuits’ particular brand of music.
But he was also inconsiderate and made it seem like his date with the press could wait.
He was not ready for our interview at the scheduled time and proceeded to make me call back several times while he was occupied with some other matter. Recognizing how busy he seemed, I suggested we postpone the rest of the interview until later. My calls after that were left with no return.
With my deadline approaching, I figured I could just write a more general story, instead of the piece I originally hoped to write.
My first experience with the Disco Biscuits was a bad one — very bad.
On May 24, 2008, some friends and I traveled to Philadelphia to take in our very first Flaming Lips show. The Oklahoma City band was performing as a headliner of the Jam on the River festival at Penn’s Landing.
At that time, I held the music of the Flaming Lips very dear, and I had heard many euphoric testimonials from fellow fans about how life-changing a Lips concert could be.
I went to the festival with hopes of elation and little knowledge about the other bands playing that day. My group secured a spot close to the stage, and we stayed there for the majority of the day, waiting for the Lips’ hopefully divine performance.
What a mistake.
We were subjected to multiple sets by hometown heroes the Disco Biscuits before the Flaming Lips ever took the stage. The music was all kinds of awful, and the violent actions of some of the band’s fans did not help.
Many details could be divulged, but I only have so much space. Long story short: The Biscuits ruined the day.
The Flaming Lips’ performance was underwhelming, and my young self left defeated. My take on the Flaming Lips’ concert experience is a whole other column, but I digress.
I ended up catching a bit of a Disco Biscuits set again less than a month later. For all my dislike of the group, my run-ins with them have been surprisingly plentiful.
In any event, we return to fall 2010. I arranged to speak with one of the Disco Biscuits so I could better understand what the band’s huge fanbase saw in the band. What am I missing? Is my dislike undeserved?
Brownstein and I did manage to hold a conversation for a fair bit of time last week, but it was nowhere near the length I needed to get to know him or the ins and outs of the Disco Biscuits. I hope to be able to speak with him again in the future, but for now, oh well.
The little I did talk with him was educational.
I learned about the cost of the band’s latest album, Planet Anthem — somewhere around $150,000, according to Brownstein — and that artist Storm Thorgerson (his credits include Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin, The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Absolution by Muse) did the artwork for the album. All interesting information.
But what most interests me about the Disco Biscuits is the polarizing nature of the band. Its music is of the most horrific quality — extremely long and aimless compositions filled with bad lyrics and unnecessary vamping. And its fans! The cruel things some of the Biscuit faithful will do to a fellow concertgoer are indescribable. Trauma of a terrible nature is the only thing sensible people will take away from a Disco Biscuits concert or recording.
Yet despite all this, the band is as successful as it ever was. Its fanbase is huge and demanding enough to warrant an annual music festival, Camp Bisco. The ninth Camp Bisco was held this past summer and acts including LCD Soundsystem, Caribou and Major Lazer performed.
“I think it’s for everybody, personally,” Brownstein said of his music. “And that some people just haven’t opened their mind to it yet. I’ve just been in the band for 15 years, and I know so many people who hated us and ended up being our biggest fans.
“You know, I started out hating Phish, and I ended up being their biggest fan,” he added. “I went through it as a fan myself. It’s hard sometimes to get yourself used to a new style of music when you’re not used to it. I personally think the Disco Biscuits are for everyone. We play every style of music.”
I don’t see myself changing my opinion of the group anytime soon, but I can see Brownstein’s point. Maybe I just haven’t yet heard the one amazing song that could make me a fan.
“So we have played polarizing music over the years, but I’ve seen us growing and growing and growing, and I feel positive about it. I feel good about it,” Brownstein said. “Just like punk music’s not for everybody. We’re the punk jam band. … We’re the jam band that’s not for everybody.”
One would be hard-pressed to mistake the Disco Biscuits for punk rock, but stranger things have happened (Phil Spector’s wigs come to mind).
I asked Brownstein if his family (a wife and three children) were fans of the band.
“My wife’s been a fan of the band since 1997,” Brownstein said. “And my son, the other day, I was talking about my favorite bands and … he looked up to me and he said, ‘Dad, Disco Biscuits are my favorite band!’ And I was like, that is what it is. My daughter, on the other hand, cannot stand the Disco Biscuits.”
With this information, I felt some kind of validation. Is it possible that I shared a contempt for this music with the offspring of one of the creators?
“She hates it,” Brownstein said. “She just hates it. I don’t know what it is. She just doesn’t like it. She’s like, ‘Turn it off!’ and [my son is] like, ‘Turn on “On Time!”‘ And she’s like, ‘Just turn it off, dad! You’re killing me!'”
Brownstein’s daughter is only 3 years old, but she already shows a critical ear for music.
Similarly, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio’s teenage daughter cannot stand Phish, according to Brownstein. Phish is undoubtedly one of America’s most important jam bands.
“She’s 13, she’s into 13-year-olds’ music,” Brownstein said. “And her dad’s in a jam band. That’s hard for a young girl to swallow. It is what it is.”
The Disco Biscuits aren’t for everybody. But they certainly have a passionate core of fans. I’m still not sure what makes the group so appealing. Is it the actual music? Is it the community?
Much more can be said about the Disco Biscuits, but unfortunately, we’ve run out of space for this month’s edition of The Jukebox. If you’re interested to see the band live, you have the opportunity to see them tonight.
My advice: Decide for yourself.
The Disco Biscuits will perform tonight at Rams Head Live. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $35.
PAST COVERAGE
The Diamondback has written favorably about the Disco Biscuits in years past. In a November 2006 article, the negative backlash of the jam band label was discussed with keyboardist Aron Magner, who said being a jam band was nothing to be ashamed of.
Excerpt from the article (“Biscuits blast off,” Rudi Greenberg, Nov. 3, 2006):
“You don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you,” he says. “The [jam] scene is humble … loyal. I don’t understand why [jam band] is a negative label.”
Nevertheless, Magner stresses that although he doesn’t mind being lumped as a jam band, the label doesn’t adequately describe their music or their fans.
“It’s good for kids who like to put hula hoops on, dress up and travel to our shows,” he says, but it does cause fans of other musical genres to just dismiss Disco Biscuits’ music.
Another Biscuits story was published in The Diamondback on April 20, 2009. In the article, guitarist and singer Jon Gutwillig talks about how the Disco Biscuits is a “community,” and he admits the band’s fans might be overly eager for the night’s show.
Excerpts from the article (“The Bisco brand,” Rudi Greenberg, April 20, 2009):
“The whole Disco Biscuits thing has never been about us,” he added. “We’ve always wanted it to be a community of artists working together.”
… [Tonight’s show is] also on April 20, for many a destination date in itself. As the unofficial marijuana holiday of sorts, Gutwillig said the band is well aware of audience expectations.
“We’ll probably get a lot of requests,” he said. “A lot of people’s ideas of what a 4/20 show is isn’t quite what a band’s idea of what a 4/20 show is. Sometimes their ideas are wonderful and we can kind of integrate their ideas from there. It could be a very awesome show.”
rhiggins@umdbk.com
