Bands that play a different set every show, improvise during their songs and have a rabid fanbase follow them around the country tend to get lumped into the Grateful Dead and Phish genre. But many bands – and their fans – often shun the “jam band” label as being too broad.
However, Disco Biscuits keyboardist Aron Magner says he doesn’t mind being grouped into the category.
“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.
The difficulty of pinpointing The Disco Biscuit’s sound also adds to their alight discomfort with the label, Magner says.
“If I had to explain our sound to your grandmother, we’re a rock band with a electric niche. The songs are structured with lyrics, but they’re complex – opened up with improv,” he says. “There’s also some techno elements.”
But before achieving jam band status, the Biscuits formed 11 years ago at the University of Pennsylvania. Magner was introduced through mutual friends to Biscuits’ founding members Marc Brownstein, Jon Gutwillig and Sam Altman, who had already been playing with keyboardist Ben Hayflick. In contrast, Magner was playing at jazz clubs, weddings and bar mitzvahs at the time.
Magner’s musical education began at a young age. “I was a really young Deadhead,” he explains. “I started going to shows when I was 11 or 12. While the other kids were listening to Wham!, I was listening to the Dead – but that’s not to say I didn’t get my Wham! on,” he says with a laugh.
His love of classic rock – especially The Who and Led Zeppelin – came from his older cousins, while he picked up a classical music education from his father.
By the time Magner was 16, professional gigs had already earned him the envy of audience members, he says. When an older man came up to him at a gig and explained he regretted his career – “I’m an accountant and I regret it every day. You do what you like to do.” – Magner realized all he wanted to do in life was continue to play music.
It was logical, then, that when Hayflick left The Disco Biscuits, Magner stepped in. The four men were set to play a show at Smokey Joe’s Tavern, a bar at UPenn, when the venue’s owner said he needed a name for the band to promote the show. At the time, the band had been using a different name each time they played, but The Disco Biscuits – a name that had been tossed around – was their final choice.
“[The name] was put onto a sign in chalk … Now here we are 11 years later,” Magner says.
But it hasn’t been the easiest 11 years for the band. In 2000, bassist Brownstein left the band for a few months; in 2004, drummer Altman left the band for medical school. In order to find a replacement the band hosted various auditions, eventually deciding on drummer Allen Aucoin.
The live setting is where the Biscuits truly shine. Like other jam bands, every Biscuits show is different: the band will normally start a song, improvise for a long stretch and then end the song at its expected point.
In the early days when the band used to tour for three months without a break, they found they needed more options as they were improvising. That’s where playing a song inverted – starting at point B, jamming, and then ending at point A – came from.
“Inversions allow us to travel a different route while playing,” Magner says.
Currently, the Biscuits are on their second tour with Aucoin as a full-time member. They’re also promoting their second live release of the year, Rocket 3. Before hitting the road, the band started recording sessions at their studio in Philadelphia. Magner says they’re spending a lot of time on the songs for their new record. It features completely new songs, guest appearances and will be released, he adds, “whenever we finish it.”
The Disco Biscuits perform at Sonar in Baltimore on Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are sold out, but they will be returning to Sonar on Dec. 28. Tickets for that show are $30. For those that attend Saturday’s show, it will be available for download in soundboard quality on www.livedownloads.com within 48 hours of the performance.
Contact reporter Rudi Greenberg at greenbergdbk@gmail.com.
