For !!!, funk music still 'charges us up'
By Chris Nixon
December 8, 2005
Three repetitive sounds: "Chk chk chk" or "pow pow pow" or "uh uh uh." You could add "jump, jump, jump" or "jam, jam, jam" to the list. Take three one-syllable words and fill in the blank. The pronunciations are endless and endlessly amusing, much like the improvisational music of !!! – an eight-piece punkish funk band based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Sacramento.
With a catalog packed with 20-minute dance-inducing jams, the name !!! – taken from the subtitles of the film "The Gods Must Be Crazy" – reflects the octet's outsider mentality. The band combines pieces of punk, funk, DJ culture, retro disco, indie rock and jam band, yet its doesn't fit into any of those scenes.
Transcending genre, !!! creates an atmosphere ripe for audience participation in the form of movement, whether it's people simply jumping up and down or engaging in more traditional dance steps.
"Ultimately, I want the music to make people jump out of their skins when we're playing," said guitarist Mario Andreoni from his hometown of Sacramento. "Whether that means somebody is totally going bonkers or somebody's trying to reach for (stuff) up in the sky, it doesn't really matter to me."
While growing up in Sacramento, the eight band members – John Pugh (drums), Nic Offer (vocals), Allan Wilson (percussion, horns), Tyler Pope (guitar, keys), Justin VanDerVolgen (bass, sound), Dan Gorman (percussion, horns), Jason Racine (percussion) and Andreoni – earned their musical chops playing in punk or rock bands. But, eventually, the guys wanted to make music similar to what they heard filling the dance clubs they haunted.
"When everybody first started, it was all punk music," remembered Andreoni. "But everybody in the band is such a huge music lover. When we were teenagers we always went to the clubs or we always wanted to go to the clubs. We all danced. It wouldn't matter what kind of music we were dancing to, that's what was always on our minds."
Taking elements of early Talking Heads (when that band was a herky-jerky funk band), percussive world music, funk and soul with punk-rock energy, !!! forged its own sound.
Since its inception in 1997, the band has released two full-length discs (a self-titled debut in 2000 and "Louden Up Now" in 2004), along with numerous 12-inch extended play singles and remixes. !!! shares band members with the dance-rock bands Out Hud and LCD Soundsystem.
While the music ranges from indie-inspired disco to noisy experimental rock, funk is the common thread through all !!! music.
"Making funky music is just part of what we do when we get together," said Andreoni. "When we jam and just have fun playing off each other, that's generally what happens. There's still so much that can be done with funk and dance music. So it's still something that charges us up and it's always on our minds."
Citing world music and DJ culture as major influences (Andreoni name-drops Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti and DJs Rub and Tugs specifically), !!! draws upon percussion-driven music from all genres. That's probably why you'll see most of the band pick up a cowbell or various other items to beat on during extended drum breaks in its fiery live sets, including Monday's show at the Casbah in Middletown.
"I think that 75 percent of the band is frustrated drummers," Andreoni said. "After our first drummer left the band – who was just an amazing drummer – we all filled in the blanks while we were jamming. Also hearing as much world music as we do, a lot of the percussion-heavy Brazilian music was a touchstone. After we heard that stuff, we decided we needed to be a seriously percussive band."
Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.
