Disco Biscuits bring 'livetronica' to the Mann
The Biscuits began life as a fairly conventional hippie-styled jam band.
SUPPOSE YOU threw a party, and everybody came. Or, at least, all your buds from far as well as near.
That's what the guys in the Philly-based "trans-fusion" (jam-meets-electronica) band Disco Biscuits are hoping for, with their second annual City Bisco festival holding down the fort on two stages today and tomorrow at the Mann Music Center.
"It's definitely the party of the weekend," proclaimed Aron Magner, keyboardist for the headlining band that closes both bake-offs. Tonight it's with a hip-hop- strong support team, including Big Boi, Method Man and Redman, then tomorrow in a mix with electronic dance music "controlists," like Gigamesh, Emancipator, Shpongle, Lee Foss and more.
For those living under a (classic) rock, the University of Pennsylvania-spawned (in 1996) Disco Biscuits have become quite the phenomenon on a national scale. Though off the commercial music radar screen, they're top of mind for many a trendy 20- and 30-somethings.
The Biscuits began life as a fairly conventional hippie-styled jam band - think shuffle rock with a side of jazz improvisation, in the Grateful Dead-to-Phish continuum. A few years later, the Philly troupe broke from the ranks, came into their own with a heavy infusion of synthesized music tones and dance beats, sparked by Magner buying an electronic synthesizer and wielding it at at a "campus show on Locust Walk where a light bulb went off in my head." The techy turn caused some fans to abandon ship, "but it represented our personal tastes and, in retrospect, put us way ahead of the curve," he said.
Today, the Disco Biscuits are considered leading lights in the exploding "livetronica" movement, with many a fellow disciple likwise working a combination of organic rock noodling and button-pushing that keeps the kids dancing and entranced with help from a tightly choreographed, kinetic, EDM-style light show. "But unlike DJ-centric shows, ours let the listeners connect with real instruments, real players. It's where this scene has to evolve to survive and grow," believes the keyboardist.
The way Magner, bassist Marc Brownstein, guitarist Jon Gutwillig and drummer Allen Aucoin run their business/professional lives is "also at an interesting state," added Magner, now a 37-year-old, Wynnewood-based family man.
Disco Biscuits are off the hamster wheel - the dizzy traditional cycle of recording/touring/recording/touring. "We rely mostly on social media, our amazing fans, to spread the word about us. We're putting out new songs individually rather than storing them up for an album." (The last album came out two years ago.) "And for concert purposes we focus on special events where the premise is 'come to this town where we'll super-serve you.' "
Like the North Coast Music Festival that they worked a few weeks ago in Chicago. Or the Mayan Holidaze getaway that the Biscuits are co-headlining with kindred spirits Umphey's McGee and Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9), at the Now Sapphire resort outside Cancun, Mexico, Dec. 16-20. With the promise of sun all day and musical fun all night (each headliner does three shows), very high rollers have already snapped up all the ocean-front rooms and suites (priced $1,799 to $2,999.) Lesser accomodations remain in the $1,399 to $1,599 range.
On their own, Disco Biscuits have been hosting Camp Bisco getaways since 1999. The 12th, staged this past July at the Indian Lookout Country Club, in Mariaville Lake, N.Y., attracted 20,000 weekend guests for a diverse mix of indie rock, jam bands, rap and electronic dance music. "We can go broader there than at City Bisco, because we have more days and more stages to play with," explained Magner. "Plus, because people are sleeping over, we can go all night" - with a curious Silent Disco wherein "a couple hundred people put on headphones and dance the night away to one of the two DJs spinning simultaneously in the same room, each on a separate radio frequency."
EDM gatherings have been sparking some negative press, of late. Surprise - kids are taking mood enhancers, sometimes in bad combinations and circumstances. While the very term "Disco Biscuits" has been defined as a euphemism for party favors, Magner cautions that "there needs to be awareness of the dangers you're facing with anything, whether going to a concert or driving with a cellphone in your hand. People forget about the ramifications of dehydrating on a hot summer day. Come on people, wise up."