Family Groove Company at The Yacht Club

Family Groove Company + The White Tornado Outbreak
The Yacht Club
Saturday, February 28, 9pm
Price: $7

FGC integrates the groove sensibility developed by funk/jazz crossover artists like Herbie Hancock and Medeski, Martin, and Wood, with thoughtful, tight song writing that takes cues from the likes of Steely Dan and the Beatles. The result? An infectious, fresh sound the band calls "groove informed jazz/rock." In April 2006, FGC released their second studio album, The Charmer, and delivered on this sonic vision with uncommon clarity and excitement. Jazz harmonic ideas encounter thick grooves, and improvisation negotiates tight song writing, as each track brings shape and contour to the band’s sound. A fierce attentiveness to composition complements FGC’s passion for improvisation, and the band offers a sound that captivates audiences ranging from the most casual music fan to the most critical musician.

Iowa City's favorite astrophysics fusion funksters, The White Tornado Outbreak compete with the hornsmen of the apocolypse goes first. Batten down the hatches!

http://www.myspace.com/familygroovecompany
http://www.myspace.com/white2rnado

Mint Wad Willy at The Yacht Club

Mint Wad Willy with The White Tornado Outbreak & Mannix!
The Yacht Club
Saturday, February 14, 9pm
Price: $5

Maybe something more along the lines of an anti-Valentine's day show:

"Mint Wad Willy’s debut album “A History of Guns and Liars” definitely has a Southern Rock vibe to it. The dominant instrumental sound is artfully sloppy, distorted slide guitar. When I first listened to it, I’d think at the beginning of each song “Oh no here comes the Black Crowes!” (The only thing worse than a dirty hippie is a dirty hippy who drawls.) Luckily this is only a momentary impression. Iowa City has a strong, long-standing roots rock aesthetic that discriminates between good excess and bad excess, and MWW walks that tightrope with grace. They might remind you of any number of Southern Rock icons, but they remind me more of The Band, who were northerners in love with indigenous folk music of the American South. Mint Wad Willy tries to find their way to the deep muddy central channel of American folk music, not content to paddle around in the shallows. I’m not such a fan of the mellower side of MWW, for example “Takin It Slow.” As Woody Allen said, “if I get too mellow I ripen and then rot.” But starting with “50501? and “Oh My God,” these guys seem to find their mojo. The former brings The Band and mid-period Dylan to mind, the latter veers off into a spooky, messed up kind of country Gothic cabaret music. “Who’s laughing now we’re all dying?” indeed! Just as a matter of personal taste I should hate Mint Wad Willy, with their echoes of the Allman Brothers and (shudder) Lynyrd Skynrd, but I’m kinda crazy about this CD. Maybe it’s because it’s noisier, ruder and meaner than anything those deep-fried dinosaurs do. Maybe it’s because they seem to be following their own crooked muse fearlessly. Either way, it’s a strong piece of work." Review from Little Village, by Kent Williams.

The White Tornado plays piano, sings, writes music and refers to himself in the third person. He is the alter ego of the mild-mannered Bill Peterson, and was born in the blues jams and funkin' jazz jams of Iowa City. (Copy via The Yacht Club)

http://www.myspace.com/mintwadwilly
http://www.myspace.com/white2rnado
http://www.myspace.com/mannixtheband