The Zolas are going to take your iPod by storm. Or perhaps they already have?
The Vancouver-based indie-pop duo Zachary Gray and Tom Dobrzanski released their debut album Tic Toc Tic recently and it’s a killer. Filled with infectious pop hooks, refreshing rock melodies and a whole lotta style, Tic Toc Tic puts The Zolas right up there with some of Vancouver’s top talent such as Said The Whale, Hey Ocean! and Hannah Georgas, amongst others.
I had the chance to talk to The Zolas on Friday, December 18 before their show at the Vogue Theatre with Hey Ocean! and Current Swell. Our conversation included Tom “showing” listeners his super cool piano scarf, a debate over whether Zach’s den was actually a living room, and Tom getting in trouble for not putting his girlfriend on the guest list.
Listen to the interview below.
And here are a few great Zolas songs: “You’re Too Cool,” “The Great Collapse” and “Marlaina Kamikaze.”
(For more photos of The Zolas’ show, visit my Flickr photostream).
Fitness Boot Camps: Get Your Butt in Gear for the New Year!
The holidays are over and if you’re like most people, you’ve probably had more than your share of eggnog, heavy meals and decadent desserts in celebration of the season. Enjoying and over-indulging in delectable goodies has more than likely left you with the gift of a few unwanted pounds, but with the new year comes a resolution to get back on track and get into your best shape ever! Why not try a fitness boot camp?
To the average person, hearing the word “boot camp” immediately conjures up images of the brutal military training program that new recruits go through before being sent out to the field. These days, it has become a popular title for extreme fitness programs that command hard core group exercise that push participants to their physical limits for one reason: to obtain results. Maybe going to the gym to hit the weights and do cardio hasn’t given you the results and the ongoing motivation you were expecting? Signing up for a fitness boot camp just may be the change you need to reach your goals.
Fitness Boot Camps: Not for Wimps
Be forewarned − fitness boot camps are designed to get you out of your comfort zone and push you a bit further than you would normally yourself in the gym alone. This provides a different environment for those who get bored in a gym and find it hard to develop a habit of exercise. Fitness boot camps can be held indoors and/or outdoors depending on the time of the year, the weather and the region. Exercises often consist of, but are not limited to: jogging, sprinting, plyometrics, push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges and a variety of calisthenic and flexibility exercises. One advantage of a boot camp is that the large group dynamic will help motivate participants. The interaction of a boot camp class is not only emotionally satisfying, but it helps people to push themselves physically.
Train Like a Gladiator, Feel like a Pro
IFBB Fitness Professional and 2009 Fitness Olympia runner-up Tanji Johnson is an entrepreneur, marathon runner and certified personal trainer who runs her own specialized fitness boot camps primarily in the Washington state area where she resides. You may even recognize her as one of the stars of NBC’s “American Gladiators” where she played Stealth, who wreaked havoc on her opponents by challenging them physically. A graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and commissioned Air Force officer, she brings authenticity to her boot camps which are similarly patterned after “real” military basic training. “I started teaching boot camps because I enjoy leading groups who are motivated to take things to the next level,” Tanji says. “My camps range from all high-level female athletes to the everyday gym goer looking to get their butts kicked from an American Gladiator.”
Tanji’s boot camp sessions run for 45 minutes not including the warm up and cool down. She teaches several different boot camp classes for men and women. Her classes range from $15 to $20 per class with some classes held outdoors and some in gym aerobics rooms. For optimum results, Tanji suggests that participants take two to three classes per week. Her classes accommodate 10 to 15 people. She adds, “I like to have a large enough group to facilitate positive energy and excitement, yet small enough that I can keep everyone accountable with good form and execution.” Session structure consists of: plyometrics, calisthenics, sprints, agility drills, core exercises and exercises using moderate weights. “I begin with dynamic flexibility drills, followed by sprints and shuttle runs,” shares Tanji. “Then, I move into the main portion of the bootcamp utilizing various athletic strategies like countdowns, circuits and timed segments. We end with a cool down and group stretching.”
While some people may be concerned that they are not physically fit enough to participate in one of her fitness boot camps, Tanji reassuringly states that her programs are geared towards anyone no matter what their fitness level. “I don’t turn anyone away. During my boot camp sessions, I usually teach three different options per exercise so that each client can work out at their appropriate fitness level,” she says. “But the challenging part of my job is to make sure I can manage the various fitness levels of each client while teaching a group class. You have to be able to multi-task mentally and provide guidance while leading a class. These are two traits that I excel at, take pride in and have helped my boot camps to be successful.”
School of Hard KNOXX
Current Strikeforce Lightweight MMA World Champion Josh Thomson and 2006 NPC California State Figure Overall Champion Mona Liza Reyes joined forces to help others in their fitness quest. The result is the wildly successful “School of Hard KNOXX Fitness Camp,” which is geared towards men and women of all ages and fitness levels. The collaboration is a well thought-out effort that required both leaders to come up with a curriculum that would challenge, yet inspire and motivate their participants to stick with the program. While the duo look tough in their Army gear for this month’s cover and the photos in this article, both prefer not to call their camp a “boot camp” because they don’t want to risk frightening anyone away. Instead, they call their program a “fitness camp.”
Josh and Mona Liza’s “School of Hard KNOXX Fitness Camp” costs $350 for a 4-week program of three sessions per week with a $50 discount for early registration. Upcoming camps will be held in January 2010 for those with New Year’s resolutions and then again in April to get participants ready for the summer. Their camps are held both indoors and outdoors depending on the weather conditions and the mood of the instructors. The classes are structured, but yet there is a lot of spontaneity in the curriculum. “When indoors, we host at the infamous American Kickboxing Academy (in San Jose, Calif.), which is home to some of the UFC’s top professional fighters,” says Josh. “When we’re outdoors, we take the participants to a local high school track or a local park.”
Class structure basically consists of speed drills, box jumps, sprints, weight training, conditioning drills and kickboxing techniques with the structure changing daily to ensure that each workout is different every time. Each class lasts approximately 75 minutes and always ends with core strengthening and stretching. “Our clients pay for our services to organize great workouts for them, so we try hard not to let them down. If clients wanted to do the same thing every day, they would work out on their own at their local gym probably never pushing themselves. That’s the beauty of our fitness camps,” says Josh. “We continuously change things up to keep everyone guessing and to obtain the desired end result.”
Mona Liza adds, “Before camps begin, I always get e-mails from future participants who express worry and anxiety that they will have a hard time. Rest assured, although the workouts are challenging, it’s our goal for our participants to feel empowered and not defeated after a session. The workouts are meant to be difficult, but we teach the participant variations to modify them so that they are able to participate.”
Prepping for Camp
If you’ve never participated in a fitness boot camp, there are ways that you can prepare yourself mentally and physically to get the most out of the program. “If possible, I would recommend building a strong core and muscular endurance in bodyweight exercises like squats and push-ups using your own body weight,” suggests Tanji. Adds Mona Liza, “It’s very important to exude positive energy and come to class with a good attitude and the mindset to push yourself out of your comfort zone. It’s these little things that make the biggest difference in reaching your fitness goals.” MS&F
WE WANT YOU!
5 Ways to Stick To the Program
Join With a Friend. If you have someone to go to boot camp with, you will be less likely to miss class and continue to motivate each other.
Keep Hydrated. Make sure you bring a big bottle of water to quench your thirst and keep your body hydrated during your fitness boot camp sessions.
Modify Your Diet. Yes, you will be burning more calories than ever by participating in a fitness boot camp, but make healthy food choices by cutting out soda, refined sugar and processed foods.
Push Yourself. If your instructor demonstrates exercises on a different fitness level, try the next level up. Stop if you cannot continue, feel pain or experience shortness of breath.
Continue Training. After you’ve completed your sessions of fitness boot camps and/or have reached your fitness goals, continue training two to three times a week using what you’ve learned. You may not need to sign up for another set of classes because the exercises you learn at boot camp classes can be done nearly anywhere.
QUESTION: Why was the time right for you to make this film?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, it was an interesting time. When we decided to do it – it was a couple years ago, or three years ago, really – it was even a tougher time, if you remember, politically. Anybody who talked about anything, raised any questions at all, was framed as unpatriotic at that point. So, I thought it was fairly brave of the studio to be willing to jump onboard and take on some of the subject matter. When you see the film, it’s not an attack on the administration at all. It is certainly questioning 30 or 40 or 50 years of flawed policies in the Middle East, which I think everyone agrees with. Most of the conservatives who have seen the film agree with it. Most of the Liberals agree with it. So, to me, it wasn’t that. I felt we were fairly safe in taking on the subject matter. My job was to know as much as I could so I wouldn’t marginalize the piece. But I’m not the writer or the director. I spent a lot of time with Bob Baer – really interesting guy. For him, it was much more about the disenchantment of how little he was needed anymore. After the Berlin Wall came down, the decision was made by several administrations, including the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, which was: surveillance equipment would take care of it; you don’t need people who speak Arabic or Farsi. What you realize, of course, is that it would have been very helpful to have those people. We look at the problems with some of the evidence that led us into other places. It would have helped to have people in there speaking those languages. He’s very disenchanted with all of that. You guys have all seen him out speaking before, so that’s not something new.
Q: What was the morale of the people there towards you? What was it like shooting this during the high holy holidays?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Interesting. It’s an interesting thing to be shooting in Morocco and Dubai during Ramadan. And the Emir had just died, who, in Dubai, was basically the man who made Dubai what it is. He was about 100 years old. So, there was a huge funeral, and Mubarak and everybody showed up at our hotel. You think I had security guards – we look like the Mickey Mouse Club with these guys showing up. So, it was an interesting time to be there because you can’t eat during the day, and you have to play by their rules, which is a good thing. It’s a nice thing to do. But it’s very hot, and it’s a very different world. I was concerned with the idea that they wouldn’t understand what we were doing, that they would think that we were making a movie where it’s just black and white, bad guys, terrorists, because, as you guys know, we’re not the most popular country overseas. We were concerned with the idea that they didn’t think we were just flat out trying to characterize them as the evildoers. But I don’t know how you can translate that very well. If you have 400 extras who were all Muslims and a lot of them Islamic fundamentalists that are there with you, working side-by-side with you, I’m not quite sure if they ever understood that or not. They may when they see the film.
Q: What was it like learning fluent Arabic for this movie?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Brutal. Well, I don’t know if any of you can speak any of those languages. I had a roommate in college who was Iranian, so I understood and could speak a little bit of Farsi, which helped. There are some similarities, so it helped with the accent. But there are no Latin derivatives. So, it was a tricky thing to do. You learned it phonetically. You just did it over and over. I did it for two months, just to do those few paragraphs. I wake up in the middle of the night going (speaks Farsi) just because you had to learn it that way.
Q: And what did you just say?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I said “Hello.” (speaks Farsi)
Q: Do you think that the film is doing things that journalism ought to be doing? Is that the place of a film to expose these things?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, no. I think the difference between journalism and film is that I don’t think films are designed to provide answers. I think films are designed to ask questions. I think journalism is designed to ask questions to get answers. We’re actually just asking questions and sparking debate. That’s what we tried to do with Good Night, and Good Luck and it’s the same thing with this. For me, my job was to understand what Bob was doing as a producer of the film, to be well enough informed on the subject to understand the plot lines and what we were trying to tell. For Good Night, and Good Luck, I double-sourced every scene, because I owed it to the people whose story I was telling, which was a true story, not to get anything wrong, because if you got anything wrong, it would all be marginalized, which is the popular thing to do right now. There are some people out there that are anxiously trying to talk about what a great guy McCarthy is, which still blows my mind. So, with this film, my job was to be as best informed as I could be in general. But I always felt that way about anything. And then, to try and make it entertainment – because it is still a film. I think the good news about both these films is that they’re not civics lessons. They’re actually entertaining films. Tough, not easy, but entertaining films.
Q: Did your political views change at all after making this movie?
GEORGE CLOONEY: No, it doesn’t change things. And it doesn’t necessarily reinforce things either. What it really does is it opens your eyes to other issues and other thoughts. I remember standing on the roof of a building about four stories up as a siren went off, which would go every three hours during Ramadan. And you’d hear a prayer over loudspeakers – we were in Casablanca then – and everyone in South Dakar got out in the middle of the street and faced Mecca. A sea of people got out of their car, got out on the streets and kneeled down, faced Mecca and prayed. We were sitting there watching this and thinking, ‘if we think that we have religious clarity or any kind of a belief system that overrides anyone else’s’. When you see that, it would scare you – the idea that you could in some way bomb the Islamic fundamentalists away-and these were Islamic fundamentalists – but those guys are that passionate. And see how poor they are, and that is the only thing they have. It was scarier to me because I thought, ‘Well, I understand,’ in no way justifying what happens, obviously. Nobody here is saying, ‘the guys who are bombing people are good,’ but understanding how it can happen. And understanding why it can happen was really interesting.
Q: I would imagine Bob Baer’s worldview can be a real education.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I can’t tell what his political bent is. He spent a long time with me at my house. My sense is he’s probably a bit of a conservative who was ticked off at the Clinton administration mostly for his being taken out of the CIA slowly, or leaving the CIA – but equally as ticked off at the way that the information was used in the lead-up to the war. He was pretty mad about that as well. I think certainly the ex-operatives, and a lot of the people who were there in the CIA, felt the same way. I know the people in the State Department did. But he’s such an interesting guy. If you’re on a set, they’ll have a police expert; he’s a cop. He’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I killed six guys, shot this guy in the head three times. I capped him three times.’ They always tell you some story that probably didn’t happen. Here’s a guy who has probably done some pretty amazingly heinous things. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, there were some things that had to be taken care of that happened. But they didn’t want to side with us on that. So, I don’t really recall what happened.’ I’m like, ‘Well, the whole place was blown to bits.’ ‘Yeah, that’s probably what happened.’ Everything is very vague. He doesn’t ever say he has done anything, which makes you feel like he’s really done a lot. It was very strange having him at your house because he’s very smart, and he knows a lot about what he’s talking about, especially in the Middle East.
Q: What do you think would have to happen to better realize the potential of television media to inspire thought and enlighten as well as entertain and distract?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I don’t know. I was hoping that in putting a film like that out there, it would open the discussion for people who are in those positions – some of them are friends of mine – to say, ‘Okay, we understand that this is a dilemma. I understand that having watched what happened with my father as an anchorman, I understand that the idea is that news has a problem, which is, they’re losing viewers. And how do you keep news out there, and do you preserve it? Do you preserve it by destroying it along the way? And what do you do to not let that happen?’ So, it’s one of those difficult fights. I understand that it’s not black and white and easy. But I think it’s something that should be constantly waged and talked about and argued about, until somebody can come out with some solutions. I am concerned about the same thing that probably you-all are concerned with and the same thing that my father has been concerned with his whole life and fought, which was finding ways to have room for both, but not losing content along the way.
Q: Talk about the through-line of the family throughout the course of the film despite the politics of the characters.
GEORGE CLOONEY: There’s a through-line that you have to look for, which is fathers and sons. I think that’s an interesting through-line all the way through this. There’s a lot of moral ambiguity between them. Some of them play better than others; some of them are clearer. Sometimes it’s because when you’re telling such a multi-layered story, it’s hard to flesh out all of the other parts of the story. You’re not quite sure what Bennett and his father’s issues are. That to me became less important as you watched the film and more just an interesting piece of the thing. I thought what Stephen did with fathers and sons and showing just these relationships, flawed or not, along the way, helped land all the questions and answers that these guys are going through with much more weight. Bennett has to come back and look at his dad in the eye, after doing some of the things he has done. And I’m failing at both my job and my son. Because I’m not doing either one of them well. And Matt’s character had done everything right. Everything would have been fine had nothing bad happened. But something bad happened along the way. And I think the two boys and the one father, the Pakistani boys, is a really interesting storyline too.
Q: Do you own a hybrid?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I have an electric car that goes zero to 60 in four seconds. It’s faster than the Porsche Turbo, which is fun. It will go 150 miles before a charge. Quite honestly, I certainly had to make those considerations. I’ve always ridden a motorcycle almost everywhere. It wasn’t about gas; it was because I liked riding motorcycles, but they don’t use a lot of gas. I figured, I can’t do a film about oil corruption and consumption and drive a Bronco – seems a little ridiculous. So I’m learning, and I’m evolving along the way in terms of my own personal responsibility towards fuel because of that. I think if you’re going to get out there and say, ‘let’s talk about these things,’ you’re going to have to participate in all of them. I think you guys know me well enough now; I’m not out there preaching what you should do. I’m just saying, these are questions that should be asked, and along the way, I should probably follow some of my own questions.
Q: Can you comment on being made one of Peoples’ Most Sexiest Men Alive?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I was a little hurt that pretty boy McConaughey now takes over. It’s a big responsibility; it’s a heavy crown for him, Mr. Abs himself. But I think he can handle it. I think he could take it. We’ll see. Pitt did it twice. And he was really the only guy that could handle it two times. Brad “Pretty Boy” Pitt. I was a little disturbed that Matt Damon didn’t get front page. And I think you guys will talk to him later, and ask him if he was at all hurt by that because he campaigned a really good campaign. And we thought for sure he was going to pull it off this year.
Jimmy models some boots for Ronnie Fieg’s latest collaboration:
Ronnie Fieg laced Harlem rapper Jim Jones in his latest collaboration, the classic 6″ construction boot lined with authentic sheep fur to the toe. For the shoot Fieg caught Jones in his element, fresh out of the booth in his Manhattan studio where he was putting the finishing touches on a track for his upcoming mixtape – “The Ghost Of Rich Porter”. Priced at $175, The boots drop this Friday on DavidZ.com as well as the David Z flagship store in soho. Special thanks to Jim Jones and Joe La Puma of Complex.
More pics from the shoot below, and more pics of the boot after the jump.
Check out Jimmy’s interview with Complex here.
Read more about Ronnie Fieg’s collaborations over at The Calm.
I bring passion and art into people’s lives. I do what I love; I get a ton of shit for it by my friends and family. But I can’t stop. It’s a mixture of love and receiving guilt. It’s not the status quo, and that’s very difficult for a lot of friends and family to handle. I think they understand when they come to shows, but they don’t understand it when I’m sitting on the couch answering interview questions. Haha.
what are you currently working on?
I’m doing quite a few things right now. When I started doing music full-time, I added a ton of work to my schedule. I am really working on making a TON of contacts outside of my local area (although, I just realized that I’ve been neglecting my local scene). I’m trying to give props to more local bands and hopefully we’ll all start collaborating again to make new music and play really solid shows around this area. I’m also developing a new show. It’s more character-developed. My thought is that even MTV focuses on reality shows, so it’s time for each of my band members to have a really clear-cut identity onstage. Fans want artists that they can explain to their friends. Unfortunately it’s becoming more about the artist’s identity than it is the song or record’s identity. The music business is definitely going through a “mid-life crisis” in the US. People are more interested in immediate gratification. Singles over albums. iTunes. Shopping in a record store for hours is dead. People want an instant connection. Character identity will do that… and then the songs will hopefully leave a lasting impression. My goal is to have a mix of new fans that are interested in who the band is and old fans that are really in love with the songs. Speaking of songs, I’m working on five songs right now. I’m trying to write about 20 songs for the new album (we’ll take the best 11 or 12).
what has had the greatest influence on your work?
Life experiences and other singer/songwriters. Every experience I go through is a potential song or piece of art. Without life experiences, I’ve got nothing. I sort of have to take a step back from work every now and then and just open myself up to getting out and experiencing people and life. That’s not always easy to do.
Singer/songwriters such as Billy Mann, John Mayer, Matt Nathanson, and Ryan Adams have all inspired me. I could go on for hours… but I won’t.
what is the greatest misconception about you or your work?
Because I work in entertainment, people think what I do is “all play” and “no work”… which is completely untrue. There is so much work involved in the music business from writing to marketing to negotiating compensation to making contacts to updating website info. It’s a full time job! I would say that I spend at least 5 hours a day online promoting, making contacts, and updating. I then play and write and practice. I’m also committing to attending more local shows. Local musicians need attendance and more love, and I haven’t been doing enough of that. So on top of the 8+ hours of work every day, I definitely will add more local show support. But don’t get me wrong, I love doing this job. It’s just that people don’t understand what goes into it.
how has technology impacted upon the work you do?
It’s changed the game… period. I used to be a Store Manager for Wherehouse Music back during the N*Sync days. We made a KILLING in selling their records, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and Eminem. I was also a Store Manager when Wherehouse Music was going out of business. The digital medium has taken over. iTunes is officially the NUMBER ONE music retailer in the United States. For me, that’s a great thing. I don’t have a distribution company getting my CD into stores across the country… but I have iTunes. iTunes sells my EPs which means my music is available across the United States instantly. I have the internet to promote shows from the comfort of someone’s couch. It’s a wonderful marketing tool for local musicians. On the crappy end of the internet is the piracy aspect. I’m not necessarily opposed to piracy, but it has given a perception of “music shouldn’t cost anything”. That sucks for artists that are trying to make a living (especially on a local level). It’s a very fragile balance of promotion vs. making a living. Because I’m not famous or on Top 40 radio, marketing can sometimes take the shape of giving away certain songs for free… just so people get a chance to hear my music. At the same time, I’ve spent $10,000 making an EP and recouping my money is important as a business.
what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?
Persistence pays off. Keep at it; keep fighting the good fight. Don’t be afraid to take chances/risks. Chances and risks are what got me the most opportunities in this business. It’s so cliche for me to say that stuff, but it’s true.
where can we find you online?
Everywhere! Haha. You can find me mainly at http://www.brandontyler.net Some people only want to go to myspace, facebook, or twitter though. I’m on all of those as well. If you go to my website and scroll down to the bottom of the main page, you will find all of those social networking site links on the right.
what are you reading at the moment?
I am in love with Dave Eggers. He wrote A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He also wrote the screenplays for Away We Go and Where The Wild Things Are (see them both). I’ve asked for his books for Christmas. I intend on starting them Christmas day. The books are Zeitoun and What Is The What.
what are you listening to at the moment?
Wintertime (is it even here yet?) totally gets me into a Singer/Songwriter mood. I’ve been listening to John Mayer’s Battle Studies a lot lately. I’ve also been listening to Ingrid Michaelson, Jesse Harris, Ari Hest, and Ryan Adams. In the band department, I’ve been listening to Pearl Jam’s new album, Cage The Elephant, and The Damnwells.
anything else we should know?
I’m a Libra, 6′2, and I love to take long walks on the beach.
Selena Gomez looks amazing in these stills from her Seventeen Prom photo shoot. She models several different dresses and dishes to the mag on if she’d ever ask a guy to prom and why she’s staying away from the internet.
On asking a boy to prom: “Oh man! I’m not sure there’s really a specific way to do it. I think you would seem more powerful if you just went up to him, even in front of his friends, and asked him. Because even if he says no, you can walk away knowing that you had the confidence to ask him. And I think that confidence is the best quality to have.”
On staying away from the Internet: “I’ve given up the Internet. I don’t read comments, and I don’t go on any of the sites anymore, and I just feel better. And it’s not about being a celebrity — you get on MySpace, Facebook, there’s all these different outlets where people can just feel like nobody’s watching them so they can just say whatever they want to say, and that gets dangerous sometimes.”
On being positive in life: “I get hurt — everybody does — but I’m more at the point where I’m looking at all the good things in my life. I have a healthy family who’s alive that I’m blessed to have, and wonderful friends.”
Read more at the Source
The Wood Brothers rocked Funk 'n' Waffles last Friday night
PREVIEW: VISIT The Wood Brothers’ Website PHOTOS forthcoming!
The Friday night crowd wasted no time whooping and hollering during The Wood Brothers’ first song, a funky take on Steve Earle’s “Mystery Train Part II.”
“Feels like a Friday night,” guitarist Oliver Wood said, acknowledging the energetic crowd.
The brotherly duo treated the crowd to a night of personal, soulful, and bluesy songs. The music was carried by Oliver Wood’s pitch-perfect trebly vocals and bassist Chris Wood’s eloquent and tasteful lines. For this special show, they were joined by percussionist Jed Kosiner, who added rhythmic textures on his snare drum, cymbals, and pandeiro (a Latin, tambourine-like instrument).
Oliver later gave his appreciation for “The Wood Brothers dancers,” the smiling mini crowd of twirlers to his left the whole show. You would have guessed they were a rock band by the way the crowd yelled during songs.
“The foundations of their music are spiritually inspiring. If you look inside to the nature of yourself, you’ll see that that’s what they’re singing about. The spirit,” said Funk ‘n’ Waffles co-owner Kyle Corea.
Chris Wood, also the bassist for Medeski, Martin, & Wood, brought his signature sound. He took off on imaginative solos, making indescribable sounds with his upright bass we hadn’t heard anyone else make. He didn’t need to watch his hands throughout his performance, and when he did it seems like he did for personal amusement.
Oliver Wood can hold his own as well. He effortlessly threw in guitar licks in between his lush vocals lines, sometimes finger-picking a solo as Chris danced over the changes. His guitar-work received notable applause during the blues jam “Spirit.”
And the two could harmonize. Confident crooners. Chris Wood sang soaring harmonies that blended organically with brother Oliver’s. To the band’s delight, the crowd sang loud for a few choice tunes as well.
“If I die young / At least I got some chocolate on my tongue,” the room sang during “Chocolate on My Tongue.”
Before the show, Oliver Wood shared some insight on his approach to writing lyrics. He said he writes a lot from personal experiences and likes that his songs have multiple interpretations.
Chris Wood said touring with his brother keeps things fresh for him, and it gives them time to catch up. He said the two do not spend much time together off the road. When they come together, they play shows.
The Wood Brothers have new material they’ve been playing on the road and plan to put it on an album in the next two years.
Before ending the show with a danceable song, the two encored with “Luckiest Man,” the most requested song of the night, which erupted in a sing-a-long.
Oliver Wood complimented his vocal fans: “You all sound great tonight!”
The 20-year resident of Georgia even shared some of his southern jokes.
“In Georgia, they say ‘Hey can you cut on the lights?’”
The crowd chuckled.
“You know what they mean, but why would you say it that way?”
