s Toallitas play that jazz-ma-funk music
Ella de Leon all said yes. And everybody got together funk. It's difficult to describe because it in-
)aily Arts Writer and got along fabulously." volves so many different types of music.
What do you call a band that plays jazzy, Las Toallitas consists of two women, It's dance music. There's a heavy Latin in-
, Latin and Middle Easteminstrumental four men, and a number of different instu- fluence and heavy Middle Eastern influ-
usic? Believe it or not, Las Toallitas.. As- ments. The list includes xylophonist Car- ence, and they're sort of blended together,"
mbled in 1993 in Chicago as a comedy rie Biolo, bassist Bruce Krippner, saxo- evident on their debut album, 1993's
how band , organist and piano player Max phone and clarinet player Kristin McGee, "Mayhem Among the Desert Thieves."
ahandecidedonthe name when he asked and Callahan. He observed, "When we Inexplicably, the music has a strange
Hispanic couple the word for napkins in first came together to play, it was this huge overall effect. Callahan revealed, "It in-
panish. Nojoke. experiment because half the people had volves a lot of sort of different exotic influ-
"It sort of stuck because we weren't a been through graduate school, and half the ences. And that can take you to different
d for a long period of time," explained people were initially struggling with their places, as a player, in terms of what you're
allahan. "We were offered gigs right away instruments. That's no longer the case. I imagining as you're playing. It tends to
ause people assumed we were a band. But think the conservatory people have loos- take you out of yourself. And we find that
t was always an inside joke at first. We went ened up and really learned how to groove people in the audience experience the same
ong with the whole ruse in a way, and then more spontaneously. Meanwhile, the level thing. It really takes you somewhere else."
t sort of took us over. By the time we were of playing overall, the technique, has gone Like the gig in Austin, Texas. Callahan
cutally doing enough gigs ... it was already, way up." remembered, "There was this little roadway
re or less, an established fact." And the music, the sound itself? "For a around the side of the club, and(the audience)
Establishing the band itself took less long time, we had this long title: Middle danced outside the club and down the road
ime. Callahan laughed, "Basically, I was Eastern-snakecharmer-funk-monster-long and then came back into the club. So the club
sked to put together a Mexican circus groove-maddening-gypsy-circus music," more or less evacuated itself, and then danced
d. So I called a lot of people I didn't exhaled Callahan. "World beat is the catch out into the street and then came back while
ow but who I'd heard really good things phrase most people will understand it by. we were playing."
bout. And for some bizarre reason, they We've called it jazz-ma-funk, exot-no- Audiences aren't the only ones grooving
Wednesday, June 28, 1995 - The Michigan Daily -11
The little towels have soaked up many diverse ethnic Influences.
either. Callahan offered,"'I want to do this for hair down. That's made it alot of fun."
the next three years'-nobody would've ever What more can they ask for? "A Top 40
said that. We all met on this bizarre turf. It's snakecharm funk single?" guessed ringmas-
like -'Here we are. We're having a really terMax. Seriously though,Callahanhopes for
good time. We don't really know why ...' "some strong label support for what we do...
And we just kept doing it. I think just the bi- to reach everybody who's out there who's
zarreness or the premise of the music put ev- prone to enjoying the music."
erybody on the same level and made it pos- It shouldn't be hard. Anything's possible
sible for everyone to experiment and let their with Las Toallitas.
Seattle rockers Tad talk about record labels, space and abductions
y Ted Watts frared..." has a primarily metal sound but it's been repressed throughout our civi- on BMG again, a label that had already
)aily Arts Writer ground into the dust of the world giving up lization." Definitely an important matter if dropped us once. It's a complicated rela-
Tad is a big bundle of damaging musi- some harsh vocals with the occasional airy true. Explaining his fairly intense interest in tionship labels have, but anyway, to speed
ians from Seattle who create a heavy, Yes or Journey-influenced portion to keep the subject, Danielson said, "I've been things up, we left Giant /Giant dropped us,
avy sound. They were the co-headliners things from getting monotonous. reading more on the subject." but we were still signed to Mechanic and
h Nirvana at the legendary and very "We've evolved from a band with no An important part of abduction is, of they wanted to exercise their option to put
ootlegged Blind Pig show half a decade focus, a band that came from a chaotic course, being moved from place to place. out another record. They decided they
go. What else do you need to know to get source, and have refined ourselves as a And Tad has certainly done its fair share of wanted to put out a live record through
ou interested? band and as musicians," explained moving from record label to record label, their independent arm which is called Fu-
Tad is a three piece tnut made up of Danielson. "We wanted this record to be their last four albums being on four differ- turist Records. This is "Live Alien Broad-
ad Doyle on guitars and vocal cords, Josh more spare and more spontaneous. A lot of ent labels. casts," and we did it basically to fulfill our
nider on drums and Kurt Danielson on the songs were actually written in the stu- "We were on Sub Pop and felt we obligations. We wound up signing with
ass and occasional vocal cords. This is a dio. Generally we have the songs on tour weren't getting the kind of attention we felt EastWest, and they were absorbed by the
hange from Tad's recent history, in which for awhile, and when that happens some- we deserved at the time," began Danielson. Elektra Entertainment Group. There've
he line-up included second guitarist Gary times a song gets played to death, and by "We had some differences with the label been a lot of changes on the label and we're
Torstensen. "We had creative differences, the time it's been recorded it doesn't have and they were going through a tough time not really in touch so far. We feel lost in this
ically, and decided aftera long period of the original spark." then. So, unfortunately, we left Sub Pop. In huge ever-changing mess."
soul searching and conversations in the Of course, it might be difficult to lose retrospect Sub Pop has been the best label Well, in spite of label abductions, Tad
band we decided it was the best thing to do, the spark on this album, considering its tin- we've ever been on. Then we went to Gi- has continued to battle through. Their lat-
both for (Gary)and for us,"said Danielson. derlying pylons. "The theme of the record ant. We actually signed to Mechanic, est effort is a spiffy piece of work, and they
"Gary's a very unique guitar player, and is outer space, the horror of outer space. which then had a deal with RCA/BMG. are naturally touring in support of it. So if
the direction he was going was different There are three songs ott the record that They funded the record which was re-
from where the band was going." deal with aliens and abductions... The corded with J Mascis as producer. Then
So, changes in place, Tad recorded ways in which we are abducted and experi- they dropped Mechanic from their subsid-
their newest album, "Infrared Riding mented on against our will, and the way it iary labels. So Mechanic searched around
Hood." A return to a more focused sound violates every basic human freedom we and found Giant. Giant, ironically, sold
than their last studio album, "Inhaler,""1n- hold dear to us. It's the story of the century, their distribution to BMG, so we were back
Tad go whole hog on success.
you see a CD with a picture of a blue mi-
croscopic insect blown up to pretty dum
big with the words "Tad" and "Infrared
Riding Hood" placed over the image,
think about gobbling it up like the jewel
case full of goodies it is.
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