"Prepare to have your soul rocked…" – Casey Dolan/The Los Angeles Times
~ subdudes ~
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Featuring:
Tommy Malone
John Magnie
Steve Amed'e
Tim Cook
Jimmy Messa
+ sp. guest Clara Lofaro
2010-10-08
8:00PM
Over the course of 20+ years and eight albums, the subdudes have quietly become one of America's national music treasures.The New Orleans-formed group is a living encapsulation of American music, a vibrant cauldron of sounds that stirs together meaty grooves and jazzy dynamics, souful R&B swagger, easy vocal harmonies, cheeky rock 'n' roll attitude and folky social consciousness -- not to mention some of the sharpest musicianship and ensemble playing you'll ever hear from any five musicians. It's tight enough to be loose, but never gratuitously sloppy.
The Subdudes aren't just stellar musicians of the swampy jazz-rock-blues New Orleans persuasion, as they've come to be known. They're also a group of guys whose working-class roots run as definitively, and maybe as deeply, as Bruce Springsteen's. Few bands give up the grit with this much conviction and skill.
"If the subdudes' music were a fruit, it would be a bunch of red grapes eaten out of season: robustly flavored, composed of taut clusters of sound loosely arranged that – left to mull a bit – induce a mild intoxication. This is New Orleans R&B at its most swinging, with touches of barroom blues, gospel-inspired harmonies, rock and country rhythms and, very simply, some fine playing." - Rolling Stone
In 1987, four musicians got together for what they envisioned would be a one-time performance at Tipitina's in New Orleans. It was a night of mostly acoustic music sparse instrumentation with a strong emphasis on songwriting and vocal harmonies. The show far exceeded expectations, and on that March night the subdudes were born.
Nearly 10 years later, after five well-received albums and several years of hard touring, the subdudes called it quits.
Spinoff projects ensued, as did the occasional reunion show. Finally, in February of 2002, three of the four original band members decided to get back together. They recruited additional longtime friends to fill out the sound and called themselves the Dudes, but the music was still unmistakably the subdudes.
Today, they are once again the subdudes. And there's still nobody in the world that sounds like them.
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