BLACK CROWES FRONTMAN RETURNS WITH NEW BAND SECOND ALBUM TO FOLLOW IN SEPTEMBER
In 2011, after more than 20 years of intense gigging and recording, Chris Robinson set off to shape something new, a fresh rock mythology, a breathing kaleidoscopic thing stuffed with chooglin’ soul, bedrock boogie and shuffling wisdom birthed in intimate clubs and amongst the tall trees of the Golden State and eventually taken nationwide as the Chris Robinson Brotherhood evolved. What began as an experiment without expectations turned into a 118-show journey for Robinson (lead vocals, guitar), Neal Casal (guitar, vocals), Adam MacDougall (keys, vocals), George Sluppick (drums) and Mark Dutton (bass, vocals) that surprised these seasoned pros as music of unshakeable solidity and exuberant reach poured out of them.
The music of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood finds its fruition on their studio debut album Big Moon Ritual, due out July 20 via Silver Arrow/IndoChine, to be followed by companion album The Magic Door in September.
“Thom and I have wanted to work together for a long time,” says Robinson about the album’s producer Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Papercuts). “We talked about it at a show in Los Angeles, ‘This is it (gesturing at stage gear). We’re not bringing anything else with us into the studio. This is what brought us here this year, so this is exactly what this is gonna be. We didn’t even change strings from the last Cali run [laughs].”
“This music is unashamedly what we’re into,” says Robinson. “It’s not a psych band because you have a Prince Valiant haircut and wear Beatle boots. It’s psych because that’s where our heads are. We want to make music that blossoms. We want to make music that sounds cosmic.”
For a full year, the CRB road tested their ideas and by the time of their sold-out four-night run at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall last December, the Brotherhood was fully switched-on. This is the band that entered Sunset Sound in Los Angeles in January 2012, and came out the other side of a six-day session with 27 different songs with 97 takes, most of it captured straight off-the-floor with only minor enhancements after the fact.
“It’s about being boutique,” continues Robinson. “If before you wanted to have a million people hear what you do, now we’re making music the right way for the right people. When we got to these cool sonic spaces we took advantage of them. It was totally the most radical recording session I’ve ever done, especially in terms of aesthetics.”
www.chrisrobinsonbrotherhood.com
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