JamBase Questionnaire: The Band of Heathens
By Team JamBase Apr 28, 2011 • 10:33 am PDT
There’s so much foundational rightness to Austin’s The Band of Heathens. The great American swirl of country, blues, New Orleans music, backwoods folk, Muscle Shoals soul and meat ‘n’ taters rock is evident throughout the group’s third studio offering, Top Hat Crown & The Clapmaster’s Son (released March 29 on BOH Records), a song title Leon Russell might have dreamed up in his tightrope walkin’ 70s heyday. All the fundamentals are locked down – tight – in this band, built around the core of singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalists Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist and Colin Brooks, which struts with confidence and relaxed cool on this set, riding the warm, smooth groove of Seth Whitney (bass) and John Chipman (drums). Ably produced by former New Earth Mud bassist George Reiff, Top Hat Crown should charm anyone who digs The Jayhawks, Buddy & Julie Miller or vinyl-era classic rock like Lowell George period Little Feat and The Band, who get a nod on the new album with a blazing cover of the Levon Helm staple “Hurricane.” The Band of Heathens shows the same love and dedication to craft and good time generating music as these forebears, something more evident with each new salvo from this young, steady rolling outfit. (Dennis Cook)
Here’s what Ed Jurdi had to say to our inquiries.
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Reason. You gotta have rhyme, but inspiration has no powers of reason.
2. The first album I bought was…
The Who’s Live At Leeds
3. The last song or album to really flip my wig was…
Delta Spirit’s History From Below. “White Table” is a great track. And Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker.
4. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be…
In a great rock and roll band.
5. My favorite sort of gig is…
Typically, a long, slow building show where the sounds are cathedral-like and cascade down off the walls.
6. One thing I wish people knew about me is…
I like that people don’t know that much about me.
7. I love the sound of…
Music and Cicadas, in no particular order.
8. One day I hope to make an album as fantastic as…
Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die
9. The best meal I ever had on tour was at…
Elway’s in Denver. The price was right.
10. I always find the coolest audiences in…
The places I least expect them.
11. The worst habit I’ve picked up being on the road all the time is…
Plastic water bottles
1 2. The Beatles or the Stones? Por qué?
The Beatles. I identify with the Stones more on a number of levels, but The Beatles are the greatest for so many reasons, but mainly the songs. They just had so fucking many great ones.
13. The craziest thing I ever saw was…
Oh man, are we into this portion of the questions? We had about three dozen fairies dance around us onstage covered in pixie dust one night. At least I think that’s what I saw.
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