Downtown Tucsonan - January 2009 - (Page 12) Downtown …with an ever-growing pack of fans By Jamie Manser Live T h e H o u n d s H it Stri d e T the tunes are fun, catchy, and highly melodic – written for rug cutting. If you don’t find yourself jigging, you’ll need to promptly check your tude or realize you ain’t got the rhythm. “the songs all start with the melody and its all rhythm based,” Yogi said. “Blue and I mostly write the songs, but I can give Bruiser a guitar riff and he lays the beat. Blue is really good at structuring the songs and brings the hip hop bass sound. “I’m a lazy guitar player. I’m more into the development of the song than actually playing guitar.” Perhaps he’s lazy with the guitar, but Yogi and the dudes spent two years working on their first album Bonafied and have been developing their sound since the group came together in 2004. currently recording their second album aptly titled Deuce in Yogi’s home studio, the group is fastidious when putting the songs together. “as picky as we are, the recording process is the hardest. You don’t want to cringe when you hear a mistake.” the trio is looking at a fall release date for Deuce. this spring, the Hounds are planning a couple of regional mini-tours and will see their song She’s Got Stars in Her Eyes released as part of a regional compilation. Last year, they were runners up for 2008 taMMIE awards in the categories of Best new Release, Best up and coming artists, and Best Bassist. Check out The Hounds at www.MySpace. com/thehoundsound or see them this month at: The Hut, January 9 with Fayuca; Club Congress, January 21 with Uprooted and Rasta Sauce; Rialto Theatre with Badfish, Scotty Don’t and Skitn. he trio whose music rolls and bounces along the groove lines of hip hop, reggae, roots, pop and blues sensibilities has been establishing itself not only in the live local music scene, but also seriously in cyberspace. “we’ve had a lot of sales from Japan through cd Baby,” said Yogi, singer and guitarist. their web marketing has also garnered music sales from Europe. Being so, getting gigs in this town was initially a tougher deal. “tucson’s a hard scene to break,” Yogi stated simply. “we did shows in Phoenix before tucson.” the Hounds’ vocalist/guitarist chills on this writer’s armory Park porch, and we chat about the music scene while my canines frantically scratch at the front door to see who is visiting. “do you like dogs, do you mind if I let mine out?” I ask, hoping he doesn’t get annoyed. “not at all, I love dogs, I have two,” he smiles. “I wouldn’t have named the band the Hounds if I didn’t like dogs!” and so the naming of the band is fondly remembered. “the name came when we were sitting at home, playing acoustic guitar. we watched my dogs tyson and Louie rolling around – like the rugged laziness of our sound.” Yogi, with Blue (bassist and biological brother) and Bruiser (percussion and band bro) have laid down some rad, funky rocking tracks that cull from a combined influence of Beastie Boys, Muddy waters, digital underground and G. Love. “Blue and I grew up in Houston and we were listening to stevie Ray Vaughn and old school hip hop. we played music in our teens, but there weren’t really bands we were serious about. “Bruiser is from san diego and he was into hip hop and has that cali reggae vibe. He brought the rhythm.” ta e Ny Jomie Menssr ba lush is hosting a few cd releases in January. on the 21st, “dr. dan” twelker (who really is a doctor – an eye doc) and John de Roo will play in the lounge for free starting at 9:30pm. twelker’s album, Recycled Love, features the talents of Jeremy Michael cashman, tom walbank, Vicki Brown, will Elliot, Jose saavedra Iguina, and Michael serpe. also the host of KXcI’s Locals Only on 91.3FM, twelker said he has been writing songs for over 20 years and is appreciative of the musicians who joined him on the album. some tunes are online at www.Myspace.com/twelker. de Roo’s Holy Cow is a digital re-master of songs he recorded in 1986 on a four track cassette recorder. (www.Myspace.com/johnderoo) the prolific Golden Boots (www.Myspace.com/goldenboots) are releasing a 10-track disk with a corresponding digital download on Park the Van Records at the end of the month. the group has a show at Plush on January 30 in celebration. the tunes are also being issued on vinyl by tucson’s Mudhouse Records and on Park the Van, with a limited run of 500 albums. at Hotel congress, Garboski celebrates it EP release on January 7. (www.Myspace.com/garboski). also at congress January 9 - January 10 is the annual wooden Ball with 17 performers playing acoustically over the weekend. P 12 downtown tucsonan.january.09 http://www.MySpace.com/thehoundsound http://www.MySpace.com/thehoundsound http://www.MySpace.com/twelker http://www.MySpace.com/johnderoo http://www.MySpace.com/goldenboots http://www.MySpace.com/garboski http://www.MySpace.com/garboski
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