Galactic brings the Mardi Gras party northward during next Tuesday’s Westcott Theater show
There’s much more to Mardi Gras than giant, beer-guzzling fiascos. According to Galactic guitarist Jeff Raines, the annual New Orleans festival is about gettin’ down with locals and enjoying the costumes and cuisine of Carnivale. It’s a community thing, a tradition, and a wonderful day for the funk-zydeco quintet to celebrate the Big Easy.
Galactic’s new album Carnivale Electricos (Anti-Records) shimmied into public view during this year’s Mardi Gras, which fell on Feb. 21, in honor of the southern music scenes that have influenced the band’s mashed-up samba-funk sound. “We always do Mardi Gras in the south,” Raines says. “This is really the place to be in North America. This will be my 20th straight Mardi Gras and I can confidently say that the rest of the band has done it for 20 straight years, as well.”
With all those Fat Tuesdays under their belts (the band did shows on Feb. 18 and 20 at the legendary Tipitina’s), Galactic figured it was time to pay tribute to its roots with Carnivale Electricos. They’re also taking the tunes on tour and bringing the funk to the Westcott Theater, 524 Westcott St., on Tuesday, Feb. 28, for an 8 p.m. show.
Twenty years is no short-term relationship by any means, and the men of Galactic—Raines, Ben Ellman (harps and horns), Robert Mercurio (bass), Stanton Moore (drums and percussion) and Rich Vogel (keyboards)—have their own way to keep the vibe alive.
“What’s helped us a lot is sort of making sure that we’re always working on new material,” Raines says. “We challenge ourselves in the studio to produce different music that hopefully challenges our fans, in a certain way, as listeners. It keeps a certain freshness when we make stuff in the studio, so we can learn it as a band and then really perform it live in the most compelling way. I think that’s been very important.”
When Galactic makes a record, it’s an intricate process. On the song, “Let Down,” the band spent a year writing, recording and working on ideas on computers. After that, they took a few weeks to learn to play the music as a band, without any previous experience playing the new compositions. What they end up performing is often material which hasn’t been practiced before. “It’s an interesting and unconventional way to go about it,” Raines admits.
Interesting and unconventional are Galactic’s comfort zones. More often than not, mistakes made during practices become main melodies in their songs. Their live sound embraces improvisation without straying too far into jam band-land.
Another necessity in maintaining group momentum is knowing how to work within the highs and lows of the ever-changing music industry. With each new release, Raines recalls feeling it was the worst sales year on record. Undeterred, Galactic keeps putting out CDs and spending time in the studio.
Carnivale Electricos was conceived when the guys started making demos for six weeks. From there, they brainstormed to weed out their favorite sounds. That list filtered down to 20 songs full of moments that they then focused on to arrange their parade of an album.
“We had to figure out what we had to put vocals on, what we wanted to keep instrumental, what we maybe wanted to put a brass band on,” Raines said. “We started sending out demos to various people we wanted to collaborate with, in terms of writing lyrics and such. We’re all instrumentalists. It’s not one of our strong suits, writing lyrics.”
The first track on Carnivale Electricos is a Mardi Gras Indian song. When Galactic debated trying to do an album that was related to their favorite time of year, the first thing that came to mind was getting a Native American to sing. They already had experience doing a track of that nature on 2007’s From the Corner to the Block (Anti-Records), but because the Mardi Gras Indian culture is so unique in New Orleans, it was essential to this tribute.
“We looked around for a long time to find the right guy,” Raines says. “The one we found {Big Chief Juan Pardo} was close to us in age, but relatively young to be a Mardi Gras Indian chief. He had a similar desire to do something modern with Mardi Gras and still keep the tradition in it.”
Other guests on the album include rappers Mannie Fresh and Mystikal, as well as the KIPP Renaissance High School Marching Band. One shouldn’t expect the marchers to join Galactic at the Westcott Nation, but aiding and abetting the band on this tour will be a pair of Coreys: Living Colour’s Corey Glover plus the Rebirth Brass Band’s Corey Henry. No matter where their travels take them, Galactic brings the spirit of Mardi Gras to town and dishes it out in heaping southern portions.
Preceding Galactic at the Westcott Theater will be the Nawlins-based outfit The Soul Rebels. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Purchase tickets at www.westcotttheater.com or by calling 299-8886.
