When you find a band that has a song made up of lines from children's storybooks, writes theme songs and has plans to cover the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right" in the same set as TLC's "Waterfalls," you know you've found something interesting.
Kokopelli, a band composed entirely of University students hailing from the Northern Virginia area, defies categorization. With a touch of funk, a helping of soul and a dash of rock, Kokopelli defies bassist Thomas Orgren's description of his group as just "a rock and roll band." The band, that just recently released its self-titled debut, cites Radiohead, Phish, Agents of Good Roots and fellow University band Bottle Rocket as its broad range of inspirations.
"We pretty much play anything that we like," said Bryan King, the band's drummer. "We don't really limit ourselves ... we won't be like, oh, this isn't rock enough for us, or jazz enough, etc."
Begun four years ago in Fairfax, Va., Kokopelli started out as a typical high school band, playing at local Battle of the Bands contests and teen centers. After establishing itself on that scene, however, the band moved on to play at clubs in the metropolitan D.C area and to open for other bands, cementing its up-and-coming status. The move to Charlottesville has brought more club gigs in addition to performances at the Tuttle Coffee House and numerous fraternities.
Composed of original members King, Orgren, Steven Snider (percussion), David Stone (guitar) and Mark Straub (saxophones), four of the five band members contribute to vocals, creating a tight, unified sound. Composition of original material is similarly varied; each member of the band contributed to writing either music or lyrics for each of the album's eight tracks.
"We're a very democratic band," explained King. "I guess we feel that we respect each other's musical tastes and views enough that if we have a song idea, we feel that it will benefit more from having everybody give their opinions and suggest changes than if one person tried to do it all by himself."
"Kokopelli" is characterized by long jams within songs, in addition to the inclusion of a song simply titled "Jam." These portions are among the highlights of the album, showcasing the band's technical strength. Straub in particular shows considerable range and improvisational flair in his saxophone work, which has a tendency to dominate when it is included in such segments.
The band's overall strengths lie in instrumentality, but the vocals are not entirely lacking. Though high registers in songs on the album can come across as strained ("All Around") and there are some problems with stylistic consistency, the lead vocalists, who alternate between Orgren, Straub and Snider, are generally solid. "All Around" features an especially entertaining rapped verse structure, and Snider shines on the ballad "Goodnight Stars, Goodnight Moon," backed up well with a remarkably well-composed harmony line.
Partially for the above reasons, "Goodnight Stars" is no doubt the strongest track on the album. The band as a whole wrote both music and lyrics for the pop-friendly song. The resulting confidence resonates throughout the entire track. Though King said that the band has no desire to produce a smash single, if one were to be released, this would be the one.
"Jam" is also notably strong. Recorded live, the band originally had no intention to include it on the album, but the resulting product was too good to discard.
"It wasn't planned or rehearsed or anything," said King. "We just went up on stage and started playing ... we really liked how that jam came out and felt that it would give listeners a good taste of our live shows."
If the album is any indication, Kokopelli's future live shows will be worth catching. The album's studio-produced tracks were recorded in just 10 hours with very limited production and overdubs, and the energy level present in the vast majority of the tracks lends itself well to live performance.
Anyone interested in catching Kokopelli while they can is in luck. They can be seen next on Tuesday, May 1, at the Phi Mu Battle of the Bands at the Fiji house.
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