http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090423/ENT01/904230319/1125/ENT
John Brown's Body at Castaways Friday
The Ithaca Journal
4-23-09
By Jim Catalano
Late last summer, John Brown's Body released an excellent new CD, "Amplify." But the longtime local reggae-rockers haven't actually played in Ithaca since the CD came out, so I never got a chance to write it up.
Fortunately, the band returns to Castaways Friday night, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with singer Elliot Martin.
Actually, there's quite a bit of news with JBB. In March, their label released "Re-Amplify," which contains six remixes of songs from "Amplify," along with a new, previously unreleased song. Among those remixing were Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo of Gym Class Heroes, Australian band Blue King Brown (with whom JBB recently toured) and reggae producers GoldieLocks and Dubmatix.
"That was a cool thing, because, number one, I didn't have to do anything," said Martin in a phone call from Hartford, Conn., earlier this week. "The record company and our manager took it upon themselves to contact people and get them interested in remixing.
"That was the start of our relationship with Blue King Brown, because they did a remix for one of the songs. The singer for that band, for most of the nights we played together, got onstage and did her part for that song, which was great."
The band has been playing the remix version of "The Gold" on stage. "We never played it before, and when we heard the remix we decided to play the live version like that," Martin said. "And that's been getting a great response.
"It's nice to get this unsolicited burst of creativity coming back at you," he continued. "It's sort of like doing a cover version of your own song."
While founding members Martin and drummer Tommy Benedetti remain, the rest of the lineup has seen changes over the past few years. Recently, trumpeter Alex Toth and sax player Kalmia Traver left to focus on their other band, the Rubblebucket Orchestra (which comes to Castaways May 1). "They made the hard decision to do that band full time because they were having a hard time juggling both bands," Martin said "We've got two new guys who just started this weekend, and it sounds great,"
The band recently played a few gigs in California for which former member Kevin Kinsella rejoined the band. "That was really nice," Martin said. "After all the struggles after he left the band, it was a nice kind of return and a normalization of the vibe. I might be overstating that, because we've always been friends but it was nice to connect in that way again. He just got up and did a few songs. I think he enjoyed it a lot. He was doing shows out there with his own band, so he suggested it. And I thought it would be a good idea, too."
"It was funny-the band changes so much every few years, the new guys had to learn the old songs for the first time. They had never even met Kevin before, which is bizarre to me. Now we have two more new people who don't know him again."
JBB has been hitting the road pretty hard since "Amplify" came out last summer.
"It's not spectacular, but definitely we see improvement in places like California, Colorado and in the northwest," Martin said. "We don't play everywhere, which kind of too band-we have to pick our spots. But it's been going good. I feel we're on an upswing of enthusiasm for the band right now."
The band is gearing up for the summer festival season, which will include appearances at the Gathering of the Vibes and GrassRoots. And later this year, it's possible that JBB could head to England or down to Australia and New Zealand for further dates. To learn more, check out myspace.com/johnbrownsbody.
D.C. band SOJA will open Friday's show. Doors open at 8 p.m.; advance tickets are $15. Call 272-1370 or visit www.castawaysithaca.com to learn more.
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