Scott Craggs (drums, guitar, engineer)
Ben Taylor (bass, vocals)
Mike Weitman (keyboards)
with help along the way from: Antony Flackett aka DJ Flack (turntables, vocals) David Nathan (drums, vocals, keyboards) Nick Hubben aka King Hubby (live sound, keyboards, drums, guitar, melodica) Nils D'Aulaire (guitar) Scott Albertson (percussion) Jake Trussell aka DJ C (turntables) Mahmood Shaikh (drums) Jill Montgomery (recitations) Lucas Foster (guitar, drums) Jason Anderson (fozzy bear guitar) Marc Shufelt (guitar) Eric Dahlman (trumpet)
Influences
Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, MMW, Tortoise, Can, King Tubby, Weather Report, 5ive Style, Miles Davis, Neu!, Lee Perry, the Simpsons, Booker T & the MG's, Fugazi, Cannonball Adderley, Isotope 217, James Brown, June of 44, the Meters, Jeff Beck, Beastie Boys, Jah Wobble, Sly Stone, the Cure, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Preston, Soul Coughing, Hunter S. Thompson, Club D'elf
Sounds Like
Nothing you've ever heard before, kind of. The "September Sessions" soundtrack. The WB's "Bedford Diaries". Extreme sports and adult films.
Beat Down Sound was a band from Allston, MA. Active from 1997 through 2000 and currently on indefinite hiatus, the band has set up this site as a clearinghouse for fond memories and live & unreleased recordings.
Probably most widely known for "Piglet's Lament", their improvised contribution to the soundtrack of Jack Johnson's "September Sessions" surf film, Beat Down Sound played a basement-bred mash-up of funk, indie rock, dub reggae, and electric jazz. Some called it dub-rock, or post-funk. It was like a dude walking down the street bumps into another dude and one dude says "Dude, your jam band is in my indie rock!" and the other dude is all like "Yo, your indie rock is in my jam band!"
The drummer played like he was in a funk band, the bassist played like he was in a reggae band, the keyboardist played like he was in a jazz band, and yet for some reason we thought we were a rock band. It was a funky good time.
We still have a few copies of our second CD's of "All Over But the Shouting", available for sale, and you can download the first album "Echo Box" from iTunes and CD Baby.
Since the turn of the century, our members have spread out thusly:
Craggs continues to fight the good fight in Boston, running Old Colony Studios. He's a fancypants mastering engineer, the drums and brains behind Roh Delikat, and used to play drums with Certainly, Sir, and House of Gusto, and keyboards with the Ivory Coast.
Mike finished law school and is living the dream in Manhattan. He toured the world with DJ Logic's Project Logic and gigged with the primal force of freakiness known as Gary Wilson.
BT lives in Chicago and plays bass for JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. He released his first solo album in 2007, "Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time", which features the talents of both Mike and Scott. He used to play bass for Chiyoko Yoshida and Marydee Reynolds, in addition to scoring video music for Playboy, the Chicago Bulls, Early2Bed, and FuzzyCo.
Stay tuned for further developments and reminisces; new selections of recordings will be rotated in here irregularly, so check back infrequently. We can also be contacted at beatdownsound at hotmail dot com.
THIS JUST IN: there's a good chance of a one-night only Beat Down Sound reunion happening in Chicago in September '09, details to come.
You guys rock my socks on a tuesday. Any way i can get any more of your tracks? Ive only got Piglets Lament, from the jack johnson soundtrack, and i have to go on here to listen to your others. Jacob.
Still enjoying all the tunes Mike hooked me up with a year or two ago. Seventh Grade Dance Dynamics is great man. Thanks again. You guys should really take this shit back out on the road as soon as you're all able! There just aren't enough original groups like this out there anymore. You guys rock.
