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Too rock for hip-hop, too hip-hop for rock, Cold Duck Complex is not the music for tunnel-vision scenesters. Cold Duck Complex makes music for the in-betweensters, the what-does-it-all-meansters, the sacred-profane-keep-it-clean-obscenesters. In short, music for those who just don't know, and have the courage to say so.

First formed in 2000 as Cold Duck Trio, playing mostly instrumental jazz, bassist Joe Cardozo, drummer Makaya McCraven, and keyboardist Jesse Goldman joined forces with emcee Platypus Complex (Cardozo's longtime friend and freshman year college roommate) in 2001 after PC began habitually attending the Trio's rehearsals and long-winded jam sessions to listen, inspire his writing, and sometimes jump in with a freestyle or a verse.

The band made it their goal to find the true intersection of intelligent and engaging instrumentals with PCs hotfire vocal delivery--to get beyond the stale hip-hop formulas and the mind-numbing rap-rock hybrids so commonplace in the late '90s to a place where one could find real subtlety and equally appreciate the lyrics, the musical composition, the energy, and the performance. The goal was to create an amorphous unit, free from the paradigm of soloists and front men, yet supporting Platypus Complex as a lead vocalist and all the members as eminent instrumentalists in their own right.

Cold Duck Complex succeeded on every count, releasing two albums, 2006's Enough and 2003's Figureheads in addition to a quirky untitled collection of the band's early recordings, released in 2002. As confident rocking a pure instrumental as laying back while Platypus runs the show, core members PC, Cardozo, and McCraven have continued to plunge deeper over the course of the last eight years, pushing their creativity while collaborating with Jeff D'Antona (piano, keyboards), Darby Wolf (organ, synths, piano, keys), and Jake Last (piano).

For their latest endeavor the band has thrown their support behind Cardozo, aka Joey Freshwater, as producer and composer. The result is Cold Duck Complex presents Freshwater: Bad Love due July 21, 2009 on M.I.T.E!

Recent years have seen the band spread out geographically (McCraven in Chicago, Cardozo in NYC, PC in Northampton, MA), finding less time and resources to record and perform. Freshwater will be the vehicle for Cardozo to continue to perform and record in collaboration with PC, Mak, Jeff, and Darby as well as other musicians, emcees, and vocalists, while still keeping the Cold Duck Complex collective intact. For updates on Freshwater activity, see joeyfreshwater.com and myspace.com/joeyfreshwater