On a night late in December of 2003, Greg Norton introduced himself to Dave King after a Bad Plus gig in Minneapolis. In a flash of visionary brilliance Dave asked Greg if he would like to play bass in a band that would bring together some very talented cats in an enviorment of artistic freedom. Greg was totally down with the idea.
It remained an idea for the next two years as Dave was very busy touring with the Bad Plus.
February 2006, Dave, Greg and Erik Fratzke poached a practice space and finally got together and started writing material. The songs just seemed to flow and come together so naturaly it became obvious with each new song we were on to something special.
We still needed to bring in the missing element and arrangements were made for Craig Taborn to fly in and join us. We scheduled our premiere for early August at the 7th St Entry in Mpls.
You can find a review of the show here:
how was the show.
There is also A live song from the Entry and a Gang Font interview at mspmag.com.
As things were coming together Peter Gordon at Thirsty Ear Recordings heard what was going on and offered to put out our record. On Dec 22 & 23, 2006 we went into the studio and recorded, mixed and mastered the record in about 25 hours. The CD is scheduled for March 27, 2007 release.
Here's what the label has to say about the record:
"Musical combustion is about to take place. Take on part of the legendary punk outfit Husker Du ( Greg Norton), mix in the bad-ass jazz sounds of Bad Plus (Dave King), Stir vigorously with the keyboard mastery of Craig Taborn and add the spicey seasoning of happy Apples' Erik Fratzke, and you have the perfect progressive punk stew: the GANG FONT, feat. INTERLOPER.
Rife with intricate and ingenious instrumental interplay, the GANG FONT feat. INTERLOPER is a recording that is as bombastic as it is intricate, weaving thumping bass and murderous drums with schizophrenic guitars and otherworldly keyboards, creating a frantic vitality that is rarely heard elsewhere."
Here's a recent post written by Tom Johnson on blogcritics.org
Gang Font feat. Interloper: Imagine, if you will, if Fugazi suddenly decided to throw out the vocals and ramp up their musical skills to the level of jazz musicians. That's what Gang Font feat. Interloper sounds like - a punk band gone jazz. And they've got the roots to prove it - Husker Du's (I'll let you put in the umlauts) Greg Norton on bass, taking a break from restaurant duties, with The Bad Plus's drum-basher Dave King, the keyboard oddities of Craig Taborn, and Happy Apples' guitarist Erik Fratzke. Check out Blogcritic Mark Saleski's review of the disc. You'll just have to wait to figure out who or what is "Interloper."
You can read Mark Saleski's review of the CD here.
In stores NOW.
If you can't make it to your favorite store
the CD is available through Amazon.con, and it's also available from our good friends at rhythmonline in the UK. Cheers to that.
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