Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

 “What branches grow out of this stony rubbish?” (Elliot)
   
Benzos have asked themselves this question before.  With early changes in personnel and instrumentation, the inevitable rise and fall of hope and disappointment, not to mention more than a few ill-timed vehicular breakdowns (a death-defying romp through the mountains of Pennsylvania to make it just in time for doors in Philly), Benzos have certainly faced the “where do we go from here” moment.
    
Their response?  Evolution.  Change.  Music.
    
After promoting and touring for their debut release, Morning Stanzas, in 2005, the band (Christian Celaya, Brian Joyce, Eiko Peck, and Steve Bryant) began experimenting with different moods and textures in their writing.  A return to Christian and Brian’s early influences of rave and house music and culture (and all the trouble you can imagine they got into), as well as a deepening emphasis on the hip hop and drum and bass sound that Eiko and Steve had been cultivating over time, saw the band develop a unique blend of ambient, emotionally melodic guitar and synth instrumentation “mashing up” with tight, bottom-heavy, ass-shakin’ rhythm section grooves.  Soon a number of new songs took on a more moody, sexy, groove-oriented dance vibe.  An album was taking shape.
   
So in the summer of 2006, Benzos began recording down in Baltimore at WrightWay Studios with Anthony Ranere (Lake Trout) and Steve Wright.  The process was exhaustive for everyone involved (when is making an album not?), and by the end of the sessions Benzos had recorded numerous songs, effectively capturing this new sound that had been evolving.
    
The result?  2007’s Branches, a collection of tight, melodic songs, a variety of mood and texture, and enough thump to shake it.  With the band’s increasing emphasis on what they call “live remixing,” a sort of “snapshot” of their music that’s geared toward the dance set, as well as their increasingly explosive regular live set, along with the release of Branches, 2007 on Stinky Records looks like the kind of year that Benzos will have little problem finding “where to go from here.”