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Benefit Fri Nov 16 2012
Preview: JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound @ Metro 11/21
Chicago's own JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound team up with a whole lineup of bands Wednesday for a concert benefiting WXRT's 30th Anniversary of the Holiday Concert For The Kids. I spoke to JCBUS bassist Ben Taylor and got to ask all the important questions.
You know, I didn't realize until I read the press materials that the reason you're the Uptown Sound is that you're from Uptown.
Yes, we've been based out of Uptown the whole time, we started in the spring of '07, five years ago.
I got to see JCBUS in the musical production Passing Strange last year, it was amazing. Was the full band in that show?
Yes — there were four of us, and right after that is when we added our keyboard player Andy Rosenstein full time. The heart of the band was there, and some extra people — there were two extra people that just did the production with us.
I watched the Spike Lee film version after seeing it live in Chicago, and I have to say, I liked the JCBUS version better.
There was a lot there that really resonated with people, it was a great experience. It was a lot of work going into it; right after recording an album we had to throw ourselves into learning and doing a show, do a 6 week run of it, then we immediately finished that and started touring.
So what can we expect to see at the Metro show?
This show is us previewing the new songs we're working on for our new album which we're going up to Montreal at beginning of December to record, and actually have a ton of new material we're going to be playing; this show is kind of like a re-launch, the unveiling of what comes next.
The video for "Sister Ray Charles" was clearly filmed in Chicago -- I recognized the Tokyo hotel.
The Tokyo Hotel was where the video was supposed to be shot, but they were really sketchy, said they had "no rooms," and were really evasive and cagey. We ended up at the Ohio House and had to sneak in there, they thought we were shooting porn or something. We had a limited amount of time, people kept showing up, and we were crammed in two motel rooms.
JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound play at the Metro Wednesday, Nov. 21. Doors open at 9pm, tickets are $15, and it is an 18-and-over show. For tickets and information visit Metro's website.
