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Disco Biscuits

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The Disco Biscuits are a band from Philadelphia. The band is comprised of Jon Gutwillig (guitar), Marc Brownstein, (bass), Allen Aucoin (drums), Aron Magner (keyboards). Former drummer Sam Altman played his last concert as drummer for The Disco Biscuits on 8/27/2005. Magner replaced original keyboardist Ben Hayflick in 1995.

They differ from other jam bands like Phish or the Grateful Dead in that they infuse electronic beats and jams into their music.This style is referred to generally as trance-fusion, but is called "bisco" when referring specifically to the Disco Biscuits.

Contents

Style

The Disco Biscuits are also well-known for their ability to run long sets together, sometimes even playing their songs backwards, in styles referred to as "inverted" and "dyslexic." An inverted version of a song occurs when the band starts a song by playing its ending segment, followed immediately by its beginning segment and a jam that segues out of that song and into another. A dyslexic song is played the same way as an inverted one, with its main difference being that the pieces of the song are not played consecutively (e.g. ending of 1 -> 2, 3, 4, beginning of 1 -> 5). Another technique employed by the band is a fakeout, which occurs when the band plays a jam that usually leads into one song, but segues into another unexpectedly.

Due to the separation of their segments, inverted and dyslexic songs can begin on one night's show and end the next night. The nature of their setlists is both a blessing and a curse; while the myriad variations on their songs are interesting to hardcore fans of the band, it can confuse people who are not already familiar with their catalog. This forces the listener to be immediately willing to immerse themselves in the Disco Biscuits' large catalog, which can prove to be a rather overwhelming task for novices to undertake. On the other hand, many are fascinated by the game of "what song are they going to play next", and are disappointed when their ears are attuned enough to know the answers in advance.

History

Rock Operas

The band has 2 rock operas as part of their catalog: the Hot Air Balloon (written by guitarist Jon Gutwillig) and the Chemical Warfare Brigade (written by bassist Marc Brownstein). These have been performed in their entirety on a limited number of occasions:

Hot Air Balloon

[12/31/98] Silk City Diner, Philadelphia, PA // [1/24/99] Center for the Arts, Natick, MA // [2/3/99] The Brewery, Raleigh, NC (second act only) // [2/13/99] Home Bar, Dallas, TX (second act only) // [3/4/99] The Tractor, Seattle, WA // [5/11/99] The Blue Terrapin, Elizabethtown, PA // [6/12/99] The Music Farm, Charleston, SC // [10/23/99] Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC // [1/17/04] The Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

the Hot Air Balloon consists of the following songs:

ACT I

ACT II

Chemical Warfare Brigade
[12/30/00] The Vanderbilt, Plainview, NY // [4/26/01] The Roxy, Atlanta, GA // [11/6/02] The Odeon, Cleveland, OH // [11/28/03] Webster Theatre, Hartford, CT //

The Chemical Warfare Brigade consists of the following songs:

Plan B, Little Lai, And the Ladies Were the Rest of the Night, Floodlights, Shelby Rose, Chemical Warfare Brigade, Three Wishes, Confrontation

Drummer replacement

The Disco Biscuits announced on 11/5/04 that drummer Sam Altman was leaving the band to attend medical school. The band had toured only sporadically from the end of the summer of 2003 until Sammy's official departure was confirmed at Camp Bisco IV on 8/27/05.

The band announced that Allen Aucoin would replace Altman as the full-time drummer on 12/12/05, ending months of speculation.

Discography

External links

 

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