Something's Got To Give
THE REVIEWS ARE IN:Time Out Chicago:Time Out Chicago / Issue 113: April 26–May 2, 2007Album ReviewFive Stars(out of six).Considering how consistently Bumpus has been playing out for much of its ten-year existence, it’s pretty surprising that this is the band’s first studio album in six years. While 2001’s Stereoscope demonstrated considerable charm, its White Album–like stylistic schizophrenia hinted at too many cooks in the kitchen, foreshadowing vocalist Rachael Yamagata’s amicable departure the following year. Afterward, the band refocused and got back to the holy trinity of Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder and Prince. But rather than churning out watered-down rehashes, it’s reached down deep and pulled out a sublime stunner.Instead of just jamming on endless funk vamps, the new All the People hearkens back to the great progressive soul albums of the 1970s, with plenty of concise pop appeal. The tracks are chock-full of inventive progressions and sunshine-bright choruses, with vocalist-guitarist James Johnston strutting and wailing throughout, sustained by the warm gospel harmonizing of Ava Fain and Erika Jones. Many of the tunes bring political issues down to a personal level, while radiating some desperately needed positivity in an era of fear and malaise, especially the easygoing “Yeah You” (dig those choppy Jackson 5 guitars!), and the N’Awlins brass band–inflected “Underneath the Sun.” With an album this good, Bumpus should succeed in finally breaking out of the bar-band circuit, because it’s certainly ready for it.—Ben TaylorTHE CHICAGOISTApril 27, 2007
Bumpus Digs Deep, We DigModern bands that specialize in funk and soul tend to release pretty crappy studio albums. We suppose it has to do with the sterility of the studio, and the emphasis on "getting things just right," but for the most part a band that can get us sweating and dry-humping the stage in concert tends to leave us cold when we're reintroduced to them via personal listening system.Bumpus' last studio album, Stereoscope, bucked that trend by focusing on interesting songwriting that infused their funk grooves with a healthy dose of pop smarts. Bumpus still used the studio as a modern tool, but they didn't let ProTools suck the life out of their work.That was six years ago. That's a long time to go between albums.In the interim the band released a live album and an E.P., but both of those releases felt like placeholders as the group reinvented itself. How do you follow up an album that synthesized most of your best qualities? That was the question Bumpus was working through, and we're glad they took their time coming up with a solution, because the answer is a doozy.Bumpus' new All The People digs deep into the band's influences and delivers an amalgamation of Sly Stone's sweaty anthems, early Funkadelic rubbery folk beats, and Creedence Clearwater Revival's personal politicism. Whereas Stereoscope showcased a band coloring their grooves with recently discovered modern / indie rock / hip-hop sensibilities, All The People plunges both arms elbow deep in the primordial ooze to pull out music built around inner emotional truth. By looking back, the group -- led by singer James Johnston -- has finally figured out how to forge ahead. The disc is saturated in '70s chromatic style, and launches the band as a whole into a new state of maturity.Bumpus has done something few modern bands have done by tapping into a deeply buried vein to rediscovers the sound of timeless soul music; by doing so, the band rediscovers their own strengths and, ultimately, themselves.Bumpus plays a CD release show for All The People tonight at Martyr'sPosted by Tankboy in Music
BIOBy Travis Chandler
It was the late 90's and apartments were cheap in Chicago's Rogers Park. Actually, I believe they still are. But back then they were the cheapest in town, and quite a few college-aged kids swarmed into the neighborhood as a result. Some went to Loyola, some to Northwestern, some dropped out and got mediocre jobs at cafés and such, and some seemed to party for a living (which is good work if you can get it).
Like college-aged kids the world over, most of them were extraordinarily interested in music. We were no different. The apartment I shared with a couple of other guys on Pratt avenue became a sort of hub for listening to weird music, watching strange independent movies, smoking what in retrospect seems like a never-ending tsunami of cigarettes, and indulging in the most popular iniquities available. Nothing too crazy, just the usual booze and such for the most part. There are some great stories from those days.
I can't remember who brought it over, but one afternoon somebody put on a Sly and the Family Stone record. Most of the time when you consider these moments in retrospect, you tend to exaggerate how you reacted at the time to something that would later turn out to be important. But I remember quite clearly that upon our very first listen we freaked the hell out. It was so. perfect. I mean, each song had huge, glaring imperfections, but somehow they came together to form something much greater than the sum of it's parts. We fell in love with it, and spent the better part of the next ten years trying to figure out how to do what Sly had done so seemingly effortlessly back in the 70's.
Our timing was very good. It just so happens that the whole country had gotten into a 70's retro phase around then, and as a result we were able to book shows around town without too much trouble even though we were just terrible back then. None of us really knew how to play yet, and we lacked the experience to understand that being sloppy is only cool when you are able to project to the audience that you could have done it right if you had wanted to. It took us some years to hone the music into what we were hoping for, but the audiences we encountered were very forgiving, and in time we got the hang of it.
We began traveling. It turned out that there were a lot of clubs all over the midwest that really enjoyed what we were doing. Many folks wanted to dance, and we provided an alternative to the Alternative bands that were moping their way across the country, leaving everybody feeling so-so. 70's retro had made way for indecisive ennui in the public forum, but for some reason the crowds gave us a pass. Except for Rockford. They freakin' hated us in Rockford.
When we finally made it all the way out to New York it worked out so well that we've tried to get back at least once a year since, even though the drive has almost killed us all on a couple of occasions, most notably in an incident involving a heavy trailer and black ice. It's amazing we didn't all die. Instead, except for a few bumps and bruises, all was well. We even finished the tour.
As our name got out there, we started to get offered some really great shows. At one point we got the chance to open for Maceo Parker. For those unfamiliar, he was James Brown's saxophonist for many years, and he's without question one of the funkiest men alive. He invited us up to dance on stage with him at the show, which we did, so whatever else happens I can die a happy man. Other folks we've had the wonderful luck to open for along the way have been (in no particular order): War (yes, they played lowrider), the Roots (?uestlove is even better live), Dr. John (at House of Blues, which was tons of fun), Jurrasic 5 (before we knew who they were actually, and boy did they rock), and just recently in the summer of '08 we were on a bill with the one and only Bob Dylan at the Aspen Snowmass Jazz Festival. To my knowledge, there is no jazz at that jazz festival, by the way. But as festivals go, and we've played a ton of them all across the country, I can safely say it rules.
Now we're making it all the way out west as well, with shows in parts of California, so I guess it's fair to say we've covered the country coast to coast. People still seem to enjoy what we're doing, and we finally feel like we're playing the kind of music we set out to play, which is probably the most important thing to us. Our most recent record, All the People, is really the first record we've ever made that sounds like what we set out to do in the first place. And the record we're gearing up to make. Well, we'll see, but it's looking like we may be even closer to getting it right. It's funny, though. Now that we're actually able to make stuff that sounds kind of like Sly, we usually don't. We found our own identity at some point along the way, and now we don't have to try to be like anything else, really. Which is nice.
