the hum / By Bob Doran

Evolution

The Glitch Mob, plus Tone-Loc and benefits galore.

(June 3, 2010)  There was a small uproar when The Glitch Mob debuted material from their new album, Drink the Sea, at Coachella in April. The three DJs from L.A. — Justin* Boreta*, Josh “Ooah” Mayer and Ed Ma, aka “edIT” — are known for energetic live shows where they bounce behind Lemur laptops punching touch screens as they lay down gnarly beats and torn, fuzzy bass lines. Instead the fans were confronted with guitars, bass and drum pads and cerebral music that floated like a soundtrack for some unknown film — with neo-tribal rhythms.

Calling from Mob headquarters in L.A., where they touched down briefly before resuming a seemingly endless album tour, edIT described the new music as a next step. “I think it’s more of an evolution than trying to ‘change our sound.’ I don’t think our sound has changed a lot — at the core you still find the elements of what the Glitch Mob is, or was in previous days. This is like the next story we’re trying to tell,” he said.

The Glitch Mob PHOTO BY RUEBEN COX

GALLERY >

What are those elements? “I think it depends on what time period you’re looking at, but the elements are distorted drums and synths, stuff like that, and obviously the highs and lows of the storytelling in the song structure. I think if our name was not The Glitch Mob, people would not necessarily pay so much attention to the glitchy elements of our music. It was always just a name. Honestly, it started out as a joke, but the name stuck. It wasn’t like, ‘We’re called the Glitch Mob so everything we write has to have glitchy elements.’ In terms of Drink the Sea, the way we felt we could best represent the songs and tell the stories was to change up our live performance, so on this tour we have some real instruments on stage.”

He admits some fans still want the old Glitch, but “some appreciate where we’ve gone with the record and with the evolution of the live show. A good cross-section gets it and understands where we’re headed. I think whenever you evolve as an artist, there will be fans who don’t want that. All you can do is stay true to yourself.”

Where are they headed? “There’s no definite destination. We just let the music take us. Honestly the main goal behind all of this is just to share our music with people. That’s really it. Drink the Sea is personal and sentimental for all of us. Now that the record is done, the reward is to go out and play it for people.”

Ready for the new music? Rebel Bass Collective presents The Glitch Mob live at the Arcata Theatre Lounge Sunday along with Free The Robots and Deru.

Rebel Bass Collective starts the weekend with a Friday electro thing at the Red Fox with T-dUb, Porkchop, Jana D and Keys. T-dUb is also part of the three DJ ‘80s Dance Party Saturday at ATL trading off with DJ Red and DJ Gerber.

Benefits abound this weekend, among them one on Friday at the Arcata Theatre Lounge presented by All Hits-95.5 and Mantova’s Two Street Music featuring ‘80s rapper Tone-Lōc — a benefit for Citizens for District Attorney Paul Gallegos 2010. There are some who would like to make this a political issue. The local blogger known as Rose, whose Watch Paul blog serves as a one-woman campaign against the D.A., opines, “How fitting. Gangsta rap for a gangsta friendly DA…”

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