ASBURY JAMS

PERSONS AGE 21+ ONLY ADMITTED

The Wonder Bar and ElmThree Production present a new Thursday night series called Asbury Jams. Each Thursday night beginning on July 7, we will showcase national touring, regional and local acts from all genres. The goal is to bring outstanding music for a low price and keep the crowd coming. Every week we will showcase this talent for the low price of $10 plus applicable surcharges.

July 21: Garcia Peoples & Easy Honey

Formed in New Jersey by guitarists Tom Malach and Danny Arakaki, the band took a few years to find their flying shape, solidifying into a lineup with Danny’s brother Cesar on drums and Derek Spaldo on bass by mid-2016. Ramping up their acceleration around the time of their 2018 Cosmic Cash debut on Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records, they’ve blasted through residencies and new songs and sessions and collaborations, relocating to New York, picking up two new members in keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Pat Gubler and bassist Andy Cush, and leaving a trail of live tapes in their wake. This year, they’ve delivered not one but two new albums for BBiB: the sleek and song-oriented Natural Facts and the sprawling improvisatory opus of One Step Behind. 2019 also saw the first performances by the full Garcia Peoples lineup, a six-person behemoth with Spaldo on third guitar.

With a stash of live recordings accumulating at the Live Music Archive, Garcia Peoples’ music is very much a living entity. Since the release of their previous two albums, songs have started to expand, jam suites have grown, and experiments have been undertaken. The first part of 2019 has seen Garcia Peoples back Philadelphia guitarist Chris Forsyth (an expanded Solar Peoples Band has hit double-drummer overdrive several times now), and joined with guitarist Ryley Walker. They’ve improvised on WFMU, and jammed with the sounds of ocean waves and falling rain at strange late night happenings. Probably something else new and wonderful and weird has happened in the Garciaverse since I wrote this.

Whether or not you thought you knew Garcia Peoples’ music, One Step Behind is something new and beautiful, for new heads and old. No matter where you stand–behind, beyond, or another plane altogether–One Step Behind is ready. For those about to get on the Bus, we salute you.

Opening is Easy Honey. Forged on a Tennessee mountaintop, Easy Honey began molding their irresistible sound and raucous live performance in 2016. With sounds reminiscent of early Brit-rock and a nod to ’90s alt-rock, Easy Honey captures both the playfulness and maturity that accompanies one’s coming of age. Easy Honey’s throwback sense of touch, taste and tone washes over the listener like quicksilver but seizes the audience’s ear like quicksand.