The newest member of the Drop Trio family, miss Pennie Layne Batista, was born this morning at 3:00 am!! Mother and baby are both doing great. Emails of congratulations can be sent to ron_at_droptrio.com. We'll post pictures here as soon as we've got 'em. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 9:33 AM -

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  It's that time of year again - time to vote in the Houston Press Music Awards! Please take a minute and vote for Drop Trio & friends to appear on the ballot in this year's Houston Press Music Awards. To vote, click:

Houston Press Music Award Nominations

More info coming soon, with Drop Trio's picks in all categories. For now, make sure you enter Drop Trio for jazz, funk / soul / r&b, bass, drums, keyboard, and album (Big Dipper).

Update: here are our picks for nominations. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:42 AM -

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  Tonight, Drop Trio plays at Rhythm Room with Tea Leaf Green and Plump. We play first, at 9pm sharp, so get there on the early side.

We've been looking for a new slogan lately, and we've finally got one, thanks to Doug Payne, from Plump: he has dubbed us "the yodas of groove". Right on.

See you tonight! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:16 AM -

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  We've got 3 shows this week, so you've got no excuse not to see some live funk jazz. :)

First, on Wednesday night we're playing with Tea Leaf Green and Plump at the Rhythm Room. (We just noticed that Tea Leaf Green has a song called Freedom, and so do we ...)

Then, Friday night we're back at Brasil for Funk Jazz Fridays. This will be a debut set for our newest bass player, Patrick Flanagan.

And then, the BIG show: Saturday night we're the featured guests the Candu show, located at Cryolab (2819 Pease). Here's a press release for that one. That's gonna be the show to see - Drop Trio will play several sets, on a dedicated stage, spanning throughout the evening. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:29 PM -

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  Stucco Fish was a big success Friday night at Funk Jazz Fridays. They played a great selection of charts, and everybody in the place was groovin' on their bullseye musicianship. Thanks for coming out! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:05 AM -

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  Tonight, hit Brasil for the weekly Funk Jazz Fridays show and see Houston newcomers Stucco Fish. These guys are great players, and they play a very cool mix of funk & jazz tunes. Some of you may remember Bud LeCompte, who sat in with us on Bass during a show last year. Also in the lineup are Randy Hammer on drums, Dave Bartholome on keys, and Kenny Randall on sax. Go get your funk jazz on!

 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 12:26 PM -

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  Tonight (Wednesday) you can see a rare sight at the Rhythm Room: Mike "Nuje" Blattel playing drums with Michael Miller, aka Bones. Show starts at 9pm, and also features the Goodtrain Sessions, featuring members of Moses Guest and other Houston luminaries.

If you missed Bones the last couple times he came to Brasil, do yourself a favor and go check him out tonight - he plays Louisiana swamp funk & blues originals that run the gamut - quirky, quivering, growling, funny, bizarre, and also totally ruling. And with Nuje on drums you're guaranteed at least a couple "waiter falling down the stairs" drum solos. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 8:55 AM -

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  Starting today, PC users can buy Drop Trio's tunes in a new way - with Weed! No, we're not talking about that kind of weed. Weed is a new online distribution system that uses protected audio files. The way it works is, you can listen to the file 3 times - then it'll ask you to pony up some cash (.99 per track in this case). Once you do, not only do you get to listen to that track without restriction, but when you send that track along to somebody else (via email, p2p network, web, whatever) you get a cut of any cash they spend on it.

Interested? You can download our weed files right now, or read more about it. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 1:16 PM -

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  Drop Trio's Big Dipper is up for a listeners choice award on Kweevak Radio. You can see the contest rules here, but basically, all you need to do is send an email to them with "Drop Trio: Big Dipper" in the subject and some text in the body, and it'll count. If you're on a computer with an email client installed, just click here and hit "Send".

Note: pretty soon, the Houston Press nominations will be up, and that's the one we really want you to vote in. So if you have to vote in one or the other, wait for that one! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 12:24 PM -

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  Thanks to everybody for coming by Funk Jazz Fridays last night. The Defenestration Unit kicked butt, and Ian even got to sit in for a tune, in between guzzling his root beer and eating his 4 cheese pizza.

Tonight (4/17), if you're looking for some good music, go check out our friends Clouseaux at Rudyard's. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 11:54 AM -

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  The coming few weeks of shows at funk jazz fridays are looking to be pretty hot. Tonight we've got Houston's coolest avant garde jazz crossover band, The Defenestration Unit (stepping up so Nuje gets a little more time to heal). Next week are newcomers to the Houston funk jazz scene, Stucco Fish (keyboard, bass, drums & sax quartet). On the 30th, Drop Trio comes out swingin'. And on May 7th, we've got new friends Unified Feel Theory, from Austin. A great lineup.

If you haven't been down to Brasil for Funk Jazz Fridays yet, what are you waiting for? The food is great, the coffee is great, the beer is great, and the music is great. Show starts at 10 and goes until 12:30ish. April weather is perfect for sitting out on the patio and enjoying the strains of TDU's awesome lineup - Charlie Naked on Sax, Kid Ornery on Trombone, Jim Otterson on guitar, Jack Babylon on trumpet, Leroy Bell on bass, and Vaughn Boone on drums. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 11:30 AM -

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  Important note: Drop Trio will not be playing this week's funk jazz friday show at Brasil as usual. Mike, as you may know, was in a car accident last week. He's doing OK, but his arm is a bit more banged up than he realized, so we're gonna let him rest & heal for another couple weeks.

In our stead are good friends and Houston legends The Defenestration Unit. These are some of Houston's most creative free jazz improvisers, who also happen to be able to lay down extremely funky grooves as well. They are well known to the Houston creative music community, and if you've never seen them before, now's a great chance. We owe them a big thank you for taking over the slot this week at very short notice, so go check them out! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:18 PM -

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  Hey all, Nino here...

I am thrilled and excited to say that my wife, Tara, will be giving birth to our daughter in the next couple of weeks! Her and baby are healthy so far, and the delivery promises to be normal and groovy. I'll be out of pocket, Drop Trio wise, for a little bit while I get adjusted to the new little one, but Mike and Ian are going to still be gigging and making appearances everywhere - so be sure to get out and dig on the groove, the love, and the funk! Many brilliant Houston bassists have stepped up to the plate to fill in while I am out, and believe you me it'll be worth your time to see them do their thing with Mike and Ian.

In other news, I visited Mike to see the extent of his injuries, and he seems to be doing ok. He arm has a good cut on it, and his hip is bruised, but he is indeed ok. He's better now that he managed to yank yet another a chunk of glass out of his arm on Monday. Excuse my while I shudder! As for his van...well...let's all say a prayer as it ascends into Car Heaven, which should look something like the automotive section at Super KMart.

While I psychotically go back and forth between "new baby euphoria" and "nightmarish music withdrawal", do check the Drop Trio website regularly for showdates and other cool news as often as you can: Drop Trio is not hardly slowing down! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 8:40 AM -

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  Just put some new photos up in our photo section - shots taken of us during our SxSW performance in March. Don't forget that you can watch a video of that performance too, thanks to the folks at Magnatune.

 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 5:24 PM -

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  Attention all - our Last Concert set tonight has been cancelled due to severe weather. Moses Guest is waiting it out, and if things clear up in the next couple hours they will perform as scheduled, so if you're already headed that way, hopefully you can catch them there. Call ahead to be sure - the # at Last Concert Cafe is 713 226-8563. Sorry if anybody headed out there and is reading this too late - if you did, email us with your phone number and we'll put you on our "last minute alerts" list. Sorry! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 8:51 PM -

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  Nino here ... so, Nuje (aka Mike), our fearless drummer and resident chaffeur, was in a minor car accident last night. The van is totaled, the gear in the van is scuffed but ok, and Nuje himself has a bruised leg and a minor cut on his arm. Nuje is very much NOT at fault for the accident; the 19 yr. old slightly intoxicated guy who went straight when he should have turned is at fault, and is - as we understand it - in "really big trouble with his dad", among others. Nuje is banged up but OK, and will be here with full force at Last Concert tonight.

(Addition from Ian: on an even more serious note, our good friend and fan Diane Holman, who many of you have seen at Brasil on more than one occasion, lost her older brother in a car accident yesterday. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts this weekend.) 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 3:10 PM -

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  Big thanks to everyone who came out to witness our crazy set last night at Brasil. We had a great turnout. Huge thanks are also in order to Dionne Banks from the Last Soul Descendents, who sang a couple super chill tunes during our set break. If you want to hear more from Dionne, go check out the Last Soul Descendents somtime!

Tonight, we're over at Last Concert Cafe opening for our friends Moses Guest - they're having their DVD release party, so it should be a big one.  

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:08 AM -

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  Island / Def Jam records is releasing a collaboration song with Drop Trio and Solange Knowles, the rising star and younger sister of R&B diva Beyoncé Knowles! It's featured on the soundtrack album for The Johnson Family Vacation, a major motion picture hitting theaters today.

We can't give out the whole song (you'll have to go buy the soundtrack for that!) but you can listen to a taste of it here:

Here's the full story - the official press release. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 11:55 AM -

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  OK, we're finally free to let you know the big news. I guess the best way to let you know is to just show you the Press Release.

Music clip coming soon ... :) 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 5:32 PM -

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  Unbeknownst to us, our friends John and Jan from Magnatune (the label that's not evil!) actually video taped our SxSW performance on a little handheld Sony Clié. They had asked for permission beforehand, but we didn't realize they were actually doing it at the time, because they didn't have a regular "video camera"! We're really excited to see and hear the video, since it's the only record of our SxSW performance. Check it out! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:19 AM -

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  We had a great time last night in Austin. More tales are forthcoming, but for now, here's a board recording of last night's show:

Flamingo Cantina - April 1, 2004 -

Now, make sure you head to Brasil tonight to hear Gnappy for Funk Jazz Friday!
 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 12:06 PM -

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  Thanks to you guys, Drop Trio was one of the most requested bands on Kweevak radio last week. The show is on again this week, with 2 hours of requests instead of 1, so call in again (866.369.6788) and request us tonight! 7pm EST (6pm central). 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:57 AM -

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