NEWSLETTER
VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 5

Included In This Issue:

• Know Your Aura - Vote To AURA Winners and New Line Up Additions
• Artist Spotlight - In Interview With Rob Compa of Dopapod
• Local Love - An Interview with Russell Neidhardt of Brother Bean
• On The Radar - Eight Planets Past Pluto (EP3)
• Featured Bands - Upcoming Tour Dates

Know Your AURA: Vote to AURA Winners and More New Additions !

We are happy to announce that the AURA lineup has continued to grow even bigger. Both fan picks and a few surprise announcements have given us four more great bands. The Vote To AURA 2012 artist selection contest literally came down to the wire. The two front runners battled neck and neck till the very end, and the winning margin was only a few votes. To keep both fanbases happy, we decided to bring both South Florida jam locals The Funky Nuggets and Philadelphia's progressive jam-rockers Psychedelphia!

We are also very excited to add a pair of dynamic duos to the AURA family. Self-described as environmentally friendly intelligent electronic dance music producers, BioDiesel will bring out a different side of Brother's Past bassist Clay Parnell. In this outfit he combines his bass and producing efforts with the drumming of WFD World's Fastest Drummer Johnny Rabb. Individually they are impressive and together they lay down some of the best drum and bass in the land. Also joining us will be Miami's glitch-hop producer/drum combination Sounduo. Proven masters of the remix and articulate geniuses of live drumming matched with far reaching psychedelic synthesizers, these two are sure to complement our deep lineup of live electronica artists.

Artist Spotlight: An Interview with Rob Compa of Dopapod

Hailing from Brooklyn, Dopapod is a unique experimental funk rock quartet that specializes in multi-genre coalescing. The boundaries seem limitless for the group as they attack the East Coast and Midwest circuit with an evolutionary approach to combining superb technical compositions with loose yet destination bound music exploration. Stand out guitarist Rob Compa put the six-string aside to answer some questions about what they are bringing to the AURA table.

Claiming the Northeast as your regional hub, what was it about your upbringing as individuals that resulted in this genre cornucopia that is Dopapod?
While Eli [Winderman/keys] and I are indeed from the Northeast, Chuck [Jones/bass] is from Los Angeles and Fro [Neal Evans/drums] is from Colorado. I don't know if the two different coastal upbringings are to blame, but Chuck and Neal are both influenced by heavier stuff like Primus and Metallica. Eli and myself, on the other other hand, grew up listening to jazz, funk, and jam stuff. I started with the standard classic rock like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, and later got super into Phish. Eli is big into funk like Soulive, Lettuce, Medeski Martin & Wood and James Brown. At this point all of us like just about everything, but our earlier influences can be traced back. I think the fact that we don't all share the same influences has led to many different styles naturally becoming a sort of musical mutant. It has naturally become that way just out of the need for each of us to get a little bit of what we want musically, while still being open-minded for other stuff.

It seems that Dopapod is catching traction everywhere and the word is out. What have been some of the high moments for you guys as a band?
There have been so many high moments for us, particularly in the last year. I know that Bear Creek was a huge highlight for all of us. Besides that, The Big Up festival in Ghent, New York this past summer was a really unforgettable one. We did some guerrilla sets at Bonnaroo that were a riot, too.

How did the palindrome fascination start?
We get asked that a lot and I honestly don't know how it started! Eli thought up the name before I was even in the band. I guess he has always been fascinated with palindromes, and we found we could make a sort of ongoing theme with the concept.

So far it has worked for you. How far do you think you'll take it?
Till we run out of palindromes.

Your second studio effort Drawn Onward just came out on Christmas as a gift for the fans. What can you tell us about the new album?
We recorded the basic tracks for Drawn Onward in Brooklyn almost a year ago. We then did a bunch of overdub sessions. For whatever reason, it took much longer to release than we expected. Whatever the case, though, it's finally out and we're all happy with it. We were consciously trying to make an album that could serve as a good representation of where we're at as a band. Our last studio album, Radar, honestly doesn't sound anything like what we sound like at this point. We all like it, but it feels a bit like false advertisement. People would see our live show, buy Radar, and then go home and listen to it only to find it didn't sound anything like the band they had just seen, or vice versa. We also were trying to make something a little more concise than our live shows. A lot of bands try to recreate the live show vibe in their studio albums but as far as we're concerned, that live vibe exists because it is indeed actually live. To try and get that feeling in a studio where every second costs money and there's no audience to inspire you, and your bandmates, isn't really feasible. So instead, we wanted to take advantage of the creative tools that only a studio provides and get as much out of it as we could.

The cover for the album is an illusionistic piece that appears to extend on forever. It fits the album title perfectly. Who designed that piece of art and what is the story about how you found it?
Our good friend Dean Arscott made the cover. He's done a lot of cool poster designs and other works for us in the past. We all love it.

I heard Gabriel Marin of Consider the Source sat in on the track "Bahbi" for the album? If that is true, what went down there?
That is indeed the one and only Gabriel Marin on "Bahbi." We recorded the tune without him, and then had him come in and overdub. He just improvised over the whole thing. We didn't really tell him anything specific to play. That's also him playing the droning Middle Eastern instrument in the song's intro. All the composed parts are still my playing. And for the solo section, the first half is Gabriel, and the second half is me.

You guys will be slaying your hometown region in the Northeast before coming down South. From what you know about the Florida music community, what are your thoughts making your debut performance at AURA?
We've done a number festival sets in Florida, some of which were sort of guerrilla campground sets. I recall every one of those shows being a total blast, so I don't think we can expect any less from AURA. Florida has truly been great to us every time we've been down there, so we're truly excited to go back.

Local Love: An Interview with Russell Neidhardt of Brother Bean

If you have never heard of Brother Bean, it is not because you are out of the loop. The digital-rock trio from Melbourne, FL made a name for themselves during a five year run before taking an indefinite hiatus in 2010. Now the band that played their last show at the first AURA is making a triumphant return to our stage. Bassist Russell Neidhardt took some time to talk about his band and what AURA means to them.

Tell me about Brother Bean's sound and approach towards music. How did Brother Bean first come to form?
The sound we strive to achieve is something that is both aggressive and patient. There is no denying our rock and roll roots, that influence can be heard in many sections of our songs, but what we drive towards with passion is patient, sonic tapestry-like improvisational moments. When we first started playing together, well, it happened at a late night jam session at our friend Marc's house. We were always just rocking out, to put it simply. We had a couple of guitar players that played in the band for a few years but in 2007 we slimmed down to the 3-piece, and that is when the Brother Bean sound we had been looking for came to be.

Where might people have seen you guys play before?
We were able to be a part of Bear Creek for many years. In fact, we played Bear Creek back when it was still called Down on the Farm. We also played a couple of shows at The Hard Rock Live in Orlando as part of Jambando. The shows that I hold closest to me though were some of the last. BB4, which was our own little birthday celebration held at Patrick's property, was an amazing experience. To me, the band was at an all-time high at that point. And of course, the first AURA was something really special.

Why did Brother Bean take a hiatus?
All of us were hitting these different stages in our lives where we realized we need more of our time devoted to different things. There were marriages and children and new homes on their way. We knew that we wouldn't be able to give the time that Brother Bean needs for a while, so we decided to take a break from it for an undetermined time.

What have you guys been up to since your last performance?
We have been playing! You know, taking the live show out of the equation allowed us a lot of time to give to our families and what not, but we spent only a little while apart as a band. Patrick [Livezey/drums] likes to throw parties, and we would always find ourselves playing at those. That kept us in the rehearsal space more often and allowed us to continue building on our sound.

What brought you guys back together for the performance at Aura 2012?
We really miss playing live. We've had some great times performing in private, so to speak, but we really miss playing on stage for a crowd, and taking the music out-there. We love going out there with everyone. There's nothing like a big jam coming to a peak with a crowd's energy feeding it.

You will be playing to a large amount of people that have never heard of you guys before. Do you think that if things go well it could be motivation to revisit playing as a band again?
We're thrilled to bring Brother Bean to a new audience. I'm hopeful that some of the old-schoolers will be intermingling with those new folks, and everyone can have one big seeing-us-again-for-the-first-time night. Yes, I see Brother Bean playing again beyond AURA.

On The Radar: Eight Planets Past Pluto (EP3)

Making their sophomore appearence at AURA, Eight Planets Past Pluto (EP3) has been making great strides in promoting their blend of livetronica this past year. To kick off the New Year, Atlanta's fastest up-and-comers are featured on the Relix Compilation CD with their single "Vimana." The cut is the first release from their upcoming album How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, which drops on February 29th.

Drawing on world rhythms, grinding synthesizers, ambient back beats and sampled textures, the new direction of the band found on "Vimana" is intelligently calculated and pleasantly polished. The rest of the album, combined with the well-practiced instrumentals from the self-titled and the EP3D studio release, will be launch pads for ethereal electronic movements, cleverly sampled trip-hop and heady improvisations. That isn't even the half of it with these guys, be ready to see them represent well for their region. As TheUntz.com says about them, " expect the unexpected."

WHERE CAN YOU SEE OUR FEATURED BANDS?

Dopapod On Tour

• 2/16 @ Jillian's of Albany, Albany, NY
• 2/17 @ The Snow Barn, West Dover, VT
• 2/18 @ Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA
• 2/23 @ Nectars, Burlington, VT
• 2/24 @ The Spot Underground, Providence, RI
• 2/25 @ Sullivan Hall, New York City, NY