Grant Street Orchestra

By Emily Burnham

The seven members of Grant Street Orchestra did, of course, begin on Grant Street in Portland. Guitarist Andy Barbo and rapper Jeff “Mint” Griecci were roommates in the downtown neighborhood, and as a duo playing open mic nights around town, they billed themselves as the Grant Street Orchestra. A two-man orchestra, but an orchestra nonetheless. The five other members of the group — trumpet playing Geoff Zimmerman, sax and keys man Henry Redman, Charlie Sichterman on drums, Peter Eberhardt on bass and fellow rapper Jared “I-Kue” Burst — joined forces with the original duo over the course of 2009.

Three years later, they’re renowned around southern Maine as a dynamic, irresistibly funky live hip-hop band, with an LP in the bag — 2011′s “Passionately Late” — and a reputation based on their excellent live show. They’ll perform at 8 p.m. Saturday night at Zen in downtown Bangor, as part of the KahBang Arts spring showcase.

“We have always been about ‘the group’, not ‘two mc’s backed by a funk band’, working together to put on a killer live show,” said Griecci. “I think we sort of stand out and maybe even straddle a few fences in that respect from the rest of the people putting in work in the hip-hop scene.”

Maine’s hip hop scene has grown and diversified in recent years, with the success of groups like Sandbag and the Educated Advocates, and Wells-based rapper Spose. GSO fits into that spectrum — though they’re just as focused on musicianship as they are rhymes. While both rappers and guitarist Barbo are self-taught, the rest of the band are all trained, professional musicians. So while they’ve got chops, they’ve also got a laid-back attitude. If there’s a Maine version of The Roots, GSO is it.

“To top it all off, we are all fairly open minded and willing to try new things. If it feels good and sounds good, we’re all pretty psyched,” said Griecci. “We manage to blend everyone’s styles and interests into our music to create something new and exiting. I think this is why we work.”

“Passionately Late” is a fun, eclectic collection of the songs the group has honed over the past few years. There’s a lot of classic hip hop in there — from A Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr to, yes, the Roots — but there’s also a fair amount of jazz, funk and rock influences. The band lists everyone from Tom Waits to the Black Keys as an influence. They’ll play covers of punk bands like the Dead Kennedys, in between songs that are straight up funk.

“I usually say we are a seven piece hip hop funk rock group, that ocassionally gets jazzy,” said Griecci. “Honestly, sometimes I’m not really sure what we sound like. I have a hard time relating our sound to people. I’d like to think of us as maybe akin to the Roots or the Beastie Boys, in the sense that we all perform hip-hop based music as a full band.”

All else aside, GSO has a lock on high-energy, crowd-pleasing live hip hop — and the killer horn section doesn’t hurt, either. ”Passionately Late” is available on iTunes and on Amazon, as well as at GSO’s show this Saturday in Bangor.

Original Post

By Rachel Curit

Portland favorite Grant Street Orchestra played a concert at Kingman’s, Old Town’s newest hot spot, on Jan. 14.

Grant Street Orchestra is a Portland, Maine-based band formed in February 2009. In the fall of that year, they were nominated as “Best New Artist” in the We Push Buttons Awards, presented by the Milled Pavement Records label in Portland.

Last year, they were named the best “R&B, Soul, Blues act” by the Portland Phoenix. GSO released its debut full-length album, “Passionately Late,” and just months later unveiled their single “The Hood, the Badass, and the Funky,” in October and December of 2011, respectively.

GSO is a seven-piece ensemble with a typical set-up of guitar, bass and drums but with added saxophone, trumpet and upright bass. Interestingly, one singer even played a light bulb as an instrument; it had a whiny, synthesizer-like sound and lit up the stage like a Christmas tree.

The band spans multiple genres, owing their sound to a variety of musical disciplines and describing themselves as “a hip-hop band with major funk and rock undertones.” With jazzy instrumentals, rapped vocals and on-stage enthusiasm, it’s clear the members of GSO are passionate about their music — and that the audience is passionate about them, too.

At their 11 p.m. to nearly 1 a.m. performance at Kingman’s, the band played two sets of about eight songs each. To the untrained ear, their songs may all have sounded the same, but upon further investigation on YouTube and iTunes, it is clear that each of their songs has gained its own identity.

As usual, some songs stood out more than others, such as “City of Cracks.” One band member described it as their version of a love ballad, though not “too sappy.” It opens with a slow, extended instrumental intro, one that settled the dancing of the audience. During the concert the crowd began to stand and calmly appreciate its sound.

Another highlight was “Joaquin Phoenix,” whose beginning was slow enough that it could be sung along with after hearing the chorus only a few times. It was the sort of earworm that will find its way into students’ heads during particularly boring classes.

The smooth saxophone in “As Time Goes By” conjures imagery of a classy jazz lounge, and its rap verse changed the feel of the song without distracting from the instrumentals — one of GSO’s most appealing features and one that refuses to be ignored.

“Instrumentally, the group was tight with a particularly talented saxophone player,” said Evan LeBrun, a transfer student at the University of Maine.

Despite the audience’s small and intimate size, those who were there headed straight to the dance floor and left only during intermission. The crowd was enthusiastic about both the music and their own dancing, and seemed to have a great time.

“I heard about Grant Street Orchestra at the show,” LeBrun said. “I went with some friends to what I was told was going to be a funk show because I wanted to dance. They consistently played what I found to be interesting, entertaining and real danceable tunes.”

Grant Street Orchestra doesn’t play the type of music normally showcased on the radio but has a unique and instantly captivating sound. College is a time for trying new things — and listening to something that doesn’t sound like everyone else’s music is refreshing, to say the least.

Original Post

By Emily Pappas

Portland’s mastermind hip-hop crew, Grant Street Orchestra, recently released a new single in honor of their upcoming show this NYE at the Asylum. Titled The Hood, the Badass, and the Funky, the new track is not only named appropriately- it gives listeners a preview of what the band is really all about- a smooth, upbeat sound, that blends horns, thumping beats, and rhymes that create clever, and compelling stories. In other words, GSO’s new single is too cool for school. After all, the opening of the song contains the lyrics: “The Grant Street Orchestra is back- back with a fresh set of funky tracks. Times have changed, but the rhymes remain supreme, still pushin’ against the grain.”

Original Post

By Chris Busby

The funk/rap hybrid Grant Street Orchestra has released a debut album that answers this burning question: Is GSO a funk group fronted by two MCs or a hip hop duo with a live backing band?

Passionately Late proves they’re the former, which is not a bad thing to be. But if they sounded more like the latter, this above-average white band could be the Average White Band of our time.

Grant Street started three years ago, when the duo of MC Mint and guitarist Andy Barbo teamed up to do some open-mic gigs. They gradually added players — including a two-piece horn section of trumpet and tenor and another MC, I-Kue — and now they’re a seven-piece. There’s room for a few more, like trombonist Erin Burns, who joins the guys on two songs and fits right in. The two tracks co-produced by Doubletone and the scratches and samples here and there show that a DJ would be a fine addition as well.

The playing is tight. Straightforward funk cuts like “Joaquin Phoenix” and “In Check” alternate with jazzy, groovier numbers (“As Time Goes By,” “City of Cracks”). The aggressive rock-rap track “Night Writer” fuckin’ kills. “Lurkin’” starts slinky, then lifts off and gains intensity halfway through. It’s an impressive song, and you gotta love the local name-checks — Becky’s Diner, 3 G’s Tire.

MCs Mint and I-Kue do a solid job throughout, but their interplay is still a work in progress. The more they get comfortable passing the mic and establishing their own identities, the better this band will be. Passionately Late is a solid foundation from which to fly.

— Chris Busby

Original Post

By Aimsel Ponti

Grant Street Orchestra is a Portland-based, seven-piece hip-hop band. But wait, it's also a funk band. And a rock band. With guitars, horns, bass, drums and two MCs, GSO has earned its stripes across a spectrum of genres, culminating with the release of its debut CD, "Passionately Late." With an unofficial mantra of "We are here to make people move and to move people," vocalist Jeff "Mint" Griecci and guitarist Andy Barbo break it all down.

In a seven-piece band, who writes what?

Griecci: Jared (Burst) and I write all the lyrics. The music, for the most part, is written by all the musicians. These guys take the beats I make and digest them and make them their own. They'll take some idea and mold it into something that they like, and I have a hand in helping to write some of the music.

Barbo: The words are on the MCs' shoulders. If there's a guitar part that I really enjoy playing that I made up -- and this goes for any of the other musicians -- I show it to the rest of the group and they'll listen, process it, and they'll build their part from the first person until we fill the beat and we get to a place where we like it.

Are there particular themes on this record?

Griecci: "Phone Sex" is about the crutch of technology with a play on words. Jared wrote "City of Cracks" about Portland and his experience with growing up here and then leaving the city and returning. "Lurkin' " is also a track that's about the city. It's about walking late at night after work when most folks are in bed. Jared and I both worked at a pizza shop, so we were often walking home late at night.

Where was "Passionately Late" recorded?

Griecci: The first half was at The Studio with Jim Begley, and the second half with Abel Adame at Acadia Studios. We mixed it with Eric Bettencourt at ShadowShine Studios.

Where did the name Grant Street Orchestra come from?

Griecci: When we started, it was just Andy and I before we brought the five other guys in during the summer of 2009, and Andy and I lived on Grant Street. So before we had seven guys, we called ourselves Grant Street Orchestra as sort of a joke.

Barbo: People will come up to us after a show and talk about how they used to live in that neighborhood and that connects us to people just as much as the music does.

How did you choose the name of the CD, "Passionately Late"?

Barbo: It was after band practice, and we were sitting and talking about potential album names and that people had been waiting for a long time for our album to come out, and we felt like we were pretty late on it. Someone said "fashionably late," and I misheard it and heard "passionately late."

What bands or performers are your influences?

Barbo: I was a ska kid growing up and into Catch 22, Streetlight Manifesto and Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Grant Street Orchestra has the horns and is the ska band I never had. Also, The Shins, especially growing up. I put a lot of those kinds of ambient sounds into the songs.

Griecci: Definitely the Beastie Boys. Once I got to college, I started enjoying hip-hop more with bands like Hieroglyphics, A Tribe Called Quest and Arrested Development. As far as musical performance goes, I get a lot of influence from Spoon and also Tom Waits, both lyrically and from the eclectic sound. He's a huge influence.

Care to share your thoughts on the local hip-hop scene and how you fit in?

Barbo: It's very supportive. We're invited to lay down beats once a month at rap night at the Big Easy. Being a familiar face and being part of the scene is welcome and gratifying.

Griecci: I was scared (expletive) the first time we played to a hip-hop crowd because we're not the typical hip-hop act.

Barbo: We don't have a turntable or two or three MCs or a laptop, and right now in the hip-hop world, it's pretty standard to have those things. We're a different act in the respect that we have a full lineup of musicians. I specifically remember that first show because the audience was apprehensive and unsure because of the full band with two rappers in skinny jeans.

But what was really cool was a lot of guys came up to us and said we really killed it at doing our own thing. They respected we were doing our own thing, and that's all we can really ask for, because we're not the regular hip-hop get-up. We're not a typical funk band or R&B or jazz or hip-hop band but, regardless, we're still getting respect.

Staff Writer Aimsel Ponti can be contacted at 791-6455 or at: aponti@pressherald.com

Original Post

By Sam Pfeifle

Live, band-driven hip hop is a lot of fun and it's no wonder Portland has embraced Grant Street Orchestra, who this week make the Big Easy party central for the release their debut full-length Passionately Late. Harking back to early-'90s hip hop, with some contemporary underground flavor, it's an album that does well to translate the band's on-stage energy and sounds great in the headphones.

GSO ride two primary strengths: The chemistry of co-MCs Mint and I-Kue and the pop of Henry Redman's sax and Geoff Zimmerman's trumpet in the horn section. They manage to ride the low rumble of Jurassic 5's sound, keeping interest high with deliveries that switch up and jump on top of each other, alongside the high-end of classic Motown soul and big band. There's a smooth rolling introduction to "As Time Goes By," out as a single for some time, which morphs into the kind of acid jazz Guru made popular. "Boris Karloff" features interesting rhythms created by the chaotic drumming of Charlie Sichterman (also in This Way), which refuses to settle into a backbeat and brings the band up to a pretty great instrumental break late, just as a gang vocal makes everything primal and guttural.

"Phone Sex" is probably the standout track, though, with an Andy Barbo guitar riff, muted until a full jailbreak that might remind anyone who hung around Burlington, Vermont, in the early '90s of the underappreciated Belizbeha, who were similarly constructed. Mint and I-Kue are sharp and witty and the band build behind them into a finish that's as much rock as anything else.

If anything, Grant Street just might lack a little substance. As they say in "In Check," which reminds of Del the Funky Homosapien, "we're all about fun," and that does come through — these guys are definitely a good time — but I felt like a couple of songs could use a little more grit. Songs where Portland is so prominently featured, like "City of Cracks," could use a little more underbelly, and a little less pine tree state.

But maybe that's unfair. It's probably just best to enjoy a band that deliver with a smile in their voice and can comfortably rhyme "scooter" with "Macintosh computer" and stop being so damn heady all the time. If you want underbelly and cynicism, just pay attention to the real world for a few minutes.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached atsam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.

Original Post

By Phoenix Staff

"Portland hasn't been to this kind of party since Rustic in their prime. Though they got write-in votes in a bunch of different categories, GSO take home their first Bimpie for helping in large part to resurrect Portland's R&B circuit over the last few years. Grant Street are a big, funky unit that imagines what George Clinton might have sounded like if he grew up in Parkside, blending '90s alt-rock, '70s soul, and smooth, modern, party-minded rhymes. Consider the set-up: two MCs fronting a five-piece horn-and-rhythm section. It's a rare band that can juggle this many big personalities without stepping on each other's toes, but it's exactly that sort of loose, egoless, anything-goes mentality that keeps GSO ticking. In the words of Mint (or maybe it's I-Kue): "I'm not a rapper or a master of ceremonies; I'm just a kid with a laptop and a fat dictionary." You can't be a soul band without being honest."