With a line-up of performers that sounds like a who's who of the local foreign music scene, it's not surprising that the The Money Shot Horns' manager, Patrick Byrne, is touting the band as a "supergroup."
Most of the band's members - Roger Smith (keyboards), William Lloyd (electric guitar), Andy Francis (trombone), Darren Jorde (bass) and Byrne (saxophone) - have variously played with Schlumpy, Milk and Boogie Chillin'. Francis is now also involved in side projects with Public Radio and Johnny Fatstacks.
I've seen Hanro "Jubba" van Wyk, playing or jamming with three different bands in the last month alone, and Wesley James has played with The Sound Clashes and The Anglers.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF HANK WESTHEIM
In an interview on Tuesday, the members of The Money Shot Horns lavished praise on their lead vocalist, relative newcomer Dooley Chandler.
Byrne and Smith first saw Chandler performing with AdHoc at Grooveyard in Taichung. "Dooley did one song, they were maybe two chords in and Roger and I looked at each other simultaneously and said 'he's our vocalist'," Byrne said.
The Horns rehearsed only four times before they started playing shows.
"We're working with guys who have all played with such great bands and are very, very professional, and very experienced. Every one comes in with stuff," Byrne said.
"Someone will come up with a song they want to work on, and will show it to the others and try to get across how they want it to sound. We'll jam on it, and do chord progressions," Francis said. "We wanted to put together the best band in Taiwan."
The Money Shot Horns have been together for only a year, but have already honed a hard-driving, energetic funk sound that gets audiences up and dancing.
"When we play, people are immediately up and on the floor," Byrne said. "I feel like we are on the crest of a wave that hasn't died down yet. Usually things level out, you kind of peak with your fan base, but we are feeling a lot of momentum."
The variety of musicians and instruments in the group, especially such a large horn section, produces a sound that is groovy and which combines funk, rhythm and blues and rock.
Band members collaborate on writing the music, with Chandler, Byrne and James co-writing the lyrics. Chandler also writes lyrics to accompany instrumental songs from a previous band of Byrne's, 'round midnight, which they then bring to the group to jam on.
"Everyone in the community of music here is very open," says Francis. "Music is a great common denominator."
Money Shot Horns play tonight at Bliss, 148, Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市信義路四段148號) from 10pm.
The Taipei Times last week reported that the rising share of seniors in the population is reshaping the nation’s housing markets. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident. H&B Realty chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), quoted in the article, said that there is rising demand for elderly-friendly housing, including units with elevators, barrier-free layouts and proximity to healthcare services. Hsu and others cited in the article highlighted the changing family residential dynamics, as children no longer live with parents,
The classic warmth of a good old-fashioned izakaya beckons you in, all cozy nooks and dark wood finishes, as tables order a third round and waiters sling tapas-sized bites and assorted — sometimes unidentifiable — skewered meats. But there’s a romantic hush about this Ximending (西門町) hotspot, with cocktails savored, plating elegant and never rushed and daters and diners lit by candlelight and chandelier. Each chair is mismatched and the assorted tables appear to be the fanciest picks from a nearby flea market. A naked sewing mannequin stands in a dimly lit corner, adorned with antique mirrors and draped foliage
The election of Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) as chair of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) marked a triumphant return of pride in the “Chinese” in the party name. Cheng wants Taiwanese to be proud to call themselves Chinese again. The unambiguous winner was a return to the KMT ideology that formed in the early 2000s under then chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) put into practice as far as he could, until ultimately thwarted by hundreds of thousands of protestors thronging the streets in what became known as the Sunflower movement in 2014. Cheng is an unambiguous Chinese ethnonationalist,
The consensus on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair race is that Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) ran a populist, ideological back-to-basics campaign and soundly defeated former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), the candidate backed by the big institutional players. Cheng tapped into a wave of popular enthusiasm within the KMT, while the institutional players’ get-out-the-vote abilities fell flat, suggesting their power has weakened significantly. Yet, a closer look at the race paints a more complicated picture, raising questions about some analysts’ conclusions, including my own. TURNOUT Here is a surprising statistic: Turnout was 130,678, or 39.46 percent of the 331,145 eligible party
RSS