Renovation

From Corner to Corner, Galactic Teams With Hip-Hop Vocalists To Keep New Orleans Above Water

originally published October 31, 2007

If you were musically dissecting Galactic’s newest album as though it were a recipe (the King Curtis tune “Memphis Soul Stew” comes to mind), it would break down something like this: Take half a pound of JB’s- and Meters-esque groove-funk, cover with a layer of progressive and socially conscious backpack hip-hop vocals, sprinkle liberally with New Orleans pride and urban cool, then stick the whole thing in your back pocket and let it simmer while you bounce your ass around on the dance floor.

Lyrically, though, From the Corner to the Block, the quintet’s sixth album in its 12-year existence, comes off more like a road map than a recipe. It’s a concept album with each song leading us to a different city corner; each corner is shown to us with a different guest vocalist as our tour guide.

“Everyone [doing vocals] on it is still who they are,” says bass player Robert Mercurio, “but the one parameter that we made them write within was: Write about a corner, anything about a corner. Take on the personality, whatever, write about a corner. Everyone had their own little take. We just wanted it to have some little cohesive lyrical direction but not limit them too much. They get to do what they normally do.”

The artists that they wrangled into the studio for the project are a who’s-who of intellectual, progressive hip-hop. Lyrics Born portrays a fast-talking corner-store merchant in the album’s opening track; Boots Riley of The Coup gives a lesson in wiggling Oakland style; Gift of Gab lays down one of his Micro-Machines-guy speedy raps to describe his block; Mr. Lif, Lateef the Truth Speaker and Ladybug Mecca of Digable Planets get tracks (and corners) as well.

Says Mercurio: “This is an album we always wanted to do, but since we always had a vocalist it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. We’ve always thought of ourselves as a rhythm section capable of backing up different vocalists. When we parted ways with our vocalist in 2004, we said, ’Okay, let’s do this album.’ [The material on the album] came from a cumulative influence of listening to hip-hop, [but also] we just wanted to make a really good party album and make sure that all of the grooves were ones that made your head bop. That was actually one of our really big inspirations: ’Does this groove make your head bop?’”

To achieve said head-bopping, the band didn’t limit itself to the accompaniment of heady hip-hoppers; it also mined from a wellspring of talent that was, well, a bit closer to home, bringing in a parade of local musicians from various corners of the New Orleans music family. The round-up includes Mardi Gras Indian Chief Big Chief Boudreaux, horn impresario Trombone Shorty, hometown superstar Juvenile and second-line favorites Soul Rebels Brass Band. These are the musicians who have fueled the fire of Galactic’s collective inspiration over the years, as well as giving support and encouragement to the young band who made New Orleans their home.

“Funk is just the heartbeat of the city,” says Mercurio, “and it would be hard not to get sucked into that.” And the band was more than willing to get sucked in. Drummer Stanton Moore was born and raised in the city, but all of the other members are transplants. Mercurio and guitarist Jeff Raines moved to the Big Easy from D.C., sax player Ben Ellman from L.A., keyboard player Rich Bogel from Nebraska. The music scene was a major draw for all of them, and it welcomed them.

“Really I was very surprised by how friendly and non-competitive [the music scene in New Orleans was],” says Mercurio. “When I grew up in D.C., man, no one really invited you to sit in. No one was like, ’Oh, let me show you how to do that,’ but down here it was more of a collective feeling, which I was really appreciative of when I was so young.”

If any one in Galactic ever took that collective feeling for granted, their appreciation was quickly crystallized on August 29 of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina tore through the Crescent City. Galactic was in the middle of recording From the Corner to the Block at the time. The band members evacuated together to Pennsylvania, where, despite the anxiety and fear that took hold of everyone connected to the city, they continued working on the album. “We weren’t allowed in the city for a few months and we were still working on the album,” says Mercurio. “Luckily we were donated studio time by [Red Rock Recording,] this great studio up in the Pocanos… focusing on the album at that time was really hard; we were recording by September 20. We moved really quickly, and it was really hard. It was when people were tapping into the Internet a lot just trying to get updates, and dealing with insurance and all that.”

All of the band members’ homes received damage ranging from a couple broken windows to total devastation, and they also lost their studio. As soon as they could, though, they got back to town. Once home, they found not just a new recording space, but also a heightened sense of love for their adopted musical family. The next step was to record the NOLA-centric parts of the album. “I don’t want to say that Katrina was why we tried to add a NOLA element, but because of Katrina we were very proud of our New Orleans element,” says Mercurio. “We did all of the New Orleans additions to the album after Katrina, and I don’t know if that feeling of loss was immediately conscious, but it was harder to deny where we had come from, and I think we all had a newfound appreciation of where we’d come from.”

This appreciation for the culture is something that permeates New Orleans these days. Even now, two years after the storm, the rift created by Katrina and her aftermath is still felt strongly. Since the storm, “we’ve lost a lot of people [in the music scene] and a lot of venues have had a hard time coming back,” says Mercurio. “It’s changed a lot, but hopefully it’ll start coming back. I heard a kid playing trumpet walking home from school the other day, and it seems like I used to hear that all the time. I’m worried about the future of New Orleans musicians.”

Boots Riley and Mr. Lif are along for the ride on this tour, as is the Portland, OR hip-hop group Lifesavas; they’re helping Galactic do what it can to keep New Orleans music alive, but Mercurio acknowledges that indeed something was lost in the floodwaters that will never really be re-captured. “You can rebuild a house,” He says, “But you can’t really rebuild the soul of that house, and that translates to the city.”

Ethan Clark

WHO: Galactic, Mr. Lif, Boots Riley, Lifesavas
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Friday, Nov. 2
HOW MUCH: $20