The Maximum Rock & Soul Of The Bellrays
aut-university
Wed Jan 24 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
The Maximum Rock & Soul Of The Bellrays
Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 10:09 am
Press Release: Auckland University of Technology
Ausm, 95bfm & Velvet Tiger Presents The Maximum Rock & Soul Of The Bellrays
It is with rising adrenalin and a steadily-building sense of anticipation that we announce the impending arrival to our shores of the electrically-charged soul of Southern California’s the BellRays, a powerhouse live act fronted by the incomparable “force of nature” Lisa Kekaula.
The BellRays: an uplifting, original, beatific, and inspiring melange of punk-soul, motor city rockin’ rhythm & blues, evoking the positive vibes of classic Motown, Stax/Volt, Parliament, and steamy inner-city funk. With a wordy and confusing description like that, you can see why the band is self-defined as “Maximum Rock & Soul”. If that sounds appealing on paper, you can only begin to imagine the delirious heights it sends audiences to in a live setting…
Their recently-released sixth album, Have A Little Faith – available in NZ through Shock Records – is quite possibly their most far-reaching work so far, and promises to be a significant breakthrough album for the BellRays, who in just over 15 years together have accumulated an ever-growing list of accolades. Previous releases have shown astonishing longevity -- selling consistently on small indie Cheao Lullaby, and subsequently being licensed by labels such as Alan McGee’s Poptones and Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles – both at the behest of their music connoisseur owners. Though the BellRays have been pursued and wooed by major labels, they’ve chosen to keep it close, with even production duties handled from within the band.
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As for notable extracurricular activity, BellRays vocalist Lisa Kekaula joined British duo Basement Jaxx on a tour which included the Big Day Out in 2004; and scored a Grammy nomination with ‘Good Luck’, the opening track of Basement Jaxx’s Grammy-winning, Kish Kash album. She had previously contributed to recordings by the Crystal Method; and was the featured lead singer of the DKT/MC5 tour of Europe and the USA with the surviving members of the MC5. None of which is anything like an ordinary way to pad out your resume.
“If the BellRays can do anything for music,” Kekaula says, “it’s to dispel the idea that if you see a black singer that means she grew up singing gospel, she’s the soul element of a band that has white guys in it. Because that’s not the way it is. We’ve all got rock, we’ve all got soul, and all of us coming together to do that is what makes us sound the way we sound.”
Join together, brothers and sisters, and have a little faith, because we know YOU are part of the solution. Come along and see how the mighty BellRays join the dots between 1966 and 2006, and deliver us all from the evil of everyday drudgery…
ENDS
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