Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 22, 2007 issue
Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band Releases Debut CD
Story by David Brewer
After bursting on to the local music scene in 2002 with an unforgettable name and a sound made for dancing, Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band is finally releasing their proper debut CD entitled Now You Know.
Recorded at Asheville’s state-of-the-art Echo Mountain Studios, Now You Know finds the Booty Band in full party mode, playing their self-described, riff rocking “bounce music” with reckless abandon. After three years of searching for the right studio setting with unsatisfying results, Booty Band guitarist and vocalist John Paul Miller said that the vibe at Echo Mountain allowed them to finally relax and make the CD.
“A lot of this stuff is songs that people have been asking us to record for years,” said Miller. “The term bounce music just stemmed from the actions we see from stage. When we play our songs, people just seem to bounce up and down."
As has always been the case, the Booty Band’s love of the funk is front and center on Now You Know. The sounds of George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic and Sly & The Family Stone are ever-present as the Asheville Horns punctuate the Booty Band’s loose grooves. The Booty Band also throws in a heavy helping of hip-hop and rock, bringing their bounce stew to a boil.
Some of the band’s legendary on-stage antics have included throwing a pajama party at Legends complete with a bed on stage. The Booty Band has also been known erect a portable brass pole at their shows, encouraging fans to dance. The band’s custom printed thongs with the Booty Band logo have long been the band’s hottest selling item.
“When I moved to Boone, I thought the music scene was so cool. To be a part of that cool music scene was an awesome experience,” said Miller. “It was a good place to develop. I don’t think that we could have gotten away with all that crazy stuff anywhere else.
Upon the band’s move to Asheville a couple of years ago, the Booty crew took their freewheeling and unpredictable live show on the road, raking in new fans all across the Southeast and beyond.
Thanks to a Sonicbids.com contest the Booty Band won, 2007 started strong with a January appearance on board Jamcruise 5, allowing the young band to rub shoulders with the likes of Galactic, The Derek Trucks Band and Perpetual Groove.
To support Now You Know, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band will tour throughout the Southeast and Gulf Coast, beginning March 9 in Charleston, S.C. The band's 2007 tour schedule will also wind its way through Colorado and California, the Midwest, Northeast and Florida.
To check out the Booty Band, click to www.bootyband.com or www.myspace.com/yomamasbigfatbootyband.