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Guava Belly

Sound description

Improv-based melting pot of reggae, rock, funk, hip-hop, and jazz.

RIYL

Phish, Dispatch, Foo Fighters, Incubus, Weezer, Sublime, a Tribe Called Quest, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles

Inception

San Diego , 2007

Influences

Phish, Dispatch, My Morning Jacket, Foo Fighters, Incubus, Weezer, Nirvana, John Lennon, the Dave Matthews Band, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Who, Sublime, Muddy Waters, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Elliott Smith, Jack Johnson, G. Love & Special Sauce, Ben Harper, a Tribe Called Quest, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles

Discography

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Guava Belly began as an improv-based melting pot of reggae, rock, funk, hip-hop, and jazz.

The band includes Seattle-raised lead singer/guitarist Dan Hammer, Vermont native Mike Villemaire on keys and vocals, drummer Aaron Giffin from upstate New York, Toronto-born keyboardist Mike Pritchard, and UK-trained bassist James Traer.

“Two of us are lab-coat-wearing PhDs at Scripps Institute of Oceanography,” says Traer. “Mike [Pritchard, singer-keyboardist] works in the climate research group, building computer models to simulate cloud formation and understand the role that clouds play in the global climate system. I work in the marine physical lab, studying the physics of sound propagation in the ocean and developing technologies to map the ocean and oceanic crust using ambient noise.”

The math rock-inclined band often uses electronically sampled scientific material, including vintage quantum physics lectures. “Mike obtained some audio recordings of Caltech physicist Richard Feynman from the early 1960s. Feynman was known as one of the greatest minds who ever lived, while simultaneously being a professional percussionist in Latin jazz bands.… In our live set, Feynman’s voice punctuates instrumental music sections with bold statements about patterns and symmetries in the observable universe.

“In the future, we hope to incorporate sound clips I recorded from the ocean — whales, underwater landslides, hurricanes. I also have a pipe dream of writing some adaptive-filter computer algorithms to create custom effects boxes, like a distortion pedal that changes the characteristics of the distortion in response to the tempo of the music.”

The band’s debut album It’s Guava Belly was released independently in February 2009, produced by Jeff Berkley and mastered by Grammy-winner Gavin Lurssen.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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