The
Duke of Earl
The Man, the
Band, Release a Zany New Album
A golden-yellow, hollow-body
electric guitar. A sleek, thumpy-sounding stand-up bass. Vibes. Custom drum
set. Tap dancer. Trashcan percussion. Not to mention influences
as far ranging as Tom Waits, Tori Amos,
Fela Kuti, and Brian Eno. They’ve been described as “Talking Heads
meets Frank Zappa at a Bar Mitzvah.” Throw in a brown fedora, a spotted
dog named Lola, and a new self-titled CD, to be released Sunday, December
7, at the Wildcat, and you have the wacky and brilliant family of Earl and
the Expanding Polka Funk Experience.
Fronted by blues-funk-man Earl Arnold, the Experience is the energetically
zany collaboration of vibes player Mathew Talmage (of the Mades fame), bassist
Jeff Kranzler (of Antara & Delilah fame), and drummer William Pasley.
If Talmage’s mad-scientist flare on vibes offers carnival-esque melodies
to the group, Kranzler’s deep-in-the-pocket bass lines are the anchor.
And Pasley is all over the rhythmic map: bossa nova, samba, jazz — not
to mention the tap dancing interludes and junkyard experimentation that are
his specialties. Then there’s the visionary leader, Earl — a mix
of goofiness and sincerity, hard work and happy accidents, the glue that holds
it all together. The resulting sound is “uncategorizable,” said
Arnold. A fiercely original, joyously funky genre they make up as they go
along. Now they’re armed with a new album of 13 tunes to unleash on
Santa Barbara and the music world at large.
Earl the Band
The band behind the music is about what you’d expect. I dropped in on
a rehearsal a few weeks ago, down in the Funk Zone (breeding ground for many
S.B. treasures, including the world-famous Ataris), and found the four fellows
all yips and yowls, quips and wit. Crammed into Earl’s screen-printing
shop on Anacapa Street, they each prefaced what I was about to hear. “If
I can’t keep up,” said Kranzler with a mischievous grin, “then
it’s perfect, we’re going the right speed.” While doing
squats in the corner, Talmage piped in, “We used to have to stretch
for this song. We’re such a dangerous band, Jeff had to have surgery.”
From behind his drums, Pasley called out: “I’m a polka funkster!”
Earl just smiles.
When the music’s going, a shared expression of intense glee takes hold
of each man’s face. Their collective talent as musicians is unmistakable.
Fingers flying over fretboards, Talmage poised like a coiled spring over a
gold panel of vibraphone keys — and the sound is the best kind of chaotic
perfection.
All agree that what draws them to the band is the freedom to play whatever
music, whichever way. “What Earl writes is off-the-wall, the timing’s
crazy,” said Kranzler, who cites XTC’s art rock album Skylarking
as his all-time favorite. “Earl doesn’t even know what he’s
writing sometimes, and sometimes that’s the best way to play.”
Trust and lack of ego, they all agree, allow for a creative and supportive
space. “I don’t think I’ve ever introduced something that
was poo-pooed,” said Talmage, who teaches English and percussion at
SBCC and calls Eric Satie his biggest influence. Pasley, an avid Beatles fan,
nodded, “Earl’s music to me is a door. It’s totally liberating,
totally freeing.”
The Experience as it is today sprouted from three musicians trying out new
instruments for the first time. Earl provided the space and the songs to guide
them, and let them be. Pasley, a former motorcycle racer, modern dancer, Buddhist
monk, and chef, had picked up the drums after not playing for nearly 30 years.
Kranzler had
just bought a stand-up bass, and Talmage, who normally plays drum set or percussion
in other musical projects, was eager to try his hand at vibes. And things
just evolved. The key to all this is the word “expanding,” they
insist. Tap dancing, trashcans, new instruments, whatever — the door
is open.
Earl the Man
Born in West L.A. (the memories of his childhood neighborhood comprise the
song “The Train Doesn’t Run Through West L.A. Anymore”),
Earl Arnold moved to Santa Barbara in 1984 to attend UCSB’s College
of Creative Studies, majoring in Studio Art. Though he played in a noise band
called Circle of Willis, in his college years, Arnold remembers that “music
was something I dabbled in but I wasn’t a real musician. I appreciated
music a lot and those who could play it. [Circle of Willis] didn’t really
play music.” After college, he quit the guitar altogether and focused
on his surrealistic and landscape oil paintings. “I always thought of
myself as a visual artist. It fits my personality. It’s a very inward,
reflective way of being in the world. Creative, but in a private way.”
A few years went by, and then he picked up the guitar again as therapy for
a traumatic relationship break-up. He started attending Nicola Gordon’s
Adult Ed songwriting class, and became a regular at the Goleta Daily Grind’s
open mike night. “It’s 180 degrees opposite,” he said about
his new passion, songwriting, from painting. “As a performer, there
is no separation between you and your work. You are the work. For me, it was
like a hermit coming out of a cave.”
Musicians approached him to start a musical project, and the first incarnation
of the band known as EARL was born. With trombone, two guitars, and a rock
drummer, the five-piece ensemble was a more electric version of the Experience.
They recorded an album I Am Next to You, which was a rough but unique collection
of songs, that included such Earl faves as “Ladybug Polka” and
“I Drive Fast, You Drive Faster.” The band disintegrated as the
members pursued other musical projects, and Earl went back to playing solo.
Then he met William Pasley while walking down the street.
You know the rest.
The Album
The first 200 copies of the album Earl
and the Expanding Polka Funk Experience, entitled “the especially exuberant
edition,” are hand-printed and numbered. Songs range from tender love
ballads, complex jazz compositions, slow grooves, and, of course, a polka,
which proclaims “Music is life / Music is love / Music is Inspiration!”
in a frenzied cacophony of ecstatic voices.
Santa Barbara has been blessed with a brilliant freakshow, an original fearless
group with the songs and expertise to back ’em up. Thank your lucky
stars, and don’t miss catching one of their notorious live shows.
Earl and the Expanding Polka Funk Experience will release their self-titled
album Sun., Dec. 7, 8:30 p.m., with special guests, at the Wildcat. Also don’t
miss them Wed., Dec. 10, 4:30-6:30 p.m.,
at JoJo’s Cafe in a benefit for the children of Transition House. Call
564-3359 for info about the band, or visit www.earlsongs.com.
