Rapid River January 2020 Final
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MUSIC<br />
Too Many Zooz play the Grey Eagle<br />
on <strong>January</strong> 18<br />
BY STAFF REPORTS • DOWNTOWN ASHEVILLE<br />
The curious thing about being a fan<br />
of Brasshouse? You’re pretty much<br />
talking about being into one solitary<br />
but extremely unforgettable band: the<br />
amusingly monikered Too Many Zooz.<br />
The musical style was “branded”<br />
by drummer King of Sludge, who<br />
recognized that there was no worthy<br />
existing classification for the New York<br />
trio, whose other two members are<br />
the equally unclassifiable Leo P. (saxophone)<br />
and Matt Doe (trumpet).<br />
“Brasshouse is a high energy<br />
musical conversation,” Matt insists.<br />
“Though I honestly don’t think there<br />
is a good way to describe it in words.<br />
It’s about many different feelings and<br />
sounds and emotions.”<br />
Or as KOS so decisively puts it, “I<br />
don’t care about what’s happening<br />
in music - I just make art that I enjoy<br />
making.”<br />
It’s precisely this indifference to<br />
convention and trend that has garnered<br />
Too Many Zooz a fanbase that<br />
KOS describes as “wide-ranging and<br />
fanatical.” One of those fans? In 2016,<br />
Beyonce asked them to perform with<br />
her at the Billboard Music Awards…<br />
and it’s entirely possible they got just<br />
as much attention as did she.<br />
After two years, a gazillion live<br />
performances and four EPs, their<br />
debut album Subway Gawdz (an<br />
unsubtle reference to their birth in the<br />
underground stations of NYC), was<br />
released to enthusiastic acclaim in<br />
2016. Its sound was truly like nothing<br />
else, with inescapable grooves<br />
that take in the dub, soul, funk and<br />
ska, utterly exhilarating horn blasts<br />
that shoot right up your spine, and,<br />
of course, equal doses of fun and<br />
attitude.<br />
A Canadian KFC commercial featured<br />
the band and their songs – so<br />
don’t be surprised if listening to their<br />
music suddenly makes you hungry.<br />
Though they’ve also been up to<br />
more serious matters, Leo was asked<br />
to play at the BBC Proms Charles<br />
Mingus tribute at a sold-out Royal<br />
Albert Hall in August 2017 – indeed<br />
no small honor.<br />
Yet for all this, the forward plan for<br />
Too Many Zooz, is, as ever, constant<br />
touring, and 2019 sees the band<br />
continuing their never-ending journey<br />
from coast to coast and all corners<br />
of the planet. The reason is simple:<br />
it’s their outrageous, electrifying live<br />
performances that continue to fuel<br />
the growth of their worldwide legion<br />
of fans.<br />
“I don’t think there’s any recording<br />
that can do a live performance<br />
justice,” reckons Matt. “You’ll see<br />
people of all different colors, creeds,<br />
genders, ages, sexuality at our<br />
shows. I really can’t find a constant<br />
between them, besides liking our<br />
music – haha.”<br />
But for everything that’s happened<br />
in the last couple of years, the trio<br />
isn’t all that surprised by their success.<br />
“I always knew we had something<br />
special,” Leo enthuses. “Thousands<br />
of people everyday loved our music…and<br />
I knew it would just continue<br />
to spread.”<br />
IF<br />
YOU<br />
GO<br />
The Grey Eagle<br />
185 Clingman Ave, Asheville<br />
(828) 232-5800<br />
www.thegreyeagle.com<br />
<strong>January</strong> 18, 9pm • $18<br />
Downtown/Montford<br />
95 Cherry Street North<br />
Asheville, NC 28801<br />
828.258.2435<br />
South:<br />
200 Julian Shoals Dr<br />
Suite 20, Arden, NC 28704<br />
828.687.8533<br />
VOL. 23, NO. 5 — JANUARY <strong>2020</strong> | RAPIDRIVERMAGAZINE.COM | RAPID RIVER’S ARTS & CULTURE | 17
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