Michael Farrar
Special to 2theadvocate.com
Why should a band come up with a whole new word to describe their brand of music?
In the case of the Baton Rouge band 6 Pack Deep, they term their music 'powerhouse.'
'We just felt like we weren't exactly easily categorized like some music is today,' bandmember Geoff Grice said. 'So, we always tell people we call it powerhouse because there's no one style. It's just a nice mix of everyone's creative efforts that come together.'
The music of 6 Pack Deep seems to be a musical gumbo, a flavorful blend of rock, ska, dub, reggae and rap. There are also some similarities to the Beastie Boys, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Green-Day, but 6 Pack Deep's horn section puts the group in a category all their own.
Grice added that some of the songs they perform are recognizable as rock, ska, reggae or whatever, but it's 6 Pack Deep's blending of a variety of genres that give their music its singularity.
The idea of the band was conceived by Grice and Aaron Triche, both veterans of the LSU Tiger Marching Band. They wanted to recreate some of that excitement they felt when performing for the crowds in Tiger Stadium.
Now, they bring danceable excitement to bars, taverns, clubs and everywhere else they play.
'We feel our live shows are definitely one of the best things about us. People come and don't just stand around and bob their heads like you see at other shows. We want people to jump, we want people to go crazy,' Grice said.
Members of 6 Pack Deep are Jeff Fountain (drums), Jason Campisi (bass), Brian Goad (guitar), Allen Wheless (tenor sax), Grice (trombone), Triche (trumpet) and Lyle Robelot (vocals/trombone).
Grice said he thinks 6 Pack Deep is successful because of their open-ended approach to music, with few if any boundaries.
'We didn't want to mold ourselves after any one band. It took us a while to get to our style. We didn't want to limit ourselves,' he said.
Inspiration for 6 Pack Deep's music comes from all directions, Grice said.
'We have a lot of different influences,' Grice explained. 'You know, when you get seven people together in one band, it kind of hard to stick to just one exact style, so we've kind of taken everyone's style into account when we're writing songs.
'There have been times when one person has come up with music ideas for a song. But the general way we've written songs in the past is that someone will maybe play a lick, like on the guitar, and then a horn player will come up with a melody. We kind of just flow off of each other, for the most part.'
When looking for 6 Pack Deep music, look for a tipsy rodent on the CD or Web site, because they have put out their songs on Drunk Mouse Records.
You can hear tunes from the band's 2008 CD, 'Wake Up,' on their MySpace page. Their 2005 debut recording was 'This Party Called Life,' a five-song EP, followed by 6 Pack Deep's 2006 full-length 'Assume the Position' CD.
As far as their live shows, 6 Pack Deep won't let an audience become an icy cool crowd, because that's not a party they want to host. Grice can read a crowd from his disc jockey duties in clubs and uses that skill to give an audience a mind-blowing good time at those shows.
'Something I learned being an MC is I don't want people to come to just hang out and move around a little bit,' Grice said. 'I want people to try and party and have as good a time with the music as we are on stage.'
