2008 Woodie Awards
The Bad Plus:
Cameron Chiles
Issue date: 2/16/06 Section: Exposure
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However, The Bad Plus didn't experience international success until the release of their first major-label recording, "These are the Vistas," in 2003. Since then, they have released two more albums, "Give" (2004), and their latest, "Suspicious Activity" (2005), that have been met with the praise of critics and avant-garde music fans alike.
The Bad Plus' style ranges from loungey covers ("Smells Like Teen Spirit"), groovy rock ("And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation"), to total freak-outs ("Do Your Sums-Die Like a Dog-Play for Home") where drum tantrums and flurries of notes break down tempos as soon as they are established. Amidst all this, one the few things you won't hear is anything you're liable to mix up with something else.
Last Saturday, the band played at Lexington, Kentucky's Memorial Hall.
Exposure: What kind of musical training have you guys had?
Iverson: I have a teacher, and we've all had interaction with private teachers, but I think we all learned jazz off of records and stuff. I took music in college for two years, but I dropped out, and I can't really say that was important.
Anderson: I have a degree in classical performance, which is still rolled up (laughs). I haven't even unrolled my diploma.
Exposure: You've got to put that on the wall in the office.
Anderson: I know. I'm supposed to, right?
Exposure: Did you still have emphasis on stand-up bass?
Anderson: Yeah, acoustic bass and piano and some other things.
King: I have had no musical schooling. I've just studied privately.
Iverson: Well, Dave's played in Latin bands and rock bands. I've played in tango bands and musical theater. That's the real thing, anyway.
Exposure: The experience?
Iverson: Right. It's not taught in a college or something.
Exposure: Your songwriting credits seemed to be split up three ways most of the time. How do you determine who has written the song?
