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The Disco Biscuits are having their kumbaya moment.
In late April, bassist Marc Brownstein shared a video of the Ross Street School Chorus singing “Humuhumunukunukuapua’a,” a turn-of-the-millennium Biscuits song that’s been known to stretch past the 20-minute mark in concert.
“It’s one of my most successful Instagram posts—a middle-school choir singing the Biscuits,” Brownstein, the group’s self- described fan-engagement “lightning rod,” says with a laugh. “Jambands are popping up everywhere and permeating into the younger generation, which is interesting because their fans were trending older for a while.”
He riffs on another popular tweet he recently shared—the punchline is, “If you let your kid go to SPAC to see the Grateful Dead, there’s a very good chance he’s gonna start experimenting with psychedelics and create a band called the Disco Biscuits”—before offering a state of the union on all things Bisco.
“We are calling it the bubble of positivity,” the longtime Philadelphia-area resident adds, his enthusiasm palpable. “There’s so much positivity within the band, so much positivity with the fans. It’s just free-flowing at this point. We’re all in this bubble.”
Indeed, against the odds, on the eve of their 30th anniversary, the Disco Biscuits are in the middle of a self-realized golden age. The tides began to turn when the long-running livetronica pioneers recommitted themselves to the band in 2019 and things really kicked into gear after the concert industry reopened following a pandemic-necessitated pause. During that time, the quartet—which also includes guitarist Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig, drummer Allen Aucoin and keyboardist Aron Magner—has returned to the road in full force, barnstorming the country and even hitting some markets they haven’t visited in over 20 years. They’ve continued to pump out new material and, in late March, released Revolution in Motion, their first proper studio album since 2011. The 14-track set is a high-concept rock opera composed primarily by Gutwillig, Magner and Joey Friedman—a longtime fan and friend of the group who served as a lyricist, band coach and project manager.
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