The Numbs

Hip-hop crew to release new CD

  It’s hard to believe that one of the pioneering groups in Utah hip-hop hasn’t had an album out in nearly four years, but if you look at the careers of each member of The Numbs, it isn’t hard to figure out why.

Each member has kept busy with his own side projects, collaborations and solo releases since the release of The Numbs’ 2007 album Nfinity. Gunnar McKell mainly focused on his family, while Rooster worked as a graphic artist and started up River Apparel. Mark Dago released a 2010 solo effort, Self High Five, and he and DJ Shanty reunited with Rotten Musicians for their 2011 EP, aptly titled EPee.

But as any musician will tell you, sometimes it’s hard to shake that first love, and clearly love of the music is what brought The Numbs back to the studio for their latest LP, Soulburn. Even with all the other projects happening in the background, the group never officially broke up.

“I don’t see it as ‘reforming,’” Rooster says about the status of the band through the years. “Just a slow, constant process that has spanned about three years. We have never broken up or quit the hip-hop game.”

One of the biggest influences in bringing the group back to the studio was Ogden’s Linus Stubbs, who put together tracks with the group and added his own style to the production.

“Stubbs is one of Utah’s brightest and defining beatsmiths,” says Dago. “He captures that early ’90s aura—lush, varied beats that all manage to sound cohesive enough to fit together on the same album.”

The five started collaborating in mid-2010 and eventually booked time to record the album with producer extraordinaire Andy Patterson.

“AP is the best recording engineer in Utah, hands down,” Dago says. “He has such an ear for all kinds of music. The cool thing is that he can make your LP on a shoestring budget sound amazing!”

While it may be cliché to slap this phrase onto the album, it needs to be said that Soulburn isn’t your average hip-hop release. It feels like a tutorial on all things hip-hop and soul, kicking off with “The Return,” declaring The Numbs’ return to the game. “DNA,” with its fast-paced ’80s beat and quick rhymes, begs for a b-boy performance the moment it kicks in. “Won’t Soon Forget” taps into a ’70s vibe with cool horns and a simple jazz beat, which leads to “Way Of The Gun,” with its ’60s piano melody straight from the underground New York clubs of the era.

This album is a lesson in old-school music, beat and lyric structure, with each member of The Numbs holding class. 

Good Old War

Indie-rock trio makes first national TV appearance

Photo by Andy Patch 

Posted // October 25,2012 - Indie-rock trio  Good Old War had to cancel their stop in Salt Lake City this past April, but we forgive them. They were, after all, performing for the first time on national television—on TBS late-night show Conan on April 5—where they played “Better Weather,” from their newest album, Come Back as Rain.
“It was really cool,” says vocalist/ guitarist Keith Goodwin. “I had my family there. It was an accomplishment for us. There were a lot of friends there backstage. It was really fun because it was a bunch of people that we’ve been involved with in making music. Our record label was there and we had our team there, and it was a positive experience.”
Drummer/vocalist Tim Arnold, who is a member of Matador Ambassadors—an international collective of visionaries who produce original stories about worldwide culture—provided an honest, revealing perspective on MatadorNetwork.com about what it was like to perform on the television show hosted by “the towering ginger man who cracks jokes” while sick with bronchitis. “This is our first TV appearance, and I’ll be damned if I fuck it up,” he writes. “We do what we came to do and what we do every night and it’s going well. We finish the song and the giant comic comes over and shakes our hands …”

But even though one of the band members had “death sickness,” you’d never be able to tell by the solid performance all three musicians gave, playing off one another’s energy perfectly. And now that a Salt Lake City tour date is re-set for Oct. 26, Good Old War is “pumped to be back,” Goodwin says.
The name Good Old War is derived from the last names of the three band members: Goodwin, Arnold and Dan Schwartz (vocals, guitar). The Philadelphia-based band formed in 2008, after the members of Goodwin and Arnold’s previous project, Days Away, parted ways. After perking up ears in 2011 as a breakout band at their first Coachella performance, and touring with several prominent artists—including Anthony Green, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Guster, Gomez and more—Good Old War earned a dedicated following through their communal, joyful live shows.
Come Back as Rain—the band’s third full-length studio album, released in March—showcases the band’s pop-infused, infectiously upbeat sound that’s filled with smooth three-way harmonies, breezy acoustic guitar, mellow percussion and melodies that Schwartz describes as “sing-alongable.” It was recorded in Omaha at Another Recording Company with producer Jason Cupp (Maps & Atlases) and released on Sargent House.
Goodwin explains the album is inspired by the fact that “there are things that you can kind of miss out on at home when you are away”—as in, traveling for extended periods of time—as well as experiences in his own personal relationships.
“Not Quite Happiness,” about the doldrums of a long-term romantic partnership, captures particularly well Good Old War’s knack for writing poignant lyrics. “I had a tough time singing that in the studio without choking up because it was just reminding me of times I felt that way,” Goodwin says. “I can get choked up just thinking about it [because] it hits close to home.”
Even with the national buzz Good Old War have received, they remain humble and grateful they’re able to make a living by doing what they love. “It’s been a nice steady climb, and I feel like as long as we keep making music that matters to us, it’s just gonna keep getting better and better, and it’s exciting,” Goodwin says.