Sundance Snowball Showcase

Wednesday, January 23 @ the Sundance House at the Kimball Art Center (638 Park Avenue)

6 p.m.
Cheb i Sabbah with Salar Nader, Mitch Hyare and special guest Gingger Shankar

6:30 p.m.
Steve Smith from Dirty Vegas

7:15 p.m.
Nick Urata from DeVotchKa

8:15 p.m.
The Aggrolites

The Aggrolites - www.aggroreggae.com; www.myspace.com/theaggrolites

Imagine a band of southern California twenty-something’s who play a brand of rocksteady reggae and ska that sounds like nothing less than Wilson Pickett throwing a house party backed by The Meters and The Maytals. Their self-titled debut is that rare album that sounds like the real thing; all the grit and tube-warmed funkiness you’d expect from a Studio One recording from say, 1965. Veterans of the so-Cal ska punk scene, The Aggrolites appeal equally to punks raised on Rancid and The Clash and to reggae purists in love with the deep ska of vintage Trojan and Studio One. Their sound is a thick blend of rhythm and melody, seasoned by years of love. The result is the infectious sound called “dirty reggae.” The Aggrolites already have three albums to their credit - Dirty Reggae (Axe, 2003), the critically acclaimed self-titled The Aggrolites (Hellcat/Epitaph, 2006) and Reggae Hit LA (Hellcat/Epitaph, 2007). Peter Relic from Rolling Stone magazine raves, “A glorious, surprising treat. Ideal for your next soul shakedown party.”

Nick Urata – www.myspace.com/devotchka

Nick Urata , a major musical contributor (vocals, theremin, guitars, piano and trumpet player) to ‘gypsy-punk’ group DeVotchKa, have quietly become one of the most celebrated bands making music today. DeVotchKa make a disparate, yet articulate union of Eastern European, Southwestern, South American, and American roots music, both punk and folk. LA Weekly described their music as “the unexplored sweet spot between The Arcade Fire’s bleary string-streaked indie-folk and Gogol Bordello’s Eastern European Gypsy-punk.” NPR’s All Things Considered has said DeVotchKa “is everything music should be…” DeVotchKa’s breakout came with the 2005 Sundance Film Festival entry Little Miss Sunshine (and 2006 multiple Academy Award winner). The band composed and performed the majority of the score and songs on the movies’ soundtrack which was also nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack. Two of the songs featured on this soundtrack, “You Love Me” and “How It Ends,” are on the How It Ends album. Recording since 1999, DeVotchKa has self-released three records (Supermelodrama, Una Volta, How it ends) and toured relentlessly. The band is currently in the studio recording the full-length follow up to How It Ends with an expected worldwide release in early 2008.

Steve Smith – www.stevesmithmusic.com

Dirty Vegas (“Days Go By”) moved to Boston in 2005 in search of a new beginning.  Feeding off the musical inspiration of Boston, he began creating his first solo album, This Town.  The project really started coming together when he joined forces with Anthony Saffery of Cornershop, who agreed to produce his songs.  Working with producers Anthony Saffery (Cornershop, The X-ecutioners), Claudia Gonson (The Magnetic Fields), Terry Barber (New York Symphony Orchestra), Jay Ungar (principal violinist for the James Horner Orchestra – Titanic, Legends of The Fall), and Rob Swift (Ill Insanity, The X-ecutioners, Quincy Jones).  The result is a delightful fusion of sounds that blends folk, rock, electronica, and Steve’s inherent songwriting ability.  With an inspiring monologue by acclaimed actor John Savage (Deer Hunter, Hair),This Town features two bonus tracks – a unreleased, acoustic version of the Dirty Vegas track “Days Go By” and a new song called “Late Nights and Street Fights”, which was chosen to be the main title theme for the FOX TV hit series, Standoff.  This Town is set for release on Smith’s own label, G.A.S. Records (named for his late father, George Albert Smith) on February 18, 2008.

Cheb i Sabbah - www.chebisabbah.com

Cheb i Sabbah- a.k.a. dj Cheb i Sabbah - grew up Jewish of Berber (Amazigh) descent in Constantine, Algeria, so the idea of mixing cultures was in his blood. He moved to Paris in the 1960s and became a DJ. By the late 1980s, he was pushing boundaries on the dance floor, seeking ways to work African, Asian, and Arabic music into the mix. Then, as the “world music” movement unfolded, Cheb i Sabbah took the inspired step of recording traditional and classical musicians himself and using those tracks to create bold, new creations, composed by a DJ. With four landmark recordings under his belt, Sabbah recently returned to his native North Africa to gather the raw material for his most ambitious project to date, La Kahena, a set of eight pieces created from music by eight different acts, all featuring women singers. Sabbah remains a DJ at heart, but he is also something more—one of the most innovative forces in contemporary dance music today.