The Disco Biscuits

the Disco Biscuits are:
Allen Aucoin - Drums
Aaron Magner - Keys
Marc Brownstein - Bass
Jon Gutwillig - Guitar/Midi Keyboard
the Disco Biscuits have entered their second decade as one of the most successful acts on the jam-band circuit. In the years since the band sprang out of the University of Pennsylvania party scene in the mid-'90s, the Disco Biscuits have brought together the worlds of jam bands and electronic music with its "trance-fusion" sound that mixes the free-form improvisations of jazz with the hypnotic rhythms which provided the soundtrack for rave culture. In the process, the band has garnered critical acclaim and a loyal fanbase.
The Biscuits have continued to evolve with some new blood. Drummer Sam Altman moved on, but the band is re-energized thanks to the addition of drummer Allen Aucoin, who in true Disco Biscuits fashion landed the gig after a live "drum-off" gig in November 2005 in Atlantic City. Aucoin played his first shows as an official member of the band over the 2005 holiday season at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia and the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, where it sold more than 10,000 tickets.
With the new blood also comes a new home base. The Biscuits have regrouped in their own studio, formerly owned by fellow Philly homeboy DJ Jazzy Jeff, and the band is reaching creative heights it hasn't hit since it shared a house together in the late '90s, practicing up to 10 hours a day and writing new material for their next studio effort. 2006 and 2007 have brought the band back to a heavy touring schedule, once again touching cities across the country.
The Disco Biscuits latest album is The Wind at Four to Fly on SCI Fidelity Records. The title of the double-CD live set is taken from "Morph Dusseldorf" the Biscuits' classic that closes the first disc with 12 minutes-plus of psychedelic weirdness. "It's a colorful lyric from that song that illustrates the kinds of changes that are the theme of the album," Gutwillig says. "Although it's sort of a nonsensical line, we felt it suited the album." The 11-track set manages to span the band's career, although the bulk of the material has never been officially released. While the Biscuits continue to offer downloads of nearly all their shows on their website, www.discobiscuits.com, The Wind at Four to Fly is something different. "When you get something off of our download site, it's an awesome version of the show, but it's not produced in the same way the album is produced," Gutwillig says. "We know that The Wind at Four to Fly sounds great. We put it in the studio, we've taken all the tracks apart, we've tweaked it out, and it sounds as good a live album as any live album in the world sounds." Don't, however, think that for a second that The Wind at Four to Fly is the quintessential Disco Biscuits performance or their swan song. "A guy like Peter Frampton can make one seminal live album, because he pretty much plays the same set every night," Gutwillig says. "But our stuff is so different from night to night. We get bored doing the same thing so we always do things with different keys and different rhythms."
The Disco Biscuits have four studio albums. In 1996 they released their debut, Encephalous Crime. 1998 brought the release of The Uncivilized Area. Their third, They Missed the Perfume, hit the streets in 2001. The 2002 effort, Senor Boombox, was named the "best studio record of 2002" by Relix magazine and one of the "10 best Jam band records of all-time"by Guitar Player. Check out the other studio and live efforts.

