The Disco Biscuits rock Richmond

The Disco Biscuits, will perform a concert at The National in Richmond, Va., on Oct. 1, will be releasing eight songs this fall from their new album "Planet Anthem," which drops in January 2010.

Allen Aucoin (drums), Aron Magner (keys), Marc Brownstein (bass) and Jon Gutwillig (guitar/midi keyboard) make up The Disco Biscuits, an electronic "jam band" based in Philadelphia, Pa.

The band was created when the men met at the University of Pennsylvania and created their "trance-fusion" sound. The original drummer, Sam Altman, left the band and was replaced by Aucoin, who won a "drum off" at a gig in 2005.

The band decided on a name on July 4, 1995, when, after changing its name during every show, it finally chose to stick with The Disco Biscuits, Brownstein said.

The Disco Biscuits' fall 2009 tour started on Sept. 11 in Baltimore, Md. at the Hippodrome Theatre and will end with a four day "Caribbean Holidaze" concert in Runaway Bay, Jamaica, from Dec. 10 to Dec. 14 and a five-night stint in Times Square from Dec. 26-31.

The band plans to release eight songs from "Planet Anthem" during the fall in the form of three EPs and there will be seven more songs on the album when it is released in January, Brownstein said.

The songs "Konkrete" and "You and I" can already be downloaded for free on The Disco Biscuits Web site, www.Discobiscuits.com.

Next week, the band's first EP, "On Time," will be released, Brownstein said. The rest of the EPs will be released in six-week increments.

Releasing the EPs during the course of five months keeps everyone thinking about the music, Brownstein said. It's easy for an album to get lost in the shuffle when the release date is far away, he said.

The band will also be making four music videos to accompany the new songs and will release three videos from its May 2009 show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison,Colo.

"The first video [for 'You and I'] was made in Japan, when we were there this summer," Brownstein said. There are Japanese actors and it has a "Lost in Translation" feel to it, he said.

"Everyone always hates our videos," Brownstein said."Our first video for 'World is Spinning' was universally trashed."

He said the band's goal was to make 10 videos. Nine out of 10 girls may smack him, but the meeting with the 10th girl will be beautiful, he said, and in the same way, people are bound to like one of the videos.

"We should have six videos by the end of the year, so we'll be halfway to our goal," Brownstein said.

The Disco Biscuits created their new album using a collection of musicians, Brownstein said.

"There are a lot of pop songs on this album," Brownstein said. The band didn't set out to make pop songs, it just ended up that way, he said.

"The album came organically," he said. "We worked with super accomplished musicians in our field."

Two of the producers of the album, Dirty Harry and Don Cheegro, had produced albums for Usher and Ludacris and had already won Grammys, Brownstein said.

Combining electronic and hip-hop styles gave the album a new sound.

"We very naturally ended up where we were," Brownstein said.

Pretty Lights producer, Derek Vincent Smith, will produce a song on the album and Shpongle's Simon Posford will produce five songs on the album, Brownstein said.

The Disco Biscuits record in their own 3,000 square foot studio, Diamond Riggs Studios, in Pennsylvania, Brownstein said. The band opened its studio's doors to local Philadelphia musicians as well, he said.

"They're in our world and use our studio," Brownstein said.

Along with electronic groups, hip-hop, R&B and country album producers have used the studio, he said. "We're in the center of a lot of creativity in Philly," Brownstein said.

In 1999, The Disco Biscuits created an electronic festival called Camp Bisco in Cherry Tree, Pa.

"When we were a young band, we couldn't get good time slots at the other festivals, so we created our own," Brownstein said.

Camp Bisco is one of the largest electronic festivals on the East coast, Brownstein said. Eight hundred to 900 people attended the festival in 1990. Last year's Camp Bisco drew 8,000 fans.

Although The Disco Biscuits have traveled the world from places like Jamaica to Amsterdam and Japan, the band is thrilled to play in Richmond, Brownstein said. Virginia knows how to treat its musicians, he said.

The Disco Biscuits tickets are on sale now for $22.50 at www.ticketmaster.com and other ticket venues. The show begins at 8 p.m. on Oct. 1 at The National with Big Gigantic as the opening act.

Contact reporter Ryan Clark at ryan.clark@richmond.edu