Yeborobo

Yeborobo

Yeborobo performing live at The Old Blue Last, London
Background information
Origin Maidstone, Kent, England
Genres Rock
Punk
New Rave
Years active 2003-present
Labels Mentalist Association
Website Official website
Members Andrew Kerr
Rob Bidder
Russell Bailey
Matthew Rains
Sophie Simpson
Sam Eden Green

Yeborobo were a London based noise band. They were one of the most notable members of the Mentalist Association, a tribal unit of diverse personalities originating from Maidstone, Kent. The name may have been taken from that of a South African contestant to the UK television programme Robot Wars.

Style and history

Yeborobo's music has grew out of a wild stage act, an always changing riot that at once revelled in and laughed about the great follies of prog and metal. Props and costumes were enthusiastically built and then generally destroyed through crazed interaction between band and audience to such a degree that concerts often ended in minor injuries to performers and fans alike. The question of danger in live performance since The Stooges has often been used to create an interaction between audience and performer whilst relying on the hostility to keep them distinct.

Yeborobo moved away from this divisive tension and genuinely allowed the audience to virtually take over the proceedings within an inclusive tension more akin to the performance art of the 1960s. This relied on a dichotomy created between different factions of the band. The drums and the twin guitars created a solid yet complex groove, shifting and buckling under their own weight. In the foreground Andrew and Rob created mayhem, jumping and yelping, their pithy lyrics mostly lost within the clamour of their band, eventually abandoning their posts to climb a wall or ruck amongst the audience. This created an illusionary atmosphere of total chaos. The controlling factor between these two parties was their bassist, Sophie, at once laying down the rhythm and increasingly becoming embroiled in the mania down the front. This dynamic created the excitement, humour and urgency of the spectacle whilst also supplying powerful and cerebral music to fuel it in a furtively structured way.

Yeborobo's moment in the spotlight came during 2007 when they went on tour as support act to Klaxons, the Nu Rave pop band whose album, Myths of the Near Future, was soon to win the years Mercury Music Prize. The transition from playing small dark venues of receptive and savvy art school kids, mostly around London and Brighton, to playing in front of a much larger and wider audience was fraught, and they were often booed and looked upon with incomprehensibility by both public and critics:

"What an abortion of a support band Yeborobo turned out to be. Placing animal masks, face paint and giant cardboard arms above having two good songs to rub together. When they weren’t poking the audience with aforementioned cardboard limb, they were being sick on them. I think we can leave it there."

Yeborobo were also heavily involved with a project put together by the fashion magazine Dazed and Confused based around the various out-puts of the Mentalist Association.

In 2006 Yeborobo's 7" 'I'm Magick Gimme A Fiver' was chosen as Single Of The Year by The Daddy Said So Land radio broadcast on Resonance fm.

Collaborations

The emphasis within the Mentalist Association framework was on collaboration and a very open structure was generally adopted. The six members of Yeborobo have been in over 20 other Mentalist bands between them, including Esiotrot, Tea And Toast Band, Neither Do I, Gasp! Cracking Eggs, Happy Crayon, Scrotal Volcano, Rabbit's Moon, Ten-Foot Blood Skull, CATTLE, Asparagus Peru, Draculasaurus, Nasty Bee, Having Brunch With Peter, Shink, Pig Shackle, Abodigidal, and many more.

Post-Yeborobo

All six members remain musically active in some way and are now dispersed across England.

Three of the members (Andrew, Matthew and Rob) now play in the band Dog Chocolate, along with former Limn member Jono Allen. They have been described by Louder Than War as "fun, ramshackle and exciting". Dog Chocolate released their first record, a split EP with fellow London band Ravioli Me Away entitled Ravioli Me Away/Or on the Upset The Rhythm label on 24 February 2014. Dog Chocolate's side was entitled Or. On 18 March 2016 Upset The Rhythm released Dog Chocolate's debut album Snack Fans.

Other notable projects since Yeborobo disbanded have come from percussive duo Rob and Sam's band Gasp! Cracking Eggs who released an album entitled Club Heads, as well as a solo album by Rob as Robert Bidder, entitled Auberginion, released by Carpi Records.

Discography

Albums

Singles

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.