Bustin' Jieber
Eugene, Oregon, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2011
Music
Press
We welcome you all, to a world where no paper currency exists, no dreams of the afterlife are sought after and everyone is together, striving to form a unified consciousness.
That’s not a snippet of The Communist Manifesto, but the opening line to the comic book Bustin’ Jieber vs. The Gravy Robbers. The local goof-punk jazzers of Bustin’ Jieber are releasing their latest, a concept album of the same name, via digital download code only available through purchase of the band’s 30-page Kurt Vonnegutian space odyssey ( illustrated by Chad Buckingham). It continues:
It is a society where musicians are a respected elite, and are true guardians of the vibe, and a society where everything is just gravy. We welcome you to the Meat Machine.
The tight-knit trio that makes up the contemporary jazz-pop outfit — Andy Page on sax, Susan Lucia on drums, Dusty Carlson on bass — are friends first, having met through the social circles of UO School of Music and Dance while studying jazz circa early 2011. The album’s concept stems from a shared wackadoo humor and world vision.
“Some of the songs were developed and written out of this distaste for greed,” Carlson says while sitting on an amp in the band’s tiny practice space — a storage unit out on West 11th. “It takes place on a distant planet called the Meat Machine. The Meat Machine is like a utopia and gravy is the lifeblood. There’s enough gravy for everybody and nobody has to work for their gravy.”
Of course, there’s enough gravy until there isn’t: A businessman lands on Meat Machine and cooks up a scheme to horde all the gravy and convince an army of minions that they too can be gravy-rich someday if they put their head down and work hard for him. Sound familiar?
“It’s Lord of the Rings meets anti-capitalist social commentary,” Page says, laughing. “It’s not very veiled.”
Instruments are rounded up and hung from the ceiling of a gravy mine, where musicians are forced to extract the brown stuff. Epic music battles ensue. But dispel any preconceived notions of what anti-capitalist music may sound like because Bustin’ Jieber vs. The Gravy Robbers is stuffed full of bubbly and hilarious rhythm-heavy pop-jazz tunes like “Jungle Banana” and “Gator Bacon.” Bustin’ Jieber may be silly as hell, but they have the jazz chops to back it up; think Weird Al meets the Bad Plus.
“The first album we made when we first started is really like a jazz album. There’s no vocals on any of the tracks,” Page says. “[Bustin’ Jieber vs. The Gravy Robbers] is halfway through this transition that we’ve sort of made as a band. The last couple shows we’ve been playing are more like rock shows than jazz shows.”
The band describes the six tracks on this album as closer to lyrically driven short-form pop songs.
“People will actually stay and listen to you,” Lucia says of the new direction, laughing.
Bustin’ Jieber is already planning for their next concept album, a rock opera, but don’t expect it out soon. Bustin’ Jieber vs. The Gravy Robbers took well over a year due to finances and the band members’ other projects: Page plays sax with the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Lucia plays drums in Human Ottoman and Portland’s MarchFourth Marching Band and Carlson contracts out for bass gigs while pursuing his jazz masters at the UO. - Eugene Weekly
…Bustin Jieber… well, they do something quite different. I really don’t know what the hell to call them… really damn good bizarre fusion? That works. - Corvallis Advocate
The band’s members – saxophonist Andy Page, bassist/vocalist Dusty Carlson, and drummer Susan Lucia – have all obviously been serious jazzers and musicians for years. Their style as a band, however, dissolves the notion that jazz is a genre that’s only listenable to the trained ear or to quiet, high brow observer. Bustin’ Jieber’s house shows are raucous, drunk, and dance-y. Even more formal venues, like downtown Eugene’s Jazz Station, fill with energy and tapping toes the moment the groove starts. The groove, by the way, is always hard-driving – irresistible, contagious. Fun. In that way, I think the band’s breaking down some real walls. Jazz is for everyone. Justin Bieber sucks. Listen to this new and entrancing album instead. - Oregon Voice
Discography
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Bio
Bustin' Jieber began in the spring of 2011 when Andy Page (saxophone) and Susan Lucia (drums), who had met at the University of Oregon, came across a bassist from Illinois named Dusty Carlson. Feeling an undeniable musical connection, they immediately began writing music together, rehearsing for hours on end, and playing as many shows as they could manage. By the winter of 2012 they were performing two to three times a week in Eugene and the greater Willamette Valley region, and by spring they recorded their first studio album. Shortly thereafter Bustin' Jieber recorded and released a three hour double-album of a live show at the Jazz Station in Eugene, and less than a year after that, in the spring of 2013, they recorded their newest album, “Bustin' Jieber vs. the Gravy Robbers”, which has recently been released along with a 30 page comic book illustrating the bizarre story behind the music.
The result of Bustin' Jieber's work and play over the years is a tasty experimental blend of funk, hip-hop, rock, world and classical genres wrapped around a core of improvisational interplay. Bustin' has collaborated with musicians ranging from emcees to string quartets, played bars and dinner clubs as well as large scale music festivals, and hasn't failed to get the toes tappin' yet. Bustin’ Jieber is an ambitious young group with an appetite for destruction and a fervent desire to shake up your mind, booty, and soul.
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