Meat the Vegans
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Meat the Vegans

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"Serendipity and meat make a musical mix"

by Marcella Ortega

Daily Lobo



It took a little serendipity to create Meat the Vegans.

The band, who took first place at ASUNM's Battle of the Bands in February, came together in June when Seth Hoffman and Jacob Lowery, formerly of the band Seth and Jacob, ran into some bad luck.

"We were looking for a drummer and bass player," Hoffman said. "We had a show we were playing, and the guy who was drumming for us backed out. There we were with two shows, and we had no drummer."

Hoffman said Lowery went to Guitar Center that day to find a replacement. There, he met drummer Dave Holtkamp.

"I was walking out the door with two pairs of sticks," Holtkamp said. "He just pulled me aside and was like, 'You're a drummer right?' I was like, 'Well, I hope so. I just spent, like, 30 bucks on sticks.'"

Holtkamp said he was hesitant to help until Lowery told him his band's name.

"I was like, 'Seth and Jacob? No shit,'" Holtkamp said. "(Bassist) Mike (Peterson) and I had been listening to the first CD they put out here in New Mexico for four years. I knew all the songs off the first CD. I just went home, got all my gear together and listened to their third album all the way up. We just jammed out."

Holtkamp said Peterson was out of town doing field work for a geology program.

"I called him up the next day and was like, 'You won't believe what band I just joined, and I recommended you as the bass player,'" Holtkamp said. "He and I had been playing together in several bands since high school. So, we had quite a bit of experience between the two groups as it were."

Hoffman said Peterson and Holtkamp's experience together allows Meat the Vegans to experiment during the creative process.

"When you play with people a lot, you can start to make things interesting," he said. "When you do improvisations, it's even more interesting. The foundation, then, is not just a three- or four-chord thing. It has several parts."

It's hard to categorize the band into a specific genre. Each member has his own influences from blues to metal.

What's great about the band's style is that it doesn't just appeal to college students, Holtkamp said.

"One of the (fans') favorite tracks is 'Janie and the Hummingbird,'" he said. "It's just really punk-rocked out and a really fast, energy-driving song. It turns out to be my mom's and Mike's grandmother's favorite track on the album. I was like, 'Wait, the rocker song? Are you serious?'"

Meat the Vegans released their first album March 10 with a performance at the Hunab Hookah lounge. Holtkamp said the show took an ironic turn as the band performed a Pink Floyd cover.

"As we were starting off 'The Wall' sequence, you could hear all this clamor in the audience," Holtkamp said. "All of a sudden, our friend just goes and (accidentally) pushes a wall over. The wall falls down during the opening part of the song, and you could hear this guy like, 'Oh shit.' We talked to some people after, and they were like, 'Did you know the wall fell down during 'The Wall' sequence?"

Meat the Vegans plan to release another album next year, which the band already has material for.

To set the record straight, nobody in the band is a vegan.

"I can't think of one show where somebody doesn't come up to us and is like, 'Are you guys vegans?'" Holtkamp said. "Nobody asks us if we eat meat."
- Daily Lobo


Discography

Meat the Vegans dual-disc self titiled album
Lampman

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Bio


Coming from a long history of musical influence and split-second chances, Meat The Vegans is definitely a band most unexpected. Starting from both the roots of Madison Wisconsin and Los Alamos New Mexico, the musical influences range from Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead to Pennywise and Pink Floyd. It certainly has been a long time coming. The original roots of MTV (not Music Television) was the lyrical and musical prodigies of the Seth and Jacob duo (check out their site for more info). From there, the music came to the ears of two blossoming college students named Mike and Dave. Their experience together in music has been one of lifetime friendship. This unforgettable Drum and Bass combo has helped bring out such bands as Injection DNA, Our First Defense, Merchants of Mexico, 8 Fluid Ounces, and of course the Sycamore St. Band also known as The Los. When Mike and Dave first heard Seth and Jacob, they were intrigued to hear a group in Albuquerque that wasn't punk rock or reggae or death metal. It was the kind of music they had grew up listening to; jam, blues, and folk. Now comes the point of no return. One day when Dave was in a music shop picking up drumsticks, this tattooed young man came up to him and asked him to play a gig in Santa Fe. Dave was reluctant at first, but when the man introduced himself as Jacob of SETH & JACOB, Dave immediately volunteered his services. What arose after those first two shows was the involuntary addition of Mike to the bass guitar, and rest is history. Four young aspiring young men jamming at places like Ralli's, The Cowgirl, Jemez Springs, and even the 3 Sided Whole and the Sycamore House itself. The music from the days of Meat The Vegans has evolved not only from the genius of the writing styles of Seth & Jacob, but from the addition of a mature rhythm section as well.