Mo'Chi
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Mo'Chi

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"Mo'Chi: Fusing Sweet Energy Back into Funk"

re you ready for the funkiest grooves to swing through space since Funkadelic? Funk that fulfills to maximum capacity a long-neglected niche? Mo'Chi revives the spacey vibes of Parliament and Funkadelic with a whole new rotation in their stellar debut album, The Tails of Rod Jonson.

Mo'Chi's self-ascribed mission - or rather, their assignment from the higher life forms - is to funkify your music life and promote interplanetary and world peace through the medium of music. The album, with its vibrant family of funk, rock and hip-hop, also brings some reggae and dub relations to the table, reflecting the various elements that surrounded the emergence of funk in the 1960's and 1970's and those increasingly electronic trends that followed as a result.

The band's name refers to "more chi" or energy, as chi represents the universal life force in Oriental tradition. Also, as with many aspects of this multi-tasking group, there's further meaning to be derived. Feel free to associate Mochi with the sumptuous Japanese dessert; both the band and its namesake tantalize with engaging suppleness on their outer form and out-of-this-world surprises on the inside.

From deep within the industrial bomb shelters of the Los Angeles underground, Mo'Chi is comprised of The Professor Juggs (Jepson Staral), Bass Maintenance (Jerami Menella), Rory on Los Tambores (Rory Sandhage), Mikey Haya (Michael Hayungs), JakeLand (Jake Policky), Will B. (Will Beard), and Pasquale "Rubs" Walioo (Pasquale Angelucci). The influences upon these fine and varied musicians include the aforementioned funk legends of P-Funk as well as RHCP, Zappa, Primus and 311.

Mo'Chi provides a freeing sonic environment of pure funk in which to let loose and let the alien in you take over. Their groovy percussion inspires movement - a little foot-tapping, head-nodding, hip-swaying, booty-shaking - spreading the funk over you like intoxicating gas permeating your lungs. The free-flowing vocals, led by the smooth-talking Jepson Staral, are innovatively contoured around the structures provided by the lilting guitars, the groovy bass, and the rockin'-funk drum kit and congas. The fun stream-of-consciousness- type lyrics evoke vivid imagery over the well-integrated ensemble that both meanders around spacey psychedelia and rocks with aggression. The vocals are often layered in reverberation, echoing the ends of phrases like the tails of shooting stars guiding and gliding you through the celestial journey. Several often irreverent plays on words poke fun at pop culture, controversial political figures including Nixon, and more.

The concept album follows the escapades of Rod Jonson, a chimp. Why a chimp? You learn something new every day: chimps are the closest of the primates, with 98% of the same DNA as humans. Don't take it all too seriously - Mo'Chi languishes in the absurdity of a white funk band. The cartoonish album offers loosely knit perspectives and invites you to forge your own.

Now, just how comfortable was Rod Johnson getting with those mystical-architecturally-inclined aliens? This is just one of the many questions this album might pose. These are questions not to be entered into lightly? well ok, maybe they are. From the very first spacey sounds gracing the introduction of this chimp-themed album, it is clear this will be no ordinary journey. Oscillators and grooves infused with an ample dose of unmistakable funk mark the extraterrestrial appeal: "Pray to Obbleesque." Be warned: you are now exiting the world of the dreary and the mundane, guided by a narrator who instructs us to "Build some temples? make beautiful music with one another? and do something that my alien brothers tell me to do? make funk!" This urging launches us directly into the well-mixed jam of the second track, "Monkeys" - also the theme of these Tails.

The fifth track, "Party Geeks" is a great example of the stream-of-consciousness- type language, often elaborate to the point of ridiculousness such as the unique expressions (imparted upon these funk masters by otherworldly intelligence no doubt) "abstractosphere" and "cyclotron." In fact, there may even be some otherworldly intelligence inherent in this group already, as the day jobs of these party geeks include bassist Jerami's work as a chemist for a certain government space program. Mo'Chi's lyrical talent is further evidenced in the upbeat, freestyle-oriented "Babytown," a track chock-full of elaborate language cunningly linked together. But lest the style start to overshadow the content, abundant food for thought entices the intellectual listener, such as the discourse of "Ego Floss," as Jepson expatiates, "When revolution, is institutionalized / when confusion, is a way of life."

Back to the chief chimp: in the notable sixth track, "Eviction," an alien summons Rod Jonson back to 21st-century Earth, implying Rod to be a lazy houseguest and drawing upon a dubious quote by Benjamin Franklin - L.A. Splash Magazines Worldwide


Discography

2004, The Tales of Rod Jonson
2007, 4 song EP Released

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Bio

Now don’t get confused, you might already know about the gooey delectable Japanese confection known as Mochi. This crew is indeed gooey, infact they’re down right raw sticky with funky psychedelic treats. Elastic melodies like the rice exoskeleton of a sweet Mochi and a creamy bump’n center, sure to put your ears, and mind, into audio bliss. Now Mo’Chi is more than simple food metaphors, the mo’energy(Chi) they produce is a down right infectious funky disease which only mo’ Mo’Chi can cure.

Mo’Chi’s Mo’History:
Los Angeles, CA.
Mo’Chi arrived in the summer of 2002. Vocalist/Guitarist/Drummer J. Larry Staral linked up with bassist Maintenance while Larry was working as a recording engineer at Sound Castle studios. Maintenance was summoned to the studio by hip-hop label L.A. Confindential to lay his quintessential pocket enhancing bass lines. Maintenance’s basslines were so filthy slimey that after the session Larry approached Maintenance about forming a band. Almost a year later Larry and Maintenance began jamming with a recent immigrant pysch-guitarist from the midwest, Mikey H. With Larry on drums, the three began writing psychedelic funk instrumentals, a basis for what would soon become Mo’Chi jams.

In 2004, Mo’Chi had grown into an 8 piece band and recorded their first, self-produced album, The Tails of Rod Jonson. The Mo’Chi roster took a turn with Larry on guitar/lead vocals, Maintenance on bass, Mikey H. on lead guitar/vocals and a slew of drummers, percussionists and keyboardists. Influenced by a conglomeration of classic funk, psychedelia and modern hip-hop, Mo’chi infuses countless other reggae, dub, soul, progressive rock, and electronic styles of our times.

Mo’Present:
Throw’n it out from deep within the industrial bomb shelters of the Los Angeles underground, Mo’chi is a collaborative experimentation that’s been simmering in a petri dish awaiting to funk you. Today the crew is again in recording mode with plans to push out an EP in early 2007 and gig extensively throughout the year.

View video footage and listen to more music here:
http://www.mochimusic.com/mochi_download.html