Moontaxi

"The River City really can bring in some pretty great out-of-town acts. They're small-scale, but have great sound. I'll be purchasing a ticket to the '2010 Bonnaroo on Mars' to see Nashville, Tenn.-based Moon Taxi after seeing their Friday night concert at the Camp." - Southeast Missourian

KnoxNews
April 20, 2007

Nashville band Moon Taxi, which has been together for nearly four years, celebrated its debut release last week, and will bring its show to Knoxville for the first time this week.
The group developed its sound at Belmont University, its members coming from all over the South. As band members point out, the Middle Tennessee music circuit isn't always hospitable to new acts. The newest recruit to the band's lineup is native Knoxvillian Wes Bailey, formerly of the local band HearSay, and he compares the two scenes.


"Most of the venues we play in Nashville are just a block or two away from Music Row, so you definitely see more bands trying to find their extra unique and signable sound or flair," says the keyboardist/vocalist. "When I think about the Knoxville scene, I feel that the vibe is less cutthroat and much more relaxed. There is an amazing appreciation for fine musicianship in Knoxville, and that's why I think Sundown in the City and the Tennessee Theatre and Bijou shows are doing so well. It's bands like ours who look forward to playing in a place like Knoxville."

Of course, Nashville is not without its advantages and support. Moon Taxi was able to hone its performance playing its first gigs in downtown Nashville's Windows on the Cumberland venue.

"What started as sort of dorm-room jamming led to a couple opening spots for some local bands, and we started developing a small Nashville fan base fairly quickly," says guitarist Spencer Thomas. "We owe a lot to the Windows on the Cumberland venue and its owner Boots Hill for letting us play there while we were fairly young and inexperienced and giving us a chance to develop in sort of a low-pressure situation which is sort of hard to find in Nashville's oversaturated music scene."

For the band's inaugural full-length release, "Melodica," it worked at a casual pace, taking time to ensure a product worthy of the four-year wait. As with most improvisational bands, Moon Taxi rarely performs its songs the same way twice, so selecting the best representations of each song was a time-consuming endeavor.

"We're really excited about 'Melodica,' " says Thomas. "We recorded it at a new studio in Nashville called TripleHouse Productions with good friend and engineer Kaelin Tauxe. The environment in the studio and Kaelin's attitude toward recording made it an incredibly enjoyable experience. The variety on the album to me is one of the most exciting things. It's sort of like a really good mix tape where each song offers something different, but we definitely feel like it holds together and plays well as an album or piece of art."

The band prides itself on its live presentation, where its exploratory instrumentation takes its audience on an imaginative trip, hence the group's moniker. This is an experience Bailey looks forward to sharing with his hometown before the band travels to other familiar places throughout the region.

"It's a matter of musicianship, showmanship, creativity and tactfulness," says guitarist/vocalist Trevor H. Terndrup. "We are individually accomplished on our respective instruments. Beyond that, and perhaps more importantly, we are fun to watch as we get the boogie juices flowing. We meld the aural with the visual into a totally titillating sensory experience."

"For me, this is the first time I've been able to showcase (in Knoxville) any of the projects I've been a part of outside of Knoxville," says Bailey. "I'm really looking forward to playing for all my friends that have seen me progress from my HearSay days back in high school. I really want to make this show special for everyone because I know it will be for me."

Tonight, Moon Taxi will unveil itself to Knoxville with a show at Patrick Sullivan's. Joining them on the bill will be the Col. Sanders Trio. The show is slated for 9, and admission is $5.
- Jer Cole

Gettin' back into the swing can be a strenuous transition, but thankfully I've been rocking some groovy tunes lately to help transform a summer mindset into a "summer + some school" thought pattern. It's a hard gig although the greater gig to mention here are Moon Taxi, the progressive/psychedelic outfit from Nashville, TN. They were first introduced to me by a couple of friends when out at a local bar called the Fishtank and now they're first being introduced to you in the blogosphere with wide eyes. Make no mistake though, this band is only fulfilling the mandatory prerequisite of any band that jams out Southern guitar rock (the very improvisational guitar rock that seemed to dominate decades earlier) coupled with fantastic sounds from a solid organist and creative percussionist that wants to be successful: you have to start out in bars. Cat Power, in all her silky wisdom, seemed to know something about this. Moon Taxi are thriving in the lower circuits and their streaking grassroots build-up (thanks to numerous incredibly solid/tightly knit performances and the terrific debut Melodica) has landed them at summer gigs City Stages (w/ The Flaming Lips, Ben Harper, etc.) and 10,000 Lakes Festival. I'll be checking them out June 20th in Lexington, complete with live reviews, mp3s, photos, and other sweet stuff. Definitely check out the current sweet stuff - a sample from the studio and a solid stage performance that's fitting for your taxi ride to the moon.

http://iguessimfloating.blogspot.com/2008/06/ride-moon-taxi.html - I Guess I'm Floating

Nashville's Moon Taxi redeem the notion of a "jam band," a descriptor that's grown into an epithet in the larger musical world that implies endless, limp noodling and lack of compositional or vocal substance. Not so with Moon Taxi, who are a jam band in the same way Little Feat or Bob Marley & The Wailers are jammers. Like these ancestors, Moon Taxi synthesizes divergent elements into a cohesive, concert-ready rush. It's pumping hard onstage where the real animal emerges in such bands, which makes Live Ride (self-released) a prime intro to this vibrant group who incorporate roots rhythms, Latinismo, Phish-y riffs, complex fusion and gutbucket, blue collar rock (a la early Doobie Brothers, actually…) into a pretty enjoyable ball they hurl with serious gusto.

Live Ride follows their studio debut, Melodica, and features eight previously unreleased songs as well as fan favorites. The crowd roar that hits when you press "play" seems indicative of the uplift they generate in concert, and these performances capture some part of that energy, a going-for-the-jugular dedication that looks for the folks in the back of the room not getting off and strives to make them pop. While I've never seen Moon Taxi with my own eyes, this set makes it easy to imagine the amorphous, joyful roiling in front of the stage. In their mixture of interesting time signatures, feel good melodies and genre-snubbing diversity, they are kin to archetypal jam bands like God Street Wine, String Cheese and the aforementioned Phish, but, like those bands, possess their own identity, their own way of handling the raw materials. Most aspects of this set are boldly delivered and curved with modern touches that recall Cafe Tacuba's tweaking of dance floor fare and slow burners.

What one finds on Live Ride is well played, well sung music with clever, satisfying touches galore tucked into songs – the smooth boogie piano breakout at the end of "Here To Stay" and the livetronica tail on "Morning Time" being just too highlights. Moon Taxi seems interested in music without borders, and that alone marks them as one to keep an ear bent towards in the future. - Jambase