Rhett Frazier Inc
East Los Angeles, California, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
What sounds do you expect to hear from contemporary self-proclaimed funk/Soul bands? Going a step further – What sounds do you look for in contemporary blue-eyed soulcats? The slick throwback mix of disco and soul heard in the early years of Jamiroquai (before they went SoCal/Soft Rock on their last album), or the lighter fare from Adam Levine and the lads (I hope not). In today’s climate you want a band that’s funky, has enough swagger and distance from top 40 playlists to make you feel cool and proud to share with your hip co-workers.
Rhett Frazier, Inc. has the blues with a touch of funk. Not funky like (the lords) P.Funk or early Commodores, more funky in that new wave Brooklyn hipster way. They make you move, think and feel cool all at the same time. Cosmic brilliance delivered via a well-stirred pot of soul, jazz, rock, funk and gospel. With it’s occasional, unintentional and tribute-like resemblance to Steely Dan (minus much of the gloss and heavy production) the album Everyday Is Saturday feels extremely organic and down to earth which gives it an endearing quality not found in–well let’s say for the sake of comparison, Maroon 5. - Okayplayer
"Rhett Frazier Inc. puts the funk up in your face. The singing is deeply soulful; the music urgent and edgy; the stories haunting and original."
David Ritz - (author- Divided Soul- The Life of Marvin Gaye)
- David Ritz (author- Divided Soul- The Life of Marvin Gaye)
“Ever wonder what Al Green would sound like with techno beats and loops along with fuzzed-out guitars to back him up? With the recent release of Escape from Dee-troyt, Los Angeles duo Rhett Frazier Inc. displays a rare mix of classic soul and funk alongside modern synths and the occasional loud guitar. Frazier’s main co-conspirator is drummer/producer Inc - aka: Donny Gruendler. Like Frazier, he’s a multi-tasker, with the liner notes crediting him with drums, synths, production and mangled beats. The juxtaposition of Frazier’s retro voice and Gruendler’s futuristic production give the music its teeth. Grab it @ Dusty Groove or iTunes.”
JARED JERNAGAN - Skope Magazine
- Skope Magazine
“Straight out of the box, Frazier starts the party with “U Can’t Stop,” priming the dance floor around a memorable hook. He then throws down some deeply funky vocals over the Wurly-laced “Nuthin” and unleashes a Prince-worthy falsetto on “U Can’t Stop.” Synth wiz Donny Gruendler’s keyboard flavors range from smooth synth pads on “Mirrors” to the vibey piano on the ballad “Faultline.” The music harkens as much to Ted Nugent’s Motor City Madman rock as it does to Motown soul, and the amalgam really works. (rhettfrazierinc.com)”
Robbie Gennet - Keyboard Magazine
- Keyboard Magazine
“Some of the best blue-eyed soul we've heard in recent years – especially the funky variety! Rhett Frazier really surprised us with his last album, and he sounds even better here – working with musical partner Donny Gruendler in a really classic-styled batch of grooves that clearly draw inspiration from older sources like Hi Records and Curtom, yet which also deliver the goods with a lean, stripped-down vibe that's just right for Frazier's vocals! The album packs way more of a punch than you'd guess from the package and price – and Rhett's one of those singers who could well be huge if he ever gets the right sort of exposure in the mainstream. Titles include "Private Hell", "Secret Places", "Elephant Walk", "Burying Ground", "Workin", "Hard Man", "WTH", and "Every Day Is Saturday".”
DG Press - Dusty Groove
- Dusty Groove America
“Escape was produced to be played loud, with crackling drums and beats on several tunes that threaten to explode. "Nuthin'" is a riveting declaration of independence framed in a monstrous backbeat stomp, carved out with funky hot rhythm guitar, then signed sealed and delivered by Frazier's treacherous lead vocal. "BeLong" swirl hard guitar hooks and bone-crunching drums into boiling cauldrons of hot, thick sound. Even so, right after "Nuthin'" comes "Faultline," an acoustic guitar slow dive into the deep romanticism of Isley Brothers ballads like "Voyage to Atlantis,"later, the plush strings and gorgeous acoustic piano of "If I Said" seem to honor Earth Wind & Fire. Sometimes Frazier and Gruender work out these different if not quite competing perspectives in the same tune: In "U Can't Stop," Motown's dance beat thumps beneath rock'n'roll guitars that cut hard as assembly line steel, while Frazier's vox climbs the soulful heights of Eddie Kendricks' classic Temptations' falsetto. ”
Chris M. Slawecki - All About Jazz
- All About Jazz
Discography
Every Day Is Saturday - 2012, Full LP
Every Day Is Saturday - 2012, Single
BeLong - 2011, Art Bleek Remix, Single
U Can't Stop, 2011, Single
Escape From Dee-Troyt - 2011, Full LP
Photos
Bio
For Rhett Frazier Inc, every day is Saturday.
"When you live life by your passions, when you manifest what the world could be and don’t abide what you are told it is- there’s nothing you can’t accomplish,” says Rhett Frazier, vocalist, songwriter, and half of the duo Rhett Frazier Inc. “Like the title tracks says- Mondays ain’t wrote down on my calendar.” Donny Gruendler- a.k.a Inc- drummer, producer, synth-wizard, makes the point clear- “This world- and especially Los Angeles- demands your sweat and toil, so if you’re going to work your ass off, why not do what you love?”
Every Day Is Saturday, the title track, hammers this right into your cortex. “Try to strike your bargains, with the world we’ve made- they bribe you with your life -and say how handsomely you’re paid…” Funk: deconstructed, then rebuilt. Space and grandeur, fat organic synths, and a groove so naked and simple it seems – like all such drum grooves- impossible to play. And just like that, you know the love and hard work that forged this album. Ebullient joy, the depth from hard won battles, the wisdom from having lost some, the suffering that transcends, the funk, the holy oil and anointed grease of soul and gospel, a cinematic use of space - these are the essence of Every Day is Saturday. This is the journey that Inc and Rhett Frazier ask you to take, and you will want to go with them.
It is not a trajectory without precedent. Born and raised in Detroit, Donny Gruendler –Inc- purposely set out to contribute to the city’s storied musical legacy. From an early age he soaked it all up, honed his chops, and through his raw talent and willpower – became one of the most sought-after musicians in the Motor City. Eventually he took his place as a peer of soul and jazz giants, playing with such luminaries as Motown’s redoubtable Funk Brothers. “For me the styles I absorbed in Detroit became second nature after awhile. They are part of my DNA. Since this music comes naturally to both Rhett and I, when we set out to make this album, we really wanted to let those raw and grooving impulses loose. To get out of our own way, so to speak.”
Frazier has an elusive background that reveals plenty in paradox. Born and reared in Oklahoma he credits the state’s history as a crossroads and sometimes a battleground of many peoples and cultures, many of them Native American, as being the foundry of a kind of soul not so different from that found in “Dee-Troyt.” “Lowell Fulson, Wayne Bennett (Bobby “Blue” Bland guitarist), Roy Milton- all are from (or resided) within 30 minutes of my home town.” Though many would not recognize these names aside from record collectors (he’s one of them)- Frazier revels in them, and it’s clear that “soul” is a thing as dear to him as love, honor, or pride.
Still, the vanguard- or is it the avant-garde- is always close at hand with Rhett Frazier Inc. In fact, though the album is imbued with traditions that simmer under the surface like a Norman Whitfield movie score, a synthesis is happenin’, and a breakthrough goin’ on’.
Take a song like Pieces. On the surface…a blues? But actually- an ingenious amalgamation of jazz, gospel, psychedelia, soul, and rock - hard-boiled poetry set to music so primal one could imagine us sending it into space to beckon distant cosmic strangers to our aid. “Dear Planet X- this is us at our best.” And yet, though the sonic landscapes are sometimes familiar in songs like WTH?, La Petite Mort, and the Pig- in merciless funk grooves and irreverent jazz chording - there is an otherworldly precision and a penchant to obliterate conventions that makes the album something else entirely. Clocking in at a ruthless 38 minutes and 33 seconds, Every Day is Saturday is a portal to another “thang.”
“Technology is a tool just like any other tool, unless you are a tool and don’t use it that way. Computers exist, just like the electric guitar did when someone was smart enough to first use it. Miles Davis incorporated the electric piano. It was cool. We do the same,” Donny says. Rhett is, as always, more mercurial, “I like to create tension with modern sounds and traditional ones, I like mixing analog and digital textures. What does the song cry out for? That’s my question. I do what it says.” Donny, (laughing) “Sometimes it says “distorted synth” and sometimes it says “old organ from a yard sale.”
Every Day is Saturday is passion made manifest—passion for life and music. But Frazier cautions, “Passion is not all lollipops, chocolate bunnies, and moonbeams. Passion has a cost. We let it all hang out with this album, but sometimes what comes out surprises you, when you give into it.” Donny knows better - “But that’s what makes your life full and rewarding.”
One more thing- What’s in the present on the record cover?
“What do you think is in it?” asks Frazier. “Maybe it a gift we give ourselves.”
“Maybe it’s miniature airplane bottles of scotch,” says Inc.
Maybe.
There’s no time like the
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