Zoe and the Buttercups / Arrow
Excelsoir Hotel, Sydney
December 11
The immortal invocation “F— art, let’s dance” was brought to mind the moment that Zoe and the Buttercups started twanging and hooting and funking. More than 15 years ago The catholics proved it was possible to apply some of the vocabulary of modern jazz to the grammar of party music. Zoe and the Buttercups rekindle this spirit of fun without the world-beat travelogue – other than visiting places where cowboy hats are not a fashion statement, and slipping surreptitiously into those graffiti-daubed neighbourhoods that breed funk and reggae.
Put a trombone (John Hibbard) and a banjo (Ben Hauptmann) together, and more often than not the music will be goofy. Add titles such as Feral & Bed (which had a scintillating wah-wah guitar solo from Hauptmann), The Sheep Song and The Creeps And The Weazles (both with dodgy vocals from Hibbard), and there was a certain madness in the air which could entice one to take up whittlin’.
Bassist Zoe Hauptmann has invented a band which could play the Tamworth Country Music Festival just as readily as the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, and would probably fit happily into Homebake. While Dan Waples’s alto saxophone could make any of the tunes sound jazzy inside one bar, Aaron Flower’s guitar could tease the country twang with some surf music, or slip a dagger of funk between the ribs of the humour. Drummer James Hauptmann completed the inbreeding program.
Read the full on The Sydney Morning Herald website.
