Live Vibes (Live) Tank And The Bangas

• 1 Not Mr. Rodgah’s Neighborhood (Live At Gasa Gasa, New Orleans / 2017) 01:12
• 2 Quick (Live At Gasa Gasa, New Orleans / 2017) 08:11
• 3 Boxes And Squares (Live At Gasa Gasa, New Orleans / 2017) 07:41
• 4 X's (Live At Gasa Gasa, New Orleans / 2017) 05:04
• 5 Ripperton Love (Live At Gasa Gasa, New Orleans / 2017) 07:01
• Total Runtime 29:09

Info for Live Vibes (Live)

Recorded live at Gasa Gasa in New Orleans in 2017, LIVE VIBES makes fans feel like they are in the front row of one of the best live shows around. Currently on a world tour, Tank and the Bangas are the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Concert contest winners. They are a genre-defying group quickly becoming one of the most buzzed about bands in the country.

Of their live performances, Los Angeles Times proclaims, “Lead singer Ball is as nimble a lyricist as she is a vocalist, with a malleable voice that’s powerful in its command. One moment, she’s unpacking sinewy couplets and rhymes with fury and the next, she's wailing like she’s at a church revival,” while San Francisco Chronicle adds, “The group will move you with Ball’s bigger-than-life stage presence and voice (she can belt out a tune, then switch it up to command an ‘Amen!’ with her poignant spokenword), backed by the band’s soulful sound.”

Tank and the Bangas unanimously won NPR’s Tiny Desk contest with “Quick,” a riotous single they released in 2017, which Bob Boilen proclaimed, “This band combines R&B with hip-hop’s poetry and rollercoaster storytelling, with a flair and alchemy that could only come from New Orleans.” There’s more new music to come as the group works on the follow-up to their debut album, Think Tank.

The band’s ongoing evolution involves more than just music—lead vocalist and songwriter Tarriona “Tank” Ball continues to grow and develop as a performer and writer. Even back in the open-mic days, she was a force of nature. “I don’t know if there’s such a thing as too free, but it was totally uninhibited. She was inspired,” Norman Spence (synth keys, bass) says, laughing at the memory. More recently, Ball has become less of a dervish onstage—“I was running around so much I didn’t have time to sing at all,” she say—while finding new ways of expressing herself as a writer.

“Tank and the Bangas string together grooves from funk, hip-hop, rock and gospel; serious storytelling, self-empowerment exhortations and dance instructions share the band’s exuberant stream of consciousness.” (The New York Times)

“Best live band in America.” (NPR Music)

“A secular church experience, with freewheeling improvisational chops and positive vibes.” (Rolling Stone)

Tank and the Bangas

Tank and the Bangas
Coming from New Orleans, Tank and the Bangas are surrounded by plenty of grand musical traditions. And the five-piece group has a rare knack for combining various musical styles—fiery soul, deft hip-hop, deep-groove R&B and subtle jazz—into one dazzling, cohesive whole that evokes the scope of New Orleans music while retaining a distinctive feel all its own.

“It’s music that can’t really be put in a box,” says singer and poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball. She fronts the band with vivid charisma that helped Tank and the Bangas win NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Concert Contest by unanimous acclaim, standing out among 6,000 entrants because of what Bob Boilen called “the depth of their lyricism and the versatility of their players.” Those same qualities also attracted the attention of Verve Records, which has signed the band.

Ball’s lyrical depth has been years in the making. She came up in the strong local slam poetry scene before meeting her bandmates: Merell Burkett on keyboards, Joshua Johnson on drums, Norman Spence on bass and synth keys and, eventually, Albert Allenback on alto sax and flute. “Growing up, I always could sing, but I wrote better than I sang, so I focused on writing,” she says. After her team won the National Poetry Slam Championship two years in a row, Ball turned her full attention to Tank and the Bangas.

What started as a loose collaboration at an open-mic night in 2011 has grown into a mesmerizing musical force that’s only picking up speed. After a featured set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival early in the band’s career, the musicians built a reputation outside their hometown by grinding it out on the road, honing their live show and releasing the 2013 album Think Tank, all the while converting audiences into passionate fans and garnering critical acclaim, from the New Orleans Advocate to The New York Times. “It made us work hard,” Ball says of playing Jazz Fest. “It made us want to feel deserving of it.”

Their hard work is paying off: The Huffington Post says Tank and the Bangas defy description onstage, adding, “It’s music that you have to experience.” The experience is subject to change from one night to the next.

“One show will feel very electronic, or hip-hop, and another show will feel slow and vibe-y and jazzy, and then another show will just be poetry and off-the-cuff riffs,” says Johnson. “As a band, we don’t like to hear ourselves do the same thing for too long, so we might change a small thing here or there, and if we change enough small things, it seems like a big change.”

Tank and the Bangas won the Tiny Desk contest with “Quick,” a riotous single they released in 2017 (and soon accompanied with a cheeky, not entirely safe-for-work video). There’s more new music where that came from as the group works on the follow-up to Think Tank. “It’s going to be awesome,” Ball says. “It’s going to be fun, and a little vulnerable at the same time.”

The band’s ongoing evolution involves more than just music: Ball continues to grow and develop as a performer and writer. Even back in the open-mic days, she was a force of nature. “I don’t know if there’s such a thing as too free, but it was totally uninhibited. She was inspired,” Spence says, laughing at the memory. More recently, Ball has become less of a dervish onstage—“I was running around so much I didn’t have time to sing at all,” she say—while finding new ways of expressing herself as a writer.

“I don’t just think about myself when I write now,” she says. “Just being with my bandmates taught me to think more about other people. And when you have an audience of people ready to listen to you, you’re excited to connect with them, you really are.”!

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