It's been a while since we've heard any new material out of Larry Gayao, former frontman for equally adored and despised Odis, which called it quits in April of lat year. We here at DC9 HQ had some fun at that band's expense, sure, but our stance was never that the band lacked talent, or Gayao's pipes were anything short of impressive. We just were irked by their blatant trend-hopping ways.
So, when Gayao excitedly told us in the aftermath of Odis' breakup that his plan was to move forward as a solo soul performer, we listened with some hesitation -- and even outright told Gayao of our concern that he was falling back into his old formulaic ways. After all, we've seen tons of soul revivalists in the mainstream of late (see: Raphael Saadiq, Mayer Hawthorne, Amy Winehouse, etc.), and even locally, too.
Fact is, yes, sometimes soul revivalism works. Sometimes it doesn't.
In Gayao's case, though, it just might work after all. Gayao, under his new moniker of LARRY g(EE), recently posted for streaming and download a new song called "Yo Momma." And clearly, his voice is suited well by the horns and backing chorus heard on the song, which was produced by former Northern Light Beau Bedford, who also recently produced Kirby Brown's soon-to-be-released Child of Calamity, which we'll have a (quite positive) review of in this week's coming paper.
Gayao, no doubt, will be performing this song, which comes complete with a response to Kelis' "Milkshake," on Friday, April 1, when he performs at La Grange as party of Brown's album release party festivities. At least we hope he does -- because, if nothing else, the song makes for a fun jaunt. See if you agree, and give the song a listen after the jump. If you dig it, head on over to Gayao's new website and download it for free-ninety-nine.
So, when Gayao excitedly told us in the aftermath of Odis' breakup that his plan was to move forward as a solo soul performer, we listened with some hesitation -- and even outright told Gayao of our concern that he was falling back into his old formulaic ways. After all, we've seen tons of soul revivalists in the mainstream of late (see: Raphael Saadiq, Mayer Hawthorne, Amy Winehouse, etc.), and even locally, too.
Fact is, yes, sometimes soul revivalism works. Sometimes it doesn't.
In Gayao's case, though, it just might work after all. Gayao, under his new moniker of LARRY g(EE), recently posted for streaming and download a new song called "Yo Momma." And clearly, his voice is suited well by the horns and backing chorus heard on the song, which was produced by former Northern Light Beau Bedford, who also recently produced Kirby Brown's soon-to-be-released Child of Calamity, which we'll have a (quite positive) review of in this week's coming paper.
Gayao, no doubt, will be performing this song, which comes complete with a response to Kelis' "Milkshake," on Friday, April 1, when he performs at La Grange as party of Brown's album release party festivities. At least we hope he does -- because, if nothing else, the song makes for a fun jaunt. See if you agree, and give the song a listen after the jump. If you dig it, head on over to Gayao's new website and download it for free-ninety-nine.
