JR Hevron

This week, Galactic releases its second live album, The Other Side Of Midnight: Live in New Orleans. “It was a good time in the band’s career to take a snapshot and have it documented,” says the band’s bass player Robert Mercurio. “We had been touring with Cyril Neville and felt that we had a really good show and wanted to capture it.”

The album was recorded in front of a sold-out audience at Tipitina’s a few days before Halloween 2010. “I just remember it being a classically great, high-energy time,” says Mercurio. “Tipitina’s always feels like home. You feel like you don’t have to put out that much effort, but it just happens, and that’s how that night felt. It just oozed out.”

Guests on the album include vocalist Cyril Neville, Trombone Shorty, trumpet player Shamar Allen, trombonist/rapper/vocalist Corey Henry, the Soul Rebels Brass Band, and bounce rapper Big Freedia.

“For the first live album [2001’s We Love ‘Em Tonight], we recorded two nights and picked the best stuff. I don’t think we even had any guests,” remembers Mercurio. “But for this one, we started thinking about the songs and put a little more effort into getting special guests and rehearsing with them.”

READ ON for more of our chat with Rob Mercurio of Galactic…

“Wolf! was born from a need to just play music—to get the blood flowing,” says guitarist Scott Metzger about his new instrumental trio. “We do it to stay in shape creatively, but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun.”

[All photos by Scott Bernstein]

With a busy schedule of stage and studio work with people like Anders Osborne, Stanton Moore, Kelli Scarr, Erik Deutsch, Adam Levy, Eric McFadden, and Jason Crosby, Metzger has enjoyed taking over bandleader duties.

“Playing with and becoming friends with these musicians has influenced this music and given me the confidence to go out and front a guitar trio playing the kind of music I have always wanted to play,” says Metzger. “That’s where it’s at.”

Wolf! allows Metzger to show a musical side that fans of his more rock-oriented bands like Bustle in Your Hedgerow, Some Cat From Japan, RANA, and the Gene Ween Band might not have seen before.

“In Wolf!, we play country, boogaloo, soul, blues, western swing, and more,” says Metzger. “It’s all music I’ve always played in my living room or rehearsal space but never in public.” The band proudly wears its influences on its collective sleeve, not attempting to fool anyone. “We’re definitely old school kinda guys,” explains Metzger.

READ ON for more on Wolf! and to download studio tracks…