Photo by Robert Palumbo
Visit Hazmat Modine's website
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HAZMAT MODINE plays the kind of Blues one might have found in a gypsy whorehouse
in New Orleans had the city been built on the Black Sea somewhere
alongside Macao. The band is driven by a pair harmonicas, backed by
tuba, drums, guitars, and trumpet as well as a revolving cast of special
guests who play such oddball instruments as the claviola, the cymbalom,
the contrabass saxophone (it's really big) and the Sarusaphone.
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And yet Hazmat's music is anything but clever. The music is raw,
sophisticated, and utterly honest. Their sound isn't indebted
to any particular trend but the product of investigative minds
bend on sharing their enthusiasm for sounds gathered around the
world and re-interpreted from an Americana point of view. Frontman
Wade Schuman has the appropriately throaty voice of someone who
has both hopped freight trains and collaborated with the Throat
Singers of Tuva (really..)
Started about 5 years ago in New York City, Hazmat
has garnered high praise and large audiences for its live shows. They
were given a heroes' welcome in Russia during their recent tour (watch
the video of the russian tv appearance here).
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WHAT THE PRESS SAYS:
(click
here for more)
The New Yorker
"Hazmat Modine: … the début album by this wild
group led by the singer and harmonica player Wade Schuman. They
play blues originals, mostly, that are the product of Schuman’s
limitless imagination. His voice, for that matter, appears to
be bottomless." >
The New York Times
"The singer and harmonica player Wade Schuman's musical
vision sounds like something out of Dr. Suess. His group augments
Mr. Schumans own avant-blues stylings with a contra-bass, a banjitar,
tuba, flugel, trumpet, sheng and, most important, Tuvan throat singing.
" Sinagra -
The Village Voice
"Seems like ages since harmonicas have sounded as hep
as Wade Schuman’s and Randy Weinstein’s do in this hand-painted
confab of rusty blues, piquant rumbas, sawdust-floor reggae, Hawaiian
guitar, and—sure, why not?—Tuvan throat singing. Welcome
to the old weird globalism." Richard Gehr
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CICADA. Two years in the making, this epic CD is the result of five years or worldwide touring and countless collaborations which makes Hazmat the most global of all American bands. With special guests The Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant and Benin's extraordinary Gangbe Brass Band. Out May 17.
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BAHAMUT : Hazmat Modine's debut CD is a dizzying, global
take on Americana wihch has the energy of a Romanian brass band
and the soul of a vintatge blues recording. Click here
for more information.
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