Casxio's electro-funk: Look, ma, no laptop

Los Angeles' Casxio has proven itself a little bit more than just the latest band to jump into the dance-music pool. The quartet creates its driving, funky electro-soul without using laptops -- an old-school approach that seems downright ambitious in a time when computers trigger everything from backing tracks to visual effects.

"After a show, I'll have people come up to me and say, 'Wow, I didn't realize this was happening in L.A.,'" says Casxio front man Lucas Guerin. "The influence of Daft Punk, and now people like Justice are amazing and taking it a step further. But when I think about that, I think about how I can create that energy with a live performance, with no prerecorded material or samples."

Guerin, the singer-bassist who'd been working on Casxio's songs for about four years in his bedroom, assembled a lineup that includes guitarist Eric Saez, drummer Zach Schrock and keyboardist Andrea Choe about a year and a half ago. Guerin's compositions spring from the sexed-up music of Sly & the Family Stone, Prince and the Talking Heads. "That was the stuff that really moved me," he says. "I'd go to parties and see the effect it had on people."

In the Eastside clubs where Casxio has been playing its early shows, it's been a tougher sell. Crowds dance more than they used to but still are largely hands-in-pockets. "We're not the whole straight-up rock 'n' roll revival," Guerin says, "but our shows have been great. It's leading to other things, but dancing is not necessarily one of them."

||| Casxio finishes up its residency tonight at the Silverlake Lounge. Also appearing (with laptop): electro-soul phenom Sam Sparro.

||| Download Casxio's "Seventeen."

Comments

[Change Marine]

Jazz. That's what this is. Freakin' riffs from the greats and adding different thoughts to it. I like that. Reminds me of what music is supposed to do.

chang chang good guitar good bass good vocals - all the music has played out on their site and I want more. nice one, that.