November 17, 2004 Music » Music Features

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Kingston Via Rio 

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click to flip through (2) The Wailers -- Reggae's No. 1 family
  • The Wailers -- Reggae's No. 1 family
 

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"It's time for them to do the right thing because it's later than they think. It's time to unite and get their act together," Barrett says. "You can't use might and beat right. You learn about the rastaman's vibration which is positive. Leave it with the almighty God."

And as for the future of the band and reggae itself?

"Reggae music is like salvation -- the only thing that will last forever. It's like the moon, as we say: The older the moon, the brighter it shines," he says. "There's no end to this music, it will get bigger and bigger until it finds its rightful place. The message is for all time and all ages. It's for past, present and future. It's the beat of the people. It's the universal language. It carry that heavy message of roots, culture and reality."
-- Chris Parker

The Wailers play the Visulite Saturday, with the Mosquitos opening. Doors open at 9pm, and tickets are $20.

Mosquitos' buzz proves real; second record trumps debut

How the Mosquitos came to be is a story with so many Hollywood twists and turns that it seemed unlikely the band would ever be defined by anything but the pull of its media orbit.The band's music, a sunny mix of indie pop and bossa nova, got a big boost when NPR championed the self-titled debut in an August 2003 segment; the single "Boombox" became the soundtrack to a ubiquitous Bailey's Irish Creme ad. But the music became so enmeshed with the Mosquitos' story that once the fickle media glare began focusing elsewhere, some assumed the band's 15 minutes of fame -- along with their music -- would fade as well.

But anybody who believed that was the last buzz from the Mosquitos underestimated the strength of the band's musical vision and their commitment to it. Their second record, Sunshine Barato (Cheap Sunshine), is a great leap forward that adds textures and depth without sacrificing the original recipe. It's proof that the trio of guitarist/singer Chris Root, singer Juju Stulbach and keyboardist Jon Marshall Smith are having too much fun and making music too good to be lightly dismissed.

"We've all been together for a long time now," says the vivacious Brazilian Stulbach from the band's van somewhere in Wisconsin. "So what happens is that the three of us participated now and that dynamic was completely different. So I think the sound of the second record is a child of that."

The band's first record was primarily a product of Root's and Stulbach's, with Smith adding accents to what was in essence a group of finished songs. And how that happened played a big role in the band's initial appeal. In September 2001, Root accompanied a filmmaker friend to work one day, where they came across a beautiful woman wrapped in bubble wrap, smoking like a chimney and humming samba songs. Root, who claims to have been reared on Brazilian music in the womb, gave Stulbach a CD of his band's music, which she took with her back to Rio de Janeiro after her work visa expired. She wrote to Root to tell him how much she liked his music. Within a few weeks, the New Yorker Root was in Brazil convincing Stulbach (who'd studied dance and acting) she could sing, and the two wrote most of the debut on the beach at Ipanema.

"I loved how he simply got to the point of a lot of things, and the way he did it," says Stulbach, who soon fell in love with Root. "It wasn't very obvious and it wasn't wanting to be anything else, the way he could make a simple thing look more magical. But very simply, not like trying to make it magical -- just the way he sees things is very interesting. That's what attracted me. And then I heard a little bit of the bossa nova, too, which was already there, so I felt at home."

The result was like a gauzy dress in the sun, a light, carefree bossa nova-tinged pop record with keyboard washes that felt like summer, rum drinks and falling in love. Root and Stulbach split singing duties on the songs, simple titles like "Love Stew," "Policeman" ("You took our money/but you can't take our fun") and "Juju & Blue" (Root's love song for his new band mate) that captured the music's laid-back vibe. Stulbach's breathy voice and Portuguese lyrics were a perfect foil for Root's child-like vocals, and when the two sang together you could practically feel the electricity between them.

After the record's surprising success, the Mosquitos found themselves on tour with, among others, the French electronic popsters Air, playing to audiences sometimes reaching 3,000.

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