 Rubber
by Jason Meier
On Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm, Lawrence's own Rubber took
the stage. I had seen these guys right after they formed about two years ago, but hadn't
seen them since, so it was a real treat.
Combined, the boys in Rubber have been in more local bands
than you could shake a stick at, including the Salty Iguanas, Skin and Baghdad
Jones.
The members of Rubber are Robert Rebeck - rhythm guitar and
vocals; Tye Murphy - bass and vocals; Sebastion Allie - lead guitar; and Paul Matthews -
drums.
The band has been around for about 2 ½ years, and in that
time they have released one CD and played many shows in the Lawrence and Manhattan areas.
The band has shared the stage with locals bands like The Band That Saved The World,
Puddle, Flick and the Differents. They have also played with the funk band Shag from
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Rubber's sound is mostly focused around the groove and
incorporates a few different styles. Those styles include rock, funk, and some jazz. The
boys also do a good job at extending a song out and jamming on it for a bit when playing
live.
Some of the bands and musicians that have influenced
Rubber's sound include: Led Zeppelin, George Clinton and Parliment Funkadelic, James
Brown, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and AC/DC.
What I enjoyed about Rubber's set was the fact that they
did a good job at mixing up the styles. Some of the songs were very rockin', while some of
the songs had a nice jazzy feel to them. But for the most part, the funkiness was there.
A couple of the set highlights included "Circles"
and their current radio hit, "Rock Song." I also liked really liked some of the
different guitar effects that Sebastian used in his playing. At times, his guitar sounded
more like a synthesizer.
One of the band's benefits is that Robert Rebeck works for Mercy Studios in Lawrence. This
has both its good and bad points, as the band pointed out.
"The obvious benifit is that it is a little bit
cheaper for us to record," said Robert. "It's where we recorded our first CD
at."
"But it makes it tough to get gigs on the weekends
though, because of the recording schedule," said Ty Murphy. "Most bands can only
record on the weekends, so it's tough to get weekend gigs since Robert is the one who will
be producing them."
"At times it's a conflict of interest," adds Paul
Mathews."But at the same time, if the gig was too important to pass up, we would find
a way to deal with it and do the gig."
Future plans for Rubber are to focus on playing shows where they can open for national
acts and get more exposure.
"We have about a couple of hours of good
material," said Robert Rebeck. "But we have one hour of great material
that I'm sure would really impress people when they got to hear it."
"We just want to play as much as we can and see what
happens," adds Ty Murphy.
The band also recently recorded a couple of songs down in
Nashville, Tennessee at Masterphonics Recording Studios that will eventually see the light
of day.
"The next album is pretty much written," Robert
says. But he also forewarns that it won't be released for a while. "We will be
working on recording it, but it won't be out for quite a while."
Upcoming gigs for Rubber include September 22nd at Rusty's
Last Chance in Manhattan with Ruskabank; September 27th on the Pittsburgh State University
campus with The Feds; October 2nd at the Liebrary in Emporia, Kansas with Puddle; and
October 15th at Auntie Mae's in Manhattan.
Also make sure to stop by and take part in the
"Rubolution" that is starting at the official Rubber website at http://members.aol.com/rubolution/rubber.html.
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