Disco Biscuits, above, formed as a University of Pennsylvania frat party band in 1995 and quickly realized its potential on the hippie/jam band circuit, playing gigs with the Black Crowes and the Jerry Garcia Band.
Its sound blends rock, techno, jazz, soul - basically everything under the sun - in a deliberate attempt, says singer-guitarist Jon Gutwillig, to have the nuttiest, jammiest music around. DB's quick forays into an avant-garde or classical piece have earned it comparisons to Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.
The group's latest, 2002's Senor Boombox, is a druggy hodgepodge of 1970s-style jams, big on rock riffs and disco beats. There's even a mean flute hook on one tune, and plenty of hippie-dippy lyrics about love and hope and feeling groovy.
Disco Biscuits performs at 8 p.m. today at Twilight, 1507 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $15. (813) 247-4225.
- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic
More animal magnetism
The Animals made waves in the 1960s with House of the Rising Sun and frontman Eric Burdon's soulful, gravelly vocals. Burdon and the gang were part of the British Invasion, but the band's focus was soul and blues, American style.
After the band split, it retooled and began appearing under the name Eric Burdon and the Animals.
It's Burdon's voice - a dynamite mix of grit and bellowing wail - as well as untethered stage antics that included energetic "collapses" a la James Brown, which continued to strike a chord with crowds.
The tunes, too, were a ferocious lot, nearly every one a reckless anthem of rebels and rock: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, It's My Life, Don't Bring Me Down and, naturally, We Gotta Get Out of This Place.
Eric Burdon and the Animals perform at 7 p.m. Sunday at Largo Cultural Center, 105 Central Park Drive, Largo. $24. (727) 587-6793.
