Marin County’s favorite funky sons, Vinyl can alternately sound like the best live funk, Latin, reggae or dub band you’ve heard in ages — and occasionally, all at the same time. Vinyl brings it with fierce musicianship and zesty abandon, proving you can have both substance and style. The infectious music of Vinyl blends old-school funk, Latin percussion, reggae and R&B into signature instrumental grooves.
Vinyl was formed in 1995 in a Mill Valley garage with the goal of replacing the ubiquitous DJ’s with a live band that would keep people dancing by moving seamlessly from genre to genre just like a DJ’s selections. The band’s diverse sound and high energy shows were met with an overwhelmingly positive response from the start – selling out their first and every show played at their home club – The Sweetwater (over 100). Over 20 years of national + international touring brought the band to High Sierra Music Festival, Reggae on the River, Oregon Country Fair, Mountain Aire, Jazz Aspen/Snowmass, Berkshire Mountain Music Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Hood River Fest, Baja Fest (Mex), All Good Festival and many others. For 15 straight years, Vinyl played sold-out sunrise sets at New Orleans’ legendary Maple Leaf Bar during Jazzfest. In 2000 Vinyl teamed up with The Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh for a jam-packed benefit concert in Petaluma. Vinyl received a “Wammie” award for Best International Band from San Francisco’s SF Weekly and was voted one of the top 25 bands in the country by a jambands.com nationwide poll. Vinyl issued six self-produced albums and has worked /performed with artists such as: Ernest Ranglin, Bernie Worrell, Les Claypool, Sugarpie DeSanto, Rob Wasserman, Bob Weir, Fred Ross, Poncho Sanchez, Eek-A-Mouse, Larry Coryell, Jerry Harrison, Andrew Tosh, Huey Lewis and many more.
