By Anita Stewart, Managing Editor
BadCameo hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and will be moving to the Tampa Bay area next week and are already lined up with their first gig at the Red Star Rock Bar on Florida Avenue on December 5th. Still on a high from their fully produced and engineered EP “Neon Souls” that was released in February 2020, the band is eagerly awaiting the upcoming release of their first studio album, “BadCameo Out Loud.” The band is Lando Pieroni, vocals, guitar, bass Geoff Weber, keyboards, bass and flute and Dan Mead on drums.
I still can’t put my finger on what genre they are but their songs have elements of pop, rock, electronica, jazz, dance, funk and probably more. They call themselves “Indie-Fusion-Funk.” After listening to the full album, I hear traces of cool fusion/rock bands like Steely Dan and the older Traffic for example. We have been so impressed with their sound here at Rock at Night that we interviewed the band just a few months ago. (CLICK HERE) Well known in North Carolina, we expect this band will take this area by storm as well.
BadCameo recorded the album in their home studio and Geoff, the bassist, did all the mixing, mastering and producing for the songs. So everything was done in-house with the exception of “Pink Leather”, which was recorded at Maldek Studio in Salisbury, NC but still mixed, mastered, and produced by Geoff. This album drops on Friday, October 30th! Get it, you will love it!
THE SONGS
1) She Got Me: a disco-funk song that starts off the album with a BANG! The song draws inspiration from the sounds of Saturday Night Fever, so you know this jam will get anyone to shake it down on the dance floor!
2) Nina Nina: we kept the energy going with this one! As the second song on the album, “Nina Nina” continues on the theme of exploring personal relationships. You will notice in this upbeat funk-rock tune that both the narrative and music have a sassy tone to them, and that’s because this song was written about a cat named “Nina”
3) Bad Situation: Have you ever wondered if this crazy life is just a long dream we have yet to wake up from? Moments of surreal magnitude can tear apart the fabric of your reality. This song describes this feeling through the lens of a husband catching his wife cheating on him.
4) Pink Leather: this song was released as a single back in July to let the people know we had an album coming out! The song is an ode to spontaneity and it actually originated as a Soundcloud beat which was composed, recorded, and produced in a feverish and frenzied burst one balmy July evening.
5) Fortaleza Bop: some of our favorite musicians come from the Bossa Nova era. The rhythmic groove that comes from the beaches of Brazil is something we love to incorporate in our music. This is a pop-samba song that in many ways mimics the sentimentality of the classic bossa nova tune ” The Girl From Ipanema”, but with a modern twist! The song features the incredible saxophone of Jake Vanaman of the awesome band Kendall Street Company.
6) Butterfly: This song and the next are a bit more introspective. “Butterfly” has a dream-pop vibe to it that suavely caresses the memories of a childhood state of mind. There’s a kid within us all no matter where you are in life’s long journey, but at times the youthful joy we once had comes back to mind almost like a mirage, making us think twice on whether it was a reality.
7) Great Outdoors: Mother Nature is often taken for granted in the droll routine of modern life, and this song is about relishing in her subtle beauty. She is both nurturing and destructive, and embracing her temperaments helps us discover ourselves and the rhythms of the cosmos. This song is our humble tribute to her, and we hope it inspires anyone listening to “step on outside!”
8) Swamp Doctor: When you finally thought you had us pinned down as a band that experiments with funk/disco beats with jazzy chords all within a pop feel to it, “Swamp Doctor” shows another side of BadCameo’s versatile sound! We went full ROCK N ROLL with this one and it features the incredible harmonica of Johnny Holliday from the bands 87 Nights and Fox Hunt.
9) Mr. Rain: we owe a lot to our former lead guitarists Will Huesman for how some of these song came to be, but especially for this one. “Mr. Rain” is the last song on the album and it’s an easy going jazz-rock ballad. We wanted to highlight the reflective nature of a rainy day and the feeling of being out of touch with the community around you.
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