Andrew's Ave.

Based out of Lincoln, Nebraska, friends and family come together to form four-piece jam rock band, ANDREW’S AVENUE. Barely out of college, the boys are veterans of the live rock circuit with over 70 shows and counting since they formed in 2007. It’s not without good reason. Aaron (bass &vocals) and Jason (drums) Elliott, Adam Boomer (guitar) and Steve Patton (keys) are indeed talented jam merchants serving up the funkiest of feasts that would not sound out of place at Nashville’s Bonnaroo.

Less commercial than JAMIROQUAI and much looser, with touches of PAT METHENY, RETURN TO FOREVER and WEATHER REPORT, this is free funk, jazz-fusion, psychedelic and very palatable. Every song has a different texture which is refreshing for such a new band. Aaron has a clean almost choirboy-like voice; gentle, nothing is overdone. The whole album is pure musicianship.

Absolutely love the story behind track three, STORY OF ANDREW – I hate to throw in more comparisons but I detect a soupcon of British invasion bands as far back as THE BEATLES and KINKS at this point. It really works for me. The more I listen to it the more I like it.

This is high quality, fun and creative fusion mixed with some of the best qualities of bop, jazz, funk and rock. - Phase 9

Editor's Note: Andrew's Ave formed in the summer of '07 and consists of Aaron Elliot (vocals, bass), Steve Patton (vocals, keys), Adam Boomer (vocals, guitar) and Jason Elliot (vocals, drums). They've made their way around the Lincoln and Omaha music scene playing various shows and recording their first album, "Reinventing Vintage," at Drake University. Adam Boomer took some time to tell us a bit about the band.

So tell me how Andrew's Ave came to be. How'd you guys all meet?

I had been playing with Aaron Elliott (bass) for many years, but when he went away to school at Drake, we only got the opportunity to play together when he came back to town.

He met Steve Patton (piano) down in Des Moines, and they started playing in many ensembles together and also had access to the recording studio there. One day Aaron sent me some tracks they had been recording and asked my opinion on them and if I would be interested in coming up there to record on them. Aaron also recruited his older brother, Jason, to play drums on this project. We stayed in the studio (ate, drank, slept in it) for a week, and after recording tracks for a whole week, we realized we had an interesting sound. We decided to move along with this project and tour vigorously. By vigorously, I mean Lincoln and Omaha.

How'd you come up with the name Andrew's Ave?

Andrew's Ave was the street I use to live on in New Orleans many years ago which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore. There's a track on the album called "Metarie" which is sort of homage to that street. Andrew's is a possessive noun, but we usually get lazy and don't put the apostrophe in there, and technically there should be a period after Ave, but we don't do that either.

I listened to the songs on your MySpace page. You got that jam band thing going on. Would you guys call yourself a jam band?

Definitely. Our sound is built on improvisation. There is a set format for each song, but each time we play we try and push the boundaries of the song and take it to new levels. A song on the album that's three minutes long might morph into a 15-minute jam when we play it live.

Who are your biggest influences?

Phish, Pat Metheny Group, Umphrey's McGee, String Cheese Incident and Savage Garden.

How does the music-making progress go down with Andrew's Ave? Does one guy deserve more credit over the others?

Aaron and Steve wrote [the music for] nine out of the 11 tracks on the album from their jam sessions, and I contributed a mere two. Jason and I offered advice and changed many of the parts in the songs to give it a different groove, so in that sense, it's a group effort. Everyone in the band is open to opinions and changes, so it allows for a collaborative effort. As for the lyrics, I wrote eight of the songs after inspiration from some Franzia.

What's the five-year plan for Andrew's Ave?

Next December (after we all obtain degrees in various fields) we are moving out to Fort Collins, Colo., working full time during the day and playing/rehearsing at night. If we don't get signed, we'll either sulk or make elevator/weather channel music.

How are you guys "reinventing vintage" with your first album?

I honestly don't know why we named it that, but the album touches on many different musical textures. We have songs that I feel represent our true sound, and there's some songs that we just put on there to please the average music listener. Many people often ask us what to classify our music as, and we usually tell them very random titles such "klezmer," "jazz" or "ghetto-tech" because we have no clue. It's hard to pin a genre to the first album because its a musical fondue. The next album will be focused towards more of a jam-progressive rock type sound which is the direction our new songs have been going.

Got any shows coming up?

We are gonna be playing at the Upstream Brewery in Omaha over the break as well as Bodega's Alley and the Box Awesome. Check out our Web site for more info, www.andrewsave.com or you can download most of our stuff at www.myspace.com/andrewsave.

heatherprice@dailynebraskan.com - The Daily Nebraskan

In the process of trying to expand my work as an author, and with a little help from our buddies in Andrew's Ave., I finally took on the operation of writing an album review. It sounded like such an easy task - until I actually began working on it, that is. So hopefully I am able to do these talented gentlemen some justice.

Read more on the new album, after the jump!

Andrew's Ave. is an act out of Lincoln, NE that has been working the crowds for a little over a year. Their genre is, well, let’s just say unclassifiable. To make a long story short, they are a mixture of rock and jam with heavy influences of jazz and funk scattered frequently throughout. They have gained notoriety locally with their fun-filled live shows. Their self-titled debut album, which they are releasing during a live show at The State Theatre with Little Black Stereo and Vibenhai in support, is due out on October 3rd. After giving it a few whirls, particularly on some very long, thought provoking drives, I finally felt that I had a grasp on the album. One of the first things that amused me was the variety and spontaneity of each song. Minus the unique vocals, musically, this band would be quite hard to pick out by earshot. Any act that can be that resilient is gifted in my eye.

The disc starts off what seems like the perfect introductory track - the melodic, jammy track entitled “Outside of My Mind,” lets the listener relax in preparation for what lies ahead. This theme continues until “The Story of Andrew,” a little bit of a ballad that throws in a slew of dark sounding keyboard choruses. Once again, the album falls back into a jam influenced mode, until it hits another genre-bending speed bump with “Train Ride Romance,” a funky fast-paced track with hints of mellowness in between that even each other out for some tasteful noise.

In summary, I feel that Andrew's Ave. pulled off a blissful roller coaster ride of an album with their freshman effort. There are few moments while listening that leave me craving a change. I was a little concerned going into this, as I felt that it would be quite difficult to duplicate their sound outside of the live setting, but these guys somehow found the happy medium. And it sounds sooooo nice! Keep a look out for this act - they seem like they're on the right track. See ya at the State Theatre in Lincoln on October 3rd!

For a unique and fresh album that has already granted me several pleasurable listening sessions, I give Andrew's Ave.'s self-titled debut 7/10 slices, and I surely am looking forward to watching these guys progress!

Til next time,
The Toastman - Breakfast on Tour

They might be sitting on a couch or jamming on stage.

A simple glance shifts the tone of the local jazz/rock band Andrew’s Avenue.

The quartet’s conversations tend to drift with their emotions, going from talk of the Beatles and Pat Metheny to memories of recording songs at 4 a.m. Their music follows a similar path: switching style or speed with a single glance between members or, if necessary, a shout across stage.
[+]Enlarge
Story Photo
Adam Boomer (from left), Jason Elliot, Aaron Elliott and Steve Patton make up the band Andrew's Avenue, which will perform tonight at the State Theatre. (Courtesy photo)
Story Photo
Adam Boomer (from left), Jason Elliot, Aaron Elliott and Steve Patton make up the band Andrew's Avenue, which will perform tonight at the State Theatre. (Courtesy photo)
If you go

What: Andrew's Avenue, with Little Black Stereo and VibeNhai.

When: 9 Friday

Where: State Theatre, 1415 O St.

Admission: $5 in advance at (402) 304-1745, or at the doors for $7, 21 and over; or $10, 18 and over.

The guys are hosting a CD-release party for their self-titled album at 9 Friday at the State Theatre, and they said they plan to stick to the new tracks.

But they’re still Andrew’s Avenue. They mix jazz with funk with a little bit of rock to make an unpredictable product.

They’re always looking to improvise.

“That’s what I love about this group,” said Adam Boomer, guitarist. “It’s going to be different every time.”

The band began somewhat on a whim. In May 2007, Lincoln native Aaron Elliot was spending his days at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. As a music major there, he had free rein to the school’s recording studio, and he invited his brother, Jason, and Boomer to leave Lincoln for a week to record a few songs.

Another Drake student and Omaha native, Steve Patton, joined the gathering. The four-man group plugged in a few microphones and started playing.

Afterward, they burned the tunes onto some cheap CDs and offered them for $5 during random summer concerts.

They ended up giving them away — if people would take them. Some nights fans showed up, others nights parents and a few friends made up the crowd.

But Andrew’s Avenue kept playing, and it continued through college classes last fall.

“We would just get up on stage, no practice,” Aaron Elliot said. “We would kind of improvise the whole thing.

“Then (Patton and I) would go back to Drake at 1 in the morning.”

The late nights were just beginning.

When this spring rolled around, the guys were ready to record another album. This time they met at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where Jason Elliot had access to the recording studio as a student there. He booked it for all of spring break, when classes and life could be put on hold for a while.

Except the only time slots left were from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.

For a whole week, the band recorded after sunset and slept after sunrise. Each day, the four woke around noon, wrote a few songs and went back to the studio.

“When you’re sleep deprived, you play a lick you never would have ever played,” Boomer said. “We would throw out random ideas and hope it worked.”

They ended up with the bulk of material found on their new album, and they spent the following months tweaking the details.

Tonight, they plan to play every song on the CD. Each introduction is set and theme laid out.

But it’s still a jazz style. It’s still Andrew’s Avenue.

There is always room to improvise.

“We’re a live band,” Jason Elliot said. “We communicate, so it’s not always going to be normal. But it always works.” - Ground Zero (Lincoln Journal Star)