Banooba

Banooba’s music is catchy and dynamic, moving from tight, progressive passages to the most infectious, pop rock choruses known to humanity. They really are a most pleasant anomaly. They’ve been to bad places and survived to come back even stronger on their arabesque journey to rock destiny. - Aquarian Weekly - —by John Pfeiffer, July 11, 2012

The night totally shifted gears as The Project took their turn at the mic. Ryan O'Conner keeps the mood at a low boil and is the absolute poster boy for the anti-rock star. From the opening notes of "Chicken Wings With Extra Sauce" we were hooked and ready to let the band take us wherever they wanted to go. Other highlights of the set were "Crazy Cab Driver" and the finale "Fire". These guys groove like it's their last day on earth, with irresistable songs and wicked musicianship. Kevin Kershko is a smart lead guitarist who works the scales methodically while the rythm section holds the foundation together. The sound and mood the band creates took me back to Otis Day and the Knights from Animal House... - Good Times Magazine

There aren't too many young bands out there who can combine solid, original songwriting with tight execution and the ability to stretch without noodling. The Project does just this. It's refreshing! High energy, bumpin' grooves, solid vocals, and hip hooks for your booty-shakin' pleasure!"
B. Smith
- Deep Banana Blackout, Fuzz

Stop the presses: Long Island can get funky. This strip of land, musically much maligned, isn’t the sole domain of old fashioned, guitar heavy bands any longer. As fresh and as welcome as the early spring temperatures, Banooba (formerly known as The Project) breezes in with “Banooba’s Travels” - and with only this debut release under their belts, Banooba joins Maryland’s All Mighty Senators and New York’s Lettuce as the finest funky rock bands on the east coast.

Banooba isn’t so much a jam band as it is a strong rock band with heavy funk overtones. Vocalist Ryan O’Connor’s superb singing hints of influences from everyone such Blood Sweat and Tears’ David Clayton Thomas to Spin Doctors’ Chris Barron, but like all the group’s members – bassist Kevin Sloan, guitarists Kevin Kershko and Kevin Torres and drummer Pete Cunningham – he uses his influences to forge an original, upbeat sound instead of cloning other jam-type groups. “Sinora” and “Wen” sound like legitimate hit records, loaded with lilting vocals and tight, raucous, funky playing.

Unlike the tunes of many such groups, many of the cuts here aren’t lengthy guitar explorations but perfect as songs first and foremost; there isn’t a throwaway cut on the entire disc. “No Anesthesia” is so funky it might cause many an impromptu dance party, while “Crazy Cab Driver” and “Chicken Wings” are pure horn driven fun. The rhythm section and guitar playing is expert, the recording (done at Vu Du Studios, naturally) is major league, and the overall package is perfectly realized.

This disc is listed in our Demolition column only because it has yet to receive traditional distribution, but that’s a foregone conclusion.

Syl Nathan - Good Times Magazine (April 2005) - Good Times Magazine

They’ve been compared to Steely Dan, The Spin Doctors, and Incubus, but Banooba will soon be the standard of comparison. Exploding on stage at Mulcahy’s on this particular Thursday night, this five-year-old local band whipped an eclectic array of funk, rock, and reggae into a tight, cohesive core.

Ryan O’Connor’s supple vocals were at once smooth and raunchy. Dueling guitarists Kevin Torres and Vinny Raniolo seemed equally comfortable on lead or rhythm, masterfully finessing the demands of diverse genres. Bassist Kevin Sloan and drummer Peter Cunningham locked into a tight groove, giving the band a solid foundation.

“Sinora,” their Reggae original with all the makings of a single hit, is currently receiving air play on Sirius as well as commercial and college radio. Live, it was a sparkling mélange, evoking the African rhythms imported by Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” Their rock/funk dish, “Chicken Wings (With Extra Sauce),” included spanking solos by guest rapper Mauzer. “Make Things Right” was a showcase for O’Connor’s artful scat vocals and first-rate guitar work by Torres and Raniolo.

While their best stuff by far is their own material, Banooba has a way of bringing new color to old standards, making Zeppelin’s classic “Ramble On” their own. Raniolo lent his guitar to O’Connor for a solo version of The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down.” Guest vocalist Eric Sezom channeled Bob Marley on an eccentric ska/reggae rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” They followed their 90-minute set with an encore, “Front Porch” (by Umphrey’s McGee), and Banooba’s own special “Fire Jam,” which builds like a freight train. I t left the audience hankering for a second set.

Empowered by Mulcahy’s impressive house system, Banooba created a lot of sound, crisp and clean, with a minimalist set-up. “I use the core of the drum kit: bass, snare, hi hat, ride cymbal, and cowbell,” said drummer Peter Cunningham. “That’s all you really need to make it groove.” Both guitarists replaced broken strings while their band mates rocked on. (I’d have kept an extra ax on hand for such emergencies, but that’s just me.)

Where is Banooba headed? “As far as we can take it,” says O’Connor, and they have what it takes to make it happen. After a stint in St. Croix, Banooba will return to Mulcahy’s on December 28, opening for Badfish. Check out their music, and purchase their CD Banooba’s Travels, at banooba.net. - Good Times Magazine - Daryl Altman

The streets of Queens, NYC do not necessarily carry jamband street cred. Nor, for that matter, do those in the Virgin Islands. But Banooba takes it all in stride as it keeps itself in motion. Since coming together in the winter of 2002, the group (formerly known as The Project) has seen one of its founding members die and another replacement take a permanent leave for fatherhood, even as it has found an intense fanbase beyond the Continental United States.

I caught up with the group (Ryan O'Connor- lead vocals, Kevin Torres- guitar and vocals, Vinny Raniolo- guitar, Kevin Sloan- bass and vocals and Peter Cunningham- drums) as they played a show about four hours northwest of Queens at Elmira Heights, New York’s Harry's Inn The Heights. As I arrived, the place was already bubbling with anticipation for this, the fifth time in about eighteen months that Banooba has played the area, with the attendance growing each time. As we sit around the top floor of the venue, each one of the five in seats and myself straddling an upside-down paint bucket, I realized these guys didn't have one bit of pretentiousness to them. Not one iota of entitlement or seething pride. As I dug into their history and their desire to write and play music, I learned another surprising fact about Banooba: While maintaining a 4-year relationship to the St. Croix island jam faithful, working a weekend warrior tour schedule up the coast, and releasing their first album, Banooba's Travel's (Vu Du Records), the five members have maintained full time jobs.

"We plan on playing everywhere we can play and spreading the funk to anyone who wants to listen. Apparently, we're doing double shift. We're playing full time and we're working full time jobs," said guitarist Kevin Torres. "And right now, it's moving to the direction where we can do this full time and sustain ourselves."

"So, you all have full time jobs then?" I respond.

"Yeah. It sucks!", said frontman vocalist Ryan 'O' Connor. "I work at a warehouse."

From blue collar during the week to no collar on the weekends, the sound that has people comparing them to Sublime, Allman Brothers and even Stevie Wonder takes every other bit of Banooba's free time.

"The craziest comparison we've ever heard was 'a mixture of the Average White Band meets the Allmans meets Incubus," Torres says.

"I cannot wait 'til we can play full time. I can't wait to not have to work at my job and still be able to pay enough bills to continue to play music," O'Connor says. "Every spare moment we have and some spare moments we don't really have. We're doing this. We're hoping that in the next 7-8 months, we will be on the road full time with no full time jobs."

As he talks about his passion for music, O'Connor comes across much more authentic than one might expect for a 6’ 1” 220 pound lead singer. A boisterous Irishman with a shaved head, his clear, resonant vocals are equally adept at covers like "You Can Call Me Al" and "Boogie on Reggae Woman" as well as the Sublime-esque radio-friendly Banooba original "Sinora." Not only was “Sinora” featured in the fall edition Relix compilation disc but the catchy tune has recently rose to the of most-requested songs on Sirius Jam_On.

"We picked that one (to go on the Relix CD) because that one was, honestly, the easiest for everyone to get into. It's an up-front song with up-front lyrics and it's probably the most radio-friendly song we have," "O'Connor says.

"People love that song and see us live and comment about how they love Sinora." Torres adds. "Since we made the Relix CD, we have seemed to get a lot more exposure"

Shortly after rocking Elmira again, the band headed off to open for the Adam Deitch Project at the Europa nightclub in Brooklyn and played to positive reviews. Now, in addition to northeast gigs, the group will head out in March for their annual St. Croix island tour, originally established through the family connections of drummer Peter Cunningham. The soft-spoken drummer features a Stewart Copeland type snap on high-hat and an overall relaxed reggae drumming style that suits the island perfectly. This Caribbean flavor mixed with Cunningham's passion for impromptu percussion additions such as beer bottles and pint glasses have added a sense of “what could happen next?” at Banooba shows.

While some may label such periodic experimentation as hijinx or antics, many of these would-be critics are later hushed by the crisp original jams that morph into a more mainstream rock show. That tightwire of fan demographics Banooba walks so well has also perpetuated a summer residency at the Jones Beach Band Shell, the aforementioned airtime on Sirius and as a result, a tenfold increase of visitors on Myspace Music.

Currently, Banooba does quick stints in the Caribbean, but if the band’s success can lead to a Jimmy Buffett daydream, than so be it, adds bassist Kevin Sloan.

"Our ideal scenario or should I say my ideal scenario is that things like the Relix CD happen more and more to us. That more and more people hear what we're doing and we'll be able to grow with them. I'd like to grow to where we can play summers in The States and in Europe playing festivals," Sloan says. "Oh, and then spend our entire winters playing music in the Islands," he adds to a resounding cheer from his bandmates.

Banooba's Travel's, the album, offers special horn appearances from Rob Somerville and Bryan Smith of Deep Banana Blackout, who help make several tracks, including the Galactic-inspired, "Chicken Wing" reminiscent of a time when funk didn't have to say to too much. In fact, tracks such as “Chicken Wing” harken back to the time when the JBs could take a simple food item and drop a five minute song just about it, without explaining it or getting too wrapped up in it. That omnipresent concept of keeping the music fun, keeping the music simple and keeping the music personal is what, most likely, will thrust Banooba past regional notoriety in support of the increasingly popular notion that everyone deserves a bit of Banooba in their lives.

- Jambands.com - John Michael Goff