JoBu

Summer Camp Official Guide

So, four students at SIU-Carbondale get together to form a band. They like all kinds of music, including rock, reggae and funk. Three of the four are even studying music in college. They write some songs and play some gigs with one mission in mind – to create positive music for positive people. This band is know as Jobu.
- Summer Camp Official Guide

Here is a list of some venues JoBu has played


Hog’s Breath Saloon Key West FL
Industry Iowa City IA
Vaudville Mews Des Moines IA
Fat Jack’s Bloomington IL
NV Ultra Lounge Bloomington IL
IBC Brewing Co. Bloomington IL
Daddio’s Bloomington IL
Side Trax Carbondale IL
Hangar 9 Carbondale IL
Big Boys Carbondale IL
Tres Hombres Carbondale IL
Booby’s Carbondale IL
Copper Dragon Carbondale IL
PK’s Carbondale IL
Gatsby’s Carbondale IL
Salt Peter Caves Carbondale IL
Canopy Club Champaign/Urbana IL
Joe’s Champaign/Urbana IL
Station Champaign/Urbana IL
Fire Haus Champaign/Urbana IL
Iron Post Champaign/Urbana IL
Uptowner Charleston IL
Friends and Company Charleston IL
The Store Chicago IL
Martyr’s Chicago IL
Silvie’s Lounge Chicago IL
Lincoln Park Chicago IL
Kinetic Playground Chicago IL
Summer Camp Chilicothie IL
Mulligens Coal Valley IL
Otto’s Dekalb IL
House Café Dekalb IL
Chicago St Pub Joliet IL
9th St Pub Lasalle IL
Bent River Brewery Moline IL
Frankie’s Blue Room Naperville IL
Eamon Patrick’s Peoria IL
S.O.P’s Peoria IL
Crusen’s Peoria IL
Jtodd’s Steakhouse Plainfield IL
Rock Island Brew Co. Rock Island IL
SOHO Music Festival Springfield IL
Marley’s Pub Springfield IL
Capital City Bar Springfield IL
Jazz Central Station Springfield IL
Buckner’s Brewery Cape Girardeau MO
Shamrock’s Cape Girardeau MO
Port Cape Cape Girardeau MO
Rude Dog Pub Cape Girardeau MO
Mojo’s Columbus MO
Aztar Casino Curthersville MO
Cicero’s St. Louis MO
Broadway Oyster Bar St. Louis MO
Uncle Festers Bloomington IN
Constant Springs Goshen IN
Mousetrap Indianapolis IN
Mug Shots Indianapolis IN
Knickerbaker Lafayette IN
Shoreline Brewery Michigan City IN
Wuhnurth Music Fest Muncie IN
The Verve Terra Haute IN
Papa Pete’s Kalamazoo MI
The Frequency Madison WI
The Annex Madison WI

- JoBu Catalog

who: JoBu
what: funk/ rock/ reggae CD release party
where: Hangar 9
when: Thursday, March 22

JoBu:
New Jams to Assemble
words and pictures by Shay Kelley

JoBu, a local funk/reggae band that has been developing their own
unique style of music for the last year and a half, is working hard
to provide the sound that gets their audiences off their feet and
onto the dance floor. Thursday, March 22 at the Hangar 9, JoBu will
release a full-length album, Assemble, just finished and available to
the public. They will also record audio and video of their March 22
show, which they hope to release as a DVD. They're also performing in
Urbana at the Canopy Club on March 23.
Guitarists Aaron VanVooren and Matt Hines, along with bassist Andrew
Neel, study classical guitar at SIU, bringing the sophisticated
melodic complexities of classical music into their
rock-and-reggae-influenced album. Making the scene complete is
drummer/percussionist Jeb Rendall. With influences that run the gamut
from Led Zeppelin to Metallica, Pink Floyd to the String Cheese
Incident, these guys are nailing down a sound like none other.
Matt Hines explained their style to Nightlife in a phone interview
while out and about during spring break. "We've got a lot of
different influences, like jam bands and classic rock, classical
obviously for classical guitar, and jazz too," he said. "I think that
we are trying to put all that rock and other jamming, mixed with a
lot of reggae, to get people to dance a lot."
JoBu is perpetually striving to emulate the idols of their genre, as
well as show their audience the unique qualities that set them apart
from their forebears.
"We're trying to start our own kind of thing and just do what we can
to show how our songs represent how we write material and how we feel
about it," said Hines. "I think that complexity-wise, and with really
cool melody lines and cool lyrics, that we've kind of done the same
thing as a lot of bands that we idolize."
It's obvious that with JoBu, similar to virtually every band playing
in front of a live audience, the crowd and the prevalent energy that
accompanies every song choice largely determines where they will take
their music in the future.
"We've written probably thirty originals, but ten of them we
don't ever play because they're not really good for a live
situation," said Hines. "Either it's like, too girlie, or it's not
the right mood, or nobody's dancing, so we took those songs and put
them on the side. We're really trying to focus on what makes the
crowd move around, what makes them happy, what makes them sing along,
stuff like that."
Hines described their ideal goal this way: "Getting that
vibe, creating it, and getting people to follow our band, taking it
outside of Carbondale and getting it.... I mean, not super-huge, we
don't want to be super rock stars where we're getting annoyed by
cameras and all that stuff, but getting as big as we can where we've
got a big following, and make a decent living off of it."
Recording a full-length album was the first step in that
direction. Even though they aren't calling Assemble a "big, official
album" because it lacks disc jackets and they chose not to have a CD
release party, JoBu does believe that including as many songs as
possible on the album is a stellar way to get their sound out to the
public.
According to Hines, the lyrics that really seem to have
staying power are within a song titled "Sunday Morning." Displaying
their collective affinity for and assimilation to college life, this
song apparently directly relates to the lives of their audience
members, and maintains a musical complexity that engages the crowd.
"It seems that a lot of people know the words to that song,
it's a very easy to sing along to," said Hines. "During the chorus
part, we've got vocal harmonies going, and I'm playing a melody line
on my guitar over that, so it's got a lot of stuff going on. With a
reggae-guitar part going on in the background, it's got a fun feel to
it, and the words relate a lot to college kids and their lives...
talking about going out and getting drunk on a Saturday night, and
then waking up Sunday morning and being hung over."
With shows scheduled at Tres Hombres and Hangar 9 in April,
JoBu are also preparing to play Shawnee Saltpetre Cave for the
unofficial holiday of April 20, with local bands Defined Perception
and the Fuz and a few national acts. So perhaps JoBu is not in danger
of being stalked by paparazzi any time soon, but these guys are well
on their way to making their mark on the Carbondale music scene.
--

Chris Wissmann,
Editor-in-Chief
Nightlife

701 West Main
Carbondale, IL 62901

office phone: (618) 549-2799
fax: (618) 549-3664
email: nightlif@midwest.net,CDaleRocks@yahoo.com
website: <http://www.CarbondaleRocks.com> - Nightlife Newspaper