Getting your groove on with the family

The Family Groove Company keeps moving east. They formed in Los Angeles, and, after finding… The Family Groove Company keeps moving east. They formed in Los Angeles, and, after finding that the jam-band scene wasn’t exactly thriving there, they packed up and moved to Chicago. Tonight, their journeying takes them further east than ever before, collectively anyway – bassist Janis Wallin hails from near Harrisburg – to play a show here in Pittsburgh.

Though the jam-band audience is their target, they hesitate to call themselves a jam band. “It’s mostly because that term is really taking on a really broad meaning,” said lead vocalist/keyboardist Jordan Wilkow. “The reluctance comes in because it’s really a scene that’s sort of exploded and there are an awful lot of bands. There’s a huge range of musical styles that are putting themselves in that genre, and we take a lot of pride in the improvisation that we have to offer.”

“We worry, sometimes, that the word ‘jam band’ is going to start having a negative connotation, where it’s a band with a lot of guitars that never stops playing and plays forever and doesn’t have anything that isn’t totally redundant to say, musically,” he continued.

Fans of the genre, however, are sure to catch a high-energy, improvisational show that will last from three to four hours.

“We find that this music is a very interactive experience. So much of it is being created on stage in that particular moment,” said Wilkow.

Sometimes, venues are less than crowded at Family Groove Company’s shows, such was the case in L.A.

“We really found, particularly with the venues that we were trying to play at, that people just weren’t willing to trust music that was meant to stand for it’s own sake as opposed to music that is about how the musician is,” said Wilkow.

Their music combines rock with jazz and throws in elements of funk, groove and soul. Some of the songs on their debut full-length album, Reachin, are reminiscent of Phish. “As Abe Was Walking,” is one such song. Family Groove Company cites the proprietors of the genre that they hesitate to fit into, jam-band godfathers The Grateful Dead, as one of their favorite bands, as well as influences, and it comes through in their flowing tunes.

In addition to melodic keyboards on a lot of the songs on the album, a piano shines through on “Interesting Changes,” a slow and soft ballad. It is this song that sets them apart from the typical jam band.

What is noteworthy about Reachin is that only one of the 10 songs on the album clocks in under five minutes and one never gets bored listening to the longer, almost eight-minute tracks.

Family Groove Company will play a 21-and-over show at Buskers, in the Strip District, tonight at 10 p.m. There is a $3 cover charge. For more information, call (412) 355-0911.