New dance, club, hip hop and experimental music on NECODO. Download MP3, WAV and FLAC. This issue: Truckasauras Exclusive

Truckasauras devours everything in its path. A "band" that has taken over its creators and like artificial intelligence is on a path of its own making. Tyler & Adam Swan and Ryan Trudell have been making music together in some format for over fifteen years. Include video mixer Dan Bordon or horn player Anthony Moore and you have two seemingly different beasts. With Moore the trio becomes a quartet of serious hip hop and techno influenced jazz funk musicians that make up Foscil. When you trade Moore for Bordon's video imagery the Truck beast is unleashed. For such minute differences they are all together different entities. Once time has been spent with the band (which is more family than group) it all begins to make sense. The video projections usually lead the show and act as a focal point for the audience unless Adam is berating the megaphone or Tyler is making a rare Truck appearance on the drum kit. In this guise, they pull out their Game boys and MIDI patch them together with vintage gear like Sequential Circuits TOM, Commodore 64 clone melded to a MIDI keyboard, megaphone, a melodica as well as the legendary series from Roland: the SH101, TB303 and the bass master itself TR808. This mash-up of sequenced MIDI gear creates the spine of this mighty monster. Dan Bordon's video mixing of Airwolf (a theme the band recorded on this album), monster trucks, classic "wrasslin" footage and the movies anyone over twenty one may not want to admit having seen but guiltily recall and the exterior of the formidable monster takes shape...

Truckasauras devours everything in its path. A "band" that has taken over its creators and like artificial intelligence is on a path of its own making. Tyler & Adam Swan and Ryan Trudell have been making music together in some format for over fifteen years. Include video mixer Dan Bordon or horn player Anthony Moore and you have two seemingly different beasts. With Moore the trio becomes a quartet of serious hip hop and techno influenced jazz funk musicians that make up Foscil. When you trade Moore for Bordon's video imagery the Truck beast is unleashed. For such minute differences they are all together different entities. Once time has been spent with the band (which is more family than group) it all begins to make sense. The video projections usually lead the show and act as a focal point for the audience unless Adam is berating the megaphone or Tyler is making a rare Truck appearance on the drum kit. In this guise, they pull out their Game boys and MIDI patch them together with vintage gear like Sequential Circuits TOM, Commodore 64 clone melded to a MIDI keyboard, megaphone, a melodica as well as the legendary series from Roland: the SH101, TB303 and the bass master itself TR808. This mash-up of sequenced MIDI gear creates the spine of this mighty monster. Dan Bordon's video mixing of Airwolf (a theme the band recorded on this album), monster trucks, classic "wrasslin" footage and the movies anyone over twenty one may not want to admit having seen but guiltily recall and the exterior of the formidable monster takes shape. All the fun and spectacle of a monster truck jam comes to life out of this crew yet a rudimentary Nintendo-esque innocence still exists. This is not your average genre classifiable creature. As the band says "Truck took on a life of its own" and its really hard to understand how or comprehend its intentions until you have had your party rocked and any pre-conceived notions destroyed in person. With just the smallest good fortune this release will further the ever evolving Truckasauras into a "Rex" that can't go extinct and destroys a city near you.

So how do 4 guys and musical toys fueled by Makers Mark, cheap beer and mary jane equate into the hippest electronic project currently on the West Coast? Adam takes some time to share with us how all of this came about before this monster is unleashed on a world wide audience.

NECODO: Adam, thanks for taking the time out to talk to me. So how does it feel so close to the tip of the tornado out here before it hits? Or is this the calm before the storm?

Adam: This is all pretty cool.We are all so excited about everything falling into place.

NECODO: Can you expand on that? How is everything "falling into place"?

Adam: Sure, we have really good shows lined up, we start with Portland than Seattle and then were playing Sasquatch! All of the artwork is looking sick everyone working with us and handling it is being great and is as excited and as motivated as we are.

NECODO: Can you give me some more detail about how you and your brother became friends and started playing with Ryan as you three are the core for Foscil and Truckasauras?

Adam: Yeah, Ryan and Tyler were like grade school best friends. Our Dad and Uncle used to have a group together. My grandfather played Jazz Piano in Chicago so we had a huge musical background our entire lives.Ryan and Tyler had a garage grunge band which kind of evolved into Foscil. We have Tony rocking horns in Foscil and Dan providing the visual inspiration for Truck.

NECODO: How did Foscil evolve into Truck?

Adam: Foscil is mad serious. It's kind of about the big instruments like live drums, horns, Rhodes and guitars. Truckasauras started when Ryan bought the nano loop for Gameboy. Than he started buying all of this other old analog gear. Foscil became the performance that rocked the party and than with the smaller gear Truckasauras somehow evolved into itself. Once we started taking it seriously we got out of the basements and started getting better shows. Than Truckasauras took us over, ha ha.

NECODO: It takes everyone within its reach over for sure! I heard some stories about the party in Portland that Pitchfork editor and bad ass DJ Philip Sherburne came to, can you expel the rumors and give me the facts?

Adam: That was just one of those times when things just happen but they all happen for the best. We were scheduled to play Holocene and right after sound check this car crashes into a telephone pole outside the club and cut the power to the entire block. We just hung outside the club and invited everyone that came to come to this house party the next night. Philip showed up wrote the article and our myspace page blew up.

NECODO: I'm loving the Basic remix to Knuckle Buckeruff and Howie C the 808 beats remind me of "Brass Monkey" somehow.

Adam: Aww man, that is the O.G. of the obnoxious drum loop, thanks!

NECODO: You guys are a bit of an anomaly. The first people I played stuff for just knew you weren't white. There is a lot of jazz, soul and funk but then I see you and your brother at Ellen Alien.

Adam: For sure we just love music and want to absorb it all. We would all love to be at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival but we are starting at home and hopefully growing outward. We put ourselves into everything we do. Ellen is a super hot DJ that owns her own record label and produces, what's not to like? What I don't like is how gentrification puts a halt to things. I hope things on the (Capitol) "hill" improve soon. Gentrification is taking over which is unfortunate for the night clubs that love, live and support electronic music.

NECODO: Volume was the ONLY issue with Ellen that night for sure, the city (Seattle) and clubs need to come to terms ASAP. I want to know more about your Father and family being so heavily into music.

Adam: It took years before I found out "Knocking On Heaven's Door" was written by Bob Dylan and not my father because he sang that song so much. He and my Uncle just always played together. What I hate is that Tyler, A.J. (youngest Swan sibling) and I never met or played with our Grandfather. He died pretty young after being a night pastor and pianist on Rush Street in Chicago. He provided hope, reprieve and a haven for bums, alcoholics and homeless people back in the day. At night after Jazz guys would gig they may not have anywhere to go afterwards and would come and jam with him. He was supposed to have been willing to jam for all hours. He did one album on his own as the Night Pastor and friends and I know he was on some trombone player friends of his release. I think the members of our family have every copy that was pressed. When my Dad and Uncle turned their extra time to golf and less to music my brothers and I reaped the rewards by getting all of their old gear.

NECODO: I am going to do my best to find the Night Pastor. I obviously wish you and the rest of the guys nothing but the best and hope this grows larger than any of us can imagine.

Adam: Thanks so much man, that's awesome and we all appreciate it and will keep making the best music we can.