Dub Is a Weapon Celebrates CD Release in Asheville
Tim W. Jackson: Photo by Stephen Diggs - Post Date: 05.05.2011

Celebrating a brand-new album release in the home of its record label, Harmonized Records, Brooklyn's Dub Is a Weapon returns to Asheville May 14 for a 10 p.m. show at The Grey Eagle

The new album, Vaporized, was recorded live at a studio in Syracuse, New York, the end result being what band leader Dave Hahn calls "the best thing we've ever done." Being in a real studio really shows in the quality of the recording, he says, and the end product has the band energized and ready to show off the new tunes.

"We've been getting lots of positive reviews," Dave says, referring to commentary on Vaporized in publications typically covering a range from punk to jam bands.

"We did it like a jazz record," Dave says. "We had each member of the group in a room where we could all see each other and we played multiple versions of each song and then picked the best."

The group will bring songs from Vaporized plus several more tunes to The Grey Eagle for what Dave says will be "a deep dub meditation." For those who may not know what dub music is, it's essentially a sub-genre of reggae music with cultural origins in 1960s Jamaica.

As the band leader and chief composer of the group's music, Dave says he typically starts with a bass line. "In dub, the bass line is usually the hook," he says. "Then I look at the chord progression and work on a melody for me and Maria (Eisen, the saxophonist) to play.

On stage, Dave plays guitars and runs the faders and effects. Maria obviously plays sax. Dub's drummer is Madhu Siddappa. Ben Rogerson plays bass and guitar. Rounding out the group is legendary percussionist Larry McDonald, who has played with numerous reggae greats including Bob Marley.

The band has played Asheville several times, including their inauspicious start as a touring group. Back in September of 2004, the group played a gig at Stella Blue to kick off the band's first tour. The timing unfortunately coincided with one of the worst hurricane seasons on record. A show that was supposed to follow in Wilmington got canceled and the band ended up watching the rain pour down outside its Asheville Days Inn windows.

On the current CD, the fourth track is a song called "Asheville." "It's kind of a bluesy, melancholy song that comes from that feeling of being stuck in the pouring rain in Asheville on that tour," Dave says. "Tour dates were getting canceled. We had nowhere to go. As the band leader I kind of felt I had the weight of the world on me to make something positive happen.

Dave went on to say, "We love Asheville now and have had a lot of support from that city, so we thought naming a song after a place we like isn't such a bad thing—even if the song itself is a bit melancholy."

There's not much melancholy with the Dub Is a Weapon these days. With the new CD, a tour, and a band that thrives on playing great live music together, Dave says he is excited to bring the group's music back to Asheville. "We want to bring something people can groove to, something they can latch onto," he says. "We want for people to forget all that ails them for about an hour-and-a-half or two hours and get into that sonic trance. It's all about the music."