Press Kit

A keenly entertaining blend of the Ringling Bros. and Ra…[that] puts the harm back in Philharmonic.

The Philharmonic's gleeful tendency to ignore genre boundaries evokes New Orleans: Elvis Costello-like pop songs, avant-jazz vamps, novelty pieces, and way off-beat lyrics factor into the wildly inventive mix.

Bob What's-Is-Name — the best song you never heard, unless you live on the Outer Cape.

What Frank Sinatra is to New York City, what Bruce Springsteen is to New Jersey, what Elvis Presley is to Memphis, Chandler Travis is to Cape Cod.

Dixieland romps, twisted Mardi Gras marches, sweaty 60's rock, smoky torch songs, and occasional novelties that sound somewhere between Randy Newman and They Might Be Giants, all with hilariously offbeat lyrics. The world would be a better place if Travis would only visit more often.

10 Best Concerts of 2011 — Chandler Travis Philharmonic at The Linda: not just my favorite show of the year, quite possibly my favorite concert of all time, period. A rare night of something spectacular happening on stage from uproarious virtuoso start to sublime and quiet end.

The amazing Three-o is our favorite: they can play anything the highly unconventional nine-piece Dixieland/avant-jazz/pop Philharmonic can play, and then some. The focus is tighter, and the songwriting, which has always been at the heart of Chandler's bands, gets center stage in a way that is not possible with the riotous pageantry of the full Philharmonic.

…a strange, wonderful, totally distinct ode to musical mastery and nonsense… imagine Andy Partridge of XTC and Beat poet Gregory Corso, wandering between Saturn and New Orleans to sit in with the Sun Ra Arkestra… at once simple, abstract and wondrous to behold.

…playful original songs that mix mind-bending wordplay with jazz, shimmering rock, and horn-fuelled R & B.