The Maxes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Maxes are a Manhattan-based musical duo headed by Josh Max and Julie James. Max is the guitarist, singer, songwriter and arranger of music for the group and James is vocalist. Live, the act is comprised of four pieces; standup bass, drums, guitar and vocals.
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[edit] Influences
The New York Daily News called their music "acoustic rockabilly with Broadway pizazz" but their material also covers pop, blues, and generally skitters like a pinball over country, lounge and the Sun Records catalogue. If you examine the band's recordings and know where and what to look for, you'll find nods to American music of the first 2/3 of the 20th century as well as the music of Hanna-Barbera, Warner Brothers cartoons of the 40s, the Monkees and the music in the first five movies The Marx Brothers made for Paramount Pictures.
[edit] Recordings
The band has released one album, Make It Snappy under their former name Josh Max's Outfit, which has sold over 12,000 copies independently. In the studio, Josh Max plays most of the instruments including electric and acoustic guitars, electric bass, hammond organ, piano, mellotron and wurlitzer.
[edit] Band history
The group formed in 1998 as Josh Max's Outfit and quickly become a local favorite of music lovers in Manhattan. The band performed their first shows at CB's Gallery, The Duplex, Arlene's Grocery and branched out to Fez Under Time Cafe, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, B.B. King's, Joe's Pub and other noted New York City venues. Through word of mouth and without a booking agent, the band was invited to perform at colleges like Yale, Princeton and Stonybrook universities as well at numerous weddings and private parties where it was requested they perform their own music.
In 1999 the band was invited to perform at the Sports Arena in Kazakhstan as personal guests of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
The band performed three songs, "Cuban Pete", Del Shannon's "Runaway" and their own "Diva With a Fever". The show was televised and seen by over 7,000,000 people and the band subsequently had a hit in that country with their song, "Silent Movie".
[edit] A break, a cover band blizzard, and a resurgence
In 2001, the band took a break from live touring as Max focused on a new career as a freelance writer for the New York Daily News, New York Times, Newsweek, Salon.com and other publications, though they still performed a few shows a year in the NYC area. In the meantime, Max formed a series of one-shot cover bands to keep a foot in the business and for fun. During this period, he was the Elvis Costello in a band called "Elvis Prestello and the Distractions". During shows, Max wore an Elvis Presley Las Vegas '75 costume complete with cape. The band performed Costello albums in their entirety such as My Aim Is True, This Year's Model and King of America. EP and the D, as the band came to be called, opened for legendary DJ "Doctor Demento" at B.B. King's in Times Square, and also headlined shows at Arlene's Grocery to capacity crowds.
Max was also the John Lennon in a Beatle band he hand-picked called "Big Bang". The band performed "With the Beatles", "Rubber Soul", "Beatles for Sale", "Help"" Let It Be Naked" and their own set, "Beatles At The Movies" featuring a selection of the music of the British quartet's soundtrack songs for "A Hard Day's Night", "Help!", "Yellow Submarine", "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Let It Be" at the Cutting Room and Arlene's Grocery, again to capacity crowds.
Max also put together a one-night only performance of Led Zeppelin's "Led Zeppelin II", this time assuming bass and keyboard duties. Instead of a typical Robert Plant clone, Max recruited acclaimed Broadway, television and movie actress Mary Birdsong for lead vocals.
In 2005, Josh Max and Julie James headlined a show at Central Park's Summerstage program, performing the music of late British orchestral folk musician Nick Drake. The show featured an 18-piece orchestra conducted by Drake collaborator and arranger Robert Kirby, and was attended by over 3,000 people.
Following the performance in Central Park, Max concluded this period of interesting cover bands formed and dismantled, and threw his entire life back into his own music. Renamed The Maxes in 2004, Max and Julie James began work on their followup CD, "The Maxes". The disc is slated for an early 2007 release.
[edit] The new recording, "The Maxes"
"The Maxes" was recorded over a period of three years and 100 hours of studio time. (The band's first release, "Make It Snappy" was recorded and mixed in about a day.) In some cases, songs were at the mixing stage when Max decided the song didn't have the right feel or sound and it would be completely redone, in a different key or tempo, or with lyrics retooled or a new, better vocal added. Some songs took months to complete. For example, "Let It Be So" had been recorded and temporarily abandoned.
The album features instruments not heard on the band's debut, such as hammond organ, mellotron, jazz flute, congas, electric piano, wurlitzer, farfisa organ, 12-string electric guitars and percussion. Lyrically, Josh's themes include standing and watching the crowd of humanity do its thing ("Stand and Dig It"), seeking psychic assistance during rough times ("Hark"), daydreaming ("A Ticket To Where You Belong"), desperation, ("Lover Man"), looking on the bright side of life ("Fortunately For Me, There's You"), mortality ("Last Day"), the effect of television on one's life ("Turn Me On (You Know You Want To") and more. There is also a cover, a rockabilly rave-up called "L.S.D." which Beatle fans will recognize immediately.
Musically, the album covers surf-y boisterousness ("Stand And Dig It"), atmospheric, groovy, rock ("Let It Flow All Over Your body"), slow jazz ("Last Day") bossanova ("Dear Sir Or Madame") and slow, sensual head music ("Turn Me On (You Know You Want To)". Unlike "Make It Snappy", where Josh had the lion's share of lead vocals, Julie James dominates "The Maxes" vocally.
Two weeks before the album was completed, the band recorded a song co-written by Josh Max's late Uncle Al Hoffman titled "No Cure For L'amour", a tango.
[edit] Trivia
- Josh Max and Julie James have been married since 2001.
- Julie is a frequent "parody vocalist" on the Howard Stern show.
- Josh is the grand nephew of Songwriter's Hall of Fame member Al Hoffman.
- As a kid, Josh attended a different school each year from grade 4-7, and spent an entire year not talking in the 6th Grade. When he was transferred to another school the following year, he decided, after some internal debate on the school bus, to start talking again.
- Josh is left-handed, but plays guitar and throws with his right hand. He can also pick up objects with his feet.
- Julie sang the national anthem a capella at Fenway Park in 1995 to an audience of 34,000.
