Here Come the Mummies, an eight-piece funk-rock band, is coming to Traverse City. While no one knows the true history of the band, which may be comprised of Grammy-winning musicians, everyone will be dancing and laughing during this night of lively music from the undead. MyNorth Media’s entertainment writer Ross Boissoneau delves into the tales of these funky mummies.
Artist
Here Come the Mummies, the funk band from beyond the grave
How the group got its start
Rumor has it they were mummified thousands of years ago after an incident with the wrong pharaoh’s daughter. In 1922 at a dig in the desert south of Tunis, Professor Nigel Quentin Fontanelle Dumblucke IV (1895-) unearthed the ruins of an ancient discotheque to find a dozen undead Egyptian mummies inexplicably throwing down what he dubbed “Terrifying Funk From Beyond the Grave.” From these hovering souls, Professor Dumblucke learned of the powerful curse that doomed them to wander the earth, seeking the ultimate riff, the one that may allow their spirits to rest after eons of, as they put it, “banging out solid fly grooves, y’all.” Since rising from the grave, the band has performed across the South and Midwest, including three of the past four National Cherry Festivals.
Style
Funk & r&b with jazz, rock and hip hop overtones
Influences and Inspirations
Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament/Funkadelic, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Tower of Power
Additional Background
The eight-piece band is supposedly composed of several Grammy-winning musicians, but they keep their true identities under wraps (!) due to contractual obligations. Not to mention that since everyone has seen Kiss sans makeup, it’s fun to wonder just who is in this band and what they look like.
Here Come the Mummies is based out of Nashville, but it hardly plays the so-called “Nashville sound.” Bluegrass it ain’t. Of course, the mummies’ dread regalia has its drawbacks. For example, playing in the hot July sun at the Cherry Festival or other outdoor affairs can be a heated issue for the band. Another, according to former spokesmummy Java, is being taken seriously. “People assume that we are a Halloween band, but we work all year,” he said in an email exchange last year.
Asked to define the band’s style, he said the difficulty with doing so is its broad range: funky rock, but some songs are soul, ska, metal, or Latin pop. He even mentioned Latin, jazz and world music percussionists like Poncho Sanchez, Giovanni Hidalgo and Ganesh Kumar among his influences. He did guarantee one thing for concert-goers: “You will dance, sweat and occasionally gawk and laugh.”
Quotes
“Not even P-Funk, as far as we know, ever had anyone in full Boris Karloff drag lurching around the stage. These guys are breaking new ground.” – The WeirdestBandInTheWorld.com
“There’s no way 5 stars can possibly cover how unbelievably amazing it is to spend an evening with the hilarious and ridiculously talented boys in bandages. It’s funk, rock, jazz, R&B and soul all wrapped up in infectious humor and backed by the biggest, baddest horn section in the business.” – TheStateTheater.com, Falls Church, VA
Venue
Ground Zero at Streeters Center, Traverse City
Date & Time
Saturday, April 16, 8 p.m.
Ticket information
Tickets are $25. Get them at GroundZeroOnline.com
For more
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