The iconic band from Washington Thievery Corporation will play under the spotlights of Arsenal Fest on Friday, 23 June 2017. The group led by Eric Hilton and Rob Garza this time will be coming directly to Kragujevac!
Arsenal is traditionally held in fantastic outdoor venues in the “Knight’s Arsenal”, a former armament factory from the 19th century, and in the green-rich “Zastava bašta”, as well as in the nearby rustic “Čaurnica”.
Tickets for the concert can be purchased for the special price of 1000 RSD. Find more info on the official website and FB page.
Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C.-based recording artist and DJ collective consisting of Rob Garza, Eric Hilton, and their supporting artists Rob Myers, Loulou Ghelichkhani, Natalia Clavier, Frank ‘Booty Lock’ Mitchell, Mr. Lif, Jeff Franca and Ashish Vyas. Their music style mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern, hip hop, electronica and Brazilian, including bossa nova.
Thievery Corporation was formed in the summer of 1995 at Washington D.C.’s Eighteenth Street Lounge. Rob Garza and Lounge co-owner Eric Hilton were drawn together over their mutual love of club life, as well as dub, bossa nova and jazz records. They decided to see what would come of mixing all these in a recording studio, and from this, in 1996 the duo started their Eighteenth Street Lounge Music record label.
The duo drew attention with their first two 12-inch offerings, “Shaolin Satellite” and “2001: a Spliff Odyssey” and with their 1996 debut LP, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi.
The duo has publicly stated their fondness of the Brazilian culture in interviews and liner notes of their releases, especially of the 1960s Bossa Nova music movement. Some of their earlier recordings even had specific artwork paying homage to classic releases by bossa nova artists like João Gilberto (His self-titled 1973 album) or Tom Jobim (Stone Flower).
They also released “Sounds From The Verve Hi-Fi” in 2001, a ‘best of’ compilation of 1960s–1970s material of Verve Records that includes Jazz, Bossa Nova and Latin Jazz works from artists like Cal Tjader, Wes Montgomery, Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66, Luiz Bonfá, among others. Their 1997 debut album is also dedicated to the memory of Antonio Carlos Jobim, who died three years earlier.
In 2002 they released The Richest Man in Babylon on their ESL label. This fifteen-track album is similar in sound and timbre to their earlier 2000 release, The Mirror Conspiracy, and features performances by vocalists Emilíana Torrini, Pam Bricker, and Loulou.
In 2004, they released The Cosmic Game, which has a darker, more psychedelic sound than The Richest Man in Babylon. The album also featured more high-profile guest singers on it, including Perry Farrell, David Byrne, and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.
In 2006, the group released Versions, a selection of remixes by Thievery Corporation for other artists. They toured around the United States, playing at Lollapalooza. The tour was photographed by Rob Myers, Thievery Corporation’s sitar and guitar player, in the Blurb photo book Thievery Corporation 2006.[1] In 2006, the band also recorded “Sol Tapado” for the AIDS benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux produced by the Red Hot Organization. As well, in the 2006 release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour for Xbox, their music was featured as the soundtrack to the game.
Also, in 2006, Puma Ptah, then known as Ras Puma, joined and toured with Thievery Corporation and continues to tour with them still today.
The group released their fifth studio album, Radio Retaliation, on September 23, 2008. It was nominated for the Grammy for best recording package.Thievery Corporation’s tour started out with five consecutive sold out shows at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.
The language of the group’s lyrics throughout their career include English, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian and Hindi. This reflects the group’s world music influences.
They were the opening act on August 1, 2009 for Paul McCartney at FedExField in Landover, Maryland.
On July 27, 2010, Babylon Central, the cinematic directorial debut of founding member Eric Hilton, was released. Set (and shot) in Washington, D.C., the film follows tripwire events in the interconnected lives of its characters, each influencing power brokers’ schemes to manipulate international currencies.
In June 2011, Thievery Corporation released their sixth album, Culture of Fear, which also featured the vocal stylings of Puma Ptah, then known as Ras Puma, on the tracks: “Overstand” and “False Flag Dub.”
In January 2012, Thievery Corporation launched a remixes contest in conjunction with Dubspot.
Additionally, Eric Hilton from Thievery Corporation produced the debut album, Archives, for the Washington D.C. based reggae band, “The Archives,” which released in July 2012. The four main band mates which formed the band, “The Archives,” included: Puma Ptah, formerly known as Ras Puma, Darryl Burke, Lenny Kurlou & Mateo Monk.
In January 2014, the band released Saudade on April 1, 2014 via ESL Music.
On January 11, 2017, the band released the song “Ghetto Matrix” from their album The Temple of I & I, which was released on February 10, 2017, again via their own ESL Music label.
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