When Whild Peach takes the stage Wednesday night at Blue Cat's, the ensemble of players, as well as members of the audience, will no doubt be a melting pot of color.
After all, white kids listen to Outkast, the Atlanta superstars for whom Whild Peach has served as a backup group, as much as their African-American brothers and sisters. And the members of Whild Peach are both black and white.
But nothing is more inclusive than Whild Peach's music itself, a rich and meaty stew of so many different styles and genres that it's difficult even for the band's leaders to describe.
``It's definitely raw and funky, and I don't think it can really be put in any kind of category,'' frontman and guitarist/vocalist David Whild said this week. ``It's really even hard for us to describe. Sometimes I tell folks if they could hear Funkadelic sing when just playing guitar, and Tina Turner was singing lead with them, that might be it. But there's even more to it than that.''
Whild Peach, which also includes lead vocalist Peach, drummer Tuesday Henderson, bassist Blue Gomes, guitarist Matt Hollums and keyboard player/vocalist Hezekiah Nixon, got started in the late 1980s in Dallas, and in 1993, the band moved to Atlanta, where hip-hop's ``Dirty South'' movement was still a few years away.
Those Texas roots, Whild said, helped the band bring something different to the urban music scene in Georgia's biggest city.
``We brought our Texas sound and mixed it all together, and it just fit right in with the whole Dirty South vibe, anyway,'' Whild said. ``It's just real raw, and in a way it's more funky that way. The Dirty South artists, it's like they took the juke joint and made it worldwide, and we fit right in.''
``What we do is definitely grindier, and our music has definitely come full circle,'' Peach added. ``Our music is more rooted in the blues, because we're from Texas.''
Whild Peach's skills caught the attention of the Dungeon Family, an Atlanta conglomerate of hip-hop artists that include Outkast, Goodie Mob and Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz. Relying on live instrumentation, Whild Peach's music brought a more gritty, livelier aspect to Atlanta's hip-hop, something the pre-programmed track-spinning of other areas lacked.
When Outkast's ``Stankonia'' album exploded, Whild Peach toured with Dre and Big Boi on the ``Stankonia'' tour. Along the way, the band appeared on Saturday Night Live, HBO's ``Chris Rock Show,'' the 2002 Grammy Awards and the 2002 American Music Awards, ``The David Letterman Show,'' Jay Leno's talk show and MTV's ``Total Request Live.''
And while the band can tailor its sound to fit the needs of other artists, it's on their own that Whild and Peach let anything go.
``We've always used our freedom, and the songs we've written over the years are just continually timeless,'' Peach said. ``We utilize all the technology and the basic instruments.''
``On our songs, Peach can do a whole lot more wailing and screaming, and I'm singing also,'' Whild said. ``It's more like the Whild Peach revue -- we always have some guest artists come out and do their thing.
``Anybody can come see us, and somebody's gonna like something. If anybody likes it funky, they won't be disappointed. We pretty much play anything from `Kashmir' to `Like a Pimp' to `Proud Mary,' with one of our songs in between -- and some cosmic slop in the middle of it.''
Whild Peach throws `cosmic slop' in the middle of funk and rock
