Zeb Resman

Rob Garza is a happy man. And why shouldn’t he be? As one half of the legendary DC duo Thievery Corporation, he has been creating some of the best laid-back electronic music of the past decade. Now, he’s flying solo with Dust Galaxy, a project that has cast him in an unfamiliar role: singing and playing guitar in front of a live band.

"The guitar is just such a great instrument to write music on," Garza explains. "I’ve been involved with music since I was 16 and there’s a lot of different kinds of music that I love, so over the years I’ve been writing a bunch of different songs, and creating these sketches, and meeting a lot of different people. We had finished doing a Thievery tour, and everything sort of came together at that time to embark on this project."

Working with producer Brendan Lynch (Primal Scream) as well as a plethora of artists including Didi Gutman of the Brazilian Girls and Jerry Busher of Fugazi, Garza was able to complete his self-titled masterpiece, a combination of all his different musical influences, including psychedelic rock and traditional Indian music. "I just did it for the fun of it really. That’s why I become involved with any type of musical project that I’ve done. It’s because that’s what I love."

This week, Dust Galaxy hits the road for a handful of performances in select cities. "The show’s pretty heavy, trippy; it’s definitely a rock show," says Garza, who will also be treating audiences to a DJ set beforehand, a set that won’t just be two turntables and a microphone. "I’m putting together something on Abelton [live audio software] to do all sorts of different mash ups and things. I wanted to do something a little different as well on the DJ angle, making it different from a typical Thievery set."

Dust Galaxy (live) with DJ sets from Rob Garza and Ursula 1000 November 17 at Metro, 3730 North Clark, (773)549-0203, 10pm-4am.

(2007-11-13)

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