Babe Rainbow

Fresh as! 

Babe Rainbow are Biblical, magical, they conjure up emotion, sincerity, classic modern music. Cool breeze with his long blonde hair saying: ‘We want to tell people what we are about and let them know that we understand what they are about.’

‘Fresh As A Head of Lettuce’ takes their love for the experimental folkies and spaced out summer psychedelia but speeded up, mawkish, in exotic vamp, up and down the stage at the same time switching halfway into fast rock.

Opening with this very slow meaningful love song ‘Super Ego’, it is followed by the feel good raver ‘Sunshine’: an upbeat jungle toucher with the bands main ingredients. It’s the next two songs ‘Paradise Garage’ and ‘Quicksilver’ that pull away from box tricks under the influence of producer Timon Martin and Jorge Elbrecht mixing.

Both songs are jungle music really, an asylum for emotional imbeciles, beat music, big, open, fun, vintage, original rock brought together by the babe rainbow gift for the obvious.

Since he was a landlocked Dallas, Texas kid, beach culture has held a tropical mystique for Kolumbo composer, arranger, keyboardist Frank LoCrasto. Family trips documented by camcorder videos, featuring slinky jazz-fusion soundtracks are etched in the Brooklyn-based artist’s memory. In his mind, there will always be a fantasyland replete with wicker furniture, pristine beaches, swaying palm trees, the smell of vanilla-scented suntan lotion, and breathtaking aqua water expanses. 

These days, LoCrasto uses his imagination, evocative musicality, prodigious chops, and eclectic sonic palette to create dreamy musical locales with the Brooklyn-based, Tropically-minded Kolumbo. The tiki-jazz torchbearers are released their debut full length, Gung-Ho, in 2022, on the Allah-Las record label, Calico Discos, a boutique imprint now a part of Innovative Leisure. The 8-song album conjures the lush sounds of symphonic 1950s and 1960s exotica, and the jazz-pop orchestral albums recorded in Capitol Records’ famed studios. The album title speaks to the herculean task of producing an exotica album averaging 11 musicians per track during a pandemic. 

“Several different things inspire the transporting feeling of my music. These days, it can come from something I read, a movie, or a photo I saw. The cover art on the front of old LP's definitely transports you. It's an artifact made in a different time that's basically a window into the past—time travel into a different time I'll never know. Those types of visual elements I find hugely romantic. That, and the sound of tape,” LoCrasto shares.

Previously, the Texas-born, Brooklyn-based artist has released four solo albums (When You’re There 2006, El Dorado 2011, LoCrasto 2015, and Lost Dispatch 2019). He has composed and recorded music for three feature length films (Sandbar 2012, Union Furnace 2015, Stranger in the Dunes 2016), and has had songs placed in the 2014 movie, Obvious Child, and the 2020 HBO series, How to With Jon Wilson. In addition, LoCrasto has recorded and toured with Cass McCombs, Pat Martino, Jeremy Pelt, James Iha, Parquet Courts, Fruit Bats, Nicholas Payton, Greg Osby, Okkervil River, and Wallace Roney. He has also appeared as a sideman on over 70 albums. Prior to the pandemic, LoCrasto was actively touring with his band, Cass McCombs, the Fruit Bats, and Grateful Shred.

Kolumbo features a fluid cast of musicians led by LoCrasto. The band is named after a volcanic underwater island submerged in the Aegean sea. “It doesn’t get more tiki than that,” LoCrasto says laughing. Kolumbo has shapeshifted throughout the years, but it officially began in 2015 as an informal duo project with LoCrasto and his buddy, drummer/percussionist, Robin MacMillan. The project was an outlet to perform classic exotica arrangements by Arthur Lyman, Roger Roger, Esquivel, Martin Denny, and others. However, the band didn’t play many shows as its founders were too busy on the road working with other bands.

During the pandemic, LoCrasto rebooted Kolumbo as his own band, of course, getting blessings from MacMillan and the revolving cast of past musicians. The revamped Kolumbo quickly became a buzzed-about live band performing a handful of shows in New York and LA before getting signed by Calico Discos. During this time, LoCrasto was inspired to write new music that fit with classic exotica flair, but also furthered the genre through adventurously integrating outside influences, and even some non-period-specific instrumental touches. 

The resulting album, Gung-Ho, offers a variety of transporting vibes, including Iranian musicality, Brazilian samba moments, and songs that sound like they were pulled from 1960s French New Wave films. Initially, LoCrasto demoed the entire record himself in his apartment studio, replete with the album’s orchestral elements. “I was almost done with it when I realized it needed more humanness—it needed that imperfection and feel of live instruments,” he says. LoCrasto then had a bassist and drummer lay down rhythm section tracks under his lavish demos. Next, he set out on the daunting task to recreate his highly-layered orchestral album vision with live musicians during lockdown. Along the way, LoCrasto learned how to capture the grandeur of 18-piece string orchestras with just two string players. 

From there, the album swelled to include oboe, bassoon, clarinet, French horn, cello, viola, keyboard, drums, percussion, and mallets, with each composition averaging 11 musicians per track. “The record title definitely speaks to the ambition of going all out on a big record like this during a time of social distancing and lockdowns,” LoCrasto says with a good-natured laugh. 

The curtains part on the album with “Felicia,” a cinematic track that oozes 1960s French new wave film, evoking images of fancy cigarettes, flowing coats, and stunning romantic intrigue. “Lost Paraiso” wafts a sensuality that recalls Jobim’s 1960s run of hits with CTI Records. Yet, here LoCrasto cleverly sneaks in outside elements such as synths and elements of psychedelia to achieve mind-melting balminess. On “Imperial Bikers,” LoCrasto injects some space funk into a composition that could have been off Lalo Schifrin’s Bullitt Soundtrack. Here, the musicians in Kolumbo play with funky restraint, allowing for each instrument to carve out its own real estate in a thoughtfully-orchestrated arrangement. The album closes with the warmly engaging piano ballad, “Evening Time.” “At night, during the height of the pandemic, people would be making dinner, and you would hear all this banging on pots and pans as communities showed their respect to the first responders. This song is an ode to togetherness during a rough time,” LoCrasto details. 

These days, LoCrasto and Kolumbo are bringing the soothing sounds of modern vintage lounge music. Right now, Kolumbo has an east coast run scheduled in September with dates opening for Babe Rainbow, a few shows in Maine, and California dates in November including an LA show opening for Allah-Las. “It’s all so exciting—this is perfect summer music, and I can’t wait to get out and play it,” LoCrasto says.