Elysian Feel Lift the Shade

In a video interview, the Dylans of Elysian Feel talk about the New Orleans jam/funk/prog/fusion band talks about its new EP, video project, song, and hats.

One Dylan refuses to be honored with a Nobel. Elysian Feel has two Dylans, and it’s hard to believe either would turn down the recognition. Drummer Dylan Seals and guitarist Dylan Kidd are transplants to New Orleans from Long Island and San Jose respectively, and they’re two-fifths of a band that along with Spence Bailey, Abner Deitle, and, Kendrick Magallanes, pulls together rock, hip-hop, electronica, Zappa, and jazz fusion bordering on Chicago (the band not the city). The results on the recently released Lampshade Sessions are less thorny than that list might suggest. I hear some Rush-like prog rock when the horn section lays out, but with indie rock’s tendency toward self-effacement.

The band recorded Lampshade Sessions live at The Stove in Memphis, Tennessee, and while the band played, a videographer shot the performances, and they’re all available now on Elysian Feel’s YouTube channel. The videos aren’t revelatory—we don’t see in-studio emotions we haven’t seen before—but they do put faces on sounds and the band.

Recently, Dylan Seals and Dylan Kidd sat down in a stairwell for an interview with My Spilt Milk’s Vincent Kanyan to talk about the Lampshade Sessions, the videos, hats and more.