The New Standards are an American group built up of John Munson (Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic), Chan Poling (The Suburbs) and Steve Roehm (Billygoat, Electropolis).
They are a trio of bass, piano and vibraphone – which sounds like it shouldn’t work, but my God it does!
They’ve been around a good while, since 2005, and perform their favourite songs in their own style – a sort of jazzy, rock soul thing.
Their albums, The New Standards and Rock and Roll, are totally fabulous and well worth a listen to. Some tracks are available to hear on their site (linkage). Stand outs are their arrangements of Hey Ya by Outkast and Britney Spear’s Toxic.
Below is a YouTube video of The New Standards playing Trip Shakespeare’s Snow Days at their 3rd Annual Holiday Show at The Fitzgerald Theater 2008.
Beyond excellent.
