Five years ago, Canada’s BADBADNOTGOOD uploaded a black-and-white clip that featured them performing jazz interpolations of Odd Future songs to YouTube. (The most prominent was the raucous renditions of “Orange Juice.”) They performed the suite to a cold reception for their music school professors. Despite a poor grade, it turned out to be a good experience. Tyler, the Creator became their first supporter and shared their “Odd Future Sessions” on social media. One year later, Tyler, the Creator uploaded another video. He was running through Orange Juice with BBNG backing him. Tyler was able to relax thanks to the band’s technical prowess, and their smooth sound. Alex Sowinski is their drummer and Tyler follows him around with a Colt 45 in his hand. It was filled with ridiculous vulgarity and instrumental pyrotechnics that made it visual candy for college-aged boys. BBNG was on the verge of becoming the most successful hip-hop band in the world. Their solo work over the past five years has been a mixture of original compositions as well as covers of popular hip-hop instrumentals. As with the many Phish cover bands that throng our continent’s music school, good taste does not replace bad chops. They released a record last year with Ghostface Killah titled Sour Soul. It was a significant breakthrough for them. With their mercurial speedball pace, Killah was unable to keep up with the band. Their fourth album, succinctly named IV, has them reining in their jamband impulses and delivering a velvet-crushed portrait if an energetic lounge act in 21st century. They’ve now added a fourth member, the multi-instrumentalist Leland Whitty, who’s been a sideman with the band for years, playing guitar and saxophone. They invited features to the show, in keeping with BBNG’s expanding boundaries. They managed to bring in Future Islands’ Sam Herring and Kaytranada, Colin Stetson and Mick Jenkins for IV.
