Features

Summer Stars: Orgone

Our Summer Stars series features a variety of groups making the rounds on the festival circuit. Today we visit with Orgone. For more of our Summer Star pieces, click here. In addition, click here to check out the Relix festival guide .

“We hope people leave with a post-orgasmic haze from dancing all night long,” says Dan Hastie. Perhaps that unfussy clarity of purpose comes from more than a decade spent “stirring up the dance floor and making people sweat.” In the late ‘90s, Hastie (keyboards) and Sergio Rios (guitar) founded the LA-based funk outfit, Orgone. At the time, the five-piece was a rhythm section patterned after personal heroes like The Meters. But in short order, the band of long-time friends grew “cosmically,” taking on horn players and vocalists until they evolved into their present iteration, which has over a dozen members, including “extended family.” But regardless of changing rosters, Hastie reaffirms that the goal remains the same: “Orgone aims to heal what ails.” Currently on tour with fellow funk purveyors Galactic, Orgone’s summer is packed with appearances at festivals such as FlyodFest, Summer Camp and Ottawa Blues Fest, while working around their hectic schedule to finish an album. But, as Hastie concludes simply, it’s all with one objective: “We want to become your new favorite band in 2012.”

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Best album for a warm summer night: Kool & The Gang, Love & Understanding (Dan Hastie); Shuggie Otis, Inspiration Information (Sergio Rios)

Favorite summertime food: Raw fish and cold beer (Hasite and Rios)