Atlantic City Weekly

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A Cleveland-based band blending reggae with a sort of hard-rock, punk-oriented edge will visit Le Grand Fromage in Atlantic City this Saturday night, Oct. 2, along with two southern New Jersey-based reggae fusion groups — Tsunami Rising of Gloucester City and Cheezy & the Crackers of Vineland. The show starts 8pm.

Tropidelic does regular gigs at Cleveland’s House of Blues and has generated a sizable following in that section of the Midwest. Recently it started seeking gigs in other areas to branch out its fan base. The night before its Atlantic City appearance the quintet will play at Philly’s World Café Live (Friday, Oct. 1) with another band that amalgamates different genres, Among Criminals.

Tropidelic originally formed as a group of Ohio college students in 2006. It released two EPs of original songs as that ensemble, then founding member and lead singer Matthew Roads retooled the band with like-minded professional musicians including Chris Dunne (guitar), Corey Harper (bass), Jasen Bakette (drums) and DJ Mekadog (turntablist).

Last winter Tropidelic (myspace.com/tropidelic) released an EP called Erie Vibes and Irie Tides, and its most recent release is a six-song EP called Working Class Phoenix that Roads tabs as “symbolic of the rise of our country’s lost and disregarded generation.” Atlantic City Weekly recently spoke with Roads by phone.

Can you talk a little bit about how Tropidelic came together as a band?

I’m Pittsburgh born and bred, but I went to college in Ohio [at Kent State University] and there I met a bunch of friends and formed a band. It was more or less just fun and games back then, and after graduation a couple of those guys went their separate ways in life. But this is my passion. It took me about a year to get it together but I found some pro musicians that wanted to make this a career, and loved doing what they do as much as I do. That’s where we’re at now. I’ve got an all-star team, if you will.

Is that reggae sound combined with other genres pretty indicative of the kinds of music all the band members grew up loving most?

We’ve all been fans of different kinds of music, but I’d have to say that not one of us would consider [reggae] our main influence. It kind of stemmed from the fact that we all know a lot of different styles and we recognized a niche. I mean, there’s not a whole lot of that type of thing going on out here, and that grew out of the original intention of the group. It was sort of like “Why don’t we do this, there’s not a whole lot of other groups doing it?” So that played into it, but playing the kinds of music we all love certainly factors into it, too. Our guitar player [Dunne] is mainly an old-school punk kind of guy, our drummer [Bakette] is more into alternative rock, I’m sort of a hip-hop guy, so we all kind of make it work into this reggae-rock style. [Bassist) Corey’s the most recent addition; he’s only been with us since about May. And [scratcher] DJ Mekadog uses all original records to create his sound — I think he’s got about 7,000 vinyl records in his basement.

Who writes the songs?

It’s mostly me and Chris, but we’ve all contributed. We try to keep the music upbeat and funky. Even though the content of some of the songs might not exactly be super cheery, we want to portray an upbeat, positive energy when we play, regardless of what’s being said [in the lyrics].

Do you mix covers into your live acts along with the original material?

We mix in some covers, but when we do we generally put original twists on them or switch things up a bit. We like to take old classic rock songs in particular and make them reggae, and mix them in with some newer songs. We do a few medleys, we do Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Ohio” [the song based on what became known as the Kent State Massacre in 1970], we’ve mixed in with Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘n’ Night” [a hip-hop song by a Cleveland-born rapper], “Bad Boys” by Inner Circle [a song by a Jamaican reggae group that gained popularity as the theme song for the TV show Cops], and a few others.

Have you ever performed in Atlantic City?

No. We’ve been doing real well out here [in the Cleveland area], but what kind of got our interest going is that we’re breaking out regionally and we’re trying to see where the pockets of reggae rock bands are on the East Coast. Jersey does have a quite a few. We recently played the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, which was a great time. These bands who are bringing us out here [Among Criminals, Tsunami Rising, and Cheezy and the Crackers] are super cool. They know what they’re doing. They’re cross promoting, which is very cool to see.

Tsunami Rising is bassist Jeff Calhoun, drummer Tom McAteer, guitarist Dave Bakey and vocalist Drew Daniels. Cheezy & the Crackers is guitarist/vocalist Cheezy McNasty, guitarist/vocalist Randy Richardson, bassist Allbert Trionfo, drummer Tom Parker and turntablist Mike Sarkady. Le Grand Fromage is located in Gordon’s Alley between Pennsylvania and Virginia avenues, and Atlantic and Pacific avenues. Call 347-2743 for ticket information.