Send "Galactic " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Who says New Orleans isn’t the greatest North American music city? Its pedigree is rich, filled with countless legendary acts ranging from all walks of musical life. From jazz great Louis Armstrong to the unfathomably influential the Meters; latter-day legends such as Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas to such modern day standouts as Kermit Ruffins and Trombone Shorty; from the elegant sounds of jazz music and Wynton Marsalis to the inarguable soul rock of the Neville brothers; New Orleans has it all. It’s like a musical mecca for anyone who claims to have good taste. One of the most overlooked treasures buried deep within the Big Easy’s musical lore is Galactic, the brainchild of star drummer Stanton Moore that fuses a blend of funk, jazz, R&B, blues and rock in a way that is both transcendent and infectious. The group’s latest release, The Other Side of Midnight, proves its place among the best current day New Orleans artists by capturing the quintet in its best light: A live setting. Recorded at the legendary Tipitina’s in October of 2010, the effort features countless guest appearances, aggressively tight funk and more sweat than a 110 degree August night in the middle of the French Quarter....full text |
| Livemusicblog |
| Back in October, Galactic played a blistering late nighter at Tip’s to cap off Day One of this past year’s Voodoo Experience (Muse headlined that night in City Park). Luckily for us, the show was captured for posterity and will be released on the middle Tuesday of Jazz Fest (May 3rd) as a follow-up to We Love ‘Em Tonight , the band’s only other proper live release (released in 2001), a baker’s dozen of live tracks also recorded at the band’s home base at Tipitina’s. October 29, 2010 was just your standard day at the roving Galactic office – To kick off the day, Drummer Stanton Moore delivered an eye-opening kickstarter set with the Stanton Moore Trio and Anders Osborne in the early afternoon in the Preservation Hall Tent. Galactic then played an evening set in a larger tent that featured Shamarr Allen guesting for a good chunk of the set. And as if that wasn’t enough, the band moved it down to Tip’s to throw a special guest laden party @ Tip’s that didn’t start ’til after 1 a.m. and pushed on ’til about 3:30 or so. With Soul Rebels Brass Band, Big Freedia and Trombone Shorty, this live album aptly encapsulates Galactic’s current touring model of playing with a who’s who of special guests and also features the incomparable Cyril Neville and Corey Henry, who have become a big part of the Galactic live experience these past couple of years....full text |
| Offbeat |
| This is Galactic’s first official live album in a decade, though countless board tapes and CD-Rs have crossed fans’ hands in the interim. As it turned out, 2001’s We Love ‘Em Tonight: Live at Tipitina’s signaled a change of course: Singer Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet was soon to go, and from then on Galactic was less of a self-contained band, opening the lineup to a wide cast of singers, rappers, DJs and horn players. They also stopped making studio albums that sounded anything like their live shows; by the time of last year’s Ya-Ka-May, looping and sampling were fully integrated into both the performance and the songwriting. The Other Side of Midnight—like its predecessor, a single CD recorded at Tipitina’s—finds Galactic at its most collaborative. And it makes a strong case for the band as a New Orleans Wrecking Crew, able to play vintage funk with Cyril Neville, funky bounce with Big Freedia, street parade with the Soul Rebels Brass Band, and out-there horn jazz with Trombone Shorty and Corey Henry. What you get here that was missing on the last few studio discs is the sound of Galactic as a flesh-and- blood band. The Big Freedia track “Double It” substitutes Stanton Moore’s supple drums for the studio version’s loops, Rich Vogel’s mighty Hammond for the synth whistle, and frantic live energy for the programmed grooves. And it draws a livelier performance out of Freedia, who seems poised to be the first mainstream success out of the once-underground sissy bounce circuit. On the other hand, the opening “Gossip” is completely faithful to the studio version, which was cut four decades ago as Cyril Neville’s one and only solo single. Neville matches his furious delivery on the single, getting extra mileage out of the “funky, funky” chant at the end. The other hero here is guitarist Jeff Raines, who not only captures Leo Nocentelli’s original tone on the signature riff (using a six-string rather than Nocentelli’s electric sitar) but devises a solo that would have fit right into the original 45. Neville’s also featured on “Heart of Steel,” which Irma Thomas sang on Ya-Ka-May. He gives the lyric a different feel; Thomas sang it as a bruised survivor, while Neville sounds fired up for revenge, and the band’s heavy funk-noir arrangement adds to the mood....full text |
Galactic lyrics
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