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JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound take a classic sound for a spin

JC Brooks had some time on his hands.

With rehearsals on a stage production of "Ragtime" wrapping up in Chicago, he commenced a search to fill the void that was about to exist in his evening schedule.

While looking on Craigslist, he came across an ad posted by guitarist Billy Bungeroth recruiting musicians to form a "soul-influenced band that makes aggressive dance music."

Bassist Ben Taylor responded to the same ad, and soon JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound began developing its unique sound -- a core of the fluid soul of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding with a gritty glaze of post-punk attitude.

"It used to surprise to people. 'A Craiglist band works?' I guess I answered the right ad."

The band solidified with the addition of drummer Kevin Marks and keyboardist Andy Rosenstein and released "Beat of Our Drum" in 2009. It also gave a nod to a fellow Chicago band with a single release of Wilco's "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."

Although trained in the theater, Brooks had played in a handful of bands through high school and early adulthood. The groups spanned a variety of genres -- surf rock, alt rock and pop-punk -- but the soul scene was something new.

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"It was stuff I had always heard but didn't necessarily musically gravitate to," Brooks said. "The white guys are the soul aficionados and I'm the one trying to keep it rough around the edges."

The group tightened its sound as the backing band for the Eccentric Soul Review in 2009, evidenced by the 2011 release "Want More."

"It pushed the sound in definitely a more soul direction," Brooks said.

Brooks said he draws heavily on his experience in theater when on performing with the Uptown Sound.

"I used to see this kiss of death for songwriters or musicians who would get on the mic and turn inward," he said. "The background has helped me turn outward. I've had the worst things happen to me on [the theater] stage. I doubt anything too terrible can happen."

Brooks said his uninhibited onstage persona and the band's irresistible grooves are designed to take the crowd on a journey. Bungeroth, too, has a background in other stages, directing shows with Chicago's famed Second City improv troupe.

"We're there to tell the story and do what serves the story and the song," Brooks said. "We don't come to town to play a set. We come to town to put on a show. It filters down all the way to the way we create set lists. We try to craft arcs. We start strong (with) a lot of dancing and bring it down. It's all about this ebb and flow. You're being taken by the hand and taken down the road. It's not random."

In 2013, the band released "Howl," which tweaks traditional soul narratives, alternating between a party feel and a stroll down a darkened alley.

"For the most part, I do stay in one place lyrically and it's kind of this place of heartbreak," Brooks said. "It's really weird because I have a lot of joy in my life and I know how to express it in small groups. I do write a lot of songs about someone f--king you over or being brokenhearted."

A new album, which is in infancy, is going to explore the frenzied joys and inevitable regrets of navigating the Chicago nightlife scene.

"We want to try to write meaningful songs about frivolity," Brooks said. "The more honest you are, the easier it is to connect with people. Sometimes it's shameful and embarrassing. Everyone does the same s--t. We are all [stupid] about love and make mistakes. The less you try to shine it up, the more easily accessible it is."

JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16

Where: Discovery Theatre

Tickets: $40.25 to $53.75 at centertix.net

Chris Bieri

Chris Bieri is the sports and entertainment editor at the Anchorage Daily News.

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