Deathburger: the new Thing

Although "Johns Hopkins" and "rock stars" are rarely, if ever, associated with one another, there are a few exceptions to the rule.

Four examples of such exceptions are the members of The Deathburger Thing, a band made up entirely of musically inclined Hopkins students. The Deathburger Thing consists of Jon Cylus on guitar, Rod Boden on drums, Jake Leckie on Acoustic and Electric bass and Josh Shapero on alto saxophone.

When you first hear the band name The Deathburger Thing, you would never expect that it has a historical tie to good old Johns Hopkins. But surprisingly, the guys borrowed the moniker from a page in a copy of the 1969 John Hopkins University yearbook (though they will not tell how this yearbook came into their possession). Under a picture of a bunch of what Leckie calls "rather cracked-out and hippie-like guys" was the title "The Deathburger Thing," a literary magazine group at Hopkins.

The story behind how the band began was initially a matter of geographic coincidence -- Cylus and Leckie lived on the same hall last year. On the first day he moved in, Cylus heard the sounds of someone playing guitar in the distance, so he followed the melodies and met Leckie.

Cylus brought his guitar, and they proceeded to have what Cylus calls "the best jam session ever." They decided that they should start a band, and they tried several different combinations of musicians out, but nothing really worked out.

Then, one day, Shapero was practicing his saxophone in his room, and Cylus and Leckie happened to hear his talents from outside.

According to the guys, they were so impressed by what they heard that they immediately invited him to play his sax with their guitar and bass duo, and the rest is history. Boden joined the band this year, after he and Leckie met at jazz band tryouts in the fall.

When asked what the The Deathburger Thing's influences are, Shapero claimed "we don't listen to anything else -- we exist in a musical vacuum." But he later admitted that John Coltrane is an important influence on his musicianship.

With a more serious tone, Boden says that his musical influences began with listening to rock music, particularly Chad Sexton of 311. Boden then played in a band called Galactic, where he learned a lot about music and became interested in the funk and jazz scene.

For people who have not heard The Deathburger Thing perform, the guys describe their music as "funk-jazz, but not really." They go on to say that they play anything thing that grooves, including funk and jazz, as well as reggae, rock and Latin genres of music.

Overall, all of the band members agree that their songs are really catchy, but not in an annoying, pop song kind of way. In fact, the songs are so catchy that they find themselves humming their own songs to themselves from time to time.

Whenever they perform, they throw in a few cover songs, usually from familiar '80s bands, in order to get the audience involved.

The best part of being in The Deathburger Thing, says Boden, is being a member of a band along with "the three best musicians [he's] ever played with," and learning more about music from them.

Cylus and Leckie agree that, as roommates and members of the same band, they enjoy being able to share ideas for songs with each other and have the music evolve as a mixture of their personal styles.

Shapero thinks that the dynamic of the band and the way in which each of the guys brings in his own unique musical perspectives and talents is the greatest part of being in The Deathburger Thing.

It is evident that these guys truly respect each other as musicians and as friends, which is an important, but often rare, aspect of being in a band.

It is also obvious that the band is truthfully in existence because of their passion for music.

"We know that we're never going to get really famous, and we have no intentions of being on TRL or anything like that," said Cylus. "Oh, I really wanted to meet Carson Daly, but we aren't going to take that angle."

Everyone in the band agreed that their sole purpose is to play music together at concerts and parties, in order to open up the audience's ears to new sounds. These boys will not be selling out in order to fulfill any MTV-style dreams, even if it does mean never meeting Carson.

So, now that you all know a little more about Hopkins' own "jazz-funk, but not really" band, you want to go hear them perform, right? Keep an eye out for their "limited edition second semester" flyers, which will keep you posted about upcoming concerts.

If excellent music isn't enough to get you out into the cold weather to go to one of their concerts, then maybe the fact that the guys guarantee raffles at every show (as they jokingly promised) will get you there.