Emerging in 2002 from the fertile San Francisco Bay Area music scene, Aphrodesia is a local favorite known for explosive live shows that mix their own original tunes with high-energy interpretations of classics from Fela Kuti and others. Recently the band has extended its reach into Southern California with several successful tours, while this summer looks to broaden the band?s appeal even further as they perform at several music festivals including the High Sierra Music Festival, the Baha Bash, the World Unity Festival in New York and the Promise for Peace Festival. Meanwhile, the band?s debut CD, Shackrobeat Vol. 1 (Read the CD review here.), has received critical acclaim and was picked as one of the best records of 2003 by the East Bay Express.

Weaving original music around some traditional African rhythms and melodies, Aphrodesia has created their own brand of ?Super Aphro Beat.? The captivating vocal stylings of Lara Maykovich are the focal point of Aphrodesia?s irresistible sound, creating an extraordinary sonic stew with an all-star cast of Bay Area musicians who have been spotted playing with everyone from Bitches Brew to Groundation to Antibalas to Tom Waits. After living in Ghana and Zimbabwe during 1997 and ?98, where she studied and performed with members of Akrowa Dance Ensemble of Ghana, Hewale Sounds of Ghana, Ghana National Dance Company and National Music and Dance Company of Zimbabwe, Maykovich returned to Boulder, Colorado, where she sang with The Motet and performed with Boubacar Diabate. She met bassist Ezra Gale soon after moving to the Bay Area in 2002, and the pair then recruited guitarist Chris Mulhauser and drummer Michael Osborne, and added guitarist David Sartore, saxophonists Aaron Bennett and Colin Stetson and percussionists Sanjay Pardanani and Paul Sonnabend. Before long the group was creating such a buzz that the East Bay Express called them ?The Bay Area?s answer to Antibalas.?

Aphrodesia?s music carries with it a strong sense of social justice, and the band has been known to write their own politically-charged lyrics while updating Fela Kuti classics like ?No Agreement? and ?Zombie?. But the band?s commitment to social change extends offstage as well. Believing that increased political participation will make the world a better place, Aphrodesia brings voter registration forms to every show, and the band also proudly travels in a vegetable-oil powered bus- meaning it?s one of the few groups of any stripe not sponsored by Chevron, Texaco, and co. It may be a small start, but the group believes that its actions, like its music, can have a huge effect.

Official Web Site: www.aphrodesia.org

Shackrobeat Vol. 1 (Flatbed Lamborgini Records FLR808, 2003)