Vulfpeck's output has the feel of an upbeat reality TV show on PBS. It's as if the Los Angeles collective is playing traditionally-minded funk music together all day, every day. Sometimes, they turn their cameras on to share a bit with the world. Often, that means Vulfpeck fans are greeted at odd hours with grainy, lo-fi videos of a few guys in what appears to be a basement-, living room-, bedroom- or attic-studio, locking into an undeniable groove. Those fans respond in turn with undying fondness.
On April 5, the band shared the video for "Cory Wong," the tenth and final track from their recent LP The Beautiful Game. The song is named for Cory Wong, the multifaceted Twin Cities musician and a Vulfpeck collaborator since 2013. Vulfpeck's band leader, Jack Stratton, makes a habit of celebrating musicians he loves by inviting them to join the rotating Vulfpeck cast — famed guitarist David T. Walker and producer & songwriter Blake Mills, for example — or involving them in the band's torrential and occasionally tangential video output (this mashup of a 1993 Bernard Purdie instructional video with a 1984 Keith Jarrett performance in Kan-i Hoken Hall).
Vulfpeck is a total experience beyond their music. The band has a custom typeface and compressor. Their unique brand of comedy finds some common ground between the Marx brothers, The Blues Brothers and Adult Swim. (It should be noted, too, that the band entered our very first Tiny Desk Contest with "1612," a video that was almost certainly not made for the Contest. We enjoyed it nonetheless.)
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