The Woolly Bushmen
Winter Park, Florida, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2011 | SELF
Music
Press
The Woolly Bushmen are a garage-rock trio hailing from Orlando, comprised of brothers Julian (drums, vocals) and Simon (organ, guitar, and vocals) Palombi, and Jacob Miller (bass, guitar and vocals). They have stepped out of their garage and have been bombarding us with their ’60s mod-up-tempo-danceable songs that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Frankie and Annette beach party film. Since forming in January 2011, they have already been on an east coast tour and played shows with Southern Culture On The Skids.
Let us let them tell their story:
How did the Woolly Bushmen come about?
Miller: I moved here from West Virginia and they (the Palombi brothers) moved here from Cleveland. When we first started school (at Full Sail University), Simon was the first person I met, and I was the first person he met. I went back to their house soon after, and played a bit. His brother (Julian) started on drums. We started in January of last year… and we played our first show in I believe early March.
How did you come up with your band name?
Simon: Our first show we had booked before we even had a name. And just joking around and talking, thinking of names, the name Woolly Bushmen came up. I don’t honestly remember exactly how, we just ended up sticking with it because we needed a name. After people just started knowing us as the Woolly Bushmen, and we got a review under that name, we just stuck with it.
How did you end up connecting with Southern Culture On The Skids?
Simon: It actually was a result of Antiwarpt. A gentlemen who assisted booking at Skipper’s saw us, and about a month and a half ago he sent us an email asking if we would be interested in opening for them on their Skipper’s date, and we of course said yes. Immediately after confirming that he sent us another email that said to be on the lookout for a booking company to be contacting us for other Florida dates. And that happened soon after, and next thing I know we had three other dates secured.
Did you enjoy the experience?
Julian: Each one was great.
Being a garage band, have you actually every played or performed in a garage?
Julian: Yes, we actually recorded our album in a garage.
Simon: The album is available on Bandcamp and wherever you find us. We are also in the process of recording and releasing our first 7-inch record.
Have any sibling rivalries transpired in the band?
Simon: Just normal brotherly stuff; nothing over playing music or anything. However, our musical tastes do differ in a lot of ways. ... He’s (Julian) more into the modern sound, everything really — for lack of a better term — LOUD. I just try to keep a natural sound as possible. I want it to sound raw, but not too dirty and distorted. Raw and natural: like it would have sounded back 40 years ago. We record everything pretty much live to a two-track tape recorder and then we do necessary overdubs. We use all old equipment. We try to make it as authentic as possible.
What can we expect from the Woolly Bushmen in the near future?
Simon: We are in the process of planning a tour in February, which will go up as far as North Carolina. Other than the Florida shows, that’s pretty much it. We just really play everything by ear and see what ever pops up next. But the tour, we’re working pretty hard at. We’re going to be playing with Dex Romweber. Also, we’ll be playing with Southern Culture on the Skids.
They really took you under their wing?
Miller: Yes, we really had a great time with them.
Julian: It’s really quite huge; all of it’s surprising.
****
The group will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at Odin’s Den, 1335 Howell Branch Road, Winter Park.; and at Brokenmold’s 6th Annual Holiday Party at 8 p.m. Dec. 22 at Crowbar, 1812 N 17th St., Ybor City.
- Tampa Bay Times
The Woolly Bushmen are a garage-rock trio hailing from Orlando, comprised of brothers Julian (drums, vocals) and Simon (organ, guitar, and vocals) Palombi, and Jacob Miller (bass, guitar and vocals). They have stepped out of their garage and have been bombarding us with their ’60s mod-up-tempo-danceable songs that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Frankie and Annette beach party film. Since forming in January 2011, they have already been on an east coast tour and played shows with Southern Culture On The Skids.
Let us let them tell their story:
How did the Woolly Bushmen come about?
Miller: I moved here from West Virginia and they (the Palombi brothers) moved here from Cleveland. When we first started school (at Full Sail University), Simon was the first person I met, and I was the first person he met. I went back to their house soon after, and played a bit. His brother (Julian) started on drums. We started in January of last year… and we played our first show in I believe early March.
How did you come up with your band name?
Simon: Our first show we had booked before we even had a name. And just joking around and talking, thinking of names, the name Woolly Bushmen came up. I don’t honestly remember exactly how, we just ended up sticking with it because we needed a name. After people just started knowing us as the Woolly Bushmen, and we got a review under that name, we just stuck with it.
How did you end up connecting with Southern Culture On The Skids?
Simon: It actually was a result of Antiwarpt. A gentlemen who assisted booking at Skipper’s saw us, and about a month and a half ago he sent us an email asking if we would be interested in opening for them on their Skipper’s date, and we of course said yes. Immediately after confirming that he sent us another email that said to be on the lookout for a booking company to be contacting us for other Florida dates. And that happened soon after, and next thing I know we had three other dates secured.
Did you enjoy the experience?
Julian: Each one was great.
Being a garage band, have you actually every played or performed in a garage?
Julian: Yes, we actually recorded our album in a garage.
Simon: The album is available on Bandcamp and wherever you find us. We are also in the process of recording and releasing our first 7-inch record.
Have any sibling rivalries transpired in the band?
Simon: Just normal brotherly stuff; nothing over playing music or anything. However, our musical tastes do differ in a lot of ways. ... He’s (Julian) more into the modern sound, everything really — for lack of a better term — LOUD. I just try to keep a natural sound as possible. I want it to sound raw, but not too dirty and distorted. Raw and natural: like it would have sounded back 40 years ago. We record everything pretty much live to a two-track tape recorder and then we do necessary overdubs. We use all old equipment. We try to make it as authentic as possible.
What can we expect from the Woolly Bushmen in the near future?
Simon: We are in the process of planning a tour in February, which will go up as far as North Carolina. Other than the Florida shows, that’s pretty much it. We just really play everything by ear and see what ever pops up next. But the tour, we’re working pretty hard at. We’re going to be playing with Dex Romweber. Also, we’ll be playing with Southern Culture on the Skids.
They really took you under their wing?
Miller: Yes, we really had a great time with them.
Julian: It’s really quite huge; all of it’s surprising.
****
The group will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at Odin’s Den, 1335 Howell Branch Road, Winter Park.; and at Brokenmold’s 6th Annual Holiday Party at 8 p.m. Dec. 22 at Crowbar, 1812 N 17th St., Ybor City.
- Tampa Bay Times
The first time I heard of the Woolly Bushmen was when the wife and I caught them at Tropical Heatwave here in Tampa and we couldn’t stop smiling during their set. It’s been a few months since that show but they finally got a full album out and I was in the mood to cover something bouncy and light today…
Remember the scene in Back To The Future where Marty jumps on stage with Marvin Berry and The Starlighters at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance and launches into a Chuck Berry song? Well, he could have just as easily have launched into a Woolly Bushmen song that night had, you know, the Wooly Bushmen been born. I don’t mean that they weren’t born in 1955, I’m talking that these kids may not have been born when Back To The Future came out in 1985.
Doesn’t matter though cause these kids are kicking out a brand of 1950's rock and roll meets The Dead Milkmen that can be described as infectious, sloppy and rollicking but I prefer to just call them fun. I’ll also call their debut full length the best local(ish) album to come out this year. - ninebullets.net
The first time I heard of the Woolly Bushmen was when the wife and I caught them at Tropical Heatwave here in Tampa and we couldn’t stop smiling during their set. It’s been a few months since that show but they finally got a full album out and I was in the mood to cover something bouncy and light today…
Remember the scene in Back To The Future where Marty jumps on stage with Marvin Berry and The Starlighters at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance and launches into a Chuck Berry song? Well, he could have just as easily have launched into a Woolly Bushmen song that night had, you know, the Wooly Bushmen been born. I don’t mean that they weren’t born in 1955, I’m talking that these kids may not have been born when Back To The Future came out in 1985.
Doesn’t matter though cause these kids are kicking out a brand of 1950's rock and roll meets The Dead Milkmen that can be described as infectious, sloppy and rollicking but I prefer to just call them fun. I’ll also call their debut full length the best local(ish) album to come out this year. - ninebullets.net
One of the standout sets at this year’s Antiwarpt Music Festival had to belong to The Woolly Bushmen, a retro-styled garage rock collective out of Orlando whose furry, feral sensibilities brought a huge, slam-packed crowd to the Emerald.
The group’s psychedelic mod-meets-rockabilly garage rock sounded like Buddy Holly fronting the Troggs, or Jerry Lee Lewis covering Incense and Peppermints. Singer Julian Palombi growls, yips and snarls like a man unhinged, and the crowd can’t help but dance in response. Their self-titled album is just $7 via Bandcamp. Recommended if you like dancing.
The Woolly Bushmen were such a smash at Antiwarpt that we made sure to check out the next time they were coming back to Tampa Bay. That time is Saturday, when they’re part of the lineup for Summer Jam 8, alongside David Dondero, the Applebutter Express, Rec Center, the Owsley Brothers and more. The show is Saturday night at New World Brewery. - Tampa Bay Times
One of the standout sets at this year’s Antiwarpt Music Festival had to belong to The Woolly Bushmen, a retro-styled garage rock collective out of Orlando whose furry, feral sensibilities brought a huge, slam-packed crowd to the Emerald.
The group’s psychedelic mod-meets-rockabilly garage rock sounded like Buddy Holly fronting the Troggs, or Jerry Lee Lewis covering Incense and Peppermints. Singer Julian Palombi growls, yips and snarls like a man unhinged, and the crowd can’t help but dance in response. Their self-titled album is just $7 via Bandcamp. Recommended if you like dancing.
The Woolly Bushmen were such a smash at Antiwarpt that we made sure to check out the next time they were coming back to Tampa Bay. That time is Saturday, when they’re part of the lineup for Summer Jam 8, alongside David Dondero, the Applebutter Express, Rec Center, the Owsley Brothers and more. The show is Saturday night at New World Brewery. - Tampa Bay Times
The Woolly Bushmen are aptly named as they are positively primitive. Like some missing link or newly discovered anthropological discovery, The Woolly Bushmen are what amazing garage rock sounded like between 1957 and 1963. In the newly inhabited wild frontiers of the American Suburban landscape, where frustrated teenagers plugged in and turned on years before an LSD addled Dr. Tim Leary recommended they do, or had even thought it; young men fleshed out noisy riffs and hammered away at 2 and 4 downbeats in a perspiration soaked purge, every bit as visceral as a sweat lodge ritual, and every bit as important.
Post Buddy Holly and pre-Beatles, while Elvis was busy marching left-right-left, what was left of real Rock and Roll via The Kingsmen, was being investigated by the FBI. It proved to be a tough time for rock as anything and everything vaguely dangerous was falling apart. So bands like these managed to fill the void.
With this eponymous release, the band manage to unleash a dozen amazing songs, each better than the last. “C’mon Baby” invokes the spirit of Eddie Cochran and tears loose with the subtlety of a tornado in a trailer park. “Gotta Go Out West” is an unhinged rocker that’d be the perfect soundtrack number for a street racing scene. “Promise You Won’t Leave,” is a slower, more restrained number, but just as intense as the rest the disc. The instruments sounds flat out raunchy on “The Mongrel.” Everything is overloaded, excitable and over the top, with a howling and manic vocal.
The Wooly Bushmen are trapped in a beautiful amber soundscape where all they do is simple and brilliant. Uncluttered and unhurried, these three, Simon Palombi (guitar, organ and vocals), Julian Palombi (drums and vocals), and Jacob Miller (bass, guitar and vocals), approach to their instruments is so unpretentious as to sound fresh and new. They never temper the music with punk edges or speed. These are garage purists and like a beautifully and lovingly restored 1955 Chevy, worthy of your time, attention and appreciation. - INDIE MUSIC
The Woolly Bushmen are aptly named as they are positively primitive. Like some missing link or newly discovered anthropological discovery, The Woolly Bushmen are what amazing garage rock sounded like between 1957 and 1963. In the newly inhabited wild frontiers of the American Suburban landscape, where frustrated teenagers plugged in and turned on years before an LSD addled Dr. Tim Leary recommended they do, or had even thought it; young men fleshed out noisy riffs and hammered away at 2 and 4 downbeats in a perspiration soaked purge, every bit as visceral as a sweat lodge ritual, and every bit as important.
Post Buddy Holly and pre-Beatles, while Elvis was busy marching left-right-left, what was left of real Rock and Roll via The Kingsmen, was being investigated by the FBI. It proved to be a tough time for rock as anything and everything vaguely dangerous was falling apart. So bands like these managed to fill the void.
With this eponymous release, the band manage to unleash a dozen amazing songs, each better than the last. “C’mon Baby” invokes the spirit of Eddie Cochran and tears loose with the subtlety of a tornado in a trailer park. “Gotta Go Out West” is an unhinged rocker that’d be the perfect soundtrack number for a street racing scene. “Promise You Won’t Leave,” is a slower, more restrained number, but just as intense as the rest the disc. The instruments sounds flat out raunchy on “The Mongrel.” Everything is overloaded, excitable and over the top, with a howling and manic vocal.
The Wooly Bushmen are trapped in a beautiful amber soundscape where all they do is simple and brilliant. Uncluttered and unhurried, these three, Simon Palombi (guitar, organ and vocals), Julian Palombi (drums and vocals), and Jacob Miller (bass, guitar and vocals), approach to their instruments is so unpretentious as to sound fresh and new. They never temper the music with punk edges or speed. These are garage purists and like a beautifully and lovingly restored 1955 Chevy, worthy of your time, attention and appreciation. - INDIE MUSIC
Discography
The Woolly Bushmen- Self titled LP
Woolly 7" Mk 1- Vinyl Single
Both of which are available for streaming and download at http://thewoollybushmen.bandcamp.com/
Both releases have multiple tracks with radio airplay
Photos
Bio
Formed in early 2011 and based out of Winter Park, Florida, The Woolly Bushmen have managed to combine 1960's rock and roll with 1950's rockabilly and a dash of soul, forming their own unique genre of all original crowd-rocking songs. These young musicians (all college age) have captured the respect and admiration of seasoned musicians, some icons in their own right, that are twice their age while grabbing every audience by the scruff of their necks and whipping them into a dance frenzy. Teenagers, middle-agers, old-agers, male, female, black, white, green, purple, The Woolly Bushmen tend to appeal to everyone without compromising their style and musical integrity...mass appeal without losing cult appeal...they do their thing and it works! Audience comments run from, "...where did this band come from!?", "...how did we not know about them before!?", "...These guys have IT!", and very often, "the best band I've seen!".
A typical Woolly Bushmen show will see lead singer, Simon Palombi, switch from vintage VOX organ to guitar, whilst, Jacob Miller, switches from bass to guitar allowing the band to play two different sets in one, much to the surprise and delight of the audience! The songs of The Woolly Bushmen are based around catchy organ and guitar riffs with infectious choruses that sound straight out of the charts of the late 1950's and 1960's. These all original songs give you, the listener/audience, the sense that you've heard them before...only, you haven't unless you've seen The Woolly Bushmen or listened to Tampa, Orlando, St. Louis, and Philadelphia college/independent radio. The sole purpose of The Woolly Bushmen's music is to get people dancing...and it works every time!
Leave your angst at home, nothing heavy or moody here! One reviewer said, "...It's like Buddy Holly fronting The Troggs, or, Jerry Lee Lewis singing 'Incense and Peppermints'"...that is the unusual and unique mix of 1950's and 1960's at it's best.
Over the past five years, The Woolly Bushmen have played many notable shows with iconic acts like, Southern Culture on the Skids, The Dexter Romweber Duo, King Khan, Ty Segall, The Beat, The Fleshtones, Gringo Star, and many more, as well as frequently being invited to play festivals. They currently do routine tours of the United States.
From the beginning, The Woolly Bushmen have rarely had to hustle for gigs...shortly after they emerged from their garage studio, they were and continue to be asked to play more gigs than they can handle. Both, The Orlando Weekly and The Orlando Music News have voted them Best New Band, Band of the Week, and Best Orlando Release of 1012...you name it. The Tampa press and media have similarly lauded them as well, to the point where Tampa has adopted them as their own even though they hail from the Orlando area. The Woolly Bushmen have repeatedly been invited to play live on multiple radio stations as well as having regular radio airplay.
In July 2011, The Woolly Bushmen released a demo EP entitled, "Here Cometh The Woolly Bushmen" on retro cassette tape and sold out in less than 2 months! The band's eponymously titled full length CD was released in July 2012 at a live show in Orlando that saw the parking lot filled with fans unable to get in to the packed club, yet, stayed on site because it was the place to be! The CD received great reviews and has sold thousands without any promotion other than gigs! The band's merchandise, t-shirts, bumper stickers and CD's are sold out as soon as a new run is produced. They released a well-received seven-inch record in April of 2013. All three releases have seen airplay on several college radio stations on the east coast.
In 2015 The Woolly Bushmen released their first vinyl LP “SKY BOSSES” on their self run label Chesterwick Records. “SKY BOSSES” has been reviewed by countless Rock ‘N’ Roll/ Indie music blogs (both domestic and international) as well as having International radio play.
The group recently recorded their latest LP “ARDUINO” produced by Rick Miller of Southern Culture On The Skids. Though it is still in the works, various labels have already begun to show interest in releasing the LP.
The hallmark of The Woolly Bushmen manifests most notably when they play a new city or venue where much of the audience is unfamiliar with them only to be gleefully shocked when the music starts--instantly capturing the audience and winning a houseful of new fans; fans that now, routinely, clamor for autographed CD's and shirts. ...Here cometh The Woolly Bushmen indeed!
Band Members
Links
