Sweet & Mournful Cacophony: Bombadil

IN THE KITCHEN or in the studio, the members of Bombadil are adventurous cooks.

"Lately, we have this idea of putting songs together like we're cooking a meal," says Bryan Rahija, one of the North Carolina band's four singer/songwriter/mult-instrumentalists. "We're working on combining these weird improbable foods and seeing what happens, which got us thinking, what can you put together in music that would give you a new combination?"

"A Buzz, a Buzz," Bombadil's buzzy debut, stirs in spices that go beyond the unexpected. The base is made of whimsical indie-pop in the Sufjan Stevens model, garnished with Dixieland funeral marches, Scott Joplin rags, smooth Bacharach melodies, bluegrass banjos, Cat Stevens folk and Piedmont blues picking.

"Durham has a rich blues heritage," says Rahija. "All the blind guys who couldn't work in the tobacco factories would pick up a guitar and play in the streets. I learned to play guitar along to these old blues records and do a lot of finger picking."

Bombadil — named for a minor Tolkein character — has deep roots in Durham. Most of the band graduated from Duke University, and they often return to the music building on campus to practice and record. The group is also signed to local label Ramseur Records, which launched the grassroots bluegrass act Avett Brothers.

"I felt like we have more invested in a North Carolina label because it's where we're from," explains Rahija. "Dolphus Ramseur [the label's founder and president] really believes in what he's doing. He doesn't do written contracts or anything like that. We had a meeting at a Ruby Tuesdays and before we knew it, we were recording."

For such a local band, Bombadil was actually founded several thousand miles away. Rahija and Daniel Michalak were spending a semester in Bolivia when they realized a mutual love of music. Intrigued by the local sounds, the students took lessons on indigenous instruments like the charango (a 10-string guitar) and pan pipes.

"In my host family," says Rahija, "there was an uncle who ran a music studio for kids, who would come for summer camps or take lessons. It was an awesome place to record because they had piano and drum kits and huge baskets full of percussion."

As the semester progressed, Rahija and Michalak began spending more and more time there. "We would come in at 7 a.m. and they would have to throw us out at lunch."

Those Bolivian experiences inform "A Buzz, a Buzz," but never overtly. Rather than translate those traditions to American pop music (like Vampire Weekend with African rhythms), Bombadil instead tries to capture the spirit of the music in its songs.

"I have all these weird patchwork memories of seeing these bands walking down the street in the town where we stayed," Rahija says. "It would be a town celebration, and somehow some band of musicians would be assembled, and they just clamored down the street playing this really sweet and mournful cacophony. That's the feeling we've tried to capture in what we've been doing."

Touring constantly, the band has gained a well-deserved reputation for its exuberant live shows, with the members playing in costume and switching out instruments for nearly every song.

"I think the visual representation of the music and the general environment of the show are very important," explains Rahija. "We've been homing in one what sort of clothes to wear that match the music. The only thing you can always do is show how much you care about what you're doing, and I think people will always appreciate that."

» The Red and the Black, 1212 H St. NE; with Pale Face and International Graduate University; Tue., Aug 26, 9 p.m., $10; 202-399-3201.

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photos by Julie Roberts

» Download the free MP3s "Smile When You Kiss" and "A Buzz, a Buzz," courtesy Ramseur Records.