Dub Trio

Noise metal and dub are usually not two musical genres that go hand in hand. But then again, Dub Trio is not your ordinary band. Specializing in almost exclusively instrumental material, the group is comprised of guitarist D.P. Holmes, bassist Stuart Brooks, and drummer Joe Tomino. It should come as no surprise that all three members are extremely skilled players and much sought after sessionmen. In fact, the lists of who they've played with sounds like a who's who of the biggest names in the hip-hop and pop worlds of the early 21st century — the Fugees, Bo Bice, G-Unit, Tony Yayo, Mobb Deep, Common, Mos Def, and Macy Gray, among others. The Dub Trio story begins with a group called Actual Proof, which Holmes and Brooks played with while attending Berklee. Upon relocating to New York City, Tomino was welcomed into the fold, and turned his new bandmates onto dub music (especially King Tubby). Its members paid their dues as sessionmen, which provided the group with time to write and rehearse, and they became a tight rhythm section in the process. The group began playing shows locally without a name, until someone scrawled "Dub Trio" on the marquee outside one of their gigs. The name stuck, and soon, ROIR Records head Lucas Cooper signed the band. 2004 saw the release of the group's debut full-length, Exploring the Dangers Of, which was supported with sporadic touring — including dates opening for Meat Beat Manifesto and Soulive. While working on their sophomore effort, 2006's New Heavy, Dub Trio decided to introduce vocals into their sound — albeit on a single track — as they invited the one-and-only Mike Patton to guest on "Not Alone." The Patton-Dub Trio collaboration was initially made solely through swapping files, but the two factions met on the same day that they also performed the track in front of a surprised audience on December 28, 2005, at a Patton/Rahzel gig in Brooklyn, New York. The performance and meeting went so well that the group plans on recording a full album with Patton.