Driftless Revellers at the Cinema Bar

Freaky, psychedelic folk band the Driftless Revellers perform at the Cinema Bar this week, so they told the News about what they have in store for Culver City…

Culver City News Article: https://www.culvercitynews.org/driftless-revellers-at-the-cinema-bar/

When did you start playing and performing? When did the band form?

The Driftless Revelers formed in the second spring of the first global pandemic of the 21st century, with one ear turned toward the shellac platters and Victrola virtuosos of the early to mid 20th century, and the other ear glued to the soundscapes of the 1960’s & 1970’s American freak-folk scene.  

Matthew R. Sayles (guitar/steel/harmonica/lead kazoo) and Jerod Kaszynski (bass/clarinet/flute/guitar) hatched Ben Nelson (guitar/banjo) from an egg they purchased when on shore leave from the merchant marines in Kuala Lumpur. They were led to believe it was a long lost viable dodo egg, but instead, discovered the egg contained a fully formed Ben Nelson. 

After a brief period of initial disappointment, they concluded the egg/Ben was actually a worthwhile investment, and began playing freak folk music together in Eau Claire, Wisconsin (with Ben, not the Egg). 

Describe your sound…

Sound: Freak folk psychedelic Midwest string band music. Style: Mrs. Roper from Three’s Company meets a sweatier version of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. 

What are your career highlights so far?

This interview/article is pretty high up there, but we have also debased stages that were shared with Grammy & IBMA winning bluegrass legends like Tim O’Brien, the Gibson Brothers, & Larry Stephenson, and toured extensively throughout the upper Midwest & west coast performing with other amazing artists like Big Richard, The Stillhouse Junkies,  Willy Tea Taylor, Joseph Huber, Davey Allen & the Midnights, Dig Deep,  and had breakout performances at several festivals and events (Sol Grass Music Festival, Flatrock Bluegrass Jamboree, Mile of Music in Appleton, WI. featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, & The Midsummer in the Northwoods Bluegrass Festival).

What recorded music is available?

Our debut record, American Fork Standards (2022), was well received by our family members, and a few other people who said nice things about it. Our second release Live at the Slowpoke Lounge & Cabaret (2024) captured our sometimes failed attempts at deadpan comedy in a lounge environment that demanded a proper listen in a leisure suit with a scotch & Pall Mall. 

Our third album, In the Kitchen with the Driftless Revelers, (2025), is the perfect listening experience to whet your sonic appetite or amplify your psychotropic induced munchies. It’s also good for post-feast couch sweats, and the ritualistic loosening of the belt — and more importantly, it’s the first record we’ve toured nationally on — and the main reason why we’re going to get freaky at the Cinema Bar in Culver City.

Have you performed at Cinema Bar before?

Matthew R. Sayles was hired by R.J. Bloke (50 Cent Haircut/Patrolled By Radar) to play Telecaster & Steel guitar for Patrolled By Radar after R.J. lost a poker game to Matt Cadenelli (Don of Division Street, Fernando Viciconte Band). Sayles owed Cadenelli several crates of Tequila, and couldn’t pay, so in lieu of payment, was instead gambled off for his talents and raw Midwest sexual charisma. As a member of Patrolled By Radar, Sayles had the pleasure of performing at the Cinema Bar at least 3-4 times approximately around 2016-2019. Sayles also played a memorable songwriters in the round at the Cinema Bar where he was at least good enough that the bartender bought him a beer. 

What can we expect from the set this time?

R.J. Bloke will be kicking off the show with a solo performance, then it will slowly degrade into caftan clad delusional disembarkment from convention, with musical forays into meat raffles, Mongolian fry cooks, bodega food, a Sons of the Pioneers inspired nightmare tune about rebuilding a broken grill, legalizing cannabis in Wisconsin, who was actually in the Kitchen with Dinah and what in the hell was going on in there with her and that banjo,  and maybe a song about how to start your own cult, and why Sayles thinks little old ladies with over processed hair should have been put in charge of society.  

What else do you have coming up?

We will most likely continue to toil in the trenches of semi-obscurity naively hoping that each gig will lead us to be discovered by a cigar chomping music executive who offers us a legendary deal, thus catapulting us into a rock & roll lifestyle of excess, drug abuse, sexual degeneracy, and then ultimately (after flaming out on stage at the Grammy’s due to a terrible harness accident and pyrotechnic malfunction with our 60 foot animatronic techno-gopher) — retirement, side projects with vague Christian overtones, and late life veneration. Perhaps we’d be lucky enough to live to see a badly done biopic about our rise & fall, and then die before the inevitable destruction of what tatters of our reputation remained thanks to a stream of “tell all” behind the scenes biographies by our countless exes, lovers, and roadies.

We also have an Oktoberfest gig in Ventura at Madewest Brewing Company on Saturday 9/27, and a gig in  Bishop, at Mountain Rambler Brewing on Sunday 9/28. Then we’re going to Vegas to join up with our pals Davey & the Midnights for a huge all star jam at the Sand Dollar on Tuesday, September 30th. Then on October 1st through 2nd we will be doing some nude outdoor tantric meditation near Capitol Reef National Monument, before heading home to Wisconsin to enjoy the rest of Pumpkin Spice Season. 

The Driftless Revellers perform at 9 p.m. on Friday, September 26 at the Cinema Bar. Go to thecinemabar.com for more information about the venue.