This past Jazz Fest, United Bakery Records offered up a dozen, putting on a pop-up revue at the Marigny Recording Studios between weekends of the festival. The two-day event was a celebration of the beloved United Bakery Gallery on St. Bernard, which shut its doors last year. In December, the label will release a live album of recordings from the revue, and host three shows to celebrate.
The album features twelve local bands: The Tumbling Wheels, Toonces, Anna Pardenik, Maggie Belle Band, Shane Sayers, Adrienne Edson, Duke Aeroplane & the Filthy Trumps, Tasche & the Psychedelic Roses, Kei Slaughter, Julie Odell, The Salt Wives, Up Up We Go. While not all these bands are technically part of the label, they all played at the gallery back in the day, and remain active members of the community.
Over the course of the two-day concert series in May, each band performed a three-song set, and one song from each set was recorded for the album. To complete the baker’s dozen, the label will include their traditional intro, “The Gong,” a nod to the gallery days, when founder Liam Conway would sound a gong outside the venue to announce the start of a show.
Tickets to Part I of the release party at Gasa Gasa (4920 Freret St.) on Thursday, Dec. 7, featuring The Tumbling Wheels, Julie Odell and Duke Aeroplane, are available now. Tickets to Part II at Siberia Lounge (2227 Saint Claude Ave.) on Friday, Dec. 8 have yet to be announced, and Part III is still pending final confirmation.