Particle remains off the record

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003 | 8:25 a.m.

Scan the racks at your favorite record store, and you won't find any Particle CDs. The band has yet to release a commercially available album.

Nor will you hear them on your radio. Particle has never recorded a single.

Yet when the improvisational quartet plays two late-night post-Phish shows Saturday and Sunday nights at the Hard Rock Cafe, they will do so before sold-out crowds the norm when Particle tours these days.

So how has an instrumental combo from Los Angeles managed to pack houses across the country despite such limited exposure?

"We owe it all to the fans," keyboardist Steve Molitz said in a recent phone interview. "We don't have albums, we don't have lyrics, we don't have radio play. But the music community is so alive with interaction right now, and everybody is turning everybody else on to their favorite music."

Indeed, in a little more than two years together, Particle has become a mainstay of the jam band scene thanks largely to word-of-mouth.

As Molitz wandered through a Los Angeles music store to hunt for new keyboard equipment to take on the road, he talked about his band's rapid rise to prominence.

"When we came together in October of 2000, we got together really casually. We didn't have any lofty goals or any preconceived notions about what the music was going to be," Molitz said.

"Once we started playing out for people and saw the response, we were all sort of shocked and opened our eyes and said, 'Wow, let's keep this thing going.' So it's been an incredible couple of years."

Though generally lumped in with other improvisational outfits such as moe., Widespread Panic and String Cheese Incident, Particle's music actually differs greatly from most of its jam band peers.

Similar to groove-jazz combos such as Medeski, Martin & Wood, Particle relies on instrumental interplay, often veering into some seriously funky territory. But unlike most bands in the genre, Particle also dabbles in electronica, churning out some decidedly danceable club beats that might also appeal to fans of Moby, the Orb or the Chemical Brothers.

"I would call it high-energy dance music that encompasses a lot of different styles," Molitz, 25, said. "We might have a real minimal part placed over a more intricate part placed over a funk rhythm backed by a house bassline. Particle is the fusion of all these different styles."

That stylistic diversity can be traced back to the four musicians' influences and backgrounds. Guitarist Charlie Hitchcock grew up listening to jazz and blues, bassist Eric Gould leans toward groove flavors and drummer Darren Pujalet's tastes run more toward rock and funk.

And Molitz? The keyboardist brings to the band an electronic sound.

"I have a huge background in electronic music and hip-hop, more beat-oriented music, not just the organic stuff," Molitz said. "So we're really from four different schools of thought, and when you throw us all together, it's cool to see what happens."

Particle's live shows have become legendary not just for the band's musical blend, but also for the duration of its performances. The quartet routinely play into the wee hours of the morning, making Las Vegas -- with its curfew-free venues -- an ideal staging ground.

"I remember playing a late-night show in Vegas, and we came back out for a third set and everybody was on the floor," Molitz said. "We started playing this really mellow, ambient music, to acknowledge the fact that it was 8 in the morning. Then we slowly started to work in the dance beats and get it a little more and more exciting.

"It was really cool to watch people go from laying down, to where the first person's foot started tapping, to where they got up and finally everyone around them was up and dancing again."

This weekend's shows, promoted by the Las Vegas Jam Band Society, are both officially scheduled to run from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. But Molitz said that might only be the beginning.

"I would have scheduled it 1-question mark," Molitz said. "We've literally started shows in Vegas at 11 p.m. and played until 8 in the morning, so I don't know what's going to happen."

Particle is also scheduled to return to Southern Nevada in April, for the "Area 51 Soundtest 3-D," a two-day festival at the Indian Springs Casino.

"Vegas is one of our favorite cities and one of our strongest cities, too," Molitz said. "In terms of what Particle offers, Vegas is a mecca of sorts because it's a timeless, limitless society of people from around the world all coming together for a common purpose, and that's something that we really look forward to."

Particle fans can look forward to the band's debut album, which Molitz said should be finalized by this summer.

"We're really excited about the time and energy we're putting into the album," Molitz said. "We're not afraid to push the limits of what does and doesn't make it on the album, and I think part of that has to do with the fact that we probably have enough material for five or six albums right now.

"So we're just looking forward to getting the first one down because there's so much else we want to do."

Until Particle's much-anticipated album hits stores, fans will continue to sate themselves by hitting the road to witness the band's contagious live set -- an experience Molitz takes pride in describing.

"One thing I really like about the band is we're so free onstage that the band and the fans are willing to put up with the storm to get the rainbow," Molitz said. "Not everything we play is well-organized, tight, fulfilling music. A lot of it is tension. A lot of it is searching through the odds and ends in a big pile, trying to find the one big piece you're actually looking for.

"And then when you find it, it's so beautiful and so vibrant because it was an honest effort."