Any attempt to put Scooter’s Friday night band, Dumptruck Butterlips, in any particular genre is as futile as an attempt to figure out the meaning of the “odd” name. That is, of course, if Mustard, the band’s guitar player, didn’t spill the beans.
Calling the band’s sound “bedroom soul grass” — blues, blue grass, folk, country, pop and soul combined with a bit of “sexy” mixed in, Mustard said the admittedly odd name came from literally nothing and turned into nearly everything.
After forming as a band and moving to Lawrence, the four were faced with a dilemma every band faces — finding the right name.
“We were just throwing words out and somehow, through the cosmos, we came up with dump truck and butter-lips and we put them together,” Mustard said. “It struck us all so much because it was just kind of random and it kind of rolled off the tongue.”
Having agreed upon a seemingly meaningless name, Dumptruck Butterlips went to work writing songs. From then on, the name evolved into a tool the band uses to tell its stories. Mustard said Dumptruck Butterlips became two characters — “small town, lower middle class kids who are in love.”
“Our songs tell a story of human beings and a path through this life. We use the characters Dumptruck and Butterlips to tell the love stories and tell the hurt stories,” Mustard said. “It was a chance of putting two words together but it became the names of these characters who let us play out all the stories of our life.”
Friday at 10 p.m., Mustard, Surka Noelle, Ziggy and Megz, all in their early 20s, will tell those stories when they take the Scooter’s stage, bringing with them a stage performance usually reserved for music festivals like Electric Forest Festival in Michigan and Arkansas’ Wakarusa and Harvest Fest — bills the band played on during the summer.
“It’s quickly been getting bigger and bigger,” said Ziggy, accordion player for the band. “We’ve already played main stage at Harvest Fest and we’ve been a band for less than two years. It’s been really exciting.”
Helping Dumptruck Butterlips carve a niche for itself in the festival scene is washboard player Noelle and Ziggy’s other stage contributions.
“Surka and I are professional hoop dancers — circus arts entertainers — so we incorporate that into our show too,” she said.
Ziggy also designs, creates and manufactures the band’s shiny, sparkly and flashy clothing, an ability that helps supplement income with an online clothing business — www.ziggyhoopdancer.etsy.com.
Both Ziggy and Surka studied at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri -Kansas City.
Mustard, Ziggy, Noelle and bass player Megz, all contributing vocals, said, above anything else, they want to be known as a feel-good band that people can party with.
To preview Dumptruck Butterlips’ music, look for the music player at IolaRegister.com or go to DumptruckButterlips.com.
Festival band brings show to Iola
