Beat of Our Own Drum

Personnel: JC Brooks (vocals, background vocals); Billy Bungeroth (guitar, piano, background vocals); Paul Miller (trumpet, trombone); Alex Hall (piano, organ, Wurlitzer organ); Kevin Marks (drums, percussion, background vocals).Audio Mixer: Eric Block.Recording information: Semaphore Recording, Chicago, IL.Photographer: Cyndi Shattuck.They've been called "punk soul," but Chicago's JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound are essentially a soul band with rock chops, and how far you go along with them depends on where you're starting. Groovewise, they take their cues from the M.G.'s, the J.B.'s, et al, just as, say, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings do, but they make less of an overt attempt at reproducing that sound. Whether it's because they can't or because they have other fish to fry (probably both) is a chicken-and-the-egg question of little consequence. Their closest spiritual kin among their contemporaries are bands like the Detroit Cobras who jump back and forth at will between `60s soul