Chris Wood of Mes Music, who plays La Sétima Club in Ybor City, Florida on Sept. 14, 2024. Credit: Photo by Dave Decker

Three years after dropping Vol. 1 of his Mes Music project, drummer and producer Chris Wood is back with more lo-fi, funky, instrumental beatsmithing for Vol. 2, available this time on cassette.

To properly commemorate its release, Wood has been rehearsing with a band to bring the tape to life in a live setting after his beat set. The ensemble is called Mestaurant and features Wood on samples alongside an all-star cast of players from Tampa’s art-pop, rock and punk scenes (Turkey Boy’s Sam Bips on sax, Story Mode’s Eric Dina on bass, Alan Pinzon from Some of Our Failures on guitar, plus Bad Bad Things drummer Dave Lamb).

“We knew we were in slightly uncharted territory, but once we really got it going we realized we had something pretty special,” Wood told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, adding that special guests are on tap for the release party for the 30-minute release.

There’s no cover for the Mes Vol. 2 release party and Mestaurant live debut happening Saturday, Sept. 14 at La Sétima Club.

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This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2024.