Dont Stop Please, Round 2 winner image

How to describe Conway’s Don’t Stop Please? “Cosmic folk” occurred to me early on in the band’s winning set last night, when the six piece did a shuffling Southern ditty built on two guitars, a stand-up bass, keys, a saxophone and drums that occasionally drifted off into weird directions. In the spirit of that great Robert Palmer band The Insect Trust (but influenced by different drugs). Or The Damn Bullets with more going on. But then just about everyone switched instruments and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Anna Horton sang a smoky, Latin-tinged lounge number. While playing a ukulele. Later, after everyone had switched instruments a couple times, and we’d seen a trombone, banjo and harmonica make appearances, DSP did the whitest proto-rap funk song perhaps ever performed. The hook was “My booty is so luxurious.*” And at one point, Horton asked, “Where my lazy sluts at?”

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Yeah, it was unfocused. But perhaps not surprisingly for a group called Don’t Stop Please, the band isn’t used to playing 30 minute sets, singer/guitarist Joel Ludford told me after the set. So maybe they felt like they needed to move across the wide spectrum of their abilities quickly. It certainly showcased their crisp musicianship and charisma. And it worked with the judges.

Sammy Williams: Cover multiple genres, all extremely well.

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Cheyenne Matthews: “Where my lazy sluts at?!” Well, it’s cool they aren’t biased.”

Clay Fitzpartick: “Great hair! They are extremely confident. Talented kids.”

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Epiphany: “Screaming in time, head banging on a stand-up bass, pinwheels, plus a megaphone. Good times.”

Isaac Alexander: “Genuinely surprised by this band. Great musicianship. And fun to watch and listen to. Each song was a new thought/movement. Looked like a lot of fun. I’d like to be in this band for awhile.”

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Video on the jump.

*A previous version of this post misquoted the lyrics above as “My ass is luxurious.”

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