The band Chola (name coming from an old tube of Nordic ski wax) originated in the Salt Lake City, Utah area in the early spring of 1997 and has focused on an ever evolving combination of rock, hip hop, funk, and blues to create an extremely original sound. Chola consists of drums, bass, guitar, percussion and two vocalsists (drummer Dirty D and guitarist Tokin' J). It's a fairly traditional rock setup but with a definite twist. The vocals range from rap to rock, from blue eyed soul to blues and many things inbetween. Our combination has proven to be what the public wanted; a high energy groove machine geared towards celebration and moving the crowd. We have been playing regularly in the Salt Lake City area at the nationally established clubs since late 1997. In that time, we have shared the stage with many incredible acts, including but not limited to The Steve Miller Band, Government Mule, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Digital Underground, Eek-a-Mouse, Pato Banton, Cinderella, Sugar Hill Gang, Modern English, Jazz is Dead, Dave Wakeling, Yellowman, Five Fingers of Funk, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Mother Hips, and The Flys. We also opened up the 1998 H.O.R.D.E. Festival (Blues Traveller, Ben Harper, Barenaked Ladies, Fastball, etc.) at the Canyons in Park City, Utah. This gave us our first taste of national exposure as we were sponsored by KOOL cigarettes and the H.O.R.D.E. Festival through radio, newspaper, and national magazines such as SPIN, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly. A song off of our self-titled demo, Munson (Blame it on the Bud), was spotlighted on the 1998 H.O.R.D.E. emerging band compilation. This was given away at every festival stop, approximately fifty thousand units. This gave the world its first taste of Chola, even if it was off of our demo album. Our song, We're All Waiting(from our indie debut Groove the Nation), was highlighted on the 2000 Hemplennium Compilation from the Seattle Hemp Fest. It's the only song on the compilation that is from a non NorthWest band. We also have many songs from Groove the Nation that have been used in extreme sports videos and on extreme TV shows. Multiple videos have used songs, from local Salt Lake Ctiy productions to internationally distributed videos such as the kayaking gem "Full Circle".
It was the summer of 1998 when we began to work on our debut, Groove the Nation, and we finished up in early 1999. The rest of 1999 was spent playing in Salt Lake City and touring throughout the intermountain west in support of Groove the Nation. We set out to do what the album name implied and took an independent, grassroots approach to get our music and message out to the world, one crowd at a time.
In the summer of 2000, we ventured out on a 40 day nation wide tour with our partners at Freedomzone , two other bands, a film crew and a slew of Groove the Nation CD's. The tour followed the Steve Miller/Gov't Mule tour where we opened up for ten of the SMB shows. We also played many dates inbetween from Central Park to Conseco Field House for game 3 of the NBA finals between the Pacers and the Lakers. This tour provided a great deal of national exposure for us and for Freedomzone.
Groove the Nation features over an hour of undiluted rip-rock funkreation and is available from www.chola.org. Look for a new album around the start of 2002 and stay tuned for the evolution......
Chola is:
Dirty D on Vocals and Drums
KGB on Percussion
DJ SpatchyLuv on Bass and Tables
Tokin' J on Vocals and Guitar
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