Why? - Why is that guy in the background of the video pretending to play the crutch? Why are they performing at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum? And why does one person play both the drums and the zylaphone? I can't help you with any of these questions. It's all simply a part of what makes Why? such an interesting band.
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Wikipedia:
Why? is a Berkeley hip hop and indie rock lyricist and musician Jonathan "Yoni" Wolf. The group has since gone on to include Doug McDiarmid, Matt Meldon, and Yoni's brother Josiah Wolf. Why? is one of the founding groups of the anticon. collective of Oakland, California. Current members are the Wolf brothers and Doug McDiarmid. Why? leans more towards folk and indie rock as opposed to the more anti-pop hip-hop styling of their other label mates.
Yoni Wolf was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the summer before his first year at High School, Wolf discovered an old 4-track in his father's synagogue and began to experiment musically. Forays into rapping, drumming, and poetry followed.
In 1997, while attending an "Art of sex" class at the University of Cincinnati, Wolf met fellow student Adam Drucker — better known as Doseone — at the semifinals of the 1997 Scribble Jam. Doseone and Wolf formed the live improvisational group Apogee along with Yoni's older brother Josiah and DJ Mr. Dibbs. The partnership of Wolf and Doseone continued for many years, under many guises including cLOUDDEAD and Greenthink.
In 2005 Why? released Elephant Eyelash, which deviated considerably from their previous full length Oaklandazulasylum, primarily as less of an independent solo-project to the sound of a full indie rock band. To accomplish this sound, Yoni enlisted the help of his brother, Josiah Wolf, on drums, Matt Meldon on guitar and Doug McDiarmid as a random-task member. The group toured much of 2005 in support of the album as a four piece; however, by the time of their May 2006 tour with Islands, the group had become a three piece because Matt Meldon moved to an island off the coast of Seattle to live with his girlfriend.[1]
Why?'s discography consists of three full lengths, four EPs, a number of singles and a handful of limited edition CD-Rs. Further collaborative work has been done with a number of groups: Hymie's Basement, Miss Ohio's Nameless, Object Beings and Reaching Quiet.
For their third LP, Alopecia, Why? asked fans to contribute photographs of their palms (hands) for the album's artwork. The album was released March 11, 2008, to positive reviews. The first single was "The Hollows." Two different European and US versions of the single were released, featuring remixes and covers by Boards of Canada, Xiu Xiu, Dntel, Half-Handed Cloud, Dump and Islands on their respective issues.
Flight of the conchords
