Kevin Bronson on December 15th, 2010

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There are enough revivalists around these days to fill a festival full of tents, but few that mind the heartbeat of soul like Stedapol C.C. Watt. This ain’t neo-, it’s real – and seemingly out of nowhere, the Los Angeles trio has self-released an EP (“Glassell Park Groove”) and album (“Glassell Park Grit”) that stacks up with Stax. Questlove has tweeted about them (“I need this soul”), they’ve done some low-key gigging, and now with the October release of their albums to iTunes, they seem ready to get the funk out of obscurity. But who are they? Stedapol C.C. Watt – the band bears the name of a friend, with his blessing – is the brainchild of veteran drummer/keyboardist Rob Brill, his son Jonny on bass and singer-guitarist Rodney Gardiner, a New York City transplant with an acting background. “We won’t want to be perceived as a nostalgia act,” the elder Brill says. “We’re not looking back 30 years, we’re keeping it contemporary.” Brill (Berlin, the Thorns, Pete Droge) started the project with his son after returning to L.A. from several years on the road. “It took us a year and a half to find Rodney,” he says, “but he was a find.” Brill says the next step may be adding a guitarist and perhaps a keyboardist – as a three-piece their live gigs currently present only stripped-down versions of their music, which is flavored with horns, organ and Latin percussion.

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