Thievery Corporation | |
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Thievery Corporation live in 2010
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Background information | |
Origin | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active | 1995–present |
Labels | ESL Music |
Website | ThieveryCorporation.com |
Members | Rob Garza Eric Hilton |
Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C.-based recording artist and DJ collective consisting of Rob Garza, Eric Hilton, and their supporting artists Rob Myers, Loulou Ghelichkhani, Natalia Clavier, Frank 'Booty Lock' Mitchell, Mr. Lif, Jeff Franca and Ashish Vyas. Their music style mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern, hip hop, electronica and Brazilian, including bossa nova.
Thievery Corporation was formed in the summer of 1995 at Washington D.C.'s Eighteenth Street Lounge. Rob Garza and Lounge co-owner Eric Hilton were drawn together over their mutual love of club life, as well as dub, bossa nova and jazz records. They decided to see what would come of mixing all these in a recording studio, and from this, in 1996 the duo started their Eighteenth Street Lounge Music record label.
The duo drew attention with their first two 12-inch offerings, "Shaolin Satellite" and "2001: a Spliff Odyssey" and with their 1996 debut LP, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi.
The duo has publicly stated their fondness of the Brazilian culture in interviews and liner notes of their releases, especially of the 1960s Bossa Nova music movement. Some of their earlier recordings even had specific artwork paying homage to classic releases by bossa nova artists like João Gilberto (His self-titled 1973 album) or Tom Jobim (Stone Flower).