Bug Toast

• Dave Andrews - guitar, violin, bouzouki
• Mark Andrews - bass, guitar
• Christopher Shotola-Hardt - bouzouki, bass
• Susanne Shotola-Hardt - accordion
• Robert Shotola - drums, percussion
• Bob Shotola - percussion

Bug Toast defies categorization, playing original, genre-bending, world-influenced, progressive folk on bouzouki, accordion, guitar, bass, violin, and percussion, with textured instrumentation, vocal harmonies and interesting time signatures. Each song traverses different ground. Flavors and textures from the Mediterranean, eastern Europe, Celtic cultures, and American folk, jazz & pop. We do not play cover tunes.

Blended from two musical families, the combination of brothers, father/brother/daughter plus husband makes for familial yet unfamiliar music. The group creates the arrangements together, creating richly textured, interwoven pieces with careful attention to counterpoint, voicing, harmonies, and rhythms.

Bug Toast is flexible with different types of configurations:
* Full band with both acoustic and electric instruments, vocals, a drum kit and an array of percussion instruments;
* Acoustic instruments with minimal amplification (only enough so that the bouzouki can be heard next to the accordion!), hand drums and percussion (no drum kit);
* Our full array of original compositions, many featuring vocals and lyrics, but also plenty of instrumental compositions;
* Instrumental music only, with our typical influences from around the world.

Bug Toast has played at many festivals, including Art in the Pearl (Portland), The Bite of Portland, Wilsonville Festival of Arts, and PDX Unplugged Festival (Portland). We have played at wedding parties, private parties, art exhibition openings, professional conventions, church services, library concert series, and many folk concerts. We have played at many Portland-area clubs, including the Mad Hatter Lounge, Biddy's, Mark's Hawthorne Pub, The White Eagle, Kennedy School, Ash Street Saloon, The Laurelthirst, Snake & Weasel, The Green Room, and Cornelius Pass Roadhouse.

"RECOMMENDED: Intelligent pop with a world music influence."
– The Oregonian

"RECOMMENDED: An odd mix of instruments results in a pleasing sound from this band."
– The Oregonian

"Peculiar, Original, and Brilliant… Bug Toast, above all else, is one of the most enchanting and peculiar bands of the Portland scene... What really stands out for me are the group's instrumental pieces. "Almost Knew You", "Into the Temple" and especially "Opa!" must be heard. This band's sound is original without being too artsy for inaccessibility. I highly recommend this album for anyone who rates music not by its popularity or genre, but by its musicality."
– Our Cherished Folly

"… just when a mellow mélange of Celtic misty moors melds with the sandy Serengeti, sparkled with Egyptian women wearing green and gold circling Greek men dancing in red and white, and it's two thousand years ago except that cool jazz is nifty 'fifties, the vocal presentations bring you back to the here and now… From a shopping basket of centuries and continents, Bug Toast assembles an impressive array of rhythmic complexity… measures in 5 beats, then 6, now 7 and suddenly layer of cross-rhythms…"
– David & Constance Ewing
Review of performance

Anniversaries, Awards Nights, Banquets, Birthday Parties, Casinos, Celebrations, Church Services, Clubs, Cocktail Parties, Community Events, Conventions, Corporate Functions, Country Clubs, Family Reunions, Festivals, Fund Raisers, Funerals, Graduation Parties, Grand Openings, Hotels, Picnic, Private Parties, Resorts, Restaurants, Retirement Parties, Reunions, Studio Session, Weddings, Wedding Ceremonies, Wedding Cocktail Hours...and more.

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