The Disco Biscuits Offer Twist to Inaugural Identity Festival

Marc Brownstein can remember a time when electronic music wasn't exactly what the "cool" kids were blasting on their car stereos as a way to impress chicks.

Back then, "Brownie" had just founded the trance fusion outfit, The Disco Biscuits, with three of his friends at the University of Pennsylvania and begun performing in some of the Northeast's best clubs.

But he also knew that with enough time, people would eventually come around.

In the end, Brownstein was right. More than a decade later, all he has to do is point to the sold-out dates during this year's inaugural Identity Festival, the first-touring electronic music festival to ever hit the U.S., to prove his theory correct.

After all, in his mind, it was only a matter of time before electronic music grew enough to foster its own nationwide festival.

Punk rockers, for one, have the Vans Warped Tour. Metal heads have Ozzfest and Mayhem Festival. And country enthusiasts have Willie Nelson's Country Throwdown.

In this day and age, there seems to be a music festival for fans of almost any genre.

Now, ravers and dance music aficionados have their own festival to revel in with some of the scene's hottest acts - whether it's British dubstep giant Rusko or House favorite Kaskade - hitting markets big and small during August and September.

"Electronic music is experiencing a renaissance," Brownstein says. "And we're lucky to have stuck with electronic music for the 10 years that it wasn't cool."

Nevertheless, The Disco Biscuits - consisting of Brownstein on bass, Jon Gutwillig on guitar, Aron Magner on keyboards and Allen Aucoin on drums - are far from your traditional electronic act.

Fusing its jam band roots with various elements of dance music, they have captured fans from both sides of the spectrum over the course of 16 years.

Yet when it comes to Skullcandy's very own Identity Festival, the Biscuits stand in a unique situation.

As the only live band in a lineup featuring more than 20 DJs, Brownstein and his band mates didn't know if they would stand out as the festival's outlier.

Still, any sort of uncertainty wasn't about to stop them from signing on when the offer was put on the table to play more than a majority of the festival's 20 dates.

"It was a no-brainer," Brownstein admits. "When opportunities like this come to you, you don't think twice. It was the opportunity of a lifetime."

The Disco Biscuits, in fact, weren't even planning to tour this summer after headlining Bisco Inferno at Red Rocks for a third straight year, hosting the band's 10th annual Camp Bisco festival in upstate New York and releasing its latest studio album, Otherwise Law Abiding Citizens, in July.

But the idea of rocking some of the nation's best amphitheaters, from Jones Beach to The Gorge, was too hard to pass up for the band.

"I think the question was, 'Is this going to be successful?'" Brownstein recalls when The Disco Biscuits agreed to play the festival.

And after a packed crowd at the Biscuits' first Identity Festival show in Indianapolis, he quickly had his answer.

"People get that we're a little bit different from this world, but that this is our world," Brownstein explains. "Like it or not, you're going to remember it."

The Biscuits have had to do it against some tough competition during this year's Identity Festival tour, too.

Whether it's been Colorado-based producer Pretty Lights, French DJ Etienne de Crecy, German house duo Booka Shade or longstanding dance staple The Crystal Method, the quartet has held its own among some of electronic music's best acts.

"We're still constantly interrogating what we do," says Walter Merziger of the music he creates with Arno Kammermeier in Booka Shade. "Is it fresh? Is it different? When you stop questioning your work, it's time to give up."

With the Disco Biscuits playing among a star-studded lineup of DJs that some nights includes the likes of Skrillex, Steve Aoki, DJ Shadow, Afrojack and Avicii, picking who to see hasn't been that easy for festival attendees.

In spite of that, The Disco Biscuits have still been able to win fans over thanks to their deep affection for electronic music and their connection to the scene.

"Electronic music is what we do best," Brownstein says. "Every night has to be something different and incredible."

If that's the case, then electronic music fans can expect their Identity Festival to be pretty special the first time around the country.