Moonalice’s Roger McNamee & Lester Chambers

Listen to an interview about the new group’s new EP as well as the ‘Summer Of Soul’ documentary film and more.

By Team JamBase Apr 28, 2022 • 10:51 am PDT

Episode 123 of The JamBase Podcast, a partner of the Osiris Media Network, features an interview with Roger McNamee and Lester Chambers of Moonalice. JamBase’s Andy Kahn interviewed the pair about the group’s new EP, Full Moonalice, Vol. 1 and much more.

JamBase was honored to have Lester Chambers on the podcast. Chambers is a co-founding member of the 1960s psychedelic soul band The Chambers Brothers. That group, which included Lester’s siblings, was responsible for such hits as “Time Has Come Today” and “People Get Ready.” Lester talked about The Chambers Brothers’ prominent appearance in the documentary film Summer Of Soul. The Roots drummer Questlove directed Summer Of Soul, which recently won the Oscar for Best Documentary Film.

Chambers told Kahn what it was like to first learn about the project that spotlighted the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a multi-week event featuring Stevie Wonder, Sly & The Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahlia Jackson and many others. Chambers also told other stories from that time period, including meeting The Beatles in 1969, which led to foraging a friendship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Chambers also talked about encounters with a then-unknown Alice Cooper and other remarkable aspects of his long and storied career.

Roger started the interview by laying out the history of Moonalice, which was started at the urging of renowned producer T Bone Burnett. The band has evolved over the years, now featuring a 10-person lineup that includes drummer John Molo, bassist Pete Sears and multi-instrumentalists Barry Sless and Jason Crosby. Singing siblings the T Sisters and Lester’s son Dylan Chambers round out the Full Moonalice Lineup.

McNamee and Chambers detailed recording their EP, which came out on April 20th. They discussed choosing the songs on the album, which includes “Time Has Come,” “People Get Ready” and “Let’s Get Funky” which is an update of The Chambers Brothers’ song “Funky.” The interview also touched on several other topics, such as touring and their 4/20 concert, which ended up being postponed after COVID infiltrated their camp.

This episode is sponsored by Section 119. Section 119 offers a diverse range of quality Grateful Dead, Donut pattern, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and other music related apparel. JamBase is honoring the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s historic Europe 72 tour with a retrospective look back at each of 22 performances that took place between April 7 and May 26 in partnership with Section 119. Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead ’72 European tour with Section 119’s Limited Edition Hoodies. Section 119 dug deep into the archive of the Grateful Dead to build 22 unique hoodies with the actual amazing artwork from each show of the tour. Only 72 pieces inspired by each show will be sold.

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Stream Episode 123 of The JamBase Podcast via all major podcast services including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Podcast.