Food tells a lot about a local culture. When making gumbo, don’t “ask what goes in it?” Ask “what do you have?”, cause anything and everything goes in gumbo. Gumbo explains New Orleans, it’s a mix of different influences and traditions, everything truly goes in New Orleans. Ya-Ka-May, also called Ya Ka Mein, is a similar multi-ethnic dish. A noodle soup invented in the cultural stew of New Orleans, Ya-Ka-May has unclear origins. Possibly brought back to New Orleans by black veterans of the Korean War, it’s been jokingly called Seoul Food. Ya-Ka-May is a fitting title for Galactic’s new album – it’s a musical mix of influences. Ya-Ka-May is Galactic with guests from a wide range of New Orleans styles: a brass band, a soul queen, a Mardi Gras Indian, a funky piano professor, a tailgate trombonist, a fiesty Creole singer, a traditional jazz band, a bluesy Wolfman guitarist, hip-hop booty bouncers, sleep deprived garage rockers, and a trumpet player with the word “Trombone” in his nickname. Yet the album has a cohesive sound, each song sounds distinctly like a Ya-Ka-May song. This is Galactic’s drums and brass album, everything not a beat or a horn is down in the mix or used minimally to great effect.

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AUSTIN DAZE: How did the hurricane affect you guys?

JEFF RAINES: We all left for months. You know, it was really kind of interesting: Galactic was actually in Seattle playing a festival on the Sunday night that it hit. A couple of guys stayed there. I flew to Shreveport and met my family. We thought we would be away from town three days, tops.

The day after the storm I was messing around, getting ready to go home and someone was like, “Hey man, come here”. There’s like a blown levee — I was just in shock. Read the rest of this entry »