Patio Kings: Blood, sweat and kitchen grease

Jazz-funksters Patiokings hit the road with vegetable oil-fueled van

By Mike Prevatt

The age-old advice for bands seeking to develop a fan base outside their hometown or region is to pack the van and hit the road. However, that's easier said than done for most musicians, who not only have day jobs and families to consider, but overall limited financial means for funding a trek. There's the hotel rooms, the food, the booze, the quarters for laundry--and, often overlooked, the gas to keep the van running. And, in case you hadn't noticed, fuel isn't cheap these days. It's keeping a lot of unestablished bands at home--which might've been the fate of Northampton, Mass., jazz/funk/R&B-oriented quartet Patiokings, had its founders not been goofing off on the Web at work one day a few years ago.

"In Washington state, Kjell [Ostlund, singer and multi-instrumentalist] and I worked together at this marketing company," says bassist Jesse Pollack. "We were just kind of playing around on the computer, and I came across this website, and I was like, `Check this website out--this guy builds a conversion kit to run engines off of grease,' and we just thought it was cool."

As it turns out, when Ostlund and Pollack moved to Northampton--where they met drummer Sturgis Cunningham and percussionist and conga player Jon Moore, completing the band-- they discovered the man behind Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems (greasecar.com) was actually a local. Shortly thereafter they offered to rebuild his website, and now he's their roommate. Furthermore, they've invested in one of his company's vegetable oil conversion systems, installing it in their 1997 Chevy G3500 van. They'll recoup its $1,500 cost on their summer trek alone, as they forego expensive highway-side pumps and refuel instead at greasy spoons.

So far, the experiment has been a total success. Roughly 80 to 90 percent of the fuel used by the van is from vegetable oil, which is more environmentally advantageous seeing how sulfur isn't released back into the air and carbon dioxide isn't produced in excess. The Patiokings get about 800 miles from their 60-gallon tank, which they can probably fill with all the cash they save from not using conventional diesel fuel. And, they're not the only ones saving money--the restaurants the band solicits from are usually more than happy to donate their oil waste, seeing how they must pay to have it hauled off anyway.

"You can go right in the restaurant and ask them," says Pollack, who also says the band typically calls the eateries ahead of time so personnel can place the oil in efficient plastic jugs. "They're confused at first, but once they understand what's going on, they're taken with the idea."

The idea is not the Patiokings' alone. Bonnie Raitt, the Indigo Girls and Neil Young--with 17 vegetable oil-run vehicles--all use the alternative fuel method when touring as well. However, Young reportedly uses a biodiesel system that refines the oil using chemicals, whereas the Patiokings convert the oil themselves using the Greasecar system while on the road.

This is just one strategy to ensure their month-long tour goes off without a hitch. They found themselves unprepared for the last one, back in 2002, which was actually their first multi-regional tour. This time around, they have a new album--the just-released Brand New Bag, a lively funk-driven effort colored by the band's jazz, R&B and jam-rock influences--and they've secured all the minutiae involved with the practicalities of touring.

"We wanted to be on the road making money, but we had to get all the business stuff together," says Pollack. "This time, I feel like we really got it right. We have an album we're really proud of, and we're a great live show. Everything's together and feeling right."