Disco Biscuits Lead Fans to Marley Birthplace

Bob Marley has long been an omnipresent inspiration to people from all walks of life and his legacy continues to influence musicians from all genres and places -- even trance-rock bands from Philadelphia, such as the Disco Biscuits. Surprisingly, when Biscuits' bassist Marc Brownstein led a group of 50 fans on the Zion Bus Tour to Bob Marley's birthplace and final resting place, Nine Mile, this past weekend, neither Marley's legacy nor Brownstein's presence proved to be the centerpiece -- it was the actual adventure itself.

"That was absolutely the most magical trip of all time," Brownstein tells Spinner. "It was a chance to bring 50 people into one of the more spiritual and amazing parts of the world, and see what life is like 25 miles into the mountains of Jamaica. It's a simple, wonderful life."

The excursion was part of the inaugural Caribbean Holidaze, a destination music festival held at two resorts in Jamaica's Runaway Bay. When the Zion Bus drove by the mountain pass that inspired Marley's 'Natural Mystic,' music history, cultural relativity, and common spirituality all collided. But, as Marley points out in one of his most famous lines, "One good thing about music/when it hits, you feel no pain."