While drummer Joe Russo and keyboardist Marco Benevento continue to tour the country together with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, many fans continue to pine for the Benevento/Russo Duo, the project that helped propel the two to acclaim in the mid-2000s. Today, the Benevento/Russo Duo has announced the re-issue of both of their albums, 2005’s Best Reason To Buy The Sun and 2006’s Play Pause Stop, on Bandcamp in honor of the company waiving its portion of revenue and giving 100% of proceeds to artists on Friday. As Benevento notes in a post on Instagram, this is the only place where Play Pause Stop exists online.
In addition to the Bandcamp releases, the Duo has announced a vinyl re-issue of both albums via Royal Potato Family. Pre-orders for Best Reason To Buy The Sun and Play Pause Stop by the Benevento/Russo Duo on vinyl are available now via Bandcamp.
The Benevento/Russo duo, known simply by fans as “the Duo,” started as something small (a weekly residency in a small sub-room at a small New York venue) and grew into something massive and exciting and uncharted. In addition to the two acclaimed albums, Marco and Joe toured the nation as a duo and even added various talented musicians to the equation for extended stretches—including, for a time, both Mike Gordon and Trey Anastasio of Phish, together known as G.R.A.B.
The Duo launched the careers of both Joe and Marco into the stratosphere, and their music still defies expectations of just how much sound can come from just these two guys. The two still dabble in The Duo’s material during JRAD shows on occasion, but aside from a surprise set at a minuscule Brooklyn brewhouse late last year, a highly-touted slot on January’s Jam Cruise, and a single club date at Brooklyn Bowl, and a Mike Gordon-assisted set at Suwannee Hulaween in 2017, The Duo hasn’t regularly played as “The Duo” in more than a decade.
Head to the Benevento/Russo Duo Bandcamp page to purchase digital downloads of the two albums or pre-order your vinyl copies.