Emerging in the mid-'90s, Galactic has consistently pushed artistic boundaries on the road and in the studio. “It’s not that we’re always trying to push boundaries,” says Mercurio, “but we definitely take influence from our hometown and try to do something new with it.” Approaching their music with open ears, Ben Ellman, Robert Mercurio, Stanton Moore, Jeff Raines and Rich Vogel draw inspiration from quintessential New Orleans musicians such as the Meters and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band as well as from each other. Galactic fuses elements of hip-hop, electronic, world music, rock, blues and jazz to create a sound that is uniquely their own. Galactic’s first new studio album in more than three years, ALREADY READY ALREADY – released on their own Tchoup-Zilla Records – takes a distinctly contemporary approach towards their own progressive sound.  “I’ve never been able to put a label on what we do,” Ellman says. “I could say it’s funk or I could say it’s R&B or jazz or whatever else, but really, it’s all of that.”