Mega*Nut

A classic funk musician for the modern world, Lonnie Marshall has spent decades rolling the timeless ingredients of his genre — the driving bass lines of Bootsy Collins, the psychedelic stomp of Parliament, the thick rhythms of Sly and the Family Stone — into a uniquely contemporary sound. Fronting the seminal band Weapon of Choice for three decades, he has built a bridge between funk music and the genres that surround it, collaborating with punk icons like Joe Strummer and hip-hop legends like Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg along the way. Lonnie turns a new page with "Parking Lot," his first release with the Seattle-based Loosegroove Records since the late-1990s. The song began as an improvised jam at Delicious Pizza, the Hollywood-area pizzeria, art space, and hip-hop museum where Lonnie performs every week as part of his "gRoOVe hEAliNg fUNky fRiDAyS" residency. The spirit of those weekly shows — gigs that focus on musical spontaneity and community mindedness — runs throughout the song itself, with Lonnie drawing upon a lifetime's worth of funk influences and creative instincts.