The soul six-piece JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound visited the Rolling Stone Rock Room to talk about their new LP Howl, due out May 21st, and weigh in on their ideal live crowd. "I appreciate a crowd that is ready and open to the connection to having a good time," says Brooks. "It makes what we do onstage seem much less like work when we don't have to pry them open." The rest of the band chimed in about the frustrations of dealing with the "indie-rock arm-fold," a widespread phenomenon at many a SXSW show.

Interview by Eric R. Danton; text by Joe Pinsker