Only chance, luck, and the extreme good taste of band leader Michael Bizar could have produced such a talented array of musicians playing together. Based in Berkeley, 5th Hour played numerous gigs, frequently opening for Bizar Bazaar at their weekly residency at the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco. The members being identical, except for singer/songwriter Randy Todd and saxophonist Ethan Hamilton, made this extremely convenient.

What is remarkable is how different the sound of the two bands, despite their common players, could be. Bizar Bazaar was almost always an instrumental group, featuring exceptional special guests like Will Bernard and Paul Hanson, and tended towards funky jazz favorites with a shredding jam band twist. The unbelievable bass work of ‘Murph’ Murphy was awe-inspiring to the crowd, and the other musicians, Lucas Carton on drums, Simon Rochester on Keys, and of course the incredible Michael Bizar simply destroying all standards of the achievable on guitar, were equally as incredible.

With the 5th Hour, and Randy Todd, the music tended to have a sweeter side, and traded some funkiness for depth. Ethan, Randy and Michael would frequently weave intricate melodies together, in harmony, above the dynamic song changes and thoughtful lyrics.
Two of the band’s best songs were co-wrote by Michael and Randy, Michael composing the chord structure and changes, and Randy writing the lyrics and helping with melodies and arrangements, the songs “Blue Today,” and “Conscious Monkey.”

5th Hour recorded one album together, All is Love, at Expressions Center in Emeryville, CA. Although this was done on the best state-of-the-art equipment money could buy, the production was a collective effort of the many students involved in the project, and thus led to a lack of cohesion and inventiveness apparent in the sound. The album was also never mastered. However you can hear several tracks from this CD, as well as songs from a high-energy live recording done just after the studio sessions, in the Randy Todd Music Player below.