Bassist Robert Mercurio’s band Galactic has been busy lately. They put out a great hip-hop album late last year, played France’s Trans Music Festival which is held in airplane hangers, toured in the U.S., flew to Moscow for a one night stand and will have more U.S. dates before heading back to Europe.

The band hooks up with Ohmega Watts Sunday night at the Pageant in support of the album, “From the Corner to the Block.”

Embracing hip hop this time around, the evolving Galactic put out a Brand New Heavies-like set utilizing the services of friends such as Chali 2na (Jurassic 5, right), Boots Riley (from the Coup), Mr. Lif, Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab (Blackalicious) and Ohmega Watts. The new direction has brought some new faces to their shows according to Mercurio.

For the album, the band asked each MC to write about a street corner that had some kind of meaning for them. I asked Mercurio about it the other day as he prepared for a show in Wyoming.

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RC: How did you first come up with the street corner concept?

RM: It came to us when we were reading a book called ‘Intersections’ (”Intersections: New Orleans”). The authors in the book wrote stories behind the most meaningful blocks in the city. It inspired us to think, ‘maybe we can do a musical version of that.’ Each story is unique yet unifying. We kept it very broad for the artists and each one interpreted it in very different ways, and thats what we wanted.

RC: How did the Moscow gig come about?

RM: There’s a promoter over there who is booking several American acts for a new nightclub. I guess he liked our music. We did one show and took three days off so we could make a good time of it. We did a lot of tourist things. We ate at one of the best restaurant in town, went to a flea market and went to a Russian bath, which was amazing.

RC: You seem to have an insane schedule.

RM: We’re always pretty busy. It’s difficult to lock down time to work on new music. But we make a lot of our money from shows, so we can’t really stop much.

RC: What rappers will be onstage with you Sunday?
RM: Chali 2na and his brother Laidlaw. Ohmega Watts will also probably sit in as well.

RC: Are you optimistic about New Orleans’ future and what’s the most important action that can be taken to help?

RM: I’m definitely optimistic. We still live there and we try to do our part. Some days you get down on it because it’s slow moving and you wonder if it will ever be the same. The best thing is for people to come down often. Help the economy by coming down and visiting and spending your money. That’s the easiest way to help because any old American or anyone in world can do it.

RC: Can you talk about the band’s tendency to embrace a new genre every few years?

RM: It just comes from touring for 12 years. For us, to change styles and take on new approaches energizes the band. If we just put out the same type of albums every few years we’d be bored. It’s difficult to be the same and keep a smile on your face. It’s always natural, though and never a forced change or contrived. We had a soul singer and he left a few years back and we always wanted to do an MC album, so it made sense to do it.

Can you drop any hints on what direction the band is going next?

We haven’t fully locked down the concept, so no I can’t. We’re hoping to have another album out by the beginning of next year. Right now, we’re just having a blast touring with these MCs. We’ve had a lot of sold out shows that have brought in new audiences that have really responded well.