 |
| Guessing Burton met a brighter fate than this guy... |
[Ed - I looked into the Austin-based, 2020-darlings Black Pumas at the beginning of the year - e.g., before the shit hit the fan. Something in Spotify’s algorithm decided I loved them - strong word, but not far wrong; good band, great sound - which made them one of my accidental heavy repeats of 2020. But, because I buried them in one of those mash-up posts, I worked-up a stand-alone post for the Crash Course series.]
When a new band makes it “Grammy-nom-bid” out of the blue, a lot of outlets come a-callin’ to help the world play catch-up. When there’s not a lot of story to tell - Black Pumas came together only in 2017 - you wind up telling the same story over and over, whether to Rolling Stone, or to Q on CBC. It’s a good story, and that’s below, but the looser, name-dropping fiesta posted earlier this year by Interview Magazine reveals them as people and according to their inspirations better than anything else I read or watched. Now, the origin story.
Adrian Quesada was already established in Austin, Texas, and with a strong track record as a guitarist and producer behind him - e.g., 15 years of touring, several Grammy nominations, including a win with Grupo Fantasma (a taste), an invite to play Prince’s Glam Slam club, etc. After burning out on touring, he’d settled down into Austin, but still had the itch bad enough to work up the beginnings of some songs. That had him casting around for a new collaboration.
Eric Burton, meanwhile, grew up in the San Fernando Valley as a theater kid, but in a religious setting (when people use the phrase “secular music”…). Growing up in choir competitions (this part of the Interview…interview is charming) developed his voice and he knocked around acting a little (e.g., a bit role in the Keira Knightly/Mark Ruffalo vehicle, Begin Again) and flirted with college in his youth. He eventually gravitated to busking, starting on the Santa Monica Pier (where he did quite well; a couple hundred a night) before a road-trip with friends to Austin landed him at his final destination. Once he nailed down a popular Austin street corner, he started gathering notice. Burton, as it turns out was working up some material of his own (a strong cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” among them).
While Quesada burned through a succession of misses, Burton fielded offers of his own, none of them ever quite clicking to the point where he almost gave up. A mutual friend passed Quesada’s number to Burton, and they eventually got together. According to the story they told James Corden, “Fire” and “Black Moon Rising” came out of their first session. They worked up a stage show from there by way of a weekly residency at Austin’s C-Boys Heart & Soul Bar and, by the middle of 2019, they played South by Southwest and walked out of it with best new band. Their eponymous debut dropped in June 2019 and there’s nothing to call it but off to the races from there. The critics love them, they played just about every late-night show you can name, a spin on Austin City Limits, etc. etc. Their 2019 Grammy nomination for best new artist pitted them against contemporary heavy-hitters like Lizzo, Billy Eilish, and Lil Nas X, plus a couple artists I don’t know like Maggie Rogers and Rosalia. Heady shit, obviously…
While I wouldn’t call them a “funny duo,” it’s fun to sit through that Q interview, if only to listen to Burton. Did not expect him to sound so…Californian. That said, and as noted above, that Interview Magazine piece felt like the best representation of who both of them are beyond their origin story; it’s a looser format (lots of talk about music for moods, road-trips, etc.), which gives them a chance to talk about something other than their origin story for the fourth or fifth time.
Finally, because they have a stable backing band, here are the rest of Black Pumas: Lauren Cervantes and Angela Miller on back-up vocals (Miller also does a Davy Jones (aka, tambourine), JaRon Marshall on keyboards, Brendan Bond on bass guitar, and Stephen Bidwell on drums.
About the Sampler
When this post goes up, I decided to pair it with the non-deluxe version of their debut album, Black Pumas (old school...). They call what they do “soul-funk,” and that sounds like a good fit. To name some favorites not already picked out above, “Stay Gold” made the original playlist earlier this year, as well as the bloated “like” list I’ve been whittling down the past couple weeks. When I went back to them last week, the two songs that really stood out were “OCT 33” and “Touch the Sky,” both for the guitar work (delicate, with fluid melodic progressions in “OCT 33” and the blues-tinged surf tones in “Touch the Sky,” especially in the solo/bridge, but the horns are damned fine). Burton’s rich, fluid voice overshadows a lot of what they do, so catching Quesada’s more subtle work is good…
As with just about everything 2020, it sucks that the pandemic hit before Black Pumas could get in front of the public…even if I’m not sure they’d play anywhere I’m likely to see ‘em. (I like my shows tiny and affordable…)
When a new band makes it “Grammy-nom-bid” out of the blue, a lot of outlets come a-callin’ to help the world play catch-up. When there’s not a lot of story to tell - Black Pumas came together only in 2017 - you wind up telling the same story over and over, whether to Rolling Stone, or to Q on CBC. It’s a good story, and that’s below, but the looser, name-dropping fiesta posted earlier this year by Interview Magazine reveals them as people and according to their inspirations better than anything else I read or watched. Now, the origin story.
Adrian Quesada was already established in Austin, Texas, and with a strong track record as a guitarist and producer behind him - e.g., 15 years of touring, several Grammy nominations, including a win with Grupo Fantasma (a taste), an invite to play Prince’s Glam Slam club, etc. After burning out on touring, he’d settled down into Austin, but still had the itch bad enough to work up the beginnings of some songs. That had him casting around for a new collaboration.
Eric Burton, meanwhile, grew up in the San Fernando Valley as a theater kid, but in a religious setting (when people use the phrase “secular music”…). Growing up in choir competitions (this part of the Interview…interview is charming) developed his voice and he knocked around acting a little (e.g., a bit role in the Keira Knightly/Mark Ruffalo vehicle, Begin Again) and flirted with college in his youth. He eventually gravitated to busking, starting on the Santa Monica Pier (where he did quite well; a couple hundred a night) before a road-trip with friends to Austin landed him at his final destination. Once he nailed down a popular Austin street corner, he started gathering notice. Burton, as it turns out was working up some material of his own (a strong cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” among them).
While Quesada burned through a succession of misses, Burton fielded offers of his own, none of them ever quite clicking to the point where he almost gave up. A mutual friend passed Quesada’s number to Burton, and they eventually got together. According to the story they told James Corden, “Fire” and “Black Moon Rising” came out of their first session. They worked up a stage show from there by way of a weekly residency at Austin’s C-Boys Heart & Soul Bar and, by the middle of 2019, they played South by Southwest and walked out of it with best new band. Their eponymous debut dropped in June 2019 and there’s nothing to call it but off to the races from there. The critics love them, they played just about every late-night show you can name, a spin on Austin City Limits, etc. etc. Their 2019 Grammy nomination for best new artist pitted them against contemporary heavy-hitters like Lizzo, Billy Eilish, and Lil Nas X, plus a couple artists I don’t know like Maggie Rogers and Rosalia. Heady shit, obviously…
While I wouldn’t call them a “funny duo,” it’s fun to sit through that Q interview, if only to listen to Burton. Did not expect him to sound so…Californian. That said, and as noted above, that Interview Magazine piece felt like the best representation of who both of them are beyond their origin story; it’s a looser format (lots of talk about music for moods, road-trips, etc.), which gives them a chance to talk about something other than their origin story for the fourth or fifth time.
Finally, because they have a stable backing band, here are the rest of Black Pumas: Lauren Cervantes and Angela Miller on back-up vocals (Miller also does a Davy Jones (aka, tambourine), JaRon Marshall on keyboards, Brendan Bond on bass guitar, and Stephen Bidwell on drums.
About the Sampler
When this post goes up, I decided to pair it with the non-deluxe version of their debut album, Black Pumas (old school...). They call what they do “soul-funk,” and that sounds like a good fit. To name some favorites not already picked out above, “Stay Gold” made the original playlist earlier this year, as well as the bloated “like” list I’ve been whittling down the past couple weeks. When I went back to them last week, the two songs that really stood out were “OCT 33” and “Touch the Sky,” both for the guitar work (delicate, with fluid melodic progressions in “OCT 33” and the blues-tinged surf tones in “Touch the Sky,” especially in the solo/bridge, but the horns are damned fine). Burton’s rich, fluid voice overshadows a lot of what they do, so catching Quesada’s more subtle work is good…
As with just about everything 2020, it sucks that the pandemic hit before Black Pumas could get in front of the public…even if I’m not sure they’d play anywhere I’m likely to see ‘em. (I like my shows tiny and affordable…)
No comments:
Post a Comment