This morning legendary psych-rock phenomenon Tame Impala announced they will play their biggest ever show in New Zealand at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Thursday 16 April. Bringing with them Texan genre-defiers, Khruangbin. The sunny instrumental three-piece will warm crowds with their mind-expanding live show.
Khrunagbin will open the show marking their New Zealand debut. They will bring songs from 2019’s Hasta El Cielo, along with ‘Texas Sun’, their upcoming collaboration with fellow Texan, Leon Bridges. A mix of Thai-surf punk, Persian rock music, 1980’s Algerian symphonia, with a dash of disco, soul, and Balearic music, their hypnotic live show is not to be missed.
“rich in beautiful psychedelic colour, by extension, it celebrates international culture and unity.” – The Line of Best Fit
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges will release Texas Sun, their forthcoming collaborative EP, on February 7th via Dead Oceans/Rhythmethod. Following the EP’s title track released last month, a slow-rolling song about the pull of the unique Texas landscape, they today offer its second single, “C-Side,” a shimmering track comprised of wah-wah guitar lines, burbling Latin polyrhythms, and soft vibraphone.
Listen To “C-Side” by Khruangbin & Leon Bridges –
https://youtu.be/JF2jxqQVloM
Their first time writing with a vocalist, Texas Sun finds Khruangbin—comprised of Laura Lee (bass), Mark Speer (guitar), and Donald “DJ” Johnson (drums)—tailoring their exotic funk to Bridges’ soulful melodies. On the EP, these Texas natives meet up somewhere in the mythical nexus of the state’s past, present, and future—a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. The state’s music is as varied and wild as its geography, producing Southern rap pioneers Geto Boys and UGK, lysergic trailblazers The 13th Floor Elevators, and genres-unto-themselves like St. Vincent, Gary Clark Jr., and Beyoncé. Texas Sun lives here too, a record that calls equally to the chopped-and-screwed hip-hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, to those who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso, to the Austin acid-dropping art school kids.
Texas Sun started on the road and wrapped up in the studio. Both Bridges and Khruangbin had been touring nonstop behind their acclaimed sophomore LPs when their paths converged for a joint North American tour in 2018, a run of shows stretching from Los Angeles to New York. Although both of their musical lanes were slightly different, they shared a dusty, laid back vibe. When a Khruangbin session yielded a song that seemed like it might pair well with Bridges’ voice, the band sent it over. Bridges returned the track with his vocals the very next day. They all soon decamped to the studio with engineer Steve Christensen, hoping to make it into a B-side. But everything flowed so naturally, it was obvious this would be something bigger, leading to Texas Sun.
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