One Liner: Funky instrumental goodness
Poster Position: Headliner!
Both Weekends.
Saturday at 6:20 (sure, makes total sense for them to be before non-headliners from the 3rd row).
AmEx Stage.
Thoughts: Last here in 2018, and at the time I remember them feeling like a revelation - like, there was nothing like this going on anywhere I feel like. Now, these are multiple other copies of them on this same poster. But still, while back in 2018 I thought these folks were off the reservation, I still found it absolutely freaking cool. It is like these cats are trying to make funk instrumentals for spaghetti Westerns to use. And I do not mean that as an insult in the slightest. I'm truly digging what this band is laying down.
By now, much of their catalog is familiar, and local radio stations like KUTX and Sun keep them in the roatation. This isn't the top track, but its still the one I want to present to you first, because it is flipping tight and the one I recall being the biggest one first. I need Killer Mike to lay a track down over the top of it yesterday. This is "Maria Tambien," with just over 53.4 million streams.
By the way, that speaking stuff in that video doesn't belong - that is not in the real version of the track, but is for some reason included in the official video... But the key to these tunes is that bass. Hot damn, that bass is a reason to get up in the morning and face the day. Gimme some more of that stuff.
The name though, I don't even understand how to say it. Wikipedia says the following: "When asked to play their first gig, [bassist] Laura Lee, who was learning to speak Thai at the time, decided they should name themselves after her favorite word, "khruangbin," which means "engine fly" or "airplane" in Thai. Speer admits that, had they had the foresight to predict the band's success, they may not have chosen a name that was so difficult to pronounce. Though the band's name is notoriously challenging to say, it symbolizes the international set of influences that shaped the band's formation." This video (with a very annoying screaming woman in it) shows how to pronounce it.
Krung Bin. Someone please make that lady shut up. No need to scream at the top of your lungs while this guy is trying to explain the band name. Criminy.
Four albums, 2015's The Universe Smiles Upon You, 2018's Con Todo El Mundo, 2020's Mordechai, and 2024's A LA SALA. There are also some other EPs and remixes and collaborations in there, but those are the four official releases. Oh, and lots of official live albums. I like the second album quite a bit more - the first one has more of a psych/surf vibe, where the 2018 album feels more solid and more funky. The "Maria Tambien" song up above is from the new album, but their most popular streaming track is from that first album, this is "People Everywhere (Still Alive)" with 116.2 million streams.
Also, how fucking cool do these cats look in this video.
That is the good shit right there. That simple drumming to keep it moving. The complex bass climbing and descending and bouncing around, and then the ringing, plucking, insistent guitar. That first track is freaking goodness. The video is 50 minutes long, so I get it if you're not going to go that far, but just check out the opener. No, you need to see the second one too. I want to make sweet love to this music. Not like listen to it while I make love, I want to actually bone this music.
Also, the fact that the bassist and guitarist share a hairstyle is kind of messed up. On her, looks great, especially when she breathes into the mike. On him, scary Moorish molester man. They are apparently just wigs.
It is wild that they are from Houston - doesn't feel like it matches, until you think about how ethnically diverse and weird Houston really is. Sure, it is the Energy Capital of the World of whatever, but it is also a major melting pot of cultures and languages and ethnicities. Well, Mark Speer (guitar and vocals) and DJ Johnson (drums, keyboard, vocals) met playing in a gospel band at a Methodist Church in Houston, and over drinks realized that they both shared a deep love for music. In 2007, Speer met Laura Lee Ochoa (bass guitar and vocals) and he taught her the bass, and then she joined the band Yppah, where Speer was already the guitarist. After a tour, they were motivated to keep it going and started the new band. And it worked out swimmingly. "The New York Times wrote that Khruangbin's sound was so distinct and popular that "there now exists an entire subgenre of music broadly known as 'Khruangbin vibes.'"
Let's go a little more into the music itself. 2020's Mordechai had the unfortunate fate of many pandemic releases. More very fun, cool, funky, eclectic tracks - some instrumental and some with words - that could frequently act as a very good rap background if someone cool was so inclined. "Father Bird, Mother Bird" has the sound of one of those cool BadBadNotGood tracks that Ghostface Killah used to rap over on that Sour Soul disc. Love this track - smooth as silk and fully laid back. The top track is a great one - "Time (You and I)" with 73.1 million streams (impressive!).
Got that tight wacka wacka action from the guitar, some funky bass machinations, and overall a damn good groove. I just put it in a playlist for my sister the other day - I think it matches her very well. Also, that video is amazing.
Then they hooked up for two EPs with fellow ACL posterboy Leon Bridges, to make the fantabulous 2020 EP - Texas Sun - that is super yummy. Texas Sun came out just right before the pandemic, and something about it just nailed a vibe that we needed in my household at the time. The kids would roll their eyes at this tune by now, because of how much we played it, but it is freaking beautiful. "Texas Sun," with 259.7 million streams (by the way, up from 246.7 million in the last month when I wrote the Leon Bridges review).
The combo of that voice with those groovy, funky, intertwining instruments, is just rad. Seems really bad to have distilled the sun into that little ball and then just look at it with your wife. Your ophthalmologist will be sad. Also, while I'm not sure, I am pretty certain that at least one of those shots in the video was out in or near Alpine, Texas, and I love Alpine, Texas. Maybe it's just more El Paso. And then, in 2022, the Khrungbridges fired out Texas Moon. Not anything on there as good as this, but still solid.
In 2022 they released a disc with the African singer Vieux Farka Toure called Ali. When it was released, I was joking to myself, in the car, that KUTX's playlist is just Khruangbin in different iterations. By themselves, with Leon Bridges, with Toure, probably with like Megan Thee Stallion and Dolly Parton. But this one has a completely different style than the collaborations with someone like Leon. Toure is a Malian guitarist, the son of another famous Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure (thus the album name, because this is a set of his dad's tunes). And so, the funky worldliness of Khruangbin gets a boost from the African sounds of Toure to make a really nice combination. It is a chill gem of long grooves and relaxed funk. The top track is "Diarabi", which has been on the radio a lot around here. It has 12.5 million streams.
Would be dope as hell with a cool rapper freestyling over the top of that. No clue what he is saying in the lyrics, but the smoothness of the overall track is cool as hell. Now just set Kendrick loose over the top to talk about his childhood and we're cooking with gas. Good disc.
Finally, you get 2024's A LA SALA. You'd never know that this wasn't the same album they put out in 2020. Not that I know the hustle, they found a lane and they are sticking to it, but it is exactly more of the same. Maybe a little more chill, if that is possible, with less of the upbeat numbers as last time. Great vibe music - although if I am being honest, a few times through this one and my brain has wandered and wished I could put some music on. Which is not a great sign. 3 songs crack 10 million, with "May Ninth" being top of the pile at 20.4 million.
Not sure if I like the singing ones or the pure instrumentals, but either way, they really use the smeary little vocals like they were just another instrument in the quiver. Yeah, good vibe here, something nice to hear at a restaurant while you chat. Otherwise, this final feature is a little less than exciting for me. I want more of the Leon Bridges combo action I think.
Oddly, they have a track on the new Childish Gambino album that is just a straight Khruangbin song. No rap. Nothing other than these guys just doing one of their usual funk jams. Strange.
But yeah, I'd go vibe along with this. I very well might end up doing that, being that Saturday's headliners are otherwise underwhelming.
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