Much-loved and lauded in their native Los Angeles, where they are set to play a MASSIVE homecoming show at the 17,000 capacity Forum at the end of their forthcoming U.S. tour, but still a relatively undiscovered gem over here in the U.K., Chicano Batman have today shared ‘Live Today’, the latest track from their forthcoming album Notebook Fantasy, out March 29th via ATO Records.
The track is accompanied by a live performance of the track directed by acclaimed filmmaker Eric Coleman (Eminem, Mary J. Blige) and was born from a chord progression composed by Carlos Arévalo while practicing guitar. Bolstered by lyrics and vocals from Bardo, the album-opening ‘Live Today’ emerges as an empowered meditation on cutting through the chaos and finding your own version of peace, building a gloriously bombastic mood with its slinky grooves and otherworldly synth.
About the track, Arévalo shares “When I brought this idea to the band, I was inspired to record a big and punchy song arrangement with minimal elements. How fat sounding could we get a completed track with a live band recording and playing their instruments in a room together at the same time, with minimal overdubs? Ol’ school, right? Although sonically different, I liken this song’s performance to an electric jazz quartet, where if you don’t record its off the cuff energy then its lost to the universe forever, thankfully John Congleton captured it all!”
Chicano Batman first announced Notebook Fantasy in January alongside the release of the album’s debut single “Fly,” a lovestruck reverie lit up with gauzy textures and heavenly group vocals. The band performed the track last week on Jimmy Kimmel Live! They followed up with the release of “Era Primavera” last month, a symphonic love song inspired by vocalist/lyricist Bardo’s fascination with 1960s Latin ballads.
The new album acts as proof of the band’s diverse and intriguing musical scope. At times, not a sound immediately distinguishable to many in the U.K., Chicano Batman are nonetheless a band ripe for discovery.
An institution in California, theirs is a sound fermented in the multi-cultural surroundings of their home city of L.A. A product of the city’s unmatched melting pot of sounds and vibes and with Chicano soul, the sound of their heritage, as a starting point and anchor, Chicano Batman effortlessly take in and appropriate everything from the weirdness of Tropicalia, the skewed vocal harmonies of classic Norman Whitfield period Motown, the fried Detroit psych-soul of Funkadelic and beyond – they are a band as at home playing the Liverpool Psych Fest as they are in front of a Latino soul crowd, a fact testament to their effortless inclusivity and magpie like approach to music making.
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