Before settling in to make Jazzhound, their most extravagant,
ambitious, and fully realized album to date, the Buttertones had to
face the hounds of real life. Prior to a headlining summer tour in
support of 2018’s Midnight in a Moonless Dream, a fiery blast of an
album capturing the band at their purest distillation,
drummer/multi-instrumentalist Modesto ‘Cobi’ Cobiån had a sudden
and serious medical scare involving his eye, requiring emergency
surgery. He lost half his vision (it will hopefully return with a
future operation), and the tour had to be cancelled. Music took a
backseat for the time being. “It gave us some perspective on our
health,” says bassist Sean Redman, “and the fact that we have to
look after ourselves and one another first, or else the music just
can’t happen.” Cobiån, Redman, and vocalist/guitarist Richard
Araiza have been playing together for seven years now, having first
come together for a self-titled debut in 2013; along with London
Guzman on sax and keys, they’ve come to establish themselves as one
of L.A.’s tightest groups, conquering stages from Coachella to
Tropicalia. When one of their own had a scare, they rallied around
him—and used the experience to come together stronger than ever for
the record they were getting ready to make. “He says the eye patch
adds charm to his character,” jokes Araiza, who led the Buttertones
back into writing mode, taking the reset moment to really focus on the
approach and style of the record. The material he was working on took
the band forward into a heavier sound—and it also brought them back
to the spark of their first album. “It allowed us to go back to the
roots and the spirit we had when we started,” Redman considers.
“We are kind of a new band, in a lot of ways, is what it feels
like.” Continuing their partnership with producer Jonny Bell of
Crystal Antlers, who produced Moonless Dream as well as 2017’s
Gravedigging, the Buttertones waited until they were good and ready
before hitting the legendary Electro-Vox Studios in Hollywood, where
they arrived knowing exactly what they wanted to lay to tape. Armed
with an arsenal of the most propulsive music they’ve written yet,
the band recorded the album mostly live—an ideal method for
capturing their cult-status live show, which carries on the torch of
acts like the Walkmen and the Fleshtones. “We’d do a few takes,”
says Araiza, “and then it was, ‘Alright, we got all the main
instruments done, now let’s record on the vibraphone that was used
on Pet Sounds,’ you know?” But Jazzhound is completely new
territory for the group, too, with Araiza, who calls this album
“probably the darkest one” he’s written lyrically, pushing his
Ian Curtis-via-Bobby Darin baritone to new depths, particularly on
scorchers like “Phantom Eyes” and “Bebop.” It’s also the
first album with Cobiån acting—and thriving—in his new role as a
full-time guitarist (the drum parts were written by him and played by
session musician Paul Doyle), and the first since the departure of
guitarist Dakota Boettcher as well. “We really worked our asses off
on this one,” says Araiza, proudly, already talking about how he
can’t wait to do it all again and make another record soon—after
they tour the world, that is, making up for the lost dates last
summer, and then some. “It feels like we’re still climbing.”
music
82
Views
29/05/2020 Last update