3 Feet High & Rising: Austin Soul Singer Eric Burton & Brownout's Adrian Quesada Join Forces to Form Black Pumas (Karma Chief Records)
It must go to say something that the song that plays directly after Black Pumas' "Black Moon Rising" on YouTube Music is Wah Wah Watson's wah-wah pedal-drenched "Goo Goo Wah Wah" from his 1976 Columbia Records Soul-Funk masterpiece, ELEMENTARY. Black Pumas consists of Austin-based singer-songwriter Eric Burton and musician/producer/composer Adrian Quesada, who are the inaugural signees to Colemine Records' newly-launched sister label, Karma Chief Records. As the story goes, Quesada was taking a break from his main bands, Brownout and Brown Sabbath—as seen on Ozzy & Jack's World Detour—to record a batch of "Soul-leaning instrumentals with the intent of eventually, making a full album." Although, he did not have a vocalist to accompany his instrumentals and started putting out feelers around Austin and across the country, as far-reaching as LA. However, it wasn't until local producer Bryan Ray, a mutual friend of both Eric Burton & Adrian Quesada, connected them via email, effectively forming Black Pumas. Karma Chief Records issued Black Pumas' debut release, "Black Moon Rising," this past Friday, March 9th and are already promising a bounty of physical releases, as well as a full-length from Adrian Quesada & Eric Burton coming late Summer 2018. "Black Moon Rising" is a slinky Psychedelic-Soul/Funk slow burner, which lasts nearly 4-minutes and is currently available to stream on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and like-minded digital retailers. Below, you will see a complete list of Black Pumas' scheduled SXSW 2018 appearances and set times.
"We are very excited to start a new chapter of our little label today. We have officially released our first single on our new subsidiary label, Karma Chief Records. The single is from Black Pumas and is digital-only, for now, but plenty of physical product is already in-the-works. Karma Chief will be dedicated to music that we love and are passionate about, but that doesn't necessarily fall within the framework of Colemine, giving us room to stretch out and experiment outside of the Soul/Funk world a bit. Here's some info on Black Pumas and all the links to check out the new single are below. Enjoy!
Singer-songwriter Eric Burton grew up singing in a church in West Virginia, being moved by seeing how people responded to the power of the human voice and after moving around the country with his family to California and subsequently, New Mexico, he finally settled in Austin almost in 2016, cutting his teeth while busking in the streets. Eric made an impression everywhere he played, guitar in hand, whether it was a coffee shop, a bar, or a house party, even becoming the subject of a short documentary called "Street Music" by photographer Andrew Bennett. Fast forward to the early fall of 2017: musician/producer Adrian Quesada found himself with some rare downtime and began to write and record a collection of Soul-leaning instrumentals with the intent of eventually, making a full album. The only catch was he had no singer or lyricist for the songs; he needed the perfect voice for it and in a town with so many talented musicians, it still was [no] easy task. He found himself putting out feelers for singers as far as LA and all over the country, until local producer Bryan Ray, a mutual friend of Burton and Quesada, connected the two, via email. One session led [to] another and after completing more than an album's-worth of material in a few days, 'Black Pumas' was born. The sound is, at times Psychedelic, Funky, bold, and cinematic, but above all, Soulful and sincere."
- Colemine/Karma Chief Records
