A Promised America, Raucous Time Travel Trough Space And A Need For Change Collide On The Quaker City Night Hawks' May 20 'El Astronauta' Via Lightning Rod Records

The Quaker City Night Hawks – Sam Anderson and David Matsler n vocals and guitars, Pat Adams on bass, Aaron Haynes on drums — are a Southern band, to be sure. But it's not the South we've come to expect from Rock and Roll. Equally influenced by ZZ Top and science fiction, the Dallas Observer's Best Band of 2015 writes of landscapes both familiar and foreign, and they are set to deliver their 9-track 'El Astronauta’ debut May 20 via Lightning Rod Records.

Eras collide in every aspect of the album, from the title—which merges Texas' Spanish and Mexican roots with its role at the center of the modern space race—to its pop art cover, which depicts a classic '70s hot rod that's been modified into a spacecraft hovering over an exotic desert landscape. "Mockingbird" plays out as a classic-rock road-warrior's tale souped-up for the 22nd century, while "Liberty Bell 7" re-imagines current-day border issues through the eyes of a "space coyote" smuggling illegal immigrants on and off the planet. The track, engineered by Centromatic's Matt Pence, is named for a real NASA mission from 1961.

Protest song "Beat The Machine" rails against a military and prison industrial complex that seems to hold a vice grip over modern American politics, while the JFK-inspired "The Last Great Audit" grimly assures us that we'll "never walk through the gates of His promised land 'til we shake off our bloody ancestors' blues," and album-closer "Sons and Daughters" is a rollicking dose of secular gospel.

"This whole record sums up that feeling when you finally start to realize that you've been surrounded by bullshit," says frontman Sam Anderson. "It's immense and depressing at first to understand that things aren’t the way people told you they would be growing up, but coming out the other side, you see everybody else is in the same boat. We've been lied to for a long time, but now it's time to figure it out and move on and do something about it."

Change, and the need for it, is a central theme on the record, and one that weighs heavily on the band members' minds as they enter a new phase of adulthood. This isn't the South of their fathers, nor is it the America they'd been promised growing up, but ‘El Astronauta’ is a statement on putting aside differences long enough to make life enjoyable for everyone.

The Quaker City Night Hawks – who have solidified a raucous live show by opening for Chris Stapleton, Leon Bridges and Lucero, -- have been far out there, but they're anything but low down as they prepare for their first major foray into the national spotlight. Anderson was one of the first to invite fellow Ft. Worth native Leon Bridges to perform during set breaks at his shows, and the two recently reunited to perform for an upcoming Danny Clinch documentary that was teased during the GRAMMY Awards.

‘El Astronauta’ Tracklist:
1. Good Evening
2. Liberty Bell 7
3. Mockingbird
4. Something To Burn
5. Beat The Machine
6. Medicine Man
7. Duendes
8. The Last Great Audit
9. Sons & Daughters

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