Chicano Batman Releases “Blank Slate”
New Album 'Invisible People' Out May 1st on ATO Records
Listen to the New Single via Consequence of Sound
(New York, NY): Today, Chicano Batman releases “Blank Slate” from their forthcoming album Invisible People set for a May 1st release via ATO Records. With a Rick James-esque thumping bassline and a Daft Punk mono synth inspired guitar solo, the track finds the perfect harmony between modern and 80’s funk.
Listen/share HERE.
“It was the first song that we dug our heels into,” lead singer Bardo Martinez says about the track. “It was our Blank Slate...so I also approached the lyrics from that angle but applied it to my personal life at the time to create the typical love song dance jam.”
Read more via Consequence of Sound: https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/04/chicano-batman-origins-blank-slate-stream/
For the album, the band worked with Shawn Everett, the GRAMMY-award winning mixing engineer known for his work with Alabama Shakes, War on Drugs, Kacey Musgraves, and Julian Casablancas. With Leon Michels’ (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields & The Expressions) producing and Everett’s mixing steering the record’s direction, the band’s lush sound has become a more pointed, densely layered soundscape. 'Invisible People' is an illuminating and encapsulating listen, one that hasn’t lost the essence that put Chicano Batman on the map and makes a stirring point about the times we’re living in.
FADER calls the album’s second single “Pink Elephant” a “supremely groovy punchbowl anthem" while Billboard praises its “warm, funk-damning vignettes.”
Listen: https://www.thefader.com/2020/03/31/chicano-batman-pink-elephant-video-premiere
The album's lead track "Color my life" was lauded by Rolling Stone as a "tropicalia-infused thesis on a utopian world where factors like race, gender and class do not preclude the potential for human connection and solidarity" and garnered support from Rivers Cuomo and Danger Mouse. It debuted at # 3 on KCRW’s Top Music Charts and is featured on Spotify’s “Ultimate Indie” and “Good Vibes” playlists.
'Invisible People' Tracklisting:
1. Color my life
2. Blank Slate
3. I Know It
4. Invisible People
5. Manuel’s Story
6. Moment of Joy
7. Pink Elephant
8. Polymetronomic Harmony
9. The Way
10. The Prophet
11. Bella
12. Wounds
PRAISE FOR CHICANO BATMAN:
"retro-tinged resistance funk" – ROLLING STONE
“a pitch-perfect voice of the resistance” – BILLBOARD
“a deeper dimension of sly pop culture references, unapologetic Latin pride, and the thoughtful exploration of popular music's all pervasive black roots" – Noisey
“laid-back lounge grooves and a funky swagger” – NPR
“a cross of Tame Impala and Neon Indian...shape their tropicalia-bent indie rock into a glossier pop-style.” — CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND
"You need to know Chicano Batman...with their combination of soul, pop, tropicalia and psych" – THE GUARDIAN
"perfect musical accompaniment for summer cruisin'” — AV Club
"supremely groovy" – FADER
ABOUT CHICANO BATMAN:
Like all the most iconic music born from the West Coast, Chicano Batman’s 'Invisible People' offers an instant escape into the beautifully strange world they inhabit. Throughout their fourth album, vocalist/keyboardist Bardo Martinez, guitarist Carlos Arévalo, bassist Eduardo Arenas, and drummer Gabriel Villa channel the kinetic spirit of their city into a wildly shapeshifting sound, ultimately finding an unstoppable joy in following their most outrageous instincts. Produced by Leon Michels (The Carters, A$AP Rocky, Lee Fields & the Expressions) and mixed by Shawn Everett (Vampire Weekend, Alabama Shakes, Beck), 'Invisible People' taps into the unbridled creativity Chicano Batman previously brought to their 2009 self-titled debut, 2014’s 'Cycles Of Existential Rhyme,' and 2017’s 'Freedom Is Free' (their first release since signing to ATO Records). But as evidenced on songs like lead single “Color My Life” and on the album’s emotionally raw title track (whose lyrics examine race as a scientific fallacy), 'Invisible People' embodies elements of everything from krautrock to hip-hop—all while capturing the powerful energy the band’s shown in touring with artists like Alabama Shakes, Portugal The Man, and Jack White. The result is Chicano Batman’s most imaginative body of work yet, a collection of songs that could only come from their own idiosyncratic minds.
CHICANO BATMAN ON THE WEB:
https://www.instagram.com/chicanobatman/
https://www.facebook.com/chicanobatman/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX_d31bxww8NGANPDV_yuRw