>>PREVIEW
THE BRENDA VAQUEROS
Friday, December 23
Broken City
It’s perhaps tempting to compare The Brenda Vaqueros to a fine aged wine, although they’d most likely drink it all before it had half a chance to take on much of a vintage.
After nearly five years of weekly Wednesday evening get-togethers – equal parts drinking buddy hangouts and obscurity-minded rock ’n’ roll cover sessions – The Brenda Vaqueros are making a focused leap from the boundaries of the garage into the lights of the local stage. Or alternately, as bassist Ian Tennant puts it, "The muffled basement sounds were too good to not inflict them on the unsuspecting public. We had to get out of the basement because the fart smell was unbearable."
While the band may indeed have first got together to trawl through founding members Adam Kamis and Brent Crosson’s impressive record collections and take their own shots at the underappreciated history of underground rock, their most recent moves have seen a shift towards adding their own footnotes to that which has come before. For Kamis, the urge to break out was driven by his little-known heroes and forgotten rebels.
"We’ve come across a whole lot of material from (the past) 60 of 70 years of rock music that’s pretty fun to emulate. The last thing the world needs is another Beatles-esque band," he says. "We’re certainly trying to take a route far less travelled, and not at all interested in the Top 40. Outside of that you’ve got decades worth of excellent music from which to pull from."
The biggest change for the Vaqueros came earlier this year in the shape of the prodigal Kenna Burima, who took on the task of keyboards and co-vocals. Classically trained, with abilities ranging from baroque compositions to Jerry Lee Lewis-style key-slams, Burima’s impact has had the effect of a secret weapon or amateur soccer league ringer.
"She adds so much dimension. If anything she’s a jazz musician and her pretty formidable chops have really put the band on a track towards major improvement and getting tighter and tighter," says Kamis.
But despite the fact that Crosson and Kamis are "writing new material at a feverish pace," one of the Vaqueros’ finest abilities comes in their near total transformation of an enviable list of sharp covers into territory entirely their own. Besides their respectful research into the darkest corners of the used record bins, the Vaqueros understand the importance of breathing new life into the songs they choose to cover.
"It’s important imitation as flattery doesn't become imitation as travesty. Obscure covers also mean the listener doesn't have to hear ‘that damn song again’ and if they have never heard it, they don't spend the time comparing it to the original," says drummer Daren Powell.
The Vaqueros’ total conversion from basement act to living and breathing rock band should also come to a climax early in the new year upon the group’s first foray into the recording studio.
"We’ll go into the studio one way or another at the end of January to cook up an album because we have close to 30 serviceable songs, and we’d like to at least get a historical document for our own edification," Kamis says.
When asked for the moment when Kamis knew it was time to move from the basement to the clubs, the memory is a fond one.
It was the opening of Broken City," he recalls. "The whole band was involved in moving tables and chairs into the bar because they were literally putting the finishing touches on it. Later that night it was like, ‘Y’know, we’ve certainly flubbed up a lot of parts there, but it was a lot of fun. I think we’re at the point where we can go toe-to-toe with the best of them.’" |
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