Khruangbin, Narda and… Napalm Death?

Narda‘s Salaguinto’t Salagubang EP will be available on Spotify soon. Their first three EPs are already available there. And if you have nary an idea about this band, maybe you should check their songs. You could start with these: “Meron Ba?” (reportedly recently covered by Sponge Cola on their latest album), “Kusina”, “Tanga”, or “Saan Na?”

And hey, they only have, like, twelve songs on Spotify right now. So, what are you waiting for? It’s not like you’re diving into a smorgasbord of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s humongous discography where you’d surely have trouble deciding where to start. And don’t waste your monthly subscription on Spotify playlists which are actually rigged to play more Ed Sheeran. Go seek and find wonderful music both old and new!

Anyway, if you already are one of Narda’s fans, then I have good news for you. I’ve just discovered Narda’s new official page on Facebook and they also have one on Instagram. And they — I mean the page admin — post old gigs and merch photos and stuff. But here’s the real good news: They’re currently working on new songs. Wincy Ong posted a snippet of a song on his FB story but I wasn’t able to listen to it (I was busy and I forgot that stories only lasts 24 hours).

And from what I heard through the grapevine (not much longer would you be mine), members from the band’s old and new line-up are onto it. You know why this is super-awesome news? Because it’s like that grindcore classic album Scum, where two different line-ups of a band converge to make one great fucking metal album. The old line-up on Side A, new line-up on Side B. It’s really stupid, you know, making this Napalm Death connection, but I’m just really excited. And I hope to hear more about this, soon.

PS. If you’re looking for CDs of Formika and Discotillion, please contact the band’s guitarist Tani Santos on FB.

Now, our next band may not be as heavy as Napalm Death, but these guys are cool—like Tarantino movie soundtrack cool. They’re called Khruangbin and I would say they’re cooler than any Tarantino movie or soundtrack ’cause I’m not really a big Tarantino fan. I discovered them on YouTube. See, YouTube’s algorithm isn’t really a very reliable friend. It’s hit and miss. But sometimes, sometimes, you get something that’s really good. By the way, I read that their name is pronounced as “Kroongbin” and means Engine Fly in Thai.

And I’m not going to squeeze my brain out here trying to come up with something about the band, I’m straight up copying their bio from their Bandcamp page. Here it is: Khruangbin is a three-piece band from Texas, formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Johnson on drums. Taking influence from 1960’s Thai funk, Khruangbin is steeped in the bass heavy, psychedelic sound of their inspiration, Tarantino soundtracks and surf-rock cool.

Khruangbin’s Mordechai came up on my suggested videos on YouTube. I listened to a few bars and thought the album art is really cool. So I tried to dig further. And fell in love with the bassist a few seconds into this Tiny Desk Concert video. Of course, I love the two guys too. First song is called “Maria Tambien” and if you’re not really into music with no lyrics, listen to the third song, it’s called “White Gloves”.

Using my grandmother’s trowel, I tried to dig deeper and I found that Mordechai is band’s third album already. Their first album is called The Universe Smiles upon You and their second, Con Todo El Mundo. And if you want to know how cool these guys are and how perfect their music is for getting stoned, you better check that link above and their music videos — I got two of them below.