If the music scene were a meritocracy, Texas band T Bird & The Breaks would have received their dues long ago. Veterans of three excellent LPs (Harmonizm, Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive and Learn About It), countless singles, possessed of an classic origin story, a dope band name and a singer with a bourbon-soaked rasp and neat line in timeless lyrics, the band should’ve been signed, lauded and feted even prior to the arrival of 2009’s Learn About It which arrived with the confidence and quality of a outfit well into its career. Inexplicably (not just to the monkey but an army of fans too), 2011’s Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive and subsequently 2015’s Harmonizm arrived with still no label followed, guttingly, in 2016 by the news that ‘The Breaks were no more. Tim ‘T Bird’ Crane and drummer Sam Patlove at least were still involved in music behind the scenes with fellow Austin band Greyhounds but as a going concern, The Breaks seemed, well, broken.
But then, eight years after their apparent demise – suddenly a new single It’s Hot arrived out of nowhere. Hope of a new album rose like a phoenix but then, nothing. Then a year later, another single GTFUOMB and it seemed like perhaps another LP might be in the offing. But then, nothing again. Until suddenly, just last week, unlooked for and unexpected, arrived news of a fourth self-titled LP T Bird & The Breaks!
And it’s like they’ve never been away – the old crew – back together again for at least one more adventure and you’d like to hope, many more. At nine tracks, the set is the same length as their ’09 LP debut, including both the singles. Their ‘chunk’ sound (think the grit of classic funk and soul but a production aesthetic that’s less Daptone 60s revivalist style than alt-hip-hop) is still in full effect. Opener Walkin’ In These Boots is an uptempo R&B groover – all blues chords and horns and lyrical statement of intent. Then the chugging call-and-response funk of single (not to mention anthem for victims of global warming) It’s Hot arrives and reminds why you loved Crane’s voice and lyrics in the first place (“The beer won’t stay cold, the pork won’t stay pulled, you can’t smoke a j, cause the j won’t stay rolled”). Second single GTFUOMB (Get The Fuck Up Out My Bed) follows and repeats the trick over smouldering organs and a lilting melody – “Nobody likes a cheater…/turncoat, snitch…/ or the type of friend who keeps on driving by when they see you broke down in a ditch.” Subsequently, Ant Joanne and Just Like Rocky bring back the good-time funk and simultaneously demonstrate fine alt-pop sensibilities. This is a band that should be all over U.S. college radio with an oeuvre and style that intersects with a wide variety of other acts and not just from the funk and soul scene such as latterday NOLA funk band Galactic either. You can hear how the T Bird sound might appeal also to fans of outfits from G Love and Jon Spencer to stuff on the reggae/alt-punk scene such as The Aggrolites and Slightly Stoopid. The first of the final trio of tracks is Let It Ride an organ-led, blues chord-driven chugger that nods to 60s R&B while the second is Devil’s Advocate which brings the funk once more – reminiscent musically and lyrically of 60s garage psych-funk like Valverda’s Gates Of Hell. This one also features none other than Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada on guitar were you to need further proof of the high regard with which those in the know hold The Breaks. Finally it’s time for 60s-ish garage soul groover Cookie Crumbles‘ and then the brief, lilting, one minute twenty gospel-style outro of Bumper Sticker featuring just The Breaks’ female backing singers with Sasha Ortiz displaying her lead vocal chops. They might have been away for the best part of ten years but for now, at least, T Bird & The Breaks are back, leaner and meaner than a starving ‘gator.
(Out now on digital HERE/ Vinyl to follow)