Every now and then you run across a band you’ve never heard of and ask yourself, “how in the world are these guys not more famous.” That was my reaction seeing Deigo’s Umbrella at the Crescent Ballroom on February 21, 2016. I suspect that the answer is that there’s just no place on the radio for them. Their songs run a little longer than is radio friendly. Most of their music however, doesn’t really play to a specific radio niche. But damn these guys are good and deserve to have more exposure than they’re currently getting.
Touring in support of their new album Songs for the Juerga which was released in October 2015, the 5 piece band from San Francisco is currently opening for MarchFourth Marching Band over 10 shows in the southwest.
The musicianship displayed by the band is amazing. The band is composed of Tyson Maulhardt (electric guitar/vocals), Vaughn Lindstrom (acoustic guitar, vocals), Ben Leon (vocals, electric guitar, percussion), Red Cup (bass), Jason Kleinberg (violin, vocals, accordion) and Jake Wood (drums). They describe their sound as gypsy rock – “a blend of eastern European gypsy traditional stuff, Spanish flamenco, polka/ska rhythms, and good ol’ pop and rock from the west.” I heard maybe a little klezmer sound mixed in for good measure. Now where do you go on your radio dial to find THAT. And maybe that’s the problem – while they’re putting out terrific music there’s really no place on the homogenized radio dial to hear it in 2016, And that is truly unfortunate, But you can certainly find them on the streaming services and YouTube and I would absolutely recommend that you seek them out – especially the songs Thrash Mexican Budapest, Borjka, Der Badken Freylakh and Amsterdam Pt. 2.
Photos © Greg Cohen 2016
The playlist included:
- Black
- Duck
- Old Vienna
- Architect
- Love It
- A Cowboy’s Work is Never Done
- MTV Brasil
- Edjler
- Der Badken Freylakh
- Pants!
- Turkasol
- Thrash Mexican Budapest
