Song:The Rat Catcher
Album:Antibalas
Those who are fans of Afrobeat probably already know about Antibalas. But if you have never heard Fela Kuti, Antibalas is sort of an Afrobeat tribute band. At first they were called Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and now are just Antibalas which means bulletproof in Spanish. They are from New York City and were formed in 1998 by guys who were in similar bands like The Daktaris, King Chango and The Soul Providers. The leader of Antibalas is sax player Martin Perna. They started out performing at parties and recorded their first CD in 2000. An early member of Antibalas was bassist Gabriel Roth. He owns Daptone Records and is in Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Other original members that are still in Antibalas today are guitarist Luke O'Malley, keyboard player Victor Axelrod and singer and percussionist Duke Amayo. They recorded a couple of albums and then they were the band in the Broadway musical Fela! which was a tribute to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Then in 2011 they signed with Daptone Records and Roth produced the 2012 CD Antibalas. If you have never heard of Afrobeat, Antibalas is a good starting point. They will never be mainstream but I think they have already done better than anyone would expect. Antibalas will be touring with Zap Mama in 2015. Here's Antibalas performing The Rat Catcher on Jimmy Kimmel Live Jan. 31, 2013. This video is not on Youtube.
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