The Budos Band

Since the release of their critically acclaimed The Budos Band II (2007), Staten Island's sole afro-funk collective has been keeping busy. The Budos have toured Europe, the US West Coast, Midwest, New Orleans, Miami, Northeast, and Canada. A mix of club dates, festivals, and the occasional high-profile private event has placed the band in front of a wide range of listeners. One two-week span at the end of the summer of 2008 saw them play jazz clubs in France, pubs in Belgium, the large Lowlands Festival in Holland, and Mark Ronson's birthday party at a private estate outside of London. If the menacing album art, which features a cobra primed for the attack, is any indication of the music itself, we can expect an all out assault of the senses, with a tendency towards the venomous and psychedelic. "The end result," as Pitchforkmedia states, "is something so hip it could kill you in large doses-in the right doses it just plain kills."