The last time we heard from The Budos Band, they had reached a critical high watermark with Budos V in 2019. Debuting at #1 on Billboard Heatseekers chart, their fifth full-length was applauded by both new and life-long Budos fans and continued to make a dent in their eclectic Daptone scene. Maintaining the momentum from a particularly prolific period, the boys holed up in Tom’s Diamond Mine Studios in Queens for five days to record what would become Long in the Tooth.
“You’re hearing a band live in 2020, which is a feat in and of itself,” observes band leader/guitarist Thom Brenneck. “Bands don’t record music like that anymore. It’s like the rest of the world has been making records as if they’ve been living in quarantine for 15 years,” he laughs. “In some ways, it’s reminiscent of our first two albums Budos I and Budos II. We branched off on Burnt Offering and Budos V. Now, we’re still moving forward. You can play these songs on the dance floor. We knew the horns had to stand out too.”
“The phrase felt right,” says drummer Brian Profilio of the title. “We’ve been a band for almost 20 years. We’re not getting any younger. We’re going to keep doing this though, so Long in the Tooth spoke to where we’re at.”
By recording horns in a cavernous tiled hallway of the empty industrial building in Long Island City that is home to Tom’s studio, the band brought what feels like an otherworldly echo to “Haunted Sea.” Dreamy organ slips into an impetuous beat on “Sixth Hammer,” as a choir of horns summons ominous film noir-style danger. The trip culminates on the wild “Renegade” punctuated by a whirling and warbling backwards guitar solo.
“It’s more of a taste of what our shows have been like in the past few years—just energy off the rails,” Brenneck goes on. “We slowed the tape down until it stopped and did this trick where we lifted it and started playing it backwards. Half the song is forward, and the other half is backward. It sounds like a fucking god awful bad psychedelic trip.”
As long time fans of the Budo Band, Glide is thrilled to cover the riveting colorful instrumental soul & funk of “Gun Metal Grey” off “Long in the Tooth.” With shades of Afrobeat, multi-racial beats and a get down immediacy, The Budo Band remain the true torchbearers of ripe ’60s soul, world, jazz and funk.
“Immediately a classic in the Budos catalog. Bouncy bass and guitar in lock step, a killer beat and blazing superhero horns -definitely one of my favorites on the album,” adds saxophonist Jared Tankel about the track.
Photo by Shervin Lainez
