Sophomore Album From Grammy-Winning Progressive Blues Artist On Vinyl LP!
Includes The Single "Plastic Hamburgers"!
2019 Grammy Award Winner:
- Best Contemporary Blues Album
The last album observed the world around us, this album is a call to arms. Fantastic Negrito is bringing the fight and confronting the challenges of our day full-on, with tracks like "Plastic Hamburgers" and "A Boy Named Andrew". The title 'Please Don't Be Dead' is a plea to all to keep alive everything that is and was good and important. For anyone who ever felt like it was over yet hoped it wasnt, this is your music. Fantastic Negrito's previous album, The Last Days Of Oakland, won the 2017 Grammy award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The Oakland musician is also the winner of NPR's 2015 Tiny Desk Concert contest.
"A cross between James Brown, Led Zeppelin and Chuck Berry with a Don King haircut, Negrito is a brilliant, natural showman who gave us what Burton described as one of those 'lemon sorbet' moments the kind that take audiences out of their comfort zone and define festivals." - The Guardian 2017
"Negritos music is rooted in the blues, though he's not exactly a blues artist. Groove is what he's really about on Please Don't Be Dead. Opener 'Plastic Hamburgers' is big and blowsy thanks to a bombastic guitar riff, and the sultry bassline on 'Bad Guy Necessity' practically exerts its own gravitational pull, with snaky guitar licks and little bursts of organ trailing in its wake while Negrito sings in an amped-up, growly way. His voice is gravelly and wrapped in murky effects over handclaps on the verses of 'Transgender Biscuits,' and Negrito shows a sweeter side of his voice on 'Dark Windows' as he croons over a bed of strings and electric piano... If there's a mission statement here, Negrito saves it until the end: 'Take that bullshit and turn it into good shit,' he sings in triumphant tones on 'Bullshit Anthem,' a song straight from the Funkadelic playbook with slap bass, tight, trebly guitar and handclaps. It's what Negrito has been doing his whole life, and if it's worked for him in the face of all the bullshit he's enduredand overcomethen it seems a mantra that's worth having." - Paste Magazine
"Please Dont Be Dead works because it sounds so natural. Every song sounds just how it should be, and while there are lots of modern production techniques and references ('Dark Windows' is what Radiohead might sound like if they had listened to more Al Green), there's also an underlying timelessness to the album. Negrito has created an album that is true to his voice, but will resonate with rock, blues, and soul fans." - American Blues Scene
"Overall, the strength of this album is what lies beneath the bushes. It's the Blues and Black roots music, which is really the earth, roots and soil of most modern American music. Fantastic Negrito is doing something quite unique by injecting that old and cultured music into his own form, and transforming it into the brand new, the inspired, and the breath of musical fresh air which is Please Don't Be Dead." - Blues Rock Review, 9.5/10
"the message and sound that we so badly need to hear" - KFOG Radio SF
Features:
• Vinyl LP
• For fans of: The Black Keys, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alabama Shakes, Michael Kiwanuka
• Made in the EU
• Explicit Content
• Limited time download card
Selections:
Side A:
1. Plastic Hamburgers
2. Bad Guy Necessity
3. A Letter To Fear
4. A Boy Named Andrew
5. Transgender Biscuits
Side B:
6. The Suit That Wouldn't Come Off
7. A Cold November Street
8. The Duffler
9. Dark Windows
10. Never Give Up
11. Bullshit Anthem