I have never watched the Grammys and don’t plan to start tonight. But I just learned that the Texas trio Khruangbin is nominated for best new artist.
This is bizarre in any world outside the Grammys and its baroque rules. Khruangbin (pronounced KRUNG-bin) released their first album 10 years ago; their fourth album came out last April. Their work includes two EPs with Leon Bridges and a collaboration four years ago with Paul McCartney. I first became a fan after watching their 2018 Tiny Desk Concert.
(I’m not familiar with Sabrina Carpenter’s music, but she, too, is up for best new artist despite having released six albums since 2015.)
Given that it feels both vintage and timeless, writers struggle to describe Khruangbin’s mostly instrumental music. Ryan Bradley, in a New York Times Magazine profile last year, called their sound “extremely slippery, genrewise. (Is it psychedelic lounge dub? Desert surf rock? The sound you hear inside a lava lamp?)” A succinct summary might be “laid-back, dreamy funk with global influences.”
Khruangbin consists of Mark Speer on guitar, Laura Lee Ochoa on bass and DJ Johnson on drums. Or, as one commenter perfectly put it on the video I share below, “Khruangbin: a man on guitar. A woman on bass. And Father Time.”
Johnson is a human metronome, anchoring the music as it sways hypnotically on Ochoa’s melodic basslines. Speer’s fluid guitar playing is soulful and mesmerizing.
Johnson also plays keyboards. Speer and Ochoa wear matching wigs.
They are a successful band, with a solid, longtime fan base. Their success has scattered them across the country. Johnson remains in Houston, where the band formed in 2010, but Ochoa now lives in Brooklyn and Speer is in Northern California, according to Bradley’s profile. They get together to record and tour but otherwise lead separate lives. They reportedly still like each other and have no problems putting their egos aside for the sake of the band.
Maybe distance will secure their longevity. It would be a shame if these “new artists” found themselves at the end of their run just as they’re getting started.