Paleta Sonora, the latest release from psychedelic cumbianauts Thee Commons, came out at the tail end of July. The vinyl release on the band’s newly formed label, Tropa Magica, just shipped out two weeks ago before the band left East LA on their largest cross-country tour yet. Take a minute NOW to click here and find out when they play your city. If it’s tonight, save this review for later and get yourself to the venue immediately. The gritty garagey magic of a Commons show is not to be missed.
You can hear the course of a band’s development over the course of their discography. Sometimes the records all sound like variations on the same theme, sometimes like growth, sometimes like totally different bands from record to record. Listening to Thee Commons abundant releases in chronological order is a bit like watching Michelangelo chip away at the block of granite that hid the statue of David at its heart. Thee Commons stated their penchant for “psychedelic cumbia punk” from the first, and over their eight EPs, a compilation, and two full-length records they’ve stripped away the excess to find the heart of their sound. Paleta Sonora is the latest and greatest vision hidden in the stone, and the band is already gearing up to return to the studio after their tour and keep sonically chipping away with their chisel. I can’t imagine what awaits us as topping Paleta Sonora is no easy task.
The album opens with “Acid Girl,” an addictive dance groove fairly typical of Thee Commons style. David’s slippery guitar licks greet your ear right out the gate. Rene’s sensuous drumming follows, and Jose’s bass lines run counter to David’s guitar and perfectly round out the sound. I’ve never described drumming as sensuous but that’s what it is – Rene isn’t punishing the kit, he’s not beating the drums, he’s playing them. Playing with them. This kind of play permeates the album and is an integral part of Thee Commons music. Even when the songs are heavier, or the content darker, it’s still FUN. And that, dear reader, is why you should double check those tour dates and make sure you see these guys live.
The surf influence that grew louder on Loteria Tribal has come to the foreground on Paleta Sonora and the result is sixteen tracks of liquid southern California summer. The sassy riff of “Chola Surf” drops you in the driver’s seat on the 1, freewheeling down the road with the Pacific glinting under a bright sun at your side. Songs like this one and “Mac de Cheese-O” make you grateful for the summer’s second wind in September, otherwise Paleta Sonora‘s end of July release date would leave you with a serious summer jones.
“Tropics” has been stuck in my head for days. It’s guitar-led cumbia on par with Peruvian grandmasters Los Destellos but with a distinct flavor only Thee Commons can conjure. Perhaps this is the “authentically new East LA sound” that the band aims to cultivate. “Cultivate” is their word, too. They’re preparing the soil for a fresh generation of musicians to explode out of East LA as salsa nights fill the calendars of nightclubs and cumbias can be heard in local bars from the border with Mexico to the border with Oregon. When I first saw Thee Commons two years ago in a sold-out Humboldt State cafeteria I knew they had big things on the horizon. In the time since then the trio were the subject of a documentary that recently premiered at USC, they’re constantly making waves in the southern California music press, they played Coachella earlier this year, released a stellar album and are currently in the middle of their largest tour yet. The soil is fertile, and each song on Paleta Sonora is a potent seed.
The first single “Selena’s Butt” feautures the classic elements of a Commons record – guitar work at once gritty and clean, drums calling you to the dance floor, bass lines that perfectly accentuate and complement the lead guitar, David’s growling and cheery vocals, and just the right amount of cowbell. The b-side “Work It Out” takes all this and runs with it. The backing vocals on the chorus foreshadow the inclusion of more backing vocals on Paleta Sonora and are a perfect addition, a key ingredient I couldn’t have guessed the effect of until I heard it. “Work It Out” is the second track on the full length and builds on its momentum in the wake of “Acid Girl.” Each song propels the listener to the next, and before you know it you find yourself flipping over the record yet again.
“Leonard Cohen in the Sky” shows off Thee Commons infectious songwriting. Listening to its beat, at once driving and full of vague longing, you know that if these guys wanted to trade in their exploration of el sonido más allá for a less-inspired but perhaps more widely consumable sound they would catapult to fame in a heartbeat. The beauty of it is that they are, anways. No deals with the devil here, folks, just incredible talent and indomitable drive.
Paleta Sonora lives up to its name and presents a diverse sonic palette – rollicking surf-tinged cumbias, psychedelic garage rock, more straightforward cumbia numbers like “Muevela”, and a track towards the end that takes me right back to San Diego’s Mr. Tube & the Flying Objects (“Milk and Honey”). The record is cohesive in the way that the days of summer all run together. It is thoroughly Thee Commons, from A1 to B8.
You can order Paleta Sonora on vinyl, CD, cassette, or digital files here. You can find Thee Commons’ tour dates here, and if you’re in Humboldt County you can catch them at Humbews on Saturday Nov 4.
Easton Connell 
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