Married to each other & the road – family bands Gringo Star & Shantih Shantih

Gringo Star. Photo by Allan Ansell.
Asheville at The Mothlight on Wednesday, May 24.
Address: 701 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC 28806
Phone: (828) 252-5433
These two hard-working bands share a similar garage- and psych-rock sound, and are comprised of two sets of husbands and wives, and their friends. Nick & Peter Furgiuele front Gringo Star, and their wives, Julia Furgiuele & Anna Barattin, play in Shantih Shantih.
Gringo Star has previously been featured at Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Consequence of Sound. Their first two records were helmed by Grammy-winning producer Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Deerhunter, Animal Collective) and in their decade-plus career, they’ve shared bills with Weezer, Mac Demarco & The Black Keys, to name a few. Shantih Shantih have also received national press at Paste Magazine, Impose, PureVolume & more, and have opened shows for the Black Lips, Shannon & the Clams and Dan Deacon.
Gringo Star is touring behind its new album The Sides and In Between, and Shantih Shantih behind their latest Winter in September. You can also check out the official videos for Gringo Star’s “Get Closer” and Shantih Shantih’s “Winter in September” below.
GRINGO STAR – “GET CLOSER”
 
SHANTIH SHANTIH – “WINTER IN SEPTEMBER”
​Shantih Shantih. Photo by Ileana Bragg.
Praise for Gringo Star:
 

“Their aesthetic is pure garage, the kind of thing that can’t be faked but is born after years of touring in sweaty basements and rock clubs. It’s the melodies, however, that really set these guys apart from your standard-issue rock revivalists.” – Consequence of Sound

“What keeps their sound novel is the way they infuse it with a wide range of other genres’ flourishes that are atypical for fuzzed-out indie pop.” – PopMatters

“The band owes much to vintage soul and garage rock, but with a definite ear for pop songwriting.” – Brooklyn Vegan

Praise for Shantih Shantih:

“With its reverb-washed guitars and hypnotic vocal melodies, Shantih Shantih alternates between two moods—a relaxing, sunshine-drenched day at the beach and an ominous, revelatory mescaline trip in the desert” – Paste

“The group stays true to their pedigree, tying rock ‘n’ roll together with early rockabilly.” – PunkNews

“For those that adore the coastal surf-punk craze, Shantih Shantih delivers beach-bashing sound from way down south.” – Impose

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GRINGO STAR BIO
 
Gringo Star are a rock-n-roll band from Atlanta Georgia.  Their 4th album The Sides and in Between was released last year on Los Angeles label Nevado Music (Deap Valley, Royal Canoe, etc).
Gringo Star are insouciant explorers, tossing the paddles overboard and drifting on the currents of their lackadaisical curiosity across a rippling sonic ocean, out to the far edges of rock & roll. Shots pulsing from a vintage Leslie speaker, their guitars, keys and vocals create the psychoactive ingredients of their echo-slathered, doo-wop-indebted indie gems; psychedelic garage bangers, gritty R&B shuffles and spaghetti western weirdness. Taking cues from Santo & Johnny, The Stooges, Ritchie Valens, Marc Bolan, Percy Faith, Sam Cooke, the men working on the chain gang—uh! ah!—they’re all here, their electric ghosts reaching across time, tapping Gringo Star on the shoulder like the crossroads devil to Robert Johnson, bestowing secrets, passing torches.
The band has toured relentlessly across the U.S. and Europe building a diehard underground following while sharing bills with everyone from Cat Power and Feist to The Black Angels and Weezer, and also touring with the Orwells, Wavves, Best Coast, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and fellow Atlantans The Black Lips.
SHANTIH SHANTIH BIO
 

Shantih Shantih is a four-piece band founded in Atlanta, GA in 2013. Shantih’s rock n’ roll blends southern gothic images with Italian landscapes, creating vivid, yet melancholic narratives. The group consists of Italian native Anna Barattin (ex Vermillion Sands) on vocals and rhythm guitar, Julia Furgiuele on drums, Anna Kramer on lead guitar, and Nikki Speake on bass, with the exception of songs led by Julia, in which instruments are switched. The band shared the stage with the Black Lips, Dan Deacon, La Luz, Shannon and the Clams, Crocodiles, Peach Kelly Pop, and Night Beats.

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