Electric Guest | |
|---|---|
 Asa Taccone of Electric Guest performing atMontreux Jazz Festival | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Los Angeles, United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2011 (2011)–present |
| Labels | |
| Members | Asa Taccone Matthew Compton Luke Top Reese Richardson |
| Past members | Tory Dahlhoff Todd Dahlhoff |
| Website | www |
Electric Guest is aLos Angeles–based band formed in 2011. The group comprisesAsa Taccone and Matthew "Cornbread" Compton.Luke Top plays bass and Reese Richardson plays keyboards/guitar in the touring version of the band. On April 24, 2012, the band released their debut album,Mondo. They released their second album,Plural, on February 17, 2017, and their third album,Kin, on October 18, 2019.
Asa Taccone met Matthew Compton after renting a room, previously inhabited byBrian "Danger Mouse" Burton, in a large house of mostly musician tenants.[1] Compton was a session drummer, and the two artists began to collaborate.[2] Burton heard demos of their work and, over the span of a year, urged Taccone to make an album.[2]
Taccone recalled an older woman once calling him "an electric guest of the universe", and used the quote as an inspiration for their band name.[1]
They performed their single "This Head I Hold" on an April 2012 taping of theLate Show with David Letterman and have made other television appearances onLate Night with Jimmy Fallon andConan in the United States. In the UK, they have done studio performances forLauren Laverne,Dermot O'Leary, andRob da Bank on BBC sessions. While they have performed live on television they have also had their music featured in popular US television shows such asTeen Wolf, HBO's award-winningGirls andSuits.
Electric Guest debuted their albumMondo in April 2012. The album is very much influenced by retro grooves from the 1970s and 1980s. As reviewed byRolling Stone magazine, the sound ofMondo is a “Beck-ian journey into L.A. slacker soul, full of hooky neon jams that ponder fame's fraught highway and the emptiness of modern life.”[3]
Burton co-produced Electric Guest's debut albumMondo after a year of exchanging advice and music with Asa Taccone, who happened to be afriend's younger brother.[4] Taccone then moved to Los Angeles by taking the room Burton was moving out of. Their relationship continued, and ultimately blossomed into their collaboration onMondo.[5] Besides the album and singles, there has also been a popular cover ofLittle Dragon's 'Ritual Union' which was done for the "Like a Version" sessions for Triple J in Australia.[6] Nu:Logic also did a remix of "This Head I Hold" on UFK Drum&Bass.[7]
Both men have been influenced by distinct genres. Compton has notedMelody of Certain Damaged Lemons andVu de l'extérieur as favorites,[citation needed] and said he grew up mostly listening to indie artists.[1] Taccone grew up on hip/hop and soul,[1] citingSouls Of Mischief's93 'til Infinity album,E-40, andMac Dre as influences.[8] The band is notable for its pop sound that featuresMotown sensibilities with Taccone's falsettos.[1]
Matthew Compton has also appeared on other artist's records, including playing drums on the track 'Wes Come Back' from Rodes Rollins' debut EP Young Adult (2017) and 'Mystery Man' (2018).
The band has released nine music videos: "This Head I Hold", "American Daydream", "The Bait", "Dear to Me", "Oh Devil", "Back for Me", "Dollar", "Play With Me" and "More".[9][10][11][12][13][14]
They were featured as one of twelve onMTV's list of Artists to Watch in 2012 as well asNME's Radar Band of the Week in February 2013.[15]The Guardian said the band "specialise in soulful, funked-up pop so insidiously catchy you suspect it was designed as a homage to – even apastiche of – the originators of the form."[16]
TheirMondo tour debuted in 2012, selling out shows. Along with Taccone and Compton, keyboardist Todd Dahloff and his brother, guitarist Tory Dahloff, join the duo on tour.[2] One tour review reads, "Real, raw, good emotion was a pumping from these fellows."[17] In 2012 and 2013 they toured through France several times, with the last tour ending with a sold out headliner atLe Trianon venue in Paris. The UK also has a large fan base with several tours that have gone through; the most recent tour ending with a headlining sold out show at theScala in London.
Electric Guest earned a month-long residency at the Echo inEcho Park, Los Angeles.[16] They have made domestic festival appearances atSXSW,[18]Bonnaroo Music Festival,[18]Sasquatch,[1] and theOutside Lands. Internationally, they have performed at theMontreux,Splendour in the Grass in Australia,[2] and theLeeds Festival in the UK, as well as the Festival Printemps de Bourges,Eurockeennes, and We Love Green (all in France). In 2013, they appeared onAustin City Limits and the First City Fest. They also played at Berlin's Fashion Week as well as Cannes Film Festival.
They were a headline act for SLO Brew's 30th Anniversary Music Festival on September 8, 2018, inSan Luis Obispo, California.[19]
In 2019, they performed on popular comedy podcastComedy Bang Bang for their holiday special, performing "Oh, Devil" and two songs from Kin.
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat [20] | US Ind. [21] | BEL (WA) [22] | FRA [23] | ||||||
| Mondo | 11 | 49 | 98 | 32 | |||||
| Plural |
| 18 | — | — | 152 | ||||
| Kin | — | — | — | — | |||||
| 10K |
| — | — | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes albums that did not chart, or were not released in that country. | |||||||||
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRA [23] | |||||||||
| Holiday EP |
| — | |||||||
| Good America |
| 133 | |||||||
| "—" denotes extended plays that did not chart, or were not released in that country. | |||||||||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Alt [25] | US Rock [26] | AUS Hit. [27] | BEL (FL) [28] | BEL (WA) [22] | FRA [23] | IRE [29] | SWI [30] | UK [31] | |||
| "American Daydream" | 2012 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Mondo |
| "This Head I Hold" | 30 | — | 20 | 84 | 56 | 37 | 93 | 96 | 196 | ||
| "Holiday" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Holiday EP | |
| "The Jerk" / "Back on Me" | 2013 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Good America |
| "Dear to Me" | 2016 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Plural |
| "Oh Devil" | 2017 | — | 45 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Dollar" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Kin |
| "—" denotes singles that did not chart, or were not released in that country. | |||||||||||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEL (FL) [28] | FRA [23] | ||||||||
| "Under the Gun" | 2012 | — | 183 | Mondo | |||||
| "The Bait" | 129 | — | |||||||
| "—" denotes songs that did not chart, or were not released in that country. | |||||||||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
