Khruangbin, Crumb Bin, Croon bin, Cah Rung Bing, well it does not matter how you want to say the Houston psych band’s name because their music does the talking for them. They are hard to pin down musically; they could be boiled down to an eclectic jam band, but even then they do not sound like an act like Phish or the Grateful Dead. They mostly are an instrumental group with occasional vocals mostly coming from their collaborators and featured artists. Such as their dual collaborative EPs Texas Sun and Texas Moon with Leon Bridges.
The trio dropped a new collaborative track with the DJ and producer Quantic. The four of them came together to cover Booker T & the M.G.’s hit song “Green Onions” and released it as an Amazon Original. Which may best be known from its use in Happy Gilmore, The Sandlot, Twin Peaks the Return, and the Sopranos to name a few. Khruangbin’s cover strays away from the traditional blues/ R&B sound of the original. Opting for a more psych-funk approach, bassist Laura Lee’s simple bass line and drummer Donald Johnson Jr’s disco-inspired drum groove allow for guitarist Mark Speer to explore every corner of the 12-bar blues the track is based on.
At first listen their take on “Green Onions” was very reminiscent to the 1972 Miles Davis release, On the Corner but much less avant-garde. The ‘chka chka’ of the muted guitar brings to mind NEU!’s song “Hallogallo”.
Sadly at this moment Khruangbin will not be on tour near Philadelphia but they are a super active band and it is only a matter of time before they return to the greatest city on the east coast.