TIJUANA HERCULES "Chilanta" | Music Video | Mudslod and the Singles | SKiN GRAFT Records

Video by John Vernon Forbes
Tijuana Hercules - Chilanta (Official Video)
from the album "Mudslod and the Singles" LP/CD/Digital

John Vernon Forbes: Vocals, Guitar
James Becker: Bass, Harmonica
Tony Mendoza: Drums
Reid Coker: Organ, Guitar

Order at Bandcamp:
https://skingraftrecords.bandcamp.com/​

Years in the making and featuring the talents of more than 20 musicians, Tijuana Hercules's new long-player "Mudslod and the Singles" finds the band deep-diving into its patented "hillbilly trance" sound: an oxygen-depriving bouillabaisse of boundary-busting blues, spaghetti-strung grooves, and tangled psychedelic roots music.

Hailing from the southern regions of the U.S., John Vernon Forbes has a long and storied history of making music, cartoons, and comical mischief. His illustrations recall the golden-age of animation filtered through an absurdist lens - and this love of days gone by is rendered
with a futurist's ear in the blues-tinged music he's been creating for decades.

In Atlanta, Forbes played in Phantom 309 (with Mac McNeilly, future drummer of The Jesus Lizard) and Dirt, before settling in Chicago where he formed Mount Shasta, one of the founding SKiN GRAFT Records acts. Mount Shasta went on to release three albums and a collaborative LP with Japan's Space Streakings before disbanding.

Forbes then formed Tijuana Hercules, initially taking inspiration from obscure rock, blues, and gospel songs from the '50s and '60s. The band later gamma-radiated those threads into something altogether different in the labs of Forbes's own Frogg Mountain Recording Studio, located squarely within Chicago’s historic meat-packing district.

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PRESS QUOTES:
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"A brilliant trip... a headphones & visualizer set to 'on' kind of brilliant trip." - Rick Saunders, Deep Blues

"Tijuana Hercules just keep on getting better at what it's always been good at, finding a skanky swampy groove and beating it till it cries for its mama." - Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader

"A potent dish indeed, with no side orders of irony." - Fred Mills, Metro Times

“Watching Tijuana Hercules force the people of my hometown to have a good time despite their taste for the ordinary, was one of the best experiences of my year - and one of the best concerts I've ever seen.” - Terry Sawyer, Popmatters


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NOTES:
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Tijuana Hercules features singer / guitarist / songwriter John Vernon Forbes of SKiN GRAFT Records legends Mount Shasta and a stunning roster of players culled from the ranks of (to name a few) Iron and Wine, Cheer-Accident, Califone, The Hairy Patt Band, Lovely Little Girls, and the Obama White House horn band regulars - The Black Bear Combo!

First LP pressings on CHALK White and INK Black Vinyl, while the Glass-Mastered Compact Disc comes packaged in a fully illustrated Deluxe Six-Panel Hi-Gloss Gatefold sleeve. Both formats include “Map of The Stars” cartoons dutifully delineated in duotone by Tijuana Hercules’s John Vernon Forbes & laid out by Touch and Go Records’ design department alumnus David Babbitt.

TIJUANA HERCULES is
John Vernon Forbes: Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, etc
Joe Patt: Drums, Percussion
Doug Abram: Sax
Mike Young: Junk
Arman Mabry: Bass
Tony Mendoza: Organ, Percussion

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plus:
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Carmen Armillas: Vocals
Julia Barlow: Drums
Travers Gaunt: Electric Guitar
Matt Engstrom: Organ
John Barlow: Lap Steel Guitar
Reid Coker: Guitar, Organ
John Cocol: Drums and Percussion
Gina Herzik: Vocals
James Becker: Bass, Harmonica
Smilin' Joe Mason: Vocals
Jim Birch: Organ
Jesse DeCaire: Drums
Jim Belmore: Bass
Liz Mason: Vocals

Engineered by John Vernon Forbes, Jim Bellmore and James Becker
Mastered by Matt Engstrom

Artwork by John Vernon Forbes
Layout by David Babbitt