Memphians who frequented music clubs in the pre-Covid days no doubt recall the wandering troubadour, Brandon Taylor, who could often be seen fronting the band Radio Ghost, but also as a solo artist, acoustic guitar always at the ready, often needing to couch surf after gigs. Like his peripatetic way of life, forever bouncing between here and Oxford and beyond, his songs had an undeniable scrappy charm, and he seemed to embody the “anything goes” spirit that was once more common in the early days of folk (e.g., Bob Dylan hitchhiking to New York) or punk (e.g., We Jam Econo).
As it turns out, he embodied that ethos more than most of us ever knew, and since he left Memphis he’s wandered — literally — from Alaska to Brazil.
And it was in the latter destination that he settled, more or less, swapping one rock-and-roll city, Memphis, for another: São Paulo. “Rock is deep here, man!” he explains as we chat over WhatsApp. “It’s like a São Paulo thing, though, because, you know, I couldn’t get enough gigs to be a musician in, say, Rio, because there they’ve got bossa nova, samba, all kinds of stuff. They’ve already got their own music, but São Paulo is the kind of place where you can book blues gigs or rock-and-roll gigs. And there’s a really rich tradition of Brazilian rock here, like with Rita Lee and Os Mutantes.”
That’s one reason he had a drastic change of heart once he moved there, despite not speaking any Portuguese at the time. “When I was telling everybody I was leaving Memphis, you know, like sitting at the bar with Dave Cousar or whoever, I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna move to Brazil and write a book!’ Everyone was like, ‘That’s great.’ I didn’t write that book. You know, I was supposed to be here for six months, and on my second day here, I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna be here longer than that.’”
Indeed, he soon found himself in the thick of the thriving indie rock scene there, and that kept pulling him back, even as he continued to wander. “Eventually I moved to this house that was kind of like a jam house on a street called Georgia, which is kind of funny,” he says. One thing led to another, and this week he’ll be releasing an album recorded with the Bandits, his all-Brazilian band, titled Self Help Yourself.
Listening to it, you would never know Taylor left Memphis, so steeped are all the tracks in the roots rock tradition. Taylor and his outfit perfectly capture a certain strain of late 20th century power pop, tinged with a generous helping of Americana, a la the Dwight Twilley Band. While that sound has gone in and out of favor here, it’s also spread across the globe, becoming a kind of universal language.
Taylor’s songs were clearly built for that, and the players in São Paulo immediately recognized it. “You know, writing songs is almost like bait for the band that you want to play them with,” he observes. “You’ve gotta be good. You’re going fishing, in a way. But I’ve always been super lucky to play with people who are a lot better than me. So I’m just hoping I’m giving them songs that are worth their expertise. And the band on this record is super tight.”
To be sure, this album rocks. Band members Tata Cruz (vocals, bass), Duca Cardoso (guitar), Henrique Cezarino (guitar, mandolin), Leo Mayer (guitar), and Thiago Alef (drums) could hold their own in any Memphis lineup, with a keen ear for ragged rock tone. It didn’t hurt that the album was recorded in true garage fashion, in a back house with mobile equipment. “The second time I came back here, I brought a 32-channel mixer in a suitcase, and a Silvertone amp,” says Taylor. “It was all this equipment that I bought with my pandemic money; I was just trauma-buying music gear, like, ‘We’re all gonna die! I’m gonna record the best stuff I’ve ever done.’”
Hearing the final product, soon to be available under Taylor’s name on Bandcamp, it appears he’s done just that. Aiming to get it perfect, Taylor did some audio cleanup and a few overdubs at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, then had it mixed in Seattle by the veteran composer/engineer Chris Wilkey, who sprinkled in keyboards or percussion as needed.
And perhaps the novelty of being fronted by a genuine native Memphian has helped boost the profile of Brandon Taylor and the Bandits in São Paulo. “I’m pushing as hard as I can, man,” Taylor says. “We did a show on the Brazilian version of Tiny Desk. They actually started a Tiny Desk [series] here, and we did the OG Brazilian thing. And then we’re releasing the album on the street. There’s this main drag here that’s called Avenida Paulista, and every Sunday it shuts down to motorized traffic, and people can walk it. In certain parts of it, you’re allowed to have amplified music, with a generator and a full band — on the most popular street in the biggest city in South America! So this coming Sunday [January 18th], when we release the record, we’re going to do it on the street. It’s gonna be sick!”