Big State makes our Buttercup T-shirts. Paul, their captain, is a great guy. He does super quality work at fair prices. He operates out of a super cool skate and record shop located downtown San Antonio. Paul can even help you with design--like the way he's helped Buttercup with our crayon-on-a-napkin art.
Alejandro de Hoyos is an Emmy award winning filmmaker and humanitarian. He's also the steady cameraman for the San Antonio Spurs. He has made many great videos for Buttercup and Demitasse. Leave the House is super fun, as is Practice Room. Alejandro is Buttercup's "fifth Beatle."
Chris Sauter is a brilliant artist with a wide scope of interests and media that he works with -- primarily sculpture, installation, video, and drawings. Lately he's been exploring the parasitic relationship between technology and our brain chemistry. Everything he makes is beautiful. He made the art for our records The Weather Here and Battle of Flowers. He also made a heckuva video for "Anti-Antarctica."
The Liberty Bar is our favorite restaurant in San Antonio. It has always trudged it's own path--serving up great food according to it's own tastes. It's eclectic and full of books. Liberty Bar has fueled our songwriting for decades.
John Dufilho co-produced our most recent recording. He's also played drums on and off with Buttercup for years. He's a phenomenal song writer, incredibly prolific. And everything he touches gets better. He's played drums with the Apples in Stereo, and Stephen King recently paid his medical bills.
Debby Andersen tirelessly built this website, with Erik Sanden providing the little drawings for the icons. This website is meant to echo the flip board easel that Buttercup uses sometimes on stage. Debby is an Ayurvedic practicioner, a dancer and yoga teacher among other things. And she just might be available to build your website, too.
Jason Garner is the only musician in our circle with a Buttercup tattoo. He is a force of nature on drums, absolutely compelling to watch. He's played with The Deathray Davies, The Paper Chase, the Polyphonic Spree and Buttercup. His drumming on our upcomming record is groovy and musical. Here he is performing a Tiny Desk Concert with the Spree.
The San Antonio Philharmonic is an amazing group of San Antonio musicians. In recent years symphonies have struggled to survive in cities all across the country. The SA Philharmonic has struggled, too, but they've gotten leaner, meaner and more DIY. With new energy and a new home they are pushing the boundaries: check out this version of our song Nov. 1 played with the SA Philharmonic.
The Bang Bang Bar is our favorite bar in San Antonio. It's got vibes for miles: something I call baroque 1970's pizza hut, in the best way possible. Bang Bang has juicy sofas to cozy into. It's dark, it's freak-friendly with great drinks, great music, and excellent pizzas to keep you from getting sloshy. Watch Joe saw Erik in half in this video shot at the Bang Bang.
Claire Rousay played drums on our record Specks and for many live shows for both Buttercup and Demitasse. Claire's solo emo-ambient music is phenomenal. She creates truly powerful work with found sounds and soundscape recording. We've created a playlist of Claire's songs for the very end of the party, when things are in the wee hours. It's perfect.
Salim Nourallah produced two albums for Buttercup: The Weather Here and our upcomming unreleased double album Send More Yellow. Salim's music is so emotionial. It's nostalgiac, optimistic, heart-wrenching and very, very melodic. Today our favorite Salim song is "Protect Your Peace"
Charlie Roadman wrote a rock opera based on Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War (431-404BC). It's called Athens v. Sparta. It has so many layers. You can simply enjoy the kick ass songs, or you can dig into the wild history of a fragile democracy struggling against fascism. It's wild how something so old mirrors our own struggles today.
The Navaira Brothers, Emilio and Diego, helped us make our record Battle of Flowers. They are sons of the late Tejano legend Emilio. They are brilliant musicians that love Van Halen and Elliott Smith. They recorded a couple of records for Warner Brothers and backed up Sting. They now have a lovely band with their equally talented little sister Emily. Keep yer eyes upon them--they are going places.
Brent Barry is a basketball legend, winning the slam dunk contest and two NBA championships. He's also a talented musician with a knack for improvisation. He can dance. He's collaborated with Buttercup, acting in our live performances and music videos. He's also quite good at magic tricks.
Gary Sweeney is a visual artist specializing in installation using text front and center. His play on words is both funny and emotionally arresting. He's a former baggage handler that can stun any audience with his humility and his artistic brilliance. He once said goodbye to his childhood home in the most epic way, ever. He, just like Brent Barry, is quite good at magic.
Walkable City, a brilliant and entertaining book by Jeff Speck. City Planning and Urban devolpment are phrases that bore the pants of most folks, but wrongly so. But this book is totally engaging and irreverent. Walkable Cities is a blueprint for turning mid-sized American cities into pedestrian and bike friendly paradises. In a similar vein, David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries and Mahron's Confessions of a Recovering Engineer are powerful works that will change how you view your city.
Bill Baird is a brilliant musician, songwriter, journalist and music producer among other things. His songs are deeply affecting, always intelligent. There is some Lou Reed in Bill Baird, and that brings us closer. After living in Austin and in California for years, he has made his way back to our hometown of San Antonio. (Score: +1 SATX; -1 Austin). Check out this four star review of his album Earth into Aether in The Guardian.
Ramin Samandari is a photographer from Iran currently residing in San Antonio. He has produced a remarkable body of work that reveals his keen eye for beauty, nature and the human form. He has taken a boatload of fantastic photos of Buttercup, including the covers for our records Captains of Industry and Grand Marais.