A 9-piece outfit formed in 2003 by members of the Grammy Award-winning Grupo Fantasma, Brownout has evolved into a musical force all its own. After garnering multiple Austin Music Awards, the band has continued to produce music that is unflinchingly progressive, while evoking the classic influences of artists such asWAR, Cymande and Funkadelic. They’ve performed at events including Bonnaroo, High Sierra Music Festival, Pickathon, FFFFest, Bear Creek Music Festival, Utopia Festival and Pachanga Fest, while regularly touring the U.S. Brownout has also served as a highly in-demand backing band for artists including Prince, Daniel Johnston, GZA and Bernie Worrell.

Brownout has released six previous albums and an EP including Brownout presents Brown Sabbath Vol 1 & 2 (Ubiquity Records 2014 & 2016) Homenaje (Freestyle Records 2008), Aguilas & Cobras (Six Degrees 2009) and Oozy (Nat Geo 2012), and the Over the Covers EP (Fat Beats 2017). In October 2018, the group released Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath Vol. II. Album opener“Supernaut” is bolstered with muscled-up horn arrangements and a tasty bongo break, but the aggressive guitar riff lets you know what’s driving this train. On “Snowblind,” vocalist Alex Marrero channels Ozzy to chilling effect, matching the dread of Greg Gonzalez’s bass and a menacing lead guitar solo. And while horns kick off “Children Of The Grave,” the star of the show is the band’s rhythm section that makes a song about love and revolution move the needle from rock to metal. Album closer, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” with vocals by Ghostland Observatory’s Aaron Behrens is brooding number, but switches tempo when the percussion underlying the lead guitars leads to a Latin-infused breakdown.

Their latest release, Fear of a Brown Planet (Fat Beats, Summer 2018), is a reworking of the music of hip hop legends Public Enemy.