Rodrigo y Gabriela Make Top Billboard Chart Debuts
By: Tori Hartshorn May. 07, 2019
Renowned guitar virtuosos Rodrigo y Gabriela have made a spectacular chart debut with their acclaimed new album, METTAVOLUTION, available nowvia ATO Records for streaming and download. The duo's fifth studio LP and first album in five years, METTAVOLUTION entered Billboard's "Americana/Folk Albums" chart at #1 with 1st week equivalents in excess of 11,000 -- Rodrigo y Gabriela's second best sales week ever. In addition, the new album arrived at #2 on Billboard's "Rock Albums," as well as #10 on "Top Album Sales" and #71 on the overall SoundScan/Billboard 200. The song "Mettavolution" is currently top 25 Triple A.
METTAVOLUTION has also earned critical acclaim to match its popular success. "For Rodrigo y Gabriela, the meditation is actually in the swirl of notes and rhythmic strums that circle around their music," wrote NPR's First Listen. "And if we follow their lead, there is a meditative quality for the listener as well. METTAVOLUTION closes with a 19-minute version of 'Echoes,' Pink Floyd's rock masterpiece famously performed live in an ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii, Italy. Like its masterful catalog, Rodrigo Y Gabriela gives the music new life with just two guitars." "METTAVOLUTION finds the duo locked back in," wrote Glide, "and where their last record was dedicated to their influences, this time it is all about the visceral primal passion of playing and what originally connected them to music. The title track opener kicks a rock beat behind the guitar strums as the producer David Sardy loads up the bass, shaker and voice synths to propel the sound forward." Pitchfork praised the album's original material, writing, "The crunching 'Terracentric' and the blurrily agile lines on 'Witness Tree' move like hand-cranked cars on a slotted track, wound up by (Rodrigo y Gabriela's) extremely athletic wrists and then turned loose. The dance break 'Cumbé' and its slower-breathing follower 'Electric Soul' simmer down a bit and lay out their chemistry more simply, to warmer and more pleasant effect, but the dominant energy in part one is fast, heavy, and relentlessly precise... METTAVOLUTION reassures that for as long as they're around, Rodrigo y Gabriela will be echoing their influences as only they can."
METTAVOLUTION's title track and first official single, "Mettavolution," is currently ascending the top 30 at Triple A radio outlets nationwide. Rodrigo y Gabriela recently visited ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! for a spectacular performance of "Mettavolution," with exclusive choreography by Annie-B Parson (David Byrne, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson). "The duo are joined by a group of six dancers holding matching guitars who move in motion to the past-paced, lyric-free instrumentals," wrote Rolling Stone. "As the musicians play faster and faster, the dancers leave their guitars behind and perform a choreographed dance behind the two. As the track comes to a climax, a several singer rise in the audience to intone alongside the quick-fire acoustic riffs."
WATCH "METTAVOLUTION" ON JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!
Rodrigo y Gabriela offered an additional performance of "Mettavolution" on BBC's hugely popular The One Show, reaching a cumulative audience of over five million viewers.
WATCH "METTAVOLUTION" ON BBC'S THE ONE SHOW
Rodrigo y Gabriela are currently traveling the world on an epic headline tour, with North American dates scheduled through late July. The trek further includes a series of top-billed festival appearances, among them Cleveland, OH's LaureLive (June 9), Montreal, QC's Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (July 3), Quebec City, QC's Festival D'Ete International De Quebec (July 4), and Ottawa, ON's Ottawa Bluesfest (July 5). For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.rodgab.com/tour-dates.
RODRIGO Y GABRIELA
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2019
MAY
15 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
17 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall
18 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
19 - Ridgefield, CT - The Ridgefield Playhouse
21 - Huntington, NY - The Paramount
23 - Detroit, MI - The Fillmore Detroit
24 - Chicago, IL - The Chicago Theatre
JUNE
1 - Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre
2 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
4 - Wilmington, NC - Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre
5 - Charlottesville, VA - Sprint Pavilion
7 - Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap Filene Center
8 - Cleveland, OH - LaureLive *
9 - Grand Rapids, MI - Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater
30 - Lenox, MA - Tanglewood Koussevitzky Music Shed
JULY
3 - Montreal, QC - Festival International de Jazz de Montreal *
4 - Quebec City, QC - Festival D'Ete International De Quebec *
5 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Bluesfest *
7 - Milwaukee, WI - Summerfest
9- Bayfield, WI - Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua
10 - Fargo, N*E*R*D - Fargo Theatre
12 - Missoula, MT - The Wilma Theatre
13 - Woodinville, WA - Chateau Ste Michelle Winery
14 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theater
16 - Troutdale, OR - Edgefield Amphitheater
18 - Jacksonville, OR - Britt Pavilion
20 - Oakville, CA - Robert Mondavi Winery
21 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain Winery
23 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theater
24 - San Diego, CA - Humphreys Concerts By the Bay
26 - Reno, NV - Harrah's Reno The Plaza
27 - Park City, UT - Deer Valley Resort - Snow Park Amphitheater
28 - Denver, CO - Denver Botanic Gardens
* FESTIVAL APPEARANCE
METTAVOLUTION marks the most ambitious music of Rodrigo y Gabriela's remarkable two-decade career. Three years in the making, the LP embraces the duo's passionate interest in Buddhism, the history of human evolution, and the liberation of the potential we have as a species, all expressed through the medium of two acoustic guitars. Conceived and composed in their studio in Ixtapa on the Mexican Pacific Coast, the music of METTAVOLUTION was road-tested around the world on tour in 2017 and 2018 before being recorded late last year in Los Angeles with multiple GRAMMY-winning producer Dave Sardy (Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, A Perfect Circle, Band of Horses) behind the board.
METTAVOLUTION gathers six white-hot new Rodrigo y Gabriela compositions - much of which acknowledge the duo's thrash-metal roots back in Mexico City - as well as an inspired, side-long cover of Pink Floyd's sprawling "Echoes" - originally found on 1971's MEDDLE - audaciously re-imagined for two acoustic guitars. Rolling Stone recently hailed the 19-minute epic as a "Song You Need to Know," noting, "['Echoes'] is such a signature song, it's hard to imagine anyone else doing it justice, yet somehow the Mexican acoustic-rock duo Rodrigo y Gabriela landed on a brilliant interpretation... Like the original, the song is its own journey, and it's beautiful." "[Rodrigo y Gabriela] make ['Echoes'] entirely their own," wrote NPR Music, "turning the original version's extended psych-jam and terrifying atmospherics into percussive knocks on their guitars and strings and other strange, tactile effects. It only gets better and more breathtaking the deeper you get into the track."
LISTEN TO "ECHOES"
METTAVOLUTION also features such tracks as "Electric Soul," recently added to Spotify's influential "New Music Friday" playlist.
LISTEN TO "ELECTRIC SOUL"
With career album sales now in excess of 1.5 million worldwide, Rodrigo y Gabriela have undoubtedly established themselves as the planet's preeminent acoustic guitar duo, earning international acclaim and a fervent fan following with their awe-inspiring mastery of their instruments as well as a truly distinctive approach to melody, energy, and rhythm.
One of the world's most in-demand live acts, Rodrigo y Gabriela have spent much of their remarkable 20-year career performing on increasingly larger stages around the globe. Highlights include sold out shows at such legendary venues as New York City's Radio City Music Hall, Los Angeles, CA's Hollywood Bowl, Morrison, CO's Red Rocks Amphitheatre, London's Royal Albert Hall, and Paris, FR's Le Zenith, along with countless other theatres and concert halls in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan.
Comments
Videos