Blac Rabbit

Around 2013, identical twin brothers Amiri and Rahiem Taylor met Patrick "Sticks" Jones at an open mic at a Sam Ash Music store in Brooklyn, New York City.[2] All recent high-school graduates, the trio formed Blac Rabbit—they say the name Black Rabbit was already taken.[3] The Taylors are known for covering the Beatles on the New York City Subway, and they left supermarket jobs and put off college to pursue music full-time.[2][4] Bassist and occasional guitarist Josh Lugo joined later.[2][5] The band is based in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City.[6] It is represented by Jules Urbanski of the APA as of October 2018.[7][8]

Blac Rabbit digitally released the song "All Good" as a single in June 2016.[6] The song was later included on their six-track debut extended play (EP), self-titled Blac Rabbit, which How Far Music released digitally on December 22, 2017.[9][10] A CD later became available on Bandcamp.[11] The EP was recorded in the Taylors' and their manager's houses[12] and mixed by Rahiem.[5] As critic Olivia D'Orazio writes, "Hazy guitar riffs and rumbling bass are steadfast throughout the EP, and the echoey vocals whisk you from one song to another."[13]

A recording of the Taylors playing the Beatles' "Eight Days a Week" received 3 million views on Twitter and 14 million on Facebook in February 2018.[2][10] The viral online recognition increased the number of the band's Twitter followers from around 500 to 16,700 in two days.[2] The band had to update its website due to traffic spurred by the 48-second video.[10]

With more exposure, the band could perform outside the subway with bookings in music venues,[2][4] eventually playing festivals in Berlin and Guatemala as well as New York City's Bowery Ballroom and the Knitting Factory.[14] They also covered the Beatles' "Michelle" for a Gucci advertisement featuring Harry Styles.[15] From June 15 to July 3, 2018, the band went on a 16-date tour of the East Coast.[5][16] On early tour dates far from New York City, Rahiem later recalled, some audiences who had only seen the Taylors' Ellen appearance thought they were a cover band and asked for Beatles tunes, which they did sometimes use to end sets.[17] Amiri said their toughest crowd was in Montreal, where the audience had put on a "game face".[18]

On September 13, Blac Rabbit was the musical act at an event to promote the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus in New York City recreating the 1969 Bed-In For Peace. The band performed "Give Peace a Chance" alongside speakers including Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, actor Jeff Bridges, and New York mayor Bill de Blasio; "it was so surreal in person," Amiri said.[14][19][20][21] The Seize the Day Tour, Blac Rabbit's second concert tour of 2018, ran October 23 to November 10.[22] It was followed by a tour of Europe and the United Kingdom, ending on December 3 at the Beatles Story and The Cavern Club in Liverpool.[23] Summarizing their ascent from busking in the subway and "playing for audience of barely anyone" to booking larger venues and festivals, Amiri said: "I was scared ... All of that happened in one rush and it was just overnight."[14]

The Taylors have announced a new Blac Rabbit record, titled Interstella.[24] Its first single, "Seize the Day", was released on November 21, 2018,[25] followed by "Windy Cities" on May 10, 2019.[26] Justin Jagbir, a keyboardist, joined the band before the release of Intersella,[27] and played during the Interstella Tour of North America, from April 2 to May 18.[28]

On the day of the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020, Blac Rabbit played Beatles covers at Charles Finch and Chanel's pre-Oscar party at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills.[29]

The Taylors describe their original music as psychedelic rock, influenced by the Beatles, Radiohead, 1980s music, and contemporaries MGMT, Tame Impala, and Toro y Moi.[4][6][30] Rahiem has said: "We just want to make wholesome, melodic, digestible but also very intelligent, deep, thought-provoking music," and he has noted the difficulty in balancing their love of the Beatles with forming Blac Rabbit's own identity.[31] The band performs both Beatles covers and original songs with a "vintage" sound.[32][33]

Afropunk contributor Erin White wrote, "Their music has all of the positivity and optimism of an LSD trip with none of the existential dread."[6] According to José Heinz of La Voz del Interior, the band is "as indebted to the sounds of the '60s as to this era's New York scene".[3] The band's EP fuses surf and psychedelic music, with some tracks tinged by funk. The Taylors' vocals, doused with reverb, have drawn comparison to those of Tame Impala.[13][32]

Works cited

• "Blac Rabbit". Audiotree. June 21, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018.

• Hardee, Howard (October 23, 2018). "Meet Blac Rabbit, a Brooklyn Psych Band Co-Fronted by "Mirror Twins"". New Times Broward-Palm Beach.

• Official website