Chicano Batman Release New Single 'Live Today'

Acclaimed psych-soul band and Los Angeles institution Chicano Batman release their latest single “Live Today” along with a live performance of the track directed by acclaimed filmmaker Eric Coleman (Eminem, Mary J. Blige). The song is the third offering from their forthcoming album Notebook Fantasy, out this Friday, March 29th via ATO Records. Pre-save/pre-order HERE.

Born from a chord progression composed by Carlos Arévalo while practicing guitar and bolstered by lyrics and vocals from Bardo, the album-opening “Live Today” emerges as an empowered meditation on cutting through the chaos and finding your own version of peace, building a gloriously bombastic mood with its slinky grooves and otherworldly synth.  

About the track, Arévalo shares “When I brought this idea to the band, I was inspired to record a big and punchy song arrangement with minimal elements. How fat sounding could we get a completed track with a live band recording and playing their instruments in a room together at the same time, with minimal overdubs? Ol' school, right? Although sonically different, I liken this song's performance to an electric jazz quartet, where if you don't record its off the cuff energy then its lost to the universe forever, thankfully John Congleton captured it all!”

Chicano Batman first announced Notebook Fantasy in January alongside the release of the album's debut single “Fly,” a lovestruck reverie lit up with gauzy textures and heavenly group vocals. The band performed the track last week on Jimmy Kimmel Live! - watch the full performance HERE. They followed up with the release of “Era Primavera” last month, a symphonic love song inspired by vocalist/lyricist Bardo's fascination with 1960s Latin ballads.

Additionally, Chicano Batman will also be featured on A24's forthcoming Everyone's Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense album. 

The band will be embarking on an expansive coast-to-coast North American Tour beginning next month, culminating in a massive homecoming with a headlining performance at The Kia Forum. The group will be joined by acclaimed Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter Lido Pimienta and El Monte's The Red Pears along the tour. Prior to the tour kickoff, the group will celebrate the album release with in-store signings at Fingerprints in Long Beach, CA on March 28 and Super in Los Angeles, CA on March 29.

Be on the lookout for more news and surprises from Chicano Batman.

Chicano Batman Tour Dates

4/19 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl*

4/20 - Phoenix, AZ - Van Buren*

4/21 - Albuquerque, NM - The El Rey Theater*

4/22 - El Paso, TX - Lowbrow Palace*

4/24 - Oklahoma City, OK - Tower Theatre*

4/25 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall*

4/26 - Austin, TX - Austin Psych Fest @ The Far Out Lounge

4/27 - Dallas, TX - The Factory*

4/28 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues*

5/1 - Bentonville, AR - The Momentary*

5/2  - St. Louis, MO - Delmar Hall*

5/3  - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl*

5/4 - Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees Festival 

5/7 - Richmond, VA - The National*

5/8 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club*

5/9  - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel*

5/10 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club*

5/11 - North Adams, MA - Hunter Center Mass Moca*

5/12 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer*

5/15 - Columbus, OH - The Bluestone*

5/16 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue*

5/17 - Chicago, IL - Salt Shed*

5/18 - Minneapolis, MN - Uptown Theater*

6/20 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre*

6/21 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater*

6/22 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory*

6/24 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot*

6/25 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre*

6/26 - Taos, NM - Taos Mesa Brewing Mothership*

6/28 - San Diego, CA - Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre*

6/29 - Los Angeles, CA - The Kia Forum*^

6/30 - San Francisco, CA - TBA

8/29 - Amsterdam, NL - Tolhuistuin

8/31 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Psych Fest

9/3 - London, UK - Lafayette

9/4 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie

9/26 - Guadalajara, MX - C3 Stage

9/27 - Queretaro, MX - Foro Indie Rocks!

9/28 - Mexico City, MX - Auditorio BB

Openers:

* Lido Pimienta 

^ The Red Pears

 About Chicano Batman:

The latest album from SoCal institution Chicano Batman, Notebook Fantasy is a body of work that sheds all inhibitions and fully reveals the sublime expanse of the Los Angeles-bred band's musical imagination. In the making of their fifth full-length, vocalist/lyricist Bardo, guitarist Carlos Arévalo, and bassist Eduardo Arenas doubled down on their hyper-creative tendencies, discovering new dimensions of their prismatic musicality while infusing their lyrics with a soulful yet unflinching honesty.

Notebook Fantasy taps into the unbridled creativity Chicano Batman previously brought to their 2009 self-titled debut, 2014's Cycles Of Existential Rhyme, and 2017's Freedom Is Free, and 2020's Invisible People. However, the project, produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Erykah Badu) and partly recorded at the historic Sunset Sound, veers away from the subtler sensibilities of their previous works and embraces a much bolder sonic approach—a move that involved executing their vision with a newly heightened mastery of their musicianship.

With its dizzying constellation of song forms and sounds—including arena-ready anthems, symphonic love songs, psychedelic space odysseys, and freewheeling hybrids of cumbia and funk —Notebook Fantasy endlessly channels moments of lightning-in-a-bottle inspiration into songs that push into fantastically strange terrain yet remain rooted in raw emotion.

The album is the latest triumph in an extraordinary career that began with taking the stage at local dive bars, growing their powerful live performances by touring with artists like Alabama Shakes, Portugal The Man, and Jack White, playing Coachella numerous times, and most recently earning a headlining spot at L.A.'s iconic Forum in summer 2024. The result is Chicano Batman's most truly collaborative work to date—one that wholly reflects all the joy, pain, and much-needed catharsis that fueled all aspects of its creation.

Photo credit: Josue Rivas

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