Comprised of founding trio Tim Denardo, Anthony Lukens and Sam Sprague, San Diego, CA-based band The Donkeys have developed a regional and national reputation for a distinctly California rock sound that’s distinctly Southern Californian as the band’s material draws from the likes of The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Buffalo Springfield, The Grateful Dead and 60s psych rock and for a relentless touring schedule, full of incredibly tight, memorable shows; in fact, they’ve been known to play 28 shows over the course of 29 days. And after a rather lengthy run on the road, the founding trio of Denardo, Lukens and Sprague along with The Hold Steady‘s Steve Selvidge and producer and frequent collaborator Thom Monahan, who has worked with Vetiver, Fruit Bats and Devandra Banhart went into the studio to record the material that would wind up comprising their recently released mini-album Midnight Palms, an album the band largely tracked and recored live-in-studio.
In order to build up buzz for their upcoming cross country tour, which includes an early August stop at Baby’s All Right, the band released a live video performing their moody and stunningly gorgeous, shoegaze-leaning new single “No Need for Oxygen” which has the band pairing shimmering keyboard and guitar chords, propulsive drumming, a with plaintive and aching vocals in an expansive song structure that owes a debt to classic psych rock as it does to prog rock and held together with an impressive and gorgeous guitar solo.
Check out tour dates below.
7/29/16 – The Continental Club – Houston, TX
7/30/16 – The Firehouse – Birmingham, AL
7/31/16 – The Pilot Light – Knoxville, TN
8/4/16 – Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY
8/7/16 – Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
8/9/16 – The Hi Dive – Denver, CO
8/11/16 – Firecreek Coffee – Flagstaff, AZ
8/12/16 – The Hi Hat – Los Angeles, CA