Marco Benevento

Over the course of seven studio albums and countless shows around the world, keyboardist Marco Benevento has amassed a devoted fanbase, while drawing praise from tastemakers far and wide. Los Angeles Times has written, “it’s safe to say that no one sees the keyboard quite like Marco Benevento’s genre-blind mashup of indie rock, jazz and skewed improvisation,” while NPR Music raves that Benevento combines “the thrust of rock, the questing of jazz and the experimental ecstasy of jam,” and Rolling Stone praises “the textures and colors available in his keyboards and arsenal of manipulated pedals and effects along with his deceptively rich, catchy melodies and straight-ahead grooves.”

Indeed, Marco Benevento’s music covers a wide swath of ground, seemingly connecting the dots in the vast space between LCD Soundsystem and Leon Russell, His songwriting is smart and earthy, yet simultaneously pulsating with dance rock energy. Benevento’s high energy live shows—fronting a three-piece band currently comprised by bassist Karina Rykman and drummer Chris Corsico—have led to numerous high profile appearances, ranging from Carnegie Hall to Pickathon. In the studio, he’s collaborated with the likes of Richard Swift (The Shins, Nathaniel Rateliff), Leon Michels (Lee Fields, Freddie Gibbs) and Simone Felice (The Felice Brothers, The Lumineers) among others.

On his latest album, simply titled, ‘Benevento,’ the Woodstock, NY-based artist dives deep down a psych funk rabbit hole, reimagining the current Zeitgeist of these troubled times through surrealistic optimism and the pure joy of an irresistible groove on tracks like “At The End Or The Beginning,” “Winter Rose” and “Do You Want Some Magic?”

 

Based in L.A. but hailing from the Inland Empire’s own Rialto, CA, two-thirds of Brainstory, Kevin and Tony Martin are brothers by blood, while Eric Hagstrom is a brother through their music and long term friendship. While the group’s initial connection comes from the heady mixture of jazz-performance-focused music school and the grind of playing local shows, their bond has been strengthened through countless hours on the road touring and the making of two studio records—2019’s debut full-length, Buck, followed by 2021’s Ripe EP. “Being on the road, doing our own tours, and backing incredible people like Lady Wray, has sharpened our skills and really revved us up for this record,” Kevin says. “It’s been four years since our last full length record, and with everything that’s happened since, it’s like we’ve been catching up to ourselves.” That’s one way to describe change: catching up to oneself. Each member of Brainstory has gone through shifts, both personally and musically, and all of that thread through this record.