Buttercup

Buttercup, a life-affirming art-rock band from Texas, has written hundreds of original songs that NPR calls “jangly art rock for the left side of the brain.”

Erik Sanden, odie, and Grammy award winning guitarist/producer Joe Reyes have spent over 15 years as members of Buttercup, at once a full-on rock machine and a performance art collective. Over the course of 7 albums, a documentary DVD, and countless genre-bending live shows, they’ve remained current and vital despite shifts in music tastes and technology. They have toured the US, and have opened up for Jonathan Richman, Elliott Smith, the Old 97s, Ian Moore, The Apples in Stereo, Huey Lewis and the News, Foreigner and Willie Nelson.

Buttercup’s live show blends visual art, performance art and installation. For example, the band often takes “phone calls” from a red rotary phone that has been rigged to function as a microphone. These on-stage “conversations” add drama and levity to ongoing narratives. The band once staged a live talk show with celebrity guests and comedic interviews. That night Sanden handled a snake on stage. On three separate occasions Buttercup delivered a signature piece, Audience of One, where individual audience members are led into a back room (all by their lonesome) and therapeutically prescribed songs depending on their specific musical needs. Recently, Buttercup collaborated with artist Chris Sauter to write an original song cycle about Plato’s cave and to build a life-sized drum set out of drywall. These unusual shows lead their fan base, affectionately called the “Buttercult”, to expect the unexpected.

"In the last 2 years, Buttercup has played buzz-creating shows that are not the typical club or tour experience. The band recently played an unorthodox conceptual art-rock show at the historic Majestic Theatre and have collaborated with a classical orchestra (twice), played a packed day-breaker show at 7am, and collaborated with multi media artist Chris Sauter on two award-winning pieces for Luminaria and museums in Berlin and Budapest.”

Their newest recording Battle of Flowers was mixed by Larry Crane (Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney) in Portland Oregon and released in 2017 on Palo Santo and Bedlamb Records.