Burning Bridges

Southern California sextet Burning Bridges weaves musical strands from distant regions into a single sound. Billboard characterized the group as one that "...fuse several African guitar styles and minor key Middle Eastern-isms with a hard rocking, bluesy, attack." Multi-instrumentalist Andrew Vereen, who had earlier issued the single “Yayo/World in Motion” while playing with Graphics, launched the band in 1985 alongside Portugal-born, Japan-raised Marcus Fernandes and Don Story, who had lived three years in the Middle East; Vereen handled vocals, guitar, keyboards, mandolin, flute, accordion and percussion, Fernandes played drums, percussion and sang, and Story contributed guitars, vocals and percussion. The ensemble captured first place at radio station 91 X’s Battle of California Originals in September 1987. Two years afterward it fell short in a similar contest to Bad Radio, whose lineup included future Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. After several membership shifts the group stabilized around Yaqui tribe member Cynthia Antillon on vocals and percussion, Rick Nash on bass and percussion, and Mexico-born Robert Montoya on percussion and drums. Its first single, “Brand New Vision,” appeared in August 1986 and was succeeded by the African-influenced dance track “Yayo.” EPs issued in December 1987 and April 1990 were later combined on a self-titled CD that surfaced in 1994. The debut album, From Benny’s Tiki Room and Ammo Dump, arrived in October 1992 and was subsequently reissued by the German Hermann label. Feast of Fools, the band’s most recent collection, contains sixteen songs largely composed inside the studio and recalls the work of Talking Heads and Santana.