Bombadil

by Stewart Mason
In nearly all of their interviews, Durham, NC, indie quartet Bombadil claim that their conceptual starting point is the folk music of Bolivia, last heard on the U.S. pop charts approximately never. (Simon & Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa [If I Could]" was based on a folk song from Peru, one country over, but that's as close as it gets.) But before one gets nightmarish visions of a South American version of Vampire Weekend's wholesale ripoff of various African musical styles, the band's playful, childlike take on twee indie pop has only the slightest connection to South American folk tunes, having much more in common with the more cutesy side of the Elephant 6 stable (early Of Montreal, etc.) and the late lamented indie label Kindercore Records. However, bassist and keyboardist Daniel Michalak and guitarist Bryan Rahija really did hatch the initial idea of the band and begin writing songs together while spending a semester abroad in Bolivia, and the band's on-stage costumes include (among other outlandish looks) an approximation of the look of itinerant Bolivian folk musicians. Students at Duke University, Michalak and Rahija returned to North Carolina and added a mutual friend, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Robinson (who specializes in various keyboards and trumpet), and Michalak's younger brother John Michalak on drums. After a live demo recorded at a campus concert got the fledgling band (named for the J.R.R. Tolkien character Tom Bombadil) signed to the local indie Ramseur Records, a self-titled EP was released in 2006. A heavy touring schedule combined with academic requirements caused John Michalak to leave the band prior to the recording of its full-length debut; he was replaced by James Phillips. Bombadil's debut album, A Buzz, a Buzz, was released in the spring of 2008.