Avant Soul Power!

The Mumbles are a New Orleans based Avant Soul Duo -- a tiny band with a mighty sound. Using two keyboards and a drum kit, they combine soul music with avant and old time jazz to create "pop songs in the key of partying down" (Time Out New York).

Keysman Keith Burnstein and drummer Ethan Shorter met in the rhythm section of a 14 piece hip hop orchestra, soon striking out on their own in late 2006 to write tunes that would become Mumbles mainstays. As a duo, the boys distilled songs to their essence, delighting in a dynamic that "...marries the bedroom intimacy of a singer-songwriter, with the expansive musical prowess of a psych jazz outfit" (Seven Days Vermont).

After the completion of their first record, "Once Eponymous", in 2008, The Mumbles have been touring the country on the heels of a national AAA radio campaign, with fine stations nation wide playing the disc in heavy rotation. Critics have called the break-out single, 'Bite-Size (Brawn w/ Brio)', "Lounge music for the super-hip" (Roanoke Times) with a vibe that is "...equal parts Tom Waits gruffness and Woody Allen pathos" (The L Magazine).

During breaks in their travels, The Mumbles recorded the "richly textured and arty" (Danbury News Times) "Muddy Mantras" with vocalist Meredith Claire.  After a highly successful festival run and 27 city summer tour, the boys will be back in the Crescent City come September, hard at work on their first full length. In November 2010, The Mumbles will be playing select dates with the legendary Headhunters band, with shows in Brooklyn, Philly, Burlington, and Northampton. The band's newest mantra, "Speak soft and learn how to change a tire!"