Sunglasses

Although Sunglasses is technically a record for kids, The Que Pastas' debut album will appeal to any child or adult music lover with a pulse. The Austin-based kindie group recorded their debut album with some of the best names in the business, such as producer Salim Nourallah (the Old 97s) and engineer Jim Vollentine (Spoon, Heartless Bastards). I tried to play it cool, but I was geeking out the whole time, The Que Pastas founder Gene Davis laughed about the experience. Jim and Salim have been behind some of my favorite albums of all time, so getting to work with them was a dream come true. Sunglasses mixes goofy and fun songs like Ooh Bubble and Pirate from the Past with earnest tunes such as Bad Day and Hoo- ray for Fall. With inspirations that include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, R.E.M., Todd Snyder, and Weird Al Yankovic, the album is eclectic, while remaining quirky and heartfelt. Davis formed The Que Pastas in 2010 in Colorado before relocating to his home state of Texas in 2011. It was a hard year for Davis, having lost his girlfriend, job and alt-country band all in the same month. But teaming up with multi-instrumentalist Simon Flory and writing and recording the songs on Sunglasses helped Davis to stay positive during a tough transitional time. At first I thought kids music would be a chance to be goofy and have fun. But I realized it could be a chance to be as creative, emotion- ally honest, and dorky as I wanted to be, explained Davis. For Sunglasses, Davis and Flory recruited friends Leslie Sisson of The Wooden Birds and percussionist Jody Suarez. The group record- ed the songs over several days, and released the album June 2. If you feel like buying a record with songs about bubbles taking cooking classes in France, pirates being frozen for centuries or Gene wimping out of going down a slide, you should probably make it 'Sunglasses,' Flory said. About The Que Pastas: Since being formed by Gene Davis in the summer of 2010, The Que Pastas have played festivals, indie-rock clubs, libraries, and everything in between. The Que Pastas debut album, Sunglasses, was released in June 2, 2013.