The Buttertones are a Los Angeles band formed by Richard Araiza, Sean Redman and Modeste Cobián, who met at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood in 2011 and began playing together in Redman’s apartment, bonding over mid-century American music. Their name deliberately echoes doo-wop groups such as the Cleftones, and that era’s mix of romance and menace has never been far from their songs.
Their self-titled debut cassette, released on Lolipop in 2013 and home to ‘Orpheus Under the Influence’, set out their early template: twanging surf riffs, rolling drums and Araiza’s crooning, slightly unhinged vocals. They built their following in the Echo Park, Silver Lake and Los Feliz scene, with the arrival of guitarist Dakota Böttcher and saxophonist London Guzmán giving the sound a darker, more cinematic edge.
After the self-released American Brunch (2015), they signed to Innovative Leisure for Gravedigging (2017), produced by Jonny Bell of Crystal Antlers in Long Beach, and Midnight in a Moonless Dream (2018), which moved beyond surf rock into noir-ish post-punk. They played Coachella in 2018 and toured Europe and North America the same year.
In 2020 the band cut ties with bassist Sean Redman following serious misconduct allegations, and Innovative Leisure dropped them in the fallout. Araiza and Cobián, now playing guitar rather than drums, carried on with Jazzhound, and after a two-year pause returned with a new line-up and the 2024 album Face to Face With Fantasy.
