Mapache

Close your eyes and imagine the Everly Brothers wearing Tie-Dyed Nudie Suits. Okay, now open them. There’s Mapache.

Youngn’s Clay Finch and Sam Blasucci, the Mapache boys, are barely in their 20s and are already rising to the top of the new wave of West Coast Cosmic Americana. Born and raised in Glendale, California, their breathtaking harmonies and heartfelt yet heady sound, was honed by surfing the beaches and exploring the deserts and canyons of their native California.

Clay spent time at Chico State while Sam missioned in Saltillo, Mexico, living out what would become the songs on their self-titled debut album on the Spiritual Pajamas label.

The lineage of Mapache has blood running back to the first wave of psychedelic country revivalists Beachwood Sparks. Clay is a cousin of Beachwood main man Chris Gunst. Chris and GospelbeacH’s Brent Rademaker went to bat for Mapache by helping them score their first club shows and recording sessions with Dan Horne. Since then they’ve made fans of no less than Chris Robinson, Neal Casal, Jonathan Richman and the Allah Las among numerous others on the California music scene.

“One memorable night they showed up to our gig with deep surfer tans and big white circles around their eyes just like raccoons—Mapache is Spanish for Raccoon,” remembers Rademaker. “The boys set up on stage, sang and played their timeless and soon to be classic songs into a single microphone. Time stood still, and the normally chatty LA crowd closed their mouths and opened their ears and their hearts to Mapache. At that very moment I knew they were on their way.”