The Black and White Years are an

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

art rock band based in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. Formed in 2006, the band consists of Scott Butler, Landon Thompson and John Aldridge. Scott, Landon, and John met while attending

Belmont University Belmont University is a private Christian university in Nashville, Tennessee. Descended from Belmont Women's College, founded in 1890 by schoolteachers Ida Hood and Susan Heron, the institution was incorporated in 1951 as Belmont College. It be ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. Billy Potts joined the band in January 2008 after their debut album had already been recorded. The band was discovered at SXSW in 2007 by

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

and

Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks w ...

member,

Jerry Harrison Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American songwriter, musician, producer, and entrepreneur. He began his professional music career as a member of the cult band the Modern Lovers before becoming keyboardist and guitarist ...

. Harrison offered to produce the band's debut LP at his personal studio in Sausalito, CA and it was released in 2008. Since the band played to sequenced drum tracks at that time, Harrison recruited Steve Ferrone to play live drums on the recordings. Since then, they've played festivals such as

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

Music Festival,

Fun Fun Fun Fest Fun Fun Fun Fest (often abbreviated as "FFF" or "F3F") was an annual music and comedy festival held in Austin, Texas, United States. The festival was the only genre based festival in the United States, featuring stages that focused specifically ...

Austin City Limits Music Festival The Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on two consecutive three-day weekends. Inspired by the KLRU/PBS music series of the same name, the festival is produced by Austin-base ...

MIDEM Midem is the acronym for Marché International du Disque et de l'Édition Musicale, which is organised annually in and around the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France. The trade show, organized by Reed MIDEM, a subsidiary of Re ...

Wireless Festival The Wireless Festival is a rap and urban music festival that takes place every year in London, England. It is owned and managed by Live Nation. While it started as primarily a rock and pop festival, in recent years it has focused on hip hop and ...

. The band's song, “Power to Change,” has received a fair amount of national attention via modern rock and college stations. "Power to Change" was awarded Song of the Year at the 2009 Austin Music Awards. The band received a total of five honors including Best New Band, Best Bassist and Best Rock Band. They released the follow-up to their

(

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

and

) produced debut on November 16, 2010. Also, in 2010 their song "To Modern Science" was used in a notable hoax featuring a fake commercial for the next generation of Apple's iPhone; the fake ad accumulated close to a million views across the internet. On January 21, 2014 the band released their first new album since 2010 on Modern Outsider Records. The album was produced by Danny Reisch at Good Danny's in Austin, Texas. The first single, titled "Just Like Old Times," was premiered on February 25, 2013 by the influential music blog YVYNYL and features the vocals of Adrienne Butler, wife of singer-songwriter Scott Butler. The second single, titled "Little One", premiered as a free download via Magnet (magazine). Rolling Stone premiered the title track from ''Strange Figurines'' on November 25, 2013.

Members

*Scott Butler - vocals, guitars, keys, words *Landon Thompson - guitars, keys, vocals *John Aldridge - bass, brass *Billy Potts - drums

Discography

Albums and EPs *''Arthur #1'' (CD/EP, 2019) Scott J. Butler *''Strange Figurines'' (CD/LP, 2014) Modern Outsider Records *''Patterns'' LP (CD, 2010) The Black and White Years, LLC *''Nursery Myths'' EP (CD, 2009) The Black and White Years, LLC *''The Black And White Years'' LP (CD, 2008) Brando *''Real! In Color!'' EP (CD-R, 2006) self-released Singles *"Best Friend" (2019) Scott J. Butler *"Soon" (2019) Scott J. Butler *"Just Like Old Times" (2013) Modern Outsider Records *"Up!" (2010) The Black and White Years, LLC *"Power to Change" (2008) Brando - No. 7 on Austin's

KROX-FM KROX-FM (101.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Buda, Texas, and serving the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area. It is owned by Sinclair Telecable Inc. (not related to television broadcaster Sinclair Broadcast Group, who owns CBS s ...

, No. 1 on Albany's

WEQX WEQX is an FM radio station located at 102.7 MHz and broadcasting from Manchester, Vermont, United States with an effective radiated power of 1,250 watts at 759 meters (equivalent to 50,000 watts at 150 meters). Their tower is located on nearby ...

, No. 90 on the national

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...

Alternative charts.

Press reviews

Republic of Austin

Austin Music and Entertainment cover story

Austin Sound interview

The Austin Chronicle

External links

Austin Music Awards

Shiner 12oz Stories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black And White Years, The Indie rock musical groups from Texas Musical groups established in 2006 Musical groups from Austin, Texas 2006 establishments in Texas