Hey, nice to meet you. 

Our band started in Brooklyn in the early ’90s. Playing loud, not fast, but a little smarter (and sloppier) than we probably had a right to. We all came together around Jesse Bates, a songwriter with a gift for songwriting that hits like a punchline and a gut punch at the same time. His songs are emotional without being sentimental. Funny without being jokey. He's honest, and he's a poet. 

In 1996, we released our debut album Los Dudes on Republic Records (Universal Music). Eric “Roscoe” Ambel produced it. He's the same dude who played with Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, The Del-Lords, and Steve Earle. He saw something in the songs and helped us get it on tape the right way. It was raw, tight, and unpolished in all the best ways. That record gave us a little bit of a name in New York. We played clubs, got college radio spins, and built a following on the old version of the Lower East Side of New York City. 

We chase a sound. A feeling. That thread ran through our second album, Hipster Retirement Home, released in 2016 on indie label Neighborhood Records. Ambel came back to produce. Andy York, longtime guitarist for John Mellencamp, joined us on guitar (Andy also played in Los Dudes for a short while after our first record.) The songwriting had aged, just like we had. It was wryer. A little more lived-in. But still, lots of teeth. Lots of people, especially musicians, in the scene say Jesse is one of those great songwriters that other songwriters pay attention to. Maybe that’s the best compliment there is.

Our third record, Beauty in Brooklyn, is our newest chapter. This one’s produced by Tommy Stinson. Yes, the one from The Replacements and Guns N’ Roses. It's the same Los Dudes. Same voice. Same obsession with getting the songs right. But this time with a little bit more craft, more control, and more clarity about who we are. Cause we're older. 

We’ve always played the kind of rock that doesn’t care what year it is. The kind that’s about truth, not polish. We’ve been called garage rock, indie rock, alt-rock, whatever. At the end of the day, we’re just a songwriter's band. That’s what we were in ’96. That’s what we are now.
If you're looking for flash, you're in the wrong place. But if you want to hear songs that still mean something, you’re exactly where you need to be.

Cheers, 

Los Dudes