Burning Bridges

Musical influences from around the globe are combined into the sound of Southern California-based sextet Burning Bridges. According to Billboard, Burning Bridges "...fuse several African guitar styles and minor key Middle Eastern-isms with a hard rocking, bluesy, attack." Burning Bridges was formed in 1985 by multi-instrumentalist Andrew Vereen (who had previously released a single, Yayo/World in Motion," as a member of Graphics) on vocals, guitar, keyboards, mandolin, flute, accordion and percussion; Portugal-born and Japan-raised Marcus Fernandes on drums, percussion and vocals; and Don Story (who spent three years in the Middle East) on guitars, vocals and percussion. In September 1987, the group placed first in radio station 91 X's Battle of California Originals. Two years later, the band lost the rock wars to Bad Radio, a group featuring future Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder. Although it went through several personnel changes, Burning Bridges settled into a lineup that included a member of the Yaqui tribe, Cynthia Antillon (vocals, percussion), Rick Nash (bass, percussion) and Mexico-born Robert Montoya (percussion and drums). The band's debut single, "Brand New Vision, released in August 1986, was followed by the African-influenced dance tune "Yayo." Releasing EPs in December 1987 and April 1990, Burning Bridges reissued both EPs as a self-titled CD in 1994. The group's debut album, From Benny's Tiki Room and Ammo Dump, released in October 1992, was reissued on the German Hermann label. Burning Bridge's latest album, Feast of Fools, features 16 tunes that were mostly written in the recording studio and has been compared to The Talking Heads and Santana. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide