Gerald Anthony Guidry
July 28, 2009
Florett "Flo" Johnson
July 30, 2009
Travis Matte and the Kingpins have been around for five years and have picked up the reputation for being one of the best party bands in Acadiana, playing music that is heavy on zydeco with plenty of R&B, hip-hop, swamp pop, Cajun and rock ‘n’ roll thrown into the gumbo.
Raucous songs like “Vibrator” and “Tiger Tailgate Party” have gotten bountiful airplay and revved up the crowds.
However, Matte is serious about the music, having been named Fiddler of the Year four times by the Cajun French Music Association.
But he’s more recently played the accordion. Later this year, the band is releasing “Bottle Rocket,” its sixth CD, a mixture of the types of sounds heard on all their previous recordings.
His band, formerly called the Zydeco Kingpins, will play The City Club of Houma on Saturday, Aug. 22. Besides Matte, the Kingpins have Mike Burch on drums, Gary Usie on bass, Belton Richard on scrubboard, Pat Breaux on saxophone, and Kevin Cormier on guitar.
Matte dropped “zydeco” from the name last year because the group plays more than that one style. “We’re in a party music category,” he said.
Prior to starting the Kingpins in 2004, Matte played straight-ahead Cajun and country music with such figures as Kip Sonnier. But the routine took its toll.
“Each band plays the same zydeco songs, like Wayne Toups’s,” said Matte, who is from the Lafayette area. “Playing with country bands, we did all the same songs.”
In 2000, Matte took one of his first steps toward branching out by starting to learn the accordion. For the fiddle, he had learned a lot by following other players’ techniques, absorbing various styles into his playing.
“Where did it get you?” Matte said. He would develop his own style on the squeezebox. “With this I didn’t want to sound like (accordionists) Wayne Toups and Steve Riley,” he said.
Before the Zydeco Kingpins began doing their first gigs in 2005, the band put out their first CD the previous year, “Dis Ain’tcha Momma’s Zodico,” which contained “Crawfish Boogie” as well as fan favorite “Barbecue and Drink a Few.”
“It’s hard to promote your music to festivals having to explain the music you do,” Matte said. “With a CD, you could promote it to radio and festivals, get a head start on things.”
The first CD had some songs in French, as would subsequent recordings, and covers of several pop-rock tunes like “Rockin’ Robin” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” but done in the Kingpins style.
“It seems like we had more success doing original songs, so we got away from (doing covers),” Matte said. “I don’t like to do it like the original. I did that for 15 years. You can never beat the record.” The band does have plans to do a CD of covers next year – but, again, done in the Kingpin way.
“It’s hard to find a genre for what we do. That’s why we dropped ‘zydeco,'” Matte said. “It’s hard to find an influence I don’t like. I’m a fan of music.
“Our goal is to take an audience, an untapped audience, and get our own fan base. Not just swamp pop and zydeco. Just fans who like the music.”
The band’s next release in 2005, “Zydeco Train,” contained “Vibrator” and “Booty Call,” two tunes focusing on the body part that warms the chair. The CD dropped the songs in French and had several more covers, including “La Bamba” and “Bad Moon Rising.”
In 2006, The Kingpins upped the party ante with “Booty Zydeco,” containing tunes like “I’d Tap That.” All but three of the 21 songs were originals.
“We play those songs for an older crowd, we gauge the crowd,” Matte, 35, said. “At Catholic festivals, we don’t play them.”
“The people who say the songs are risqué would have a heart attack if they heard what’s played in college clubs,” he said. “These songs are mild compared to what’s played in the clubs. When we play Catholic fests, we know what we can play. We don’t play to offend anybody.
“We go with the majority of the fan base. When we play college clubs, they don’t want to hear (the swamp pop) ‘Mathilda.’ Hearing The Chee Weez and The Molly Ringwalds, then playing swamp pop-it doesn’t work.”
The most popular cut on “Booty Zydeco” was the self-explanatory “Tiger Tailgate Party.” The song came about because so much of the Kingpins’ music was heard at LSU tailgaters. And at earlier Kingpins performances, 80 percent of the audiences had on LSU hats, Matte said.
The Kingpins also put out a Christmas CD in 2006 titled “Ho, Ho, Ho,” which has traditional holiday music, plus the nonstandard “Santa Claus Don’t Wear No Drawers.”
The following year had nothing to celebrate. The band’s bassist, Matthew Cormier (no relation to guitarist Kevin) died in a workplace accident.
The Kingpin’s 2008 release, “Hip-Hop Zyderock,” contained “Miss You,” a mellow tribute to Cormier, but the band does not include the song in their lineup onstage.
“We don’t want to make nobody sad,” Matte said.
For “Zyderock,” the band altered the tone of some of the guitar-playing, adding distortion, and brought in Ken Lewis and Scott Hull, who are well-known for their postproduction work.
The party flag still flies high on “Zyderock” with cuts like “Let’s Get Nasty.” In 2007, the band kept things simmering by releasing the single “Mardi Gras with No Bra.”
For those who think Matte has strayed from his Cajun and country roots, he points out that he still does some songs in French and the number of covers the band does has been reduced.
“We got away from cover songs. So many bands do it, we wanted to do something different,” Matte said. The band has been working on the new CD all year, he said.
The Kingpins will play at 10 p.m. Admission is $10.
Matte said he’s played in the area many times and always expects a good crowd in Houma.
Travis Matte & the Kingpins have a hard-earned reputation for partying. They’re bringing their blend of zydeco, R&B, hip-hop, swamp pop, Cajun and rock ‘n’ roll to Houma. One thing’s for certain…’Dis ain’tcha momma’s Zodico’
