Album Notes

Their name is Spanish for "Bad Daddy," but trust us...this PapaMalo for sure ain't your daddy's 'bad.' Led by Piero Amadeo Infante, a four-time California Music Award winner with The Freaky Executives, Los Angelitos, and Los Mocosos, the newly formed PapaMalo has created a fresh sound all their own–yet undeniably born out of old school R&B, some serious Latin roots, and a deep sense of local history.

In SadTown: Hour of the Rabbit, his debut effort with his new group, Piero has continued to bring to the brilliant light of day his own brand of dark message rock, a unique blend of frequently hard-edged political and social opinions, sweetened with lyrical, melancholy reminiscences and an indomitable sense of optimism -- with a danceable downtown hip hop backbeat.

The new CD is a series of stories set in the East Bay–yes, a rock opera about Oakland–between 1999 and 2005. Piero's gritty tenor leads his talented musicians through song after song that reflect the singer's often traumatic life experience, delivering lyrics with a hard crunchy outer shell and a soft, sweet interior–or sometimes vice versa.

The semi-autobiographical power-pop ballad "Raven Call My Name" chronicles the emergence of the artist from a dark hole, called by a creative muse after years hidden away, while the reggae funk of "Indestructible Bunny" reiterates the singer's fighting spirit, as well as his sexy sense of humor. The band presents harder hitting social commentary in the darker (but still danceable) "Walk with a Limp" and "Enemy of the State."

Born into, and later escaped from, a cult family (yes, literally) in rebellious '60s Berkeley and Oakland, and so always both an insider and an outsider looking in, Piero fearlessly leads his lyrical troops in the battle to win the hearts and minds of his audience, not with harsh judgment and screaming riffs, but through the ancient art of telling great stories, with a sincere, no bullshit, tell-it-llike-it-is-but-make-'em-dance-to-it attitude, all set to an irresistible beat. Not surprisingly, PapaMalo's music mirrors the fascinating, entertaining, multi-faceted nature of a guy the SF Weekly once commented could "sing the panties off a nun."
And down for the good musical fight, are band fellow band members virtuoso bassist Amir Zitro (Bryan Kehoe, Corinne West, Alex Skolnick), guitarist Matt Blackett (Luce band, Guitar Player magazine editor) And Wesley Anderson on drums (Kehoe Nation, Idiot Flesh)

Sadtown:Hour of the Rabbit was produced by Piero Amadeo Infante.

Check out PapaMalo at www.papamalo.com or www.myspace.com/papamalo