Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
The Bonapartes have built up some decent buzz playing around town...The band plays no-frills new wave/garage rock, and the songs on the band's debut EP rock in their own right. Throw in some energetic live performances that can get crowds moving, and this seems to be a band you'll continue to hear more about. - Washingtonpost.com
"If you like yearning melodies, solid songcraft, and sterling musicianship then THE BONAPARTES are your new favorite band." - Washington City Paper Online
Discography
The Bonapartes - Self titled EP
1. Russia
2. Domino Theories
3. Concentric
4. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
5. Archilles
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
A Brief History of the Bonapartes
Ben Griggs played guitar with a band (Ambassador Now!). Ben met Scott Westfall (who liked to sing and joined AN!). That band called it quits. Then Scott said, “This is Baj Mahal.” Baj played guitar, but decided to play bass because he had dreamt about it one day while driving through the countryside near a radar tower. At about the same time, they all met Dexter Fontaine, who used to drum for the Shakedowns and liked to make healthful alcoholic concoctions and serve it in hospital mugs; the irony was not lost. They were four, but incomplete; another guitarist was needed.
After meticulously casting about the DC scene with seemingly forlorn ambition, they met Eamonn Aiken, who had been playing with Bellflur. Interestingly enough, he had been biding his time for the day when he might rule the world. Eamonn agreed to join.
Now they were, The Bonapartes.
For a while they practiced, wrote, and talked accordingly in a decrepit little shack that bespoke of their emergent sound: evoking but not limiting itself to garage, that is to say. Soon enough, they started performing. Before long they were playing shows all around the metro area, at places like the Black Cat, DC9, IOTA, Velvet Lounge, Galaxy Hut, etc., and earning quite a reputation for their onstage verve, which always teetered on the edge of complete breakdown.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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