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The Whisper 3:510:00/3:51
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Maybe Were Flying 4:020:00/4:02
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Jubilee Street 5:390:00/5:39
“"Eternally Grateful" stands out as a masterpiece, seamlessly merging evocative influences to create a profound and unique musical experience. ” - Cheers to the Vikings
The Color Forty Nine
New Album - A Whisper - March 2nd, 2025
Stories are everywhere, if you look for them
The Color Forty Nine hail from San Diego, California, where pretty much everything is nice. The weather and languid pace can easily lull you into a blissful complacency...or implore you to seek for more. Hence, this band mines musical stories from these surroundings, daily life, countries traveled, and the fortunate proximity of the neighboring town of Tijuana, Mexico, a whole different place altogether.
Collectively, the members of the band have played throughout the world with projects such as little white teeth (Phil Beaumont), the Black Heart Procession (Matt Resovich, Jason Hooper, and Scott Mercado), the Album Leaf (Matt Resovich), maquiladora (Phil Beaumont), System’s Officer (Jason Hooper) and Manuok (Scott Mercado). The band members have also been touring members of The Black Heart Procession, Eric Bachmann, and Pinback.
As multi-instrumentalists, each member gets to stray from their previous roles to find new musical connections to songwriting. As a bass player for most of his life, Beaumont picked up, by happenstance, a baritone ukulele to travel with more easily, and thus was the genesis of this project. Matt Resovich plays violin and Casiotone through the many effects pedals he builds himself. Jason Hooper, a highly sought-after drummer, picks up the bass for the Color Forty Nine, and Scott Mercado, typically the front man to his own band, Manuok, sits behind the drums to fill out the rhythm section. Their musical home is the attic of a 1910 home in Sherman Heights, where each rehearsal begins with a family-style meal of good food and better wine.
Their first self-released in 2018, ‘The Color Forty Nine, ’ clearly defined their unique quality and was rewarded with two San Diego Music Award nominations, including a coveted “Best New Artist” nod.
“There’s a beautiful isolation at the core of The Color Forty Nine music… spare and haunting sounds that evoke visions of long expanses of land or skies filled with cotton-y clouds.”
—Paste Magazine
“This isn’t something you hear every day, it’s dark and brooding, yet an uplifting and jubilant classic at the same time.”
—No Depression
With the shutdown of 2020, the band used the time to write and record songs that developed into String Ladders, their second EP released in 2021. Of particular note, the band collaborated with Café Tacvba vocalist Rubén Albarrán, who sang the Spanish verses to What Would I Know? / Yo Que Sé?, a song dealing with border issues and larger notions of the human condition. The band also collaborated with Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Prize-winning artist Hugo Crosthwaite to create a hand-drawn stop animation video for the song, released in July of 2021.
In 2023, the band released the 3-song EP, Eternally Grateful, produced by Scott Mercado. A blend of rich, moody songs that saw the continued development of the band’s multi-layered and thoughtful sound.
San Diego’s The Color Forty Nine unveils their mesmerizing third EP, Eternally Grateful, with the title track being a precious and delicate gem. Borrowing elements from The National's alt-pop intimacy, the rich folk rock arrangements of The Walkabouts, and the poetic lyricism of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, this astonishing piece of work captivates the senses. Eternally grateful is a masterpiece.
— Last Day Deaf
“"Eternally Grateful" stands out as a masterpiece, seamlessly merging evocative influences to create a profound and unique musical experience. ”
- Cheers to the Vikings
Following their critically acclaimed 3rd EP, 'Eternally Grateful,' The Color Forty Nine is now set to release a series of nine contemplative songs on a full-length LP. Titled 'A Whisper,' the album is a collection of new and previously unreleased songs that capture quiet mornings and moody evenings, including a lush and dramatic reworking of Nick Cave's 'Jubilee Street.'
Recorded and mixed both by the band in their home studios and at Mexico City's fabled Estudio Noviembre by Grammy-winning sound engineer Dave Parra, the depth of the album's songs and the warmth of production is set to envelop and embrace the listener.
In the same spirit that brought previous collaborations with Rubén Albarrán from Café Tacvba, the band is working with a variety of artists and filmmakers for videos to accompany the textural songs.
After a record release show at the San Diego Museum of Art on March 1st, the band will be embarking on a tour of Japan in March and April, with dates in Mexico and the US to follow in April.
The Color Forty Nine is:
Phil Beaumont - Vocals & Baritone Ukulele
Matt Resovich - Violin, Tenor Guitar & Synthesizers
Jason Hooper - Bass and Vocals
Scott Mercado - Drums & Glockenspiel
The Color Forty Nine is wonderfully superior. Radiant alt rock melodies full of dream pop enchantment infuse the music with extra-suspensory attributes. And Beaumont’s remarkable voice furnishes plush tones of patent magnetism.
--- Randal Radic, Blog Crititcs
Press photos
