Press Release :
"It's a sound you will want to dance around the kitchen to again and again". - The Independent On Sunday
"…the best funk album of the modern era" - iDJ Magazine

"King Of The Rodeo" featuring Megan Washington is the first single from The Bamboos' hotly anticipated third album, 'Side-Stepper', out in October.

Widely regarded as one of the best funk bands in the world, The Bamboos have earned themselves a huge amount of acclaim in recent years, winning over the likes of Mr Scruff, Keb Darge, DJ Food and Snowboy, among a long list of renowned music minds and tastemakers. Their previous albums - 'Step It Up' and last year's 'Rawville' - received rave reviews in such diverse publications as The Independent on Sunday, Hip Hop Connection and Blues & Soul and featured collaborations with vocalists including Alice Russell and Ohmega Watts (Ubiquity). This year The Bamboos provided the backing on 'Just Say', the debut solo album by long-time vocal collaborator Kylie Auldist, which was hailed as one of the best albums of the year by Mark Lamarr (BBC Radio 2).

The Bamboos' version of Kings Of Leon's "King Of The Rodeo" lurches the off-kilter indie-rock favourite into the land of Boogaloo and Mod-Soul, whilst still retaining the innate quirky appeal of the original.

Lying somewhere between The Buddy Rich Big Band's version of "The Beat Goes On", Spanky Wilson's legendary rendition of "Sunshine Of Your Love" and a utopian vision of Mod-fuelled, swinging '60s London - this track is set to prick up the ears of the indie kids as well as setting club dancefloors alight. With just about every Soul act back in the '60s and early '70s doing cover versions of hits of the day, the origins of this art are to be found in the spirit of the Funk/Soul tradition and The Bamboos pick up the baton in style.

An insistent Hammond organ riff underpins the rolling funky drums & flute and sets the scene for the delectable vocals of Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and rising star Megan Washington (EMI). The Bamboos enlisted the talents of Washington to inject the off-beat lyrics with a dose of soulful quirkiness - think: Cute-but-tough, a mixture of '60s Bassey/Spanky/Aretha and the aforementioned Buddy Rich's daughter.

The B-Side of this 7" is "I Can't Help Myself", a collaboration with UK-based MC TY. During TY's last Australian tour he jumped up onstage with The Bamboos for an impromptu freestyle which planted the seeds for this track. "I Can't Help Myself" weaves an irresistible hook over a super-heavy deep Bamboos groove - punctuated with rhythmic horn stabs and incendiary drum-fills.