The Black Currents are a garage rock duo from Hollywood who make danceable, rowdy rock and roll. The band was born when Matt Flügger, a singer, guitarist and Brooklyn expat, and Gareth Bennett, a sought-after Canadian drummer, got together at a jamspace on Hollywood and Vine one May afternoon. What resulted from that meeting became a unique combination of groove, rhythmic power, and poetry. When you find The One, you keep them close.

Their influences range from the Detroit stomp of the White Stripes to the fuzz latitudes of the Black Keys, to Hendrix and Irish guitar god John Doyle, to the four-on-the-floor goodness of crucial New York disco, to the pocket math of Bernard Purdie.

Both of The Black Currents have deep roots in music. Matt played guitar for Sunset Boulevard sleaze rockers Retox and Tuff Gong artists Looner. He was tapped for the touring guitar slot serving LA songwriting luminary Linda Perry. Before that he toured Toronto, Vancouver, New York and Boston as art-folkster Matt Wolfe.

Gareth anchored Canadian funk act the Elastocitizens, whose Sly Stone-style soul revue thrilled audiences across Canada.

The Black Currents have a mutual love for writing original music with the most basic ingredients: groove, sweat and an irreverent spirit of adventure.

They slow-cooked this sound, playing together for a year and a half before taking their work public. This allowed their demo, “B-Sides and Rarities”, to come together with classic DIY simplicity: the Currents played their songs end to end, no overdubs, and mixed whatever happened ‘as is’. “We always want to deliver something honest and direct. The music we love to hear has that common vein of truth, and we want to be part of that tradition,” says Gareth of the songwriting process.

The Black Currents have brought their blues disruption boogie to LA and Toronto stages the Cat Club, The Good Hurt, Fais Do Do, Mr. T’s Bowl, Five Star Bar, the House Of Blues, the Viper Room, El Cid, the Silverlake Lounge, the Universal Bar and Grill and the Rivoli. The list continues to grow.

Family and careers are important to Matt and Gareth, so they have taken a hiatus.  Matt is Showrunner for the groundbreaking series The Divine Field, he scores Independent film, and his agency Busterhouse creates branding for studios in LA and NYC. Gareth has gotten very busy, and is making his name as a screenwriter in the wilds of Los Angeles. The Black Currents are devoted to the mission of bringing their unique grind and shimmer back to live venues when the time is right.

Look for them at a future Levitation Festival, the only sensible place to present their latest catalog, which is inspired by post-rock and shoegaze. Count on it.