Budos Band to bring Afro-soul to Bluebird

Melting down elements of Afro-beat, funk, jazz and soul, recasting them in an instrumental rock mold and dubbing it “Afro-soul” is far from a typical formula for selling out shows across the country, but the Budos Band has never been ordinary.

The nine-piece touring incarnation of the Budos Band will bring that cacophony to Bluebird Nightclub on Friday night as a part of its ongoing Midwest Mayhem tour.

The Staten Island-based act dropped its third full-length album, the aptly titled “The Budos Band III,” in late 2010 on Daptone Records. The all-instrumental album is a rollicking tribute to Nigerian roots music, early 20th century New York soul, 1960s psychedelia and avant-garde rock.

Opening track “Rite of the Ancients” sets the pace for the buckets of infectious groove to come, and lead single “Unbroken, Unshaven” exemplifies everything the band is best at. “Budos Dirge” and the decidedly more dirge-like “Nature’s Wrath” typify the brilliant middle section of the album, while album closer “Reppirt Yad,” a cover of a Lennon-McCartney song, sees the band at its spaced-out zenith.

The album also subtly hints at Western themes, using similar instrumentation and song structure as crucial moments from the classic scores of Ennio Morricone. The dusty song titles and rattlesnake-adorned album cover only serve to reinforce this atmosphere.

In essence, if the dudes from Don Caballero traded in their Slint records for the early discography of Fela Kuti and watched “Once Upon a Time in the West” while getting high, “The Budos Band III” would likely be the resulting cacophony.

The band’s tour sees it teaming up with its Otis Redding-channeling labelmate Charles Bradley and translating the effortless cool of its studio recordings into a stage show that has been commended for its intense energy.

The Bloomington date was booked by Spirit of ’68 Promotions, the same company that will bring the likes of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and John Vanderslice to town later this month.

The Budos Band’s appearance marks the last time a national act will grace the stage at the Bluebird before the end of the spring semester, so it promises to be a well-attended show. Few bands that come through Bloomington deserve a sellout more.