Not only did Fayuca return from their SxSW tour in one piece - they brought back High Times magazine's 2012 Doobie Award for Best New/Underground Artist. This year marked the publication's 10th anniversary of celebrating marijuana and music.
The winners were announced during the official High Times party that went down on the rooftop of the Blind Pig Pub overlooking the famous Sixth Street strip in Austin, Texas.
Much to their surprise, the local boys beat out Canadian psychedelic rock sensations, The Sheepdogs for the award. The Sheepdogs became kind of a big deal last year when they became the first unsigned band to ever grace the cover of Rolling Stone.
To help commemorate the award, Fayuca will be playing the Crescent Ballroom on Sunday, April 8, with Latin funk-fusion band Grupo Fantasma.
The Sheepdogs beat out 15 other bands in the magazine's Choose the Cover Contest which resulted in a contract with Atlantic Records as well as the cover spread. The fact that over 1.5 million voters decided the winner last year had the Fayuca trio thinking that they would just be another side note in the High Times award ceremony.
"We've never really won an award," frontman Gabriel Solorzano says. "I don't want to say we're the hardest working band, because there are a lot of other hard-working bands out there, but we work hard. For the longest time it seemed like we were always finishing last in everything. Like some dark angel was hovering around us. After winning the TMI award for best reggae song and now this one, it's starting to feel like we're coming in first; like that dark angel's been lifted.
"We made it safely without blowing up the van or killing each other and we're back home with the award," Gabo says. "Now we just want to keep that good energy flowing."
