Thievery Corporation

About

Also known as: Theivery Corporation, Thievery Corp

Rob Garza and Eric Hilton met at Washington D.C.'s Eighteenth Street Lounge in 1995, bonded over dub, bossa nova, and jazz records, and built one of electronic music's most globe spanning sounds from there. Thievery Corporation pulls from an unusually wide pool: Indian classical, Middle Eastern music, reggae, hip hop, acid jazz, and Brazilian bossa nova all show up in their mix, and their lyrics have been sung in eight languages over the years. They even launched their own label, Eighteenth Street Lounge Music, to release it all on their own terms. Over a run of studio albums they kept evolving: The Cosmic Game brought in Perry Farrell, David Byrne, and Wayne Coyne for a darker, more psychedelic trip, while Saudade leaned deep into Brazilian influence. The politically charged Radio Retaliation earned a Grammy nomination for its packaging and kicked off with five sold out nights at D.C.'s 9:30 Club. Their 2017 record The Temple of I and I and the 2018 collection Treasures from the Temple show the duo is still at it, digging through their catalog and pushing it forward.