Del Castillo's electrifying flamenco rock

Brothers of the Castle celebrate 20th anniversary of 'Vida' tomorrow in Buda

It was just supposed to be a gift for their parents, a little musical keepsake from sons who had gone off in a rock route but wanted to show they hadn't forgotten the traditional Spanish music they were raised on. Guitarists Rick and Mark del Castillo holed up in Rick's home studio in Austin in 2001 to make a flamenco guitar-fueled album. When they needed accompaniment -- a little bass here, some drums there -- they called up friends and laid down the tracks. Brothers of the Castle was intended to be an all-instrumental album, but when Alex Ruiz came by one day and showed some lyrics he had written, the project had a singer. Having sung in Austin's crunchy Picassos, Ruiz was another rocker returning to his Rio Grande Valley musical roots.

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"We had no intention of starting a band," Rick del Castillo said in 2002. "But when all the elements came together in the studio it was obvious that we had something." During my time covering Austin music I can think of a few local bands that created a stir after their first couple gigs: Hundredth Monkey, Damnations, Poi Dog Pondering in the ‘80s. But nobody debuted harder than Del Castillo. They were the Gipsy Kings with more percussion and a singer wearing danger like cologne. The only folks not dancing were the awed guitar players in the crowd.

The band played its first gig at the Vibe, when it was booked by Danny Crooks, then moved over to Momo’s, where the racially mixed crowds of young and old came an hour early every Tuesday to lay claim to tables in front of the action.

Backstage, meanwhile, the del Castillo brothers were doing their finger excercises, like an athlete stretching. "This is not music that you can just start playing cold," said Rick. Twenty years as a rock guitarist, 10 of those in national touring hard rock band Akasha, may have given Rick the stamina to play night after night, but the dexterity required to play flamenco guitar is a new challenge. "There's no feedback to hide behind," he said. Brother Mark, who moved to Austin in 1996 after graduating from Texas A&M, gave Del Castillo a torrid twosome of flying fingers to soar over the big beat of drummers Mike Zeoli and Rick Holeman and the four-stringed rumble of bassist Albert Besteiro.

Although their interplay on the nylon strings is almost telepathic, the del Castillo brothers had never been in a band together until starting the one that bears their surname. "I'm eight years older than Mark," Rick said. "When he was coming up as a teenager, I was already out on the road." Akasha relocated from Brownsville to Memphis in the late '80s, and after they broke up, Rick moved to Seattle for three years before settling in Austin in 1995.

"I've never been in a band before where the response was so instant, so overwhelming," Rick said. When the group played on John Aielli's KUT show in September 2002, the phones lit up. When they played the Pecan Street Festival the next weekend, they were crowd favorites. Austin had never seen or heard anything like Del Castillo. "During our set I saw a big line off to the side and I was wondering what everybody was waiting for. I thought maybe someone was giving something away. Then I realized, wait a second, they're lining up to buy our CD."

The first pressing sold out that day. Not bad for a band that came together just so they could give one away.

The first full-band album Vida (2002) showed great expansion, with the band even doing a klesmer number with castanets. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Vida, Del Castillo is performing Saturday at Buck’s Backyard in Buda, with Vallejo opening. Tix are $15 in advance. Go here.