hypersongs

Cola Boyy

An Oxnard, California singer and songwriter who combined disco, funk and pop on the Record Makers label, made one album in his lifetime, Prosthetic Boombox (2021), and died in March 2024 at 34.

Oxnard

Cola Boyy, whose own name was Matthew Urango, was born on February 14, 1990 and grew up in Oxnard, California, with a twin brother, Marcus. He came up through Oxnard's hardcore and skate-punk scene, taught himself piano as a child starting with "Lean On Me", and picked up guitar in junior high. He played in the band Sea Lions, whose debut LP was on Slumberland in 2011, and in 2014 joined Juan Wauters' touring band as a guitarist. His own songs started as Vox Disco; Record Makers, the Paris label partly run by the duo Air, suggested the name Cola Boyy and signed him in 2017 after Cesar Wogue passed the music to the co-founder Marc Teissier du Cros.

He called himself the "Disabled Disco Innovator" and said in a 2018 interview, "I never want to be a novelty. Being disabled is part of what makes me who I am." He was active in Todo Poder al Pueblo, a group in Oxnard that defends immigrants and workers, and made his videos and mini-documentaries with Ross Harris.

Records

The first single, "Penny Girl", came out in July 2018, "Buggy Tip" premiered on Noisey that August and the EP Black Boogie Neon followed on Record Makers on September 21, 2018; The Fader put "Penny Girl" at number 72 on its best songs of the year. MGMT took him on tour and he played Coachella in April 2019, All Points East in London that May and the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. He sang on tracks by Nicolas Godin of Air (2019) and The Avalanches' We Will Always Love You (2020, "We Go On", with Mick Jones).

Prosthetic Boombox (June 18, 2021, Record Makers and MGMT Records), which he said took just over three years, had guests including The Avalanches, MGMT's Andrew VanWyngarden, Nicolas Godin and John Carroll Kirby. NME heard 1980s dance, funk and soul through a playful pop filter, and The Guardian's Kate Hutchinson gave it four stars as a delirious blast of disco, funk, house and psychedelia. He died at his home in Oxnard on March 17, 2024, aged 34; his manager said he had just finished his next album. That record, Quit to Play Chess, came out on Record Makers in May 2025, its title taken from Marcel Duchamp's early retirement from what he called retinal art, and Oxnard held its first Cola Boyy Day on April 21, 2025. Mac DeMarco wrote that he repped his crew as much as he repped his neighborhood.

Albums

  • Prosthetic Boombox 2021 · Record Makers

    His debut album, ten songs that open with a single made with The Avalanches.

Songs

  • Don't Forget Your Neighborhood Prosthetic Boombox · 2021

    The opening track of Prosthetic Boombox, a May 2021 single made with The Avalanches about staying loyal to the place that made you.

Sources

  1. Cola Boyy, Wikipedia
  2. Remembering Cola Boyy, Bandcamp Daily
  3. Cola Boyy, the Black Boogie Neon interview, The Fader (2018-10-25)
  4. Cola Boyy dead at 34, Stereogum (2024-03)