Rene (guitar/vocals), Jaime (drums) and Abraham (bass)

A demo of 6 songs landed in the hands of Dan Auerbach and soon after they were opening for The Black Keys, as well as opening/touring with great acts such as Dr. Dog, Kasabian, My Morning Jacket, Los Lonely Boys and many others.

Under Auerbach's watch, Hacienda would ultimately record  and release three albums with Dan in his own studio. 

LOUD IS THE NIGHT
BIG RED AND BARBACOA
SHAKEDOWN

Songs for Shakedown were co-written and produced by Dan Auerbach, which was released in 2012 by Collective Sounds in North America and Dine Alone Records in Canada. 

Hacienda toured worldwide as Dan Auerbach’s backing band, The Fast Five, for his solo record Keep It Hid.

I’ve been a fan of Hacienda ever since the day they gave me their first demo, they have consistently impressed with their natural chemistry as a band. - DAN AUERBACH

Watch Hacienda perform on Late Night With David Letterman.

Take me back to Texas! - DAVID LETTERMAN

Raw, unpolished, and undeniably catchy, the whole album sounds just about radio-ready. Under Auerbach’s excellent direction, Hacienda have produced a solid effort. Musically heavy but lyrically light, Shakedown is an excellent third album. - THE OWL MAG

The album is full of chunky, rollin-and-tumblin’ garage rock. At times, it’s vintage San Antonio/Doug Sahm old-school; others, Beatle-ish harmonies abound over some serious deep-bottomed rock. Seeing this band in the up-close-and-personal confines of the Bissonnet lounge should make for a face-melting opportunity. – HOUSTON PRESS

Right now, their sound is firmly anchored on the vintage side while never stooping to imitation. Some of their influences are obvious enough. Beach Boys harmonies abound, and I can’t imagine a band from San Antonio being unaware of the Sir Douglas Quintet. They tackle the Everly’s "Your My Girl" to great effect too. But the Hacienda sound is something new. The evidence of their musical taste is comforting, but the future of this band should not be confined to retro rock and soul. – Jason Crawford /HOME THEATRE & HIGH FIDELITY

A dizzying, winning recipe that the Villanuevas have cooked up on Big Red and Barbacoa (and hopefully the record’s not too damned by all my namechecking, now that I go back and read what I’ve written), by a band that’s clearly in love with rock ‘n’ roll—no matter when it was released—and the sounds of summer. – Stephen Haag / POPMATTERS

Combining Tex-Mex, straight up rock ‘n’ roll and Americana, Hacienda burst onto the indie-rock scene with Loud Is the Night in 2008. Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys produced the band’s debut effort, as well as its latest album. Demonstrating a stronger sense of the band’s garage-rock style, Big Red & Barbacoa is a more evolved beast, showing off more of its Tex-Mex roots. – NPR'S WORLD CAFE

Among the most intriguing aspects of this San Antonio quartet’s second album is that you’re never quite sure what you’re listening to. Is it taking cues from early rock? California production pop? Stax soul? Tex-Mex? Neo-psychedelic grunge? The answer is ‘yes’ to all. At times, like the Beach Boys ‘65-inspired “Younger Days,” the influence is pure honorific. Other antecedents are amalgamated, such as the suggestions of Little Richard and Thee Midniters in the early rock ‘n’ soul of “Mama’s Cookin.” Others are honored and tweaked at the same time, such as a cover of the Everly Brothers’ “You’re My Girl,” on which the sound is a bit harder than the original, but the lust in the vocal gets at what Phil and Don could only allude to in 1965 (..) As an added treat, several of the tracks are produced in punchy AM-ready mono and the album is available on vinyl! – HYPERBOLIUM

Part modern blues, another half garage rock and basically a kitchen sink’s worth of rhythmic variety help give the long player an unpredictable slant, but there’s still an curious cohesion that ties the tunes together. – HEARYA

The San Antonio-based Hacienda’s debut is filled with swampy-sounding garage rock rave-ups much like this one. It was produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, which you could probably tell by listening to it. – The WASHINGTON POST