2010 April Archive - The Recommender

THE RECOMMENDER – NUMBER 89 – COLLIDER

Foundations for this rock band started being laid by the Ricksen family in San Francisco back in 2004, between brothers Mark and John. Several different reincarnated sounds and various bandmates later they had the product they were looking for, having eventually located their bassist Billy Boyle and drummer Steve Martinez through that birthplace of many a spare band member, Craigslist. Still unsigned, they have so far self-released two EPs through 2009. The first was the Down In Satrines EP, followed by the BBM EP that had a got a release on the last day of the year. Having one of their band members listed as being responsible for ‘atmosphere’ probably gives you a clue about the type of indie rock they try to create. This is scaled up music that not only blasts the roof off, but probably goes on to make its own Ozone hole in the sky above. It’s the kind of marvellous tunesmithery that The Big Pink mastered so well, with their climactic, sweeping, fuzzy blasts of heartfelt expression. The music is full and ethereal, and although there are riffs and melodies inside each tune, you never find yourself grabbing all of it. To say its messy is perhaps slightly unfair and missing its point, as it’s deliberately loose and untidy. Like a cloud of noisy smoke it’s all-encompassing and although it’s occasionally a little disorientating it’s actually rather pleasant once you breathe it in. This type of indie is rockier than straight psychedelia, but more dizzy than straight indie rock. Track names such as The Grid Goes Down Tonight and Big Bang Machines, takes the particle accelerator connotations one neutron too far for our liking, but beyond all that there’s plenty of electric juice in all their songs to keep you energised. They sent us the exclusive track, Take Off, (see below), from their new EP, Pris, which is planned for a release this coming May, with their first full length due out by the end of the year. The song is a great example of their many strengths, suggesting this band are now confidently constructing a solid future for themselves. (MB)

Find them here: Myspace

Hear them here: COLLIDER – THE GRID GOES DOWN TONIGHT

Hear them here: COLLIDER – TAKE OFF

2 Comments

Published: April 25th, 2010
Author: The Recommender
Category: The Recommender
Tags: BBM, Collider, Down In Satrines, Number 89, Take Off, The Big Pink, The Grid Goes Down Tonight

THE RECOMMENDER – NUMBER 88 – WE//ARE//ANIMAL

7 Comments

We know the market has driven through a tough old time in the music world for the last few years, as the record labels ride the changes the internet has brought in, but for fucks sake, leaving a band this hot, with this many boxes ticked, unsigned is close to scandalous! However, detached is indeed where we find them and rather fittingly it’s precisely this isolation and separation that seems to have been the driver behind their craft. We got in touch with the band and, as they explained in their brief biography, their North Wales home, in the windy wilds of Mount Snowden, allow them the freedom to contemplate and create the melodies and hooks which are abundant in each tune. Making simple 8-track recordings, in slate quarries and abandoned buildings, perhaps explains the loose, sometimes imprecise feel of their DIY tunes. The energetic guitars, strummed in building crescendos, with pretty breaks and fuzzed riffs, are completed with styled, spirited vocals that actually lift the songs out of their mulched indie rock swagger. They’ve already self-released an 11-track LP, Idolise, which is remarkable considering they’ve only been together as a unit since December 2009. It’s only April! That kind of output and creative rate is a factor worth taking note of on it’s own, but the fact that the songs brim with the kind of energy and confidence that’s not been seen since Kasabian walked these planks, is nothing short of astonishing. They’re heading for Radio One, they’re heading for festival stages and they’re heading for you earphones. Very rapidly. In fact, they are due an appearance at Brighton’s Great Escape festival, playing an intimate show at the Foundry Pub. That will surely be a show to catch, before they blow up. This is a hard working band with a hard working feel to their rocking indie anthems, but most importantly they teach us a subtle lesson that a little separation can breed genuinely creative, industrially productive results. (MB)