Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past six months or so, you may have come across a post or two featuring the Athens, GA-based indie rock/psych rock trio Oak House. Comprised of Gresham Cash (vocals, guitar), Wes Gregory (drummer) and Connor Sabula (bass), the band formed in 2014 and since their formation, they quickly developed a reputation for a sound that meshes elements of melodic indie rock, grunge, psych rock and prog rock paired with contemplative yet visceral lyrics that focus on, explore and investigate life’s inevitable conflicts, as well as for a high energy live set.
Their sophomore album Hot or Mood was recorded hase Park Transduction with Drew Vandenberg, who’s worked with of Montreal, Toro y Moi, Kishi Bashi, Deerhunter and Mothers, and the album reportedly finds the band accurately capturing their live sound — a sound that has been described by critics and fans as being tumultuous, melodic, raucously infectious and immersive. Album single “Cut That Out” is one of the more unique and truly unusual songs I’ve come across this year, as the song features wobbling synths, propulsive drumming, a throbbing bass line, Cash’s plaintive vocals, and soaring hooks in a song that sonically draws from grunge rock, prog rock and psych pop within a song structure that morphs between anthemic power chord-based rock and moody psych rock, while evoking the narrator’s rapidly vacillating thoughts and emotions.
As the band’s Gresham Cash explains in press notes ” I wanted to craft a picture of dreams by using frenetic, shifting imagery with a blend of hopeful nostalgia muddied by sadness, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc. Also, I felt that anxiety, depression and suicide are things that not only influence us directly, but also, those around us; hence, the chorus, ‘We’re all responsible for someone else.’ The ending is the feeling of the dream unraveling combined with the feeling that you are living within someone else’s dream: unsettling to say the least. Your only defense against the confusion and discomfort is like swatting at an irksome fly that keeps buzzing in your ears: ‘Cut that out.’”
The recently released music video for the song possesses a fitting, dream-like logic as the video’s narrator stumbles upon a Walkman with a cassette copy of the band’s “Cut That Out” in the woods, but suddenly he finds himself running in the woods before falling unexpectedly into a supermarket and back into the woods, where he meets cute/meets awkward with a beautiful young woman — and eventually the video ends with the aftermath of a massive traffic accident that has left the same woman fighting for her life.
The band is currently on tour to support their latest effort, and it’ll include an August 20, 2017 set at The Bowery Electric. Check out tour dates below.
Tour Dates
August 11 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
August 12 – Tampa, FL @ New World Brewery
August 14 – Raleigh, NC @ The Pour House
August 15 – Durham, NC @ The Cave
August 16 – Harrisonburg, VA @ Golden Pony
August 17 – Washington, DC @ The Black Cat
August 18 – Harrisburg, PA @ Bath House DIY
August 20 – New York, NY @ The Bowery Electric
August 21 – Fairfield, CT @ Fairfield Theatre
August 22 – Syracuse, NY @ Funk N Waffles
August 23 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Black Forge Coffeehouse
August 24 – Huntington, WV @ V Club
August 25 – Lexington, KY @ Green Lantern
August 26 – Newport, KY @ Southgate House Revival
August 27 – Nashville, TN @ Fond Object Records