Earlier this year, I wrote a bit about the Portland, OR-based indie rock quintet King Who, and as you may recall, the band which is comprised of Michael Young, Ryan Hayes, Ryan Cross, Glen Scheidt and […]
Tag: Self Group
Earlier this month, I wrote about the Portland, OR-based indie rock quintet King Who, and as you may recall, the band, comprised of Michael Young, Ryan Hayes, Ryan Cross, Glen Scheidt and Travis Girton will be releasing their Hutch Harris-produced sophomore full-length album Giant Eye through SELF Group on August 17, 2018. Reportedly, the album finds the band expanding upon their sound as they increasingly incorporate elements of New Wave, post-punk and dream pop while retaining the heavy bass of their full-length debut Us Lights; in fact, Giant Eye‘s first single, the slow-burning “Ice Cream” sonically finds the band drawing from shoegaze and dream pop as the song is centered around shimmering guitar chords, a propulsive rhythm section, a soaring hook and Micheal Young’s plaintive falsetto, sounding though as it were recorded during the era of 120 Minutes-era alt rock.
Interestingly, Giant Eye‘s second and latest single, “Crying Shame” is centered around a motorik-like groove, four-on-the-floor drumming and Young’s plaintive falsetto, and as a result the song may arguably be the most New Wave-inspired song off the album, sounding as though it were drawing from Heaven Up Here-era Echo and the Bunnymen, Evil Heat-era Primal Scream and Luminous-era The Horrors, thanks to one of the funkiest rock bass lines I’ve heard this year.
Comprised of Michael Young, Ryan Hayes, Ryan Cross, Glen Scheidt and Travis Girton, the Portland, OR-based indie rock quintet King Who will be releasing their Hutch Harris-produced sophomore full-length album Giant Eye through SELF Group on August 17, 2018 — and reportedly, the album finds the up-and-coming quintet expanding upon their sound as they increasingly incorporate elements of New Wave, post-punk and dream pop while retaining the heavy bass of their full-length debut Us Lights. Interestingly, Giant Eye‘s first single, the slow-burning “Ice Cream” sonically finds the band drawing from shoegaze and dream pop as the song is centered around shimmering guitar chords, a propulsive rhythm section, a soaring hook and Micheal Young’s plaintive falsetto — and while the song draws from 120 Minutes-era all rock, it has a clean, modern production sheen that makes the song a bit anachronistic.
Created by Portland, OR-based Southerly and Sndtrkr frontman and SELF Group founder Krist Krueger as a shoegaze/experimental rock side project, Yardsss has received critical applause with the release of Fama, the first part of a Kurt Vonnegut-inspired trilogy that also featured a companion short film of the same name. Granfalloons is the second part of that trilogy and it features Krueger collaborating with Southerly bandmate Eli Savage and Gardening, Not Architecture‘s Sarah Saturday.
The album’s first single “Granfalloons II” is a slow-burning, introspective and shoegazey track consisting of dirge-inspired power chords, soaring backing vocals, swirling electronic and feedback and anthemic hooks paired with Krueger’s earnest and yearning baritone underneath the arena-filling bombast, the song sounds as though it could be a moody, shoegazer-inspired version of Live‘s “I AloneI Alone” — but with an art school sheen.
New Audio: Introducing Portland, OR’s Mothertapes and Their Anthemic Yet Swooningly Romantic Sound
Comprised of Pete Bosack and Tommy Franzen, the Portland, OR-based duo Mothertapes can trace their collaborative efforts to the duo’s first musical project, Wax Fingers which they co-founded. Zac Jacobsen, was recruited to flesh out […]