#flux outside

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Every day I’ll post a song to which I was rocking out during the previous day. Today’s selection is:

Slow Cathedral Melt - Royal Bangs - Flux Outside

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Every day I’ll post a song to which I was rocking out during the previous day. Today’s selection is:

Silver Steps - Royal Bangs - Flux Outside

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Every day I’ll post a song to which I was rocking out during the previous day. Today’s selection is:

Fireball - Royal Bangs - Flux Outside

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Royal Bangs - Flux Outside

I was introduced to Royal Bangs through one of those giveaway CDs - in this case compiled by Mojo with a Black Keys compilation. The initial inclusion of the track 'My Car Is Haunted', from the band's second (2009) album Let It Beep, was puzzling to me since it sounded like Hot Chip covering Klaxons - a sound not particularly synonymous with last year's most prominent nostalgic rockers. Nonetheless it was a track I enjoyed - and after discovering the link to Black Keys was through a record label managed by member Patrick Carney - prompting me to download their March 2011 release. From the get-go 'Glass Helmet' thrashes out heavy drumbeats and energetic vocals, with a tune slightly reminiscent of Klaxons' "Atlantis to Interzone" (albeit with less haywire beeps). 'Fireball' makes use of swashing percussions and a jerky guitar riff for a much more conventional dancy vibe - drawing in some folk influences for eccentricities. It's a pretty nice instrumentation but singer Ryan Schaefer is often barely audible - which isn't always a problem but with an alt.rock band can be. 'Back Then It Was Different' sounds like the battle-music for a boss level of a Nintendo game, with squelching synths, but is spared the gimmicks with nice drumming from Chris Rusk. But their true rock roots surface on 'Triccs', a Hendrix-like stomper that 95% of garage bands aim for but never pull off. Here the distorted vocals act as a slight hint of psychedelic influences, guiding along the chords with vague melodies and drowned-out cries. 'Bull Elk' continues the heavy outbursts with a more unfocussed direction - cutesy tunes and unusual instrumentation give it some unconventional inclusions that somehow work. At times however the juxtapositions aren't quite pulled off. The opening to 'Bad News, Strange Luck' is a quiet piece of contemplation with scratched guitars and pianos that allude to authentic southern USA, but then around 2:30 a frenzied electronic loop kicks in to inject some not-necessarily-needed hysteria. It's a pretty unique mixture though, and will probably be a favourite once the culture shock wears off. 'Loosely Truthing' is more of the latter, a no-holds-barred approach to drumming that, if drowning out the rest of the band, is only rivalled by crunching electric guitars. Perhaps the poppiest of the lot, 'Faint Obelisk Two' plays off some catchy riff-work to a much more muted background - it does culminate in a rapturous drum finale though (fear not, noise-enthusiasts). Schaefer evokes early Springsteen in 'Silver Steps', easily his best vocal performance on the record. The psychedelic trickery return in 'TV Tree', a nifty track that sounds a little bit like recent Strokes material (albeit with less emphasis on the electronics). For the final two tracks Schaefer is in Bono mode. First of all 'Dim Chamber' places us in spurned lover balladry, a quiet and contemplative piece that puts the band in their most raw and emotional state ("she left me without some kind of warning", "sucked the sunlight out of the house"). All this over marching drums is one of the record's most rewarding experiences - but any hopes of a U2 tribute are dashed in 'Slow Cathedral Melt', which, whilst indeed evoking the lead singer's voice, is a distorted mass of catchy guitars and southern garage music. It starts quite messily but by the third or fourth track the experimentation tried out by Royal Bangs has paid off - early skirmishes such as Fireball sound clumsy when followed by gems like Triccs - and what's left is an accomplished new direction for the Tennessee trio. Rating: 7.5/10 Highlights: Slow Cathedral Melt, Triccs, Dim Chamber, Faint Obelisk Two, Back Then It Was Different Avoid: n/a Artwork watch: Looks like one of those little painting-portals from the Super Mario 64 game. Pretty.

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Favorite comment on Youtube: "If this song could be consumed, it would be illegal." VanillaPringle4 They're Coming to Austin with White Denim for NYE bash!

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Making noise and getting noticed: Royal Bangs

Knoxville, Tennessee high school pals Sam Stratton (guitar), Ryan Schaefer (vocals, multi-instrumentalist) and Chris Rusk (drums) have no trouble getting noticed. Discovered by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys – who released their debut recording We Breed Champions (2008) on his Audio Eagle Records label – the band has been enjoying forward momentum ever since. Their sophomore LP Let It Beep (2009) caught the ears of music critics everywhere, described by one as “a chirpier, younger, less navel-gazing Radiohead.” With a steadily growing fan base and a recent move to Glassnote Records, Ryan Schaefer comments on the band’s inception, inspirations, and their recently-created album Flux Outside.

What’s the music scene like in your hometown?

There’s a surprising number of really great bands in Knoxville for a town of its size. I think it has a lot to do with a bar called Pilot Light that books mostly experimental music. It’s been around for about a decade.

You started out as a quartet, but recently became a trio. How does this affect your sound?

I think the live shows are tighter and a little bit more focused. When we record, we just track whatever instruments the songs need and don’t worry too much about the way we’ll play it live. Usually we end up with a completely different arrangement to play at shows.

SPIN magazine named you one of the Five Best New Artists in their April 2011 issue, saying, ‘[they] sound like shaggy, brainy, hippie kids who once had their possibly stoned minds blown by jam bands…’ Is any part of that accurate?

This couldn’t be further from the truth; jam bands were the enemy when we were growing up. We were interested in punk music and combining it with things like T. Rex, the Rolling Stones, Sonic Youth, Pavement, or the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. We were – and still are – interested in making music that’s noisy, abrasive and hopefully concise.

You also earned great reviews during SXSW this year. What does it mean for a band to perform there?

This was the third time we’ve played SXSW and we did nine shows. We always have a good time in Austin and the shows were especially fun this year. I don’t know what it means to other bands to play there – I get the feeling that some may have pretty unrealistic expectations about what can happen for you – but it’s always been good to us.

Tell me about the recording of your new album, Flux Outside.

We recorded it in an old house in Knoxville with Scott Minor. He helped us engineer the record, and later we mixed it with Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT) at Tarbox Road Studios in New York. Recording in Knoxville afforded us a lot of time to experiment and try out different sounds and techniques without the pressure of recording in some really expensive studio in New York or L.A.

You’ve said that this record “is not just another in a progression of little steps forward. It’s something different.” How so?

This is the first time we took a block of time off from touring to write all of the songs together as one album. We had clear ideas about how we wanted them to sound, how we wanted to record them, and how we wanted them to work together. In the past we’d just work on one song at a time, play it on the road; write another one as it came to us, play it on the road, and so on. It was a great help to take time out to assemble the thing as an album, rather than just a compilation of songs we’d come up with over a year or two.

You recently got to perform Fireball on Letterman. How was it?

Surreal… Dave is really tall.

The Royal Bang’s Flux Outside is available in stores and online. To learn more about the band, visit their MySpace profile or follow @royalbangs on Twitter.

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