MBR-063: Dead Neighbors “Less”
LESS is the second album from Athens mainstays DEAD NEIGHBORS - bookish art punks that bring realness to the forefront with bleating sense of urgency and character - Sebastian Marquez plus Owen Hunt & Hale Woods (Harlot Party, Swamp). Honestly I love Shil Patel/Tiger Bomb promo’s bio so here is that in full ::
“Their story begins on a street in Newtown, a neighborhood in Athens, GA, where Marquez and Hunt lived directly in front of a funeral home. Marquez called on friends Howard Stewart and Alex Addington, to work on a new project, and they drew their namesake from the departed residents down the block: Dead Neighbors.
Their debut self-titled record, released June 2015, was recorded in a bedroom underneath an Athens antique furniture store called Vic's Vintage and mastered in the bedroom of local musician/producer Terence Chiyezhan. In Winter 2016, Owen Hunt took over bass duties. Dead Neighbors forego the noisy jangle of their last record for eight stripped down compositions on "Less", due March 3rd, 2018.
The trio was compelled to make their second full-length a departure from the aesthetic of their self-titled, shaving weight from the production and shifting the focus on to darker themes. Oscillating from driving catchy refrains to an eight-minute ambient track, "Less" is led throughout by Marquez's stripped down guitar and vocals, whittled from the noisy scuzziness of the debut. Introspective anxieties of youth come to the forefront of Marquez's lyrics, and the progression of tracks follows a shift in focus of his internal struggles from the question of purpose to reckoning with the death of a loved one. At some points, he grants, it's "accidentally emo." Lean on production and heavy in content, "Less" was recorded over the course of four days in Winter 2016 on 16-track tape at Chase Park Transduction by David Barbe. Since recording, Dead Neighbors have embraced a tonal shift in their live sound. Part of that change is due to a rollercoaster SXSW 2017, at which Dead Neighbors awoke on Day One to discover most of their gear had been stolen from the car. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, they raised the money to replace their gear in just 48 hours. Marquez appreciates the change, noting that they've never been beholden to the same template as what came before. After the departure of Howard from the band after SXSW, longtime friend of the band Hale Johnson assumed the role of drummer and new creative force in the band. Look out for tour dates later this year, as they set out with that harsh, albeit valuable, "Less"on in tow: "gear paranoia is the right kind of paranoia."
CLICK THE PIC to order tapes from our bigcartel page.
>> https://deadneighbors.bandcamp.com/album/less >> http://marchingbanana.bigcartel.com/product/063-dead-neighbors-less
