FRIDAY JUN 01, 2018
529 Presents:
529 Tenth Anniversary:
Tom Cheshire & Friends
The Pinx | Shepherds (LP Release Show!) | Vincas
The Pinx
Sisters & Brothers (April 12th) is the upcoming third album by the Atlanta, Georgia-based ROCK band (all-caps for a reason!), The Pinx. Sisters & Brothers follows-up 2016’s Freedom, which PASTE called “an authentic tribute to classic American rock and roll.”
The new record could have been titled The Pinx: LIVE instead.
The basic tracks for this new collection of songs (save for the closing 42-second lock groove comprised solely of the soothing sounds of its namesake) were recorded live in the studio, including band leader Adam McIntyre’s insistent vocals. The dueling Allman Brothers-esque guitar leads of McIntyre and Chance McColl happen to sound particularly majestic in this setting. The current lineup of The Pinx is fleshed out by Charles Wiles on Bass and Cayce Buttrey on Drums.
“I wanted the audience to enjoy a rock and roll band doing what a rock and roll band does,” McIntyre says of his intentions behind the process of recording Sisters & Brothers. Harmony vocals, guitar solos and extra “studio magic” came later courtesy of two magicians (producers Brian Carter and Joey Jones), marking a departure for McIntyre, who is used to wearing all of the hats.
“I’ve tried to be the singer, lead guitarist, frontman, songwriter, producer, engineer and mixer,” he says of his past recordings, “but Sisters & Brothers is a tale of letting two talented engineers do their work while we did ours as a band.” That said, it was still McIntyre’s idea to bring Carter and Jones together.
“Brian likes hooks, melody, bombast and fire,” McIntyre explains. “His productions always capture something in the atmosphere, something golden. Joey usually records a sound that is indisputably metal, but the first thing you notice about those albums is how beautiful they sound. I was gambling that if I brought Brian and Joey together, we’d make a one-of-a-kind recording that I couldn’t do by myself.”
The gamble paid off this time around as Sisters & Brothers sounds like the legit combination of the styles of the men that McIntyre placed at the helm. The songs here are undeniably melodic and hummable, but it’s as if you’re tapping along while careening towards a brick wall. Sisters & Brothers embodies elegance within chaos.
In addition to McIntyre’s artistic inspirations behind handing over production chores, he also did it for the sake of his mental health, confessing that he’d “be setting my band up for failure” if he had handled the job himself. The “extremely stressful year” that preceded the recording of Sisters & Brothers is reflected in the dark turn of the tunes.
“Freedom was a party record, but Sisters & Brothers is for darker times,” McIntyre explains. “That’s not a bad thing, though. Darkness is important.”
That said, the new album opens with a final party moment to draw listeners in before taking them on a decidedly more turbulent trek than The Pinx has offered before.
“It was going to be the most party-like song on the record, so I led off with it,” McIntyre says of “Mercy!,” which is also the album’s first single.
“I was somewhere out of town about to play a show, talking to someone, when a lady slapped my ass,” he remembers of the incident that inspired the song. “I’ve worked in enough restaurants where that kind of thing was rampant, so I just kind of turned my head while I kept talking and watched as this lady turned ghost white when she realized she’d slapped a stranger on the ass, not her husband. She apologized later.”
Another upcoming single is “Magic Touch,” a McIntyre/McColl co-write. Of the music, McColl breaks it down, explaining, “The verse is upbeat, maybe even pop, and the turnaround is pure Paul Stanley/Ace Frehley.” He continues with the tech, saying, “The solo is composed in movements, much like a classic Boston song, and then Adam adds some frenzy on top of my melodic lines.”
The song is already a multi-layered epic, containing yet another of the album’s striking guitar duels, and it’s only strengthened by McIntyre’s lyrics, which allude to the more introspective nature of the album.
“The wrong person can come along and say they can solve all your problems, and then the right person can come along and say that you should solve your own problems,” McIntyre explains, candidly. “My girlfriend encouraged me to look inside myself and align my behaviors with my ideals to do a better job of creating and following my own code. We all have the ‘magic touch’ when it comes down to it, but how hard are you willing to work on it?”
Magic has been mentioned often in discussing Sisters & Brothers, and it’s apparent when listening to the album that not only has McIntyre learned to let others wear some hats with great results, he’s also continuing to work pretty damn hard to pull some rabbits out of the ones he’s got left.
Sisters & Brothers, the third album by Atlanta-based ROCK band, The Pinx, arrives on April 12th, preceded by the singles “Mercy!,” “Magic Touch,” and the title track.
Sisters & Brothers (April 12th) is the upcoming third album by the Atlanta, Georgia-based ROCK band (all-caps for a reason!), The Pinx. Sisters & Brothers follows-up 2016’s Freedom, which PASTE called “an authentic tribute to classic American rock and roll.”
The new record could have been titled The Pinx: LIVE instead.
The basic tracks for this new collection of songs (save for the closing 42-second lock groove comprised solely of the soothing sounds of its namesake) were recorded live in the studio, including band leader Adam McIntyre’s insistent vocals. The dueling Allman Brothers-esque guitar leads of McIntyre and Chance McColl happen to sound particularly majestic in this setting. The current lineup of The Pinx is fleshed out by Charles Wiles on Bass and Cayce Buttrey on Drums.
“I wanted the audience to enjoy a rock and roll band doing what a rock and roll band does,” McIntyre says of his intentions behind the process of recording Sisters & Brothers. Harmony vocals, guitar solos and extra “studio magic” came later courtesy of two magicians (producers Brian Carter and Joey Jones), marking a departure for McIntyre, who is used to wearing all of the hats.
“I’ve tried to be the singer, lead guitarist, frontman, songwriter, producer, engineer and mixer,” he says of his past recordings, “but Sisters & Brothers is a tale of letting two talented engineers do their work while we did ours as a band.” That said, it was still McIntyre’s idea to bring Carter and Jones together.
“Brian likes hooks, melody, bombast and fire,” McIntyre explains. “His productions always capture something in the atmosphere, something golden. Joey usually records a sound that is indisputably metal, but the first thing you notice about those albums is how beautiful they sound. I was gambling that if I brought Brian and Joey together, we’d make a one-of-a-kind recording that I couldn’t do by myself.”
The gamble paid off this time around as Sisters & Brothers sounds like the legit combination of the styles of the men that McIntyre placed at the helm. The songs here are undeniably melodic and hummable, but it’s as if you’re tapping along while careening towards a brick wall. Sisters & Brothers embodies elegance within chaos.
In addition to McIntyre’s artistic inspirations behind handing over production chores, he also did it for the sake of his mental health, confessing that he’d “be setting my band up for failure” if he had handled the job himself. The “extremely stressful year” that preceded the recording of Sisters & Brothers is reflected in the dark turn of the tunes.
“Freedom was a party record, but Sisters & Brothers is for darker times,” McIntyre explains. “That’s not a bad thing, though. Darkness is important.”
That said, the new album opens with a final party moment to draw listeners in before taking them on a decidedly more turbulent trek than The Pinx has offered before.
“It was going to be the most party-like song on the record, so I led off with it,” McIntyre says of “Mercy!,” which is also the album’s first single.
“I was somewhere out of town about to play a show, talking to someone, when a lady slapped my ass,” he remembers of the incident that inspired the song. “I’ve worked in enough restaurants where that kind of thing was rampant, so I just kind of turned my head while I kept talking and watched as this lady turned ghost white when she realized she’d slapped a stranger on the ass, not her husband. She apologized later.”
Another upcoming single is “Magic Touch,” a McIntyre/McColl co-write. Of the music, McColl breaks it down, explaining, “The verse is upbeat, maybe even pop, and the turnaround is pure Paul Stanley/Ace Frehley.” He continues with the tech, saying, “The solo is composed in movements, much like a classic Boston song, and then Adam adds some frenzy on top of my melodic lines.”
The song is already a multi-layered epic, containing yet another of the album’s striking guitar duels, and it’s only strengthened by McIntyre’s lyrics, which allude to the more introspective nature of the album.
“The wrong person can come along and say they can solve all your problems, and then the right person can come along and say that you should solve your own problems,” McIntyre explains, candidly. “My girlfriend encouraged me to look inside myself and align my behaviors with my ideals to do a better job of creating and following my own code. We all have the ‘magic touch’ when it comes down to it, but how hard are you willing to work on it?”
Magic has been mentioned often in discussing Sisters & Brothers, and it’s apparent when listening to the album that not only has McIntyre learned to let others wear some hats with great results, he’s also continuing to work pretty damn hard to pull some rabbits out of the ones he’s got left.
Sisters & Brothers, the third album by Atlanta-based ROCK band, The Pinx, arrives on April 12th, preceded by the singles “Mercy!,” “Magic Touch,” and the title track.
Shepherds (LP Release Show!)
The healing hand and surgeon’s scalpel are intertwined on Shepherds’ new album Insignificant Whip. The art-rock masterpiece encases the band’s vulnerable wisdom in flighty melodies that burn with intimacy and fragility as singer/lyricists Jonathan Merenivitch and Adrian Benedykt Świtoń address everything from toxic masculinity and Catholic guilt to Youtube comments and Tupac Shakur. Since their 2011 EP Holy Stain, the band have received accolades for their taut analyses of social ills and the resulting strain on body and mind, but even the skeletal no-wave that defined their early sound was bound with, in the broadest sense of the word, soul. The band’s ability to confront their deepest insecurities and doubts is more than simple catharsis, it serves to illuminate deeper questions of existence and identity, and frame them in context of systemic oppression, discrimination, and isolation.
The minimalism which guided Shepherds’ earlier work has evolved into lush, expansive compositions thanks to founding bassist Peter Cauthorn, who helped flesh out the LP’s identity as a core contributor to the album’s instrumental textures. Vocalist and drummer Świtoń also took on a central role in the recording process, contributing his voice and songwriting talents to the the album’s pensive hue, while new additions Ryan York (drums), May Tabol (guitar, keyboards), and Vinny Restivo (bass) round out the live band. Moments on Insignificant Whip recall everything from Felt to Josef K, but Shepherds have a keen ability to write post-punk which is modern and prescient rather than a simple homage to a particular era of underground music. The martial rhythms still echo with the proletariat fever of their 2015 LP Exit Youth, but now the lyrics are delivered over thrilling saxophone melodies and deliberative chords, making them all the more haunting, thanks to production from Drew Vandenburg (Toro Y Moi, Mothers, Of Montreal).
Throughout Insignificant Whip, the introspective nature of Shepherds is amplified by a holistic understanding of what it means to be human. The anxieties of adulthood, the teenage desires deferred, and the crushing weight of evil in the world are forged into vulnerable psalms. It’s precisely in these tear-stained moments that the album surpasses the encroaching anxiety as Shepherds invite the listener into a community which tempers the surrounding darkness and pushes back against oppression with resolute empathy.
The healing hand and surgeon’s scalpel are intertwined on Shepherds’ new album Insignificant Whip. The art-rock masterpiece encases the band’s vulnerable wisdom in flighty melodies that burn with intimacy and fragility as singer/lyricists Jonathan Merenivitch and Adrian Benedykt Świtoń address everything from toxic masculinity and Catholic guilt to Youtube comments and Tupac Shakur. Since their 2011 EP Holy Stain, the band have received accolades for their taut analyses of social ills and the resulting strain on body and mind, but even the skeletal no-wave that defined their early sound was bound with, in the broadest sense of the word, soul. The band’s ability to confront their deepest insecurities and doubts is more than simple catharsis, it serves to illuminate deeper questions of existence and identity, and frame them in context of systemic oppression, discrimination, and isolation.
The minimalism which guided Shepherds’ earlier work has evolved into lush, expansive compositions thanks to founding bassist Peter Cauthorn, who helped flesh out the LP’s identity as a core contributor to the album’s instrumental textures. Vocalist and drummer Świtoń also took on a central role in the recording process, contributing his voice and songwriting talents to the the album’s pensive hue, while new additions Ryan York (drums), May Tabol (guitar, keyboards), and Vinny Restivo (bass) round out the live band. Moments on Insignificant Whip recall everything from Felt to Josef K, but Shepherds have a keen ability to write post-punk which is modern and prescient rather than a simple homage to a particular era of underground music. The martial rhythms still echo with the proletariat fever of their 2015 LP Exit Youth, but now the lyrics are delivered over thrilling saxophone melodies and deliberative chords, making them all the more haunting, thanks to production from Drew Vandenburg (Toro Y Moi, Mothers, Of Montreal).
Throughout Insignificant Whip, the introspective nature of Shepherds is amplified by a holistic understanding of what it means to be human. The anxieties of adulthood, the teenage desires deferred, and the crushing weight of evil in the world are forged into vulnerable psalms. It’s precisely in these tear-stained moments that the album surpasses the encroaching anxiety as Shepherds invite the listener into a community which tempers the surrounding darkness and pushes back against oppression with resolute empathy.
Vincas
Athens, Georgia is rich with an ever-evolving and burgeoning undeground music scene and the self released "Blood Bleeds" LP by Vincas is further proof of the stellar things happening in the American South. Vincas deal in scuzzed out psychedelic punk fireballs in the broad shouldered tradition of The Scientists, The Gun Club and the art damaged frenzied space rock of The Telescopes and High Rise. They've upped the feedback squalor, infused a hefty rhythmic pulse with a muscular dexterity and topped it off with an Alan Vega snarl. "Blood Bleeds" rams full speed ahead with a surly debauched swamp-groove psych-raunch that is always welcome to our ears." - Permanent Records
Athens, Georgia is rich with an ever-evolving and burgeoning undeground music scene and the self released "Blood Bleeds" LP by Vincas is further proof of the stellar things happening in the American South. Vincas deal in scuzzed out psychedelic punk fireballs in the broad shouldered tradition of The Scientists, The Gun Club and the art damaged frenzied space rock of The Telescopes and High Rise. They've upped the feedback squalor, infused a hefty rhythmic pulse with a muscular dexterity and topped it off with an Alan Vega snarl. "Blood Bleeds" rams full speed ahead with a surly debauched swamp-groove psych-raunch that is always welcome to our ears." - Permanent Records