FRIDAY MAY 03, 2019
Sego
Sego’s 2nd long player Sego Sucks is woven with the changes of becoming a four-piece band. Originally Spencer Petersen and Thomas Carroll, the band added members Alyssa Davey on bass and Brandon McBride on guitars and keys in 2018. The sound became more focused, but the raucous spirit that has kept people sweating since the beginning is just as tangible and, dare I say, primal as ever.
Sego’s 2nd long player Sego Sucks is woven with the changes of becoming a four-piece band. Originally Spencer Petersen and Thomas Carroll, the band added members Alyssa Davey on bass and Brandon McBride on guitars and keys in 2018. The sound became more focused, but the raucous spirit that has kept people sweating since the beginning is just as tangible and, dare I say, primal as ever.
The Hipps
Released on Jan. 1, the Hipps’ “Take It Off My Hands” bears the distinction of being one of the first local singles to be released in 2019, and as journeys go it’s smooth sailing through rough, turbulent waters. Bathed as it is in jaunty guitars and breezy rhythms, the songs dark, confessional lyrics can be disarming like looking at childhood photos of an abusive family member. But even as the words cut and stab, the gentle vocals and cascading melodies ease the listener across the tumultuous divide. Overall, it’s smart pop songwriting done right with infectious hooks and enough shadows lurking in the corner that they threaten to snuff out the light.
Written by bandleader Nate Cain when he was in college, the song was originally intended to be a more abstract and metaphorical tale about a zombie falling in love with a human. But as often happens with creative endeavors, as time passed, his own personal demons began to emerge, forcing the track to take on a deeper, more philosophical perspective.
“I was very depressed, and also very internally self-judgmental at the time, so the song emerged completely different,” Cain explains. “It’s not really about my life as much as it’s about what I’ve witnessed as a human. It’s really about being a better person, and [how] it takes discovering our own true personality for ourselves, and other people helping you along the way to make it through life. In the song there are references to big examples of how NOT to do things: lying to people, hiding a relationship you don’t want others to know about, drinking, and self-pity… it all seems very sad and terrible. But really the song is a positive mantra of sorts—discover who you are, and ask for help when you need it.”
Released on Jan. 1, the Hipps’ “Take It Off My Hands” bears the distinction of being one of the first local singles to be released in 2019, and as journeys go it’s smooth sailing through rough, turbulent waters. Bathed as it is in jaunty guitars and breezy rhythms, the songs dark, confessional lyrics can be disarming like looking at childhood photos of an abusive family member. But even as the words cut and stab, the gentle vocals and cascading melodies ease the listener across the tumultuous divide. Overall, it’s smart pop songwriting done right with infectious hooks and enough shadows lurking in the corner that they threaten to snuff out the light.
Written by bandleader Nate Cain when he was in college, the song was originally intended to be a more abstract and metaphorical tale about a zombie falling in love with a human. But as often happens with creative endeavors, as time passed, his own personal demons began to emerge, forcing the track to take on a deeper, more philosophical perspective.
“I was very depressed, and also very internally self-judgmental at the time, so the song emerged completely different,” Cain explains. “It’s not really about my life as much as it’s about what I’ve witnessed as a human. It’s really about being a better person, and [how] it takes discovering our own true personality for ourselves, and other people helping you along the way to make it through life. In the song there are references to big examples of how NOT to do things: lying to people, hiding a relationship you don’t want others to know about, drinking, and self-pity… it all seems very sad and terrible. But really the song is a positive mantra of sorts—discover who you are, and ask for help when you need it.”
Semicircle
"Semicircle is a band from Georgia. Spearheaded by the efforts of Andrew McFarland and Ryan Engelberger, the band was borne out of Andrew's cassette project in Jan. 2010, (Semicircle EP. Since then Semicircle has taken many forms, from free-sound experiment, to solo singer/songwriter sets, to it's new life as a full band. Having grown up musically in Athens, the band relocated to Atlanta in 2012."
"Semicircle is a band from Georgia. Spearheaded by the efforts of Andrew McFarland and Ryan Engelberger, the band was borne out of Andrew's cassette project in Jan. 2010, (Semicircle EP. Since then Semicircle has taken many forms, from free-sound experiment, to solo singer/songwriter sets, to it's new life as a full band. Having grown up musically in Athens, the band relocated to Atlanta in 2012."
Trashclub
While Bunn (who also plays in L.A. indie-pop band Dead Times) and Andree (whose music has been featured on shows like Bad Girls Club & 16 and Pregnant) had originally planned to sit down and work on songs for other artists, they ended up saying screw it and defecting to Bunn’s practice space to just hang out and jam instead. “I woke up a little hung over, so all I could really do at that point was just go play shit loud,” laughs Bunn. “I couldn’t be in a sterile, two-computers-at-the-kitchen-
Discordant music certainly comprises a lot of what they grew up listening to: Though Bunn has produced everything from pop to hip-hop (working with artists like Jen Awad and r e l), in high school he fell hard for DIY punk, listening to a ton of Minor Threat and Fugazi. Andree, meanwhile, had a similarly eclectic upbringing, listening to a lot of ’90s pop music as a kid, then as a teenager branching out into punk (he namechecks MXPX & Pennywise) and hip-hop.
The duo’s partnership is now in full swing with TRASHCLUB, a garage-inspired dance-rock venture featuring Andree on vocals & guitar and Bunn on drums, percussion and backing vox. Sharing production duties, they’ve churned out more than a half-dozen of tracks, the first of which, disco-punk anthem “Out of My Head,” was recently featured on Showtime’s Shameless.
TRASHCLUB’s new debut EP, Black Out (coming March 10 from Position Music), showcases seven strident, hook-heavy rock & roll tracks that play as one hell of a soundtrack to young, reckless and freewheeling city life—albeit with a playfully gloomy and self-deprecating slant. The song “Crystal Chandelier,” Andree says, “is like party noir. It’s all about drinking to excess and not caring at all. But it’s definitely not like, ‘Yeahhh, party!’ It’s like, ‘Yeahhh, I’m blowing it again.’”
The band’s hometown of Los Angeles also had a strong impact on the sound of the new EP, especially its darker, seedier corners. “I’m a really big fan of Chinatown, the parts of Downtown L.A. that are super grimy,” Bunn says. “There are these restaurants that are completely dark on the inside—wood-paneled walls, black leather booths. Those are the spots I like to hang out, and we’re all about it on this record.”
With Black Out, Andree & Bunn have created a free-spirited give-no-fucks set of rock & roll tunes, unfettered by the narrow confines of commercial songwriting. “The most fun thing about this project for me—when we got together that first time to play,” Andree says, “we weren’t worried about coming up with something in a certain box. We’re just rocking out, making everything up as we went along."
While Bunn (who also plays in L.A. indie-pop band Dead Times) and Andree (whose music has been featured on shows like Bad Girls Club & 16 and Pregnant) had originally planned to sit down and work on songs for other artists, they ended up saying screw it and defecting to Bunn’s practice space to just hang out and jam instead. “I woke up a little hung over, so all I could really do at that point was just go play shit loud,” laughs Bunn. “I couldn’t be in a sterile, two-computers-at-the-kitchen-
Discordant music certainly comprises a lot of what they grew up listening to: Though Bunn has produced everything from pop to hip-hop (working with artists like Jen Awad and r e l), in high school he fell hard for DIY punk, listening to a ton of Minor Threat and Fugazi. Andree, meanwhile, had a similarly eclectic upbringing, listening to a lot of ’90s pop music as a kid, then as a teenager branching out into punk (he namechecks MXPX & Pennywise) and hip-hop.
The duo’s partnership is now in full swing with TRASHCLUB, a garage-inspired dance-rock venture featuring Andree on vocals & guitar and Bunn on drums, percussion and backing vox. Sharing production duties, they’ve churned out more than a half-dozen of tracks, the first of which, disco-punk anthem “Out of My Head,” was recently featured on Showtime’s Shameless.
TRASHCLUB’s new debut EP, Black Out (coming March 10 from Position Music), showcases seven strident, hook-heavy rock & roll tracks that play as one hell of a soundtrack to young, reckless and freewheeling city life—albeit with a playfully gloomy and self-deprecating slant. The song “Crystal Chandelier,” Andree says, “is like party noir. It’s all about drinking to excess and not caring at all. But it’s definitely not like, ‘Yeahhh, party!’ It’s like, ‘Yeahhh, I’m blowing it again.’”
The band’s hometown of Los Angeles also had a strong impact on the sound of the new EP, especially its darker, seedier corners. “I’m a really big fan of Chinatown, the parts of Downtown L.A. that are super grimy,” Bunn says. “There are these restaurants that are completely dark on the inside—wood-paneled walls, black leather booths. Those are the spots I like to hang out, and we’re all about it on this record.”
With Black Out, Andree & Bunn have created a free-spirited give-no-fucks set of rock & roll tunes, unfettered by the narrow confines of commercial songwriting. “The most fun thing about this project for me—when we got together that first time to play,” Andree says, “we weren’t worried about coming up with something in a certain box. We’re just rocking out, making everything up as we went along."