Indie rock is still a very good thing.
Case in point: Brooklyn band UV Rays, who’ve opened the floodgates of creativity all over their red-hot new EP, Try and Begin.
This wealth of new ideas are the result of guitarist and main songwriter Adrien DeFontaine loosening the reins and letting his bandmates get involved.
“I wanted the songwriting to be a more democratic experience,” DeFontaine explained in a press statement. “Early on, what people reacted to was seeing the four of us playing off each other live. That chemistry, and making something together that we couldn’t possibly do on our own, is what’s most exciting to me.”
As a result, DeFontaine’s penchant for contemporary Japanese rock bands like Tricot and The Cabs is now tuned up with drummer Erica Warner’s passion for Katy Perry’s arena-rock melodies and bassist Tim Marchetta-Wood’s leanings towards the unorthodoxy of Deerhoof and Mitski.
Put it all together and we’re now gifted with four power-packed tracks of highly carbonated indie rock buzzing with fresh energy and hooks for days.
The EP blasts right out of the gate with the melodic wall of sound that is “Flowerhead,” which features the cutting vocals of Erica Warner celebrating the feeling of being “comfortable enough with someone that you can be 100 percent your weirdest self in front of them.”
Guitarist Danny Sullivan makes his presence felt on the intricate “Existential Dread,” featuring layers of intertwined guitar lines shared with DeFontaine.
“Our first two singles were very lo-fi/DIY sketches. Like, put some mics up in the room, ‘this is the vibe, now can we play some shows already?’ kind of thing,” DeFontaine explained via email. “For this first EP, we wanted to see what it’d be like to really go for it— turn the amps up, make the drums huge, put the vocals right in your face and say ‘Hey! This is what our band’s about.’”
UV Rays’ Try and Begin EP will be accompanied by an East Coast tour, so those of us west of Appalachia will have to wait just a little bit longer to get a live fix. In the meantime, dig into these four tracks of block-rocking goodness and remember why you got into indie rock in the first place.
