It’s been a sec since we’ve heard from the freak folk carnival that is Akron/Family, and nearly as long since we’ve heard from lead guitarist Seth Olinsky. But on the distant heels of 2014’s Shake LP, the multi-instrumentalist has resurrected the Cy Dune moniker for a new release on his own Lightning Records, which will lead up to a proper sophomore LP in 2020.
The latest preview from Desert is “Just Kids,” which picks up where the domesticated math-rock guitar of Shake left off. Blending the reverent spirituality of Akron’s psychedelia and the chaotic good of a Nick Reinhart riff, the track actually pays homage to Patti Smith:
“I was profoundly moved by reading Patti Smith’s Just Kids,” Olinsky explains, “and it deeply inspired the whole Cy Dune and Lightning projects philosophically, spiritually, and artistically. Reading her book reignited a core passion in me, something I had explored and thought a lot about in Akron/Family, this idea that rock and roll can be a deep, powerful, and spiritual medium. I had been going in a very different direction with Cy Dune until I read that book and it set me one-eighty on a totally different path, which I am still on today. This song is born directly out of that moment.”
He continues, “While the song is titled Just Kids after Smith’s book, the musical and lyrical story is a personal story about the idea of our own generation’s time in New York City and beyond, and the humanism, romanticism, and humor inherent in creating, believing, and living your own myth—with a little nod to Dylan’s ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.’”
If you wanna get technical, Olinsky continues on the track’s sound: “The song’s rhythm and music are set electric by these concepts of the transcendent in rock and roll, the momentum propelled by a Gimbri-inspired electric guitar riff over a hypnotic, Howlin’ Wolf-meets-Swans stomp rhythm that alternates with the classic Bo Diddley beat. Andrew Barker’s drumming brings a frenetic free jazz energy to the track, and Shazad Ismaily’s Semi-Hollow Body Hofner bass playing with that flat-wound, dead-tone, and triplet rhythms elaborate on the Gimbri inspiration and then jut off in sporadic harmonic elaborations, almost channeling Phil Lesh to my ear at times. The guitar solo is exclamatory and sermon-esque, finding a space somewhere between the electricity of Highway 61 Michael Bloomfield-esque blinding stabs and Coltrane-esque sheets of sound.”
If that description wasn’t vivid enough for you, you can hear the song for yourself below. Desert is out June 7 on Lightning Records. You can pre-order it here.
