STL GLD Premieres New Music, Announce Album Release Show

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By Cliff Notez

STL GLD, is back after much success from their last project, Monday Morning Music, with “Wild Style”, the first single from their new album. I recently got to sit with these guys and listen to their album in its entirety, and when I say that this record couldn’t have come at a better time, especially in our country’s current political climate, I really mean it. STL GLD, headed by 2016 Boston Music Award’s Producer of the Year and two-time BMA Hip Hop Artist of the Year, Moe Pope, create a fusion better than any that Sayain could have, and called that shit Torch Song. 

“Wild Style”, is the first video and single from the new album. The single also features Christopher Talken and GaJah, shot by Niklas Weikert, and animated by Matt Watkins. Arcitype builds the ground work with the production, while Moe Pope builds on top of it, with his sidesplitting story telling about political injustice and police brutality.   

Torch Song features guest appearances from Monica Raymund (NBC’s Chicago Fire), Jared Evan, Frank The Butcher, Dutch Rebelle, Avenue & more, and is available February 17, 2017 on AR Classic Records with an Album Release Party/Show being hosted at the Middle East Upstairs on the same day. The show features performances by Avenue, Hite, and Rayel. Tixs are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.

 

 

INTERVIEW: John Andrews and The Yawns

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By Tim Gagnon
Photo by Ty Ueda

There’s something to love about a small New Hampshire town when your biggest first world problem might be deciding which of the two coffee shops within a ten mile radius to support.

But, speaking as a former NH resident, the isolation and process of learning how to restlessly cope during the unforgiving winters eventually burdens most transplants. For John Andrews though, a leap to the Granite State sounded like both a much needed change and a perfect fit for him and his band, The Yawns.

“The past few years, I just haven’t been able to relate to the city,” Andrews says over email. “I’ve lived in Boston and Philadelphia and I do appreciate a lot of the things cities have to offer, but I definitely find more peace in smaller towns and the country. I love the solitude.”

Andrews’ first full-length, Bit By The Fang, deceived its easygoing psychedelic exterior with a backstory of tour fatigue as a member of both Quilt and Woods as well as the dissolution of his living situation in the Amish country of Pennsylvania due to extensive touring. Bad Posture, his upcoming second album on Woodsist, seems to finally emphasize the ‘home’ in his home-recorded music in comparison, written “slowly & quietly throughout the winter” near a wood stove in Andrews’ New Hampshire farmhouse. When it came time to record in the spring, Andrews maintained his pastoral songwriting approach; the barn doors were kept ajar to allow the crickets and “occasional truck driving by” a chance to sing backup.

“I live with my band and my best friends, so I still have social interaction,” he assures, “[but] I moved to New Hampshire because I wanted to focus on my art as opposed to going out to bars.”

Posture’s first offering, “Drivers”, offers aching relation to tired truckers, culminating in Andrews exhaling its chorus, “I don’t know you no more, don’t owe you no more”, in seeming response to the nomadic lifestyle. Self-realization and plain acceptance feel like necessary functions in Andrews’ songwriting, both of which are prominently on display when asked about the album’s title.

“I have bad posture. It’s something I work on,” Andrews admits. “I try to stand up straight but sometimes a few minutes later, I just melt back down to where I was. It’s just human.”

The “Drivers” video plays at the lyrical notion of fighting off demons with a smirk, placing The Yawns’ drummer in a devil’s costume and challenging Andrews to a lake hockey game. Posture more earnestly tackles the demons of solitude with the inclusion of “Home Is Just As Good As Anyplace,” a cover of outsider Americana legend Biff Rose. Andrews says that Rose, who has been an acquaintance for about six years, cast a large shadow of influence over Posture and his songwriting as a whole since he was introduced.

“I listened to his first record, The Thorn in Mrs. Rose’s Side, when I was about 20 years old and it blew me away. The lyrical content is unbelievable, truly poetic. Some of my friends can’t fully get into the music because it is sort of eccentric at times, but I just embrace that the same way I embrace Daniel Johnston’s music. Biff has battled some demons the past few years of his life and, although I cannot always agree with him politically today, there was serious magic, innocence, and purity to his music way back when.”

The echoes of Rose’s innocence and purity in songwriting feel very much alive in Andrews’ homespun creations, even down to the film nostalgia of the “Drivers” video. Considering the video builds to a hockey fight that crowns Andrews victorious amongst angels and friends, I asked the self-proclaimed Bruins and Flyers fan to conclude by naming some of his favorite hockey fights.

“The most memorable hockey fight is when I beat Satan in the video!” Andrews cheekily retorts.

Considering he literally beat the devil and claimed the prize of playing music on a New Hampshire porch with friends, I concede that he might have a point.

Bad Posture is out on 3/10 via Woodsist. John Andrews and The Yawns will join fellow Woodsist act Hand Habits and Ryan Major & The Love Strangers at Lilypad Inman in Cambridge on Sunday, February 10th. For more information, check out the show page here.

TRACK PREMIERE: Whatever Whatever – “House Boy”

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By Jackie Swisshelm

 

A name like Whatever Whatever implies a sort of disenchanted attitude, but with their new single “House Boy”, the Boston-based band suggests they’re anything but. AP is delighted to premiere their single, especially because it’s a statement– not only musically but politically, as the quartet plans to donate any proceeds made within the first 24 hours of the it’s release to the ACLU.

Artistically, “House Boy,” which was produced by David Minehan at Converse Rubber Tracks, is a significant release for a band that’s so new to the Boston scene. With only a short, but buzzing, 3-song EP under their belt so far (check it), we know that the group’s still finding their sound. But Liz Duska’s voice is distinct and aggressive when need be. She holds her own, however melancholic. Duska says that the lyrics are inspired by the 1962 play “Who’s Afraid of Virigina Woolf?”, which details the breakdown of a middle-aged couple’s tempestuous marriage. “I loved Martha’s character as many people do,” Duska said, “so I wrote the lyrics mainly from her perspective.”

Any fans of “Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf?” might pick up on that rhetoric, but the song’s not entirely dependent on that one aspect. Over the buoyant slacker/alt rock made by guitarist Sam Matheson, bassist Caleb Matheson and drummer Will Butera, Whatever Whatever’s sound on “House Boy” realizes a couple different influences. There’s some early 90s alt. rock influences in there (think other Boston band, Letters to Cleo), and similarities to contemporary NY act Diet Cig. Overall, the single is solid and strategic– as if they’re telling us to look forward to some upcoming projects.

But don’t take my word for it, listen to “House Boy” for yourself via bandcamp below. And see Whatever Whatever play next Monday, February 13th, at O’Brien’s, alongside Stains of a Sunflower, Chloe Jane, and Melissa Weikart. Tickets here.

TRACK PREMIERE: Doctors & Lawyers – “Half Moons”

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By Allston Pudding Staff

 

Doctors and Lawyers is premiering “Half Moons”, their second single off of their new album, Impossible Problem. The track explores a reflective, darker corner of the album, than “Extralist”, the single that we shared last week. 

“Half Moons”, along with the rest of the album, was recorded in a cabin in Georgia and the influence of their environment seeps through, sonically. The organic quality of the deep muffled lyrics amongst the chiming riffs, is something reminiscent to Alex G. Mixed by David Barbe (Deerhunter, R.E.M.) and mastered by Harris Newman (Wolf Parade, Ought), it is easy to tell that the band was pushed to their brightest potential.

Impossible Problem will be released on February 16th, but in the meantime, time travel to the summer of 2013 when Doctors and Lawyers shared their track, “Sixty Miles” on our Localz Only mixtape.
    

Artist Profile // Delicate Steve

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by Ethan Hoffman-Sadka

Steve Marion is sort of an enigma in this scene of ours. He’s been making great music for years now and has even played guitar on tracks for legends such as Paul Simon-yet a lot of people still don’t know anything about the guy. 

I remember my first time seeing Delicate Steve and almost being as frazzled as I was excited. An indie-rock band with no vocalist? No way. It was a breath of fresh air. But Steve will be the first to let you know he is no instrumentalist- Steve is a producer, and a great one at that. His latest album, “This Is Steve”, is only more of a testament to that. While reverting back to his earlier, more spontaneous production methods (creating an entire album in his bedroom over 10 days), Steve simultaneously fuses all the brilliant new techniques he’s gathered over the years, delivering an album that is energetic, youthful, inspired and refined all at once. Check out our artist profile on Steve below and be sure to catch him at the Middle East tonight:

 

Old School Game Show Takes On The Wilbur

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By Becca DeGregorio

Photo by Roger Gordy

Take a cup of comedy and add equal parts video, dance, live music, burlesque and essence of Match Game, Family Feud and Wheel of Fortune. Blend with vodka, and pour over the head of Steve Harvey. Welcome to Old School Game Show, you beautiful weirdo. 

In it’s fourth year running, the local alt-variety show takes on The Wilbur for its very first time THIS SATURDAY (2/4), and with the new stage will come some fresh elements as well: new games, new characters, new antics and a guest performance from Will Dailey! No new cars. We apologize.

In all seriousness though, executive producer and actress Ginny Nightshade says Old School Game Show is a unique showcase blending all kinds of local art scenes together. The cast is comprised of roughly 20 area musicians, dancers and comedians with their own followings. “Playing a big venue like The Wilbur gives us an opportunity to show a larger audience all that we have to offer,” says Nightshade, “We’re pulling out all the stops.”

Snag tickets here.

A Decade on All Fours: A Conversation With Hands and Knees

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By Allie Miller

Hands and Knees are four friends from the Boston area: Joe O’Brien, Carina Grunam, Scott Hoffman, and Nick Brannigan.

Since 2003, they’ve been putting out americana-tinged songs with an endlessly positive spirit and funny, non sequitur album titles like 2009’s Et tu, Fluffy and last year’s Count to a Million Pineapples. Their upbeat acoustic songs capture the spirit of friends looking to proudly pay homage to classics like Chuck Berry and The Beatles, leading O’Brien to dub their sound “old-school indie rock.”

Although the band have remained loyal to Boston through the years, O’Brien’s history with Hands and Knees starts with a friendship born out in the Southwest.

“I met Carina out in New Mexico. She was out there for Americorp,” O’Brien recalls of the band’s beginnings. “A few years later, I moved back to Massachusetts, Carina moved back, and Carina was friends with Scott. We started hanging out and writing and recording music.”

Hands and Knees’ fateful first practice happened fourteen years ago this year. Since then, they’ve made six albums, all of which were recorded locally at studios such as Ghost Town in Shelburne and The Soul Shop in Medford. O’Brien is the main songwriter and creative force in the band, but he insists it’s always been a team effort when the band finishes songs in practice.

“It’s better when all the musicians have creative input in a song, but I respect my bandmates’ rights, so I leave parts blank,” explains O’Brien of the band’s process. “In earlier records, my favorite songs are the ones we wrote collaboratively. I think we are super strong songwriters when we collaborate.”

On their aforementioned earlier albums, Hands and Knees’ music has a carefree vibe, verging on becoming blissfully aimless. O’Brien and Grunam’s vocals never exactly mesh in harmony, but their duets result in campfire-y chants. This chemistry is the result of a group who truly exemplify the mindset of being friends before bandmates.

“I see them all more than I play music with them,” says O’Brien. “There’s no type of professional musician relationship here.”

The self-image of an unprofessional band hasn’t always been a positive for Hands and Knees. In earlier years, O’Brien mentions that the band was unmotivated, which might have kept them from reaching larger audiences.

“I think we’ve always been a band that moves kind of in slow motion. I think if you’re in a band in your early 20’s and you’re starting a band… it’s probably good to be ambitious in a certain way,” says O’Brien. “Not ambitious as an artist, but ambitious in the sense that you want people to hear your stuff.”

However, O’Brien believes that Hands and Knees’ presently laid-back mindset gives them endurance.

“I think we’ve always been a band that moves kind of in slow motion.”

“We all get along and whatever, it’s worked out generally speaking for this long,” says O’Brien. “The band thing is like a relationship type of thing. I think that we will keep going as long as people want to do.”

Their long-term relationship certainly contributes to the band’s longevity. While some bands are more aspirational, O’Brien remarks that “probably their bands don’t last 10 years.”

“We’ve certainly outlived a lot of bands that we’ve been playing with,” says O’Brien.

In discussing the band’s longevity, O’Brien intentionally cites Boston area acts who stick around for decades as his inspiration. One group he admires are the hosts of MIT Radio’s “The Scene,” who, for decades, remained bandmates as well as good friends.

“On Friday mornings on WMBR, there is this show with members of the band Bevis Frond. They’ve been around since the ‘80s and they’ve made, like, twenty records. [It’s] so heartwarming to listen to these old chums cracking each other up,” says on O’Brien.

Also among O’Brien’s recent inspirations is a relatively younger band to the Boston scene: The Monsieurs.

“They’ve been in a bunch of bands, they’ve always been sort of rock and roll people, [but] the Monsieurs have only been around for a few years or so. It’s just inspiring to me for them to start a new project with so much energy… that’s so awesome and fresh to me ‘at their age.’”

Along with an ever-shifting scene of bands, O’Brien’s been around long enough to watch the many changes to Boston’s DIY venues. They recently played an LP release show for Count to a Million Pineapples at a private Somerville house show, but kept the info on the down low in the wake of the Oakland GhostShip fire.

“We’ve played a bunch of house shows,” says O’Brien, “but we aren’t promoting [our next] house show publically because the Boston police have cracked down on house shows a lot.”

Despite the police’s entanglement in house shows over what O’Brien calls the “DIY issues of the time,” Boston house shows been a mainstay of Hands and Knees’ career.

“The small club/shitty sound/basement show is where we’ve been at,” says O’Brien. “I like the DIY non-profit type of thing rather than the bar thing.”

As the Boston scene has changed, so too has Hands and Knees’ mindset for touring in the interest of their ever-growing families.

“Three of us now have children, so we’ve not been touring as we once did. We played in New York last year or something, but we typically have been booking shows recently because we just sort of wait and play shows we wanna play.”

While O’Brien says having kids means he sees Grunnam surprisingly more often (their children are around the same age and friends themselves), it also takes up time.

“I think that once people have kids, because your time gets reduced quite a bit, you tend to prioritize what is important to you,” says O’Brien. “We pretty much just stick around town. Maybe when our little children get older, we’ll go out again. That would be nice.”

As for Hands and Knees’ future, there is no end in sight.

“I think that we will keep going as long as people want us to. I will continue to write songs because it’s important to me,” says O’Brien. “I think that as long as the music and the making of songs is still important and moves you, I don’t see why you would stop.”

Hands and Knees will be playing the Lilypad in Cambridge on March 11th.

A Post-Inauguration Guide By Priests

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By Lauren Moquin

By Audrey Melton

Priests have always pushed political commentary to the forefront and their new album, Nothing Feels Natural, is no exception. Amongst strong perspective on cultural appropriation, science deniers, and materialism, perhaps the most striking statements are those revealing self-worth. Emphasizing the power of every individual’s words, both negative and positive, demands urgency, especially the cry of vocalist Katie Alice Greer in “Puff”.

“Any colorless technician can pull the knob, touch the right thing/ I don’t think that you care about anything/ Why would you applaud such uninteresting social climbing/ Even the emperor’s new clothes made a scene,” Greer proclaims.

The sharp political narratives reveal a personal responsibility and possibility that carves out a definitive call to action. It only feels right that Priests have released such an album on their own label, Sister Polygon Records. Every aspect of the album was taken on their own terms, but the one straining decision was the choice in studio. This past summer, the album was tracked at Inner Ear Studios in Virginia with Hugh McElroy and Kevin Erickson, two people who have worked with Priests previously. But it took a year of drafting to come to that point.

“We learned about how important it is to record in the ‘right’ studio for your band,” guitarist, Taylor Mulitz explained, “It’s like that triangle. You can get only two points. You can get something good and fast but not cheap, you can get something cheap and fast but not good, you get the idea.”

The result is something sonically diverse, scattered with piano and cello with plenty of R&B influence. As they told musician friends how Nothing Feels Natural was intended to sound, they fleshed out their own rich undertones, anchoring the band’s messages in more clarity than ever.

Priests members Daniele Daniele (drums), Katie Alice Greer (vocals), G.L. Jaguar (guitar), and Taylor Mulitz (bass) have provided some suggestions on how to be politically productive under our new president. The questions are based on lyrics from their song,  “Pink White House”.

 
POST-INAUGURATION GUIDE 
  
   – “Feel Like You Participate” –
Which organizations should we be donating to and if we do not have the funds, how can we contribute?
 Jaguar: Find a local organization and see if you can volunteer a bit of time. Working on a local level you can usually reach people who need a hand faster.
 Mulitz: Call your legislators. It’s important to call your designated congress person or senator because they only really take into account their own constituents. Also, don’t forget that self-care is a huge part of the greater struggle for resistance. You have to take care of yourself.
 Greer: We hosted a party for friends of our record label (Sister Polygon Records) recently and it was free of course, so we asked everyone to bring some extra cash for the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. CAIR is an incredible organization that steps in when Arab Americans have been detained for no reason other than their name or skin color. If you’re arrested at the airport and have to spend any period of time in a holding cell, you’re probably losing income from work, your family has hired an attorney, and all of these things become incredibly expensive. Not to mention how terrifying it is to be inexplicably apprehended by the police, which we all know is an institution designed to uphold white supremacy. 
Daniele: Damn Katie, looking back that was a prescient choice. Especially considering Trump’s ban on people coming here from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Reading about all the people detained in airports today was so so upsetting.

– “Write A Letter”-
The amount of executive orders that have been signed and urgent calls to action can be overwhelming. Where and how should we be directing our voices?
Mulitz: I wish I knew the answer. 
Greer: Make time for reading the news right now, even just 30 minutes a day on a specific issue. There is a ban on Muslims entering the US right now, even Muslims who fucking LIVE here. The federal government is trying to figure out how to dismantle and defund the NEA (National Education Association). Plans for the Dakota Access Pipeline are underway again, after a month of most people thinking that would cease. Send money to Standing Rock. Be thoughtful about the information you’re sharing on social media platforms (literally thoughtful, like consider your security and the security of others. Also consider what are worthwhile subjects to be talking about with friends right now).

 – “Throw Your Shoe”-
Many people cannot help, but feel anger towards the current political climate of our country. How should we channel those feelings?
Greer: I wanna talk a moment to repeat something I heard the other day when I was on a panel with Olivia from Girl Power Meetups in D.C.. She said it is important to remember that we don’t need new leaders right now as much as we need to look inside ourselves and find the leader inside each of us. I often think of a similar sentiment when answering questions as someone in a band, nobody needs cultural figures to tell them what to do, really. I am just like anybody else, grappling with answering these questions for myself. Having said that, I will quote Solange on this one: “Be mad”. Feel that fire and intensity and learn how to channel it into something you want, for yourself and for others. Anger is like a kind of magic, if you’re not careful it’ll fuck you up. But if you learn how to use your anger, and keep it with you, it is (for me at least) a much more generative fuel than sadness. Anger gets me out of bed because I have to fix the problem.

 – “Consider The Options Of A Binary”-
How can we conduct a productive conversation with people who hold views that stand on the opposite end of the binary?
Greer: Seeing the world as a gradient, rather than a starkly black and white place, can open up some possibilities for dialogue where they didn’t exist before.

 
Priests play Great Scott on Saturday, February 4th with Snail Mail and Halfsour. Doors are at 9pm, tickets are $14, and it’s a 21+ show.

Mixed Bills Aren’t Impossible, They’re Ideal

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By Dan Bogosian
B/W Photos by Madison McConkey, Color Photo by Corwin Wickersham

The headliner is this band from Philadelphia that sounds like Pavement; the main support, this band from New York that sounds like Pavement. The openers are these bands from Boston that sound like Pavement. Some may look at that and think, “how fitting.”

I look at it and get bored.

The truth of the matter is that most promoters don’t book mixed bills not because combining multiple genres doesn’t work, but because succeeding with a mixed bill takes work. When you get an all punk (or all folk, or all metal, or all synth pop, or whatever) lineup, you are catering to a specific crowd: the punks, the folkies, the metalheads, the people whose first thought when they hear “LFO” is Low Frequency Oscillator and not that boy band from the 90s who ripped off “More than Words” (whatever, I never wore Abercrombie & Fitch… make like a Kit Kat and give me a break.)

A single genre bill is surely an easier path to getting people in the door: you can put four punk bands the local scene has heard of on the bill and get the draw equivalent of one nationally touring punk band… but does this really help any of the bands? The ultimate aim of the headliner is to sell as much merch as possible; the ultimate aim of everyone on the undercard is to get in front of as many people as possible. Does uniformity allow these aims to be met every time?

I’m not sure it does. When you cater to one genre group, most other people have already either seen the bands and know how they feel, or haven’t and might hesitate on seeing a bunch of bands they don’t know. This doesn’t help the undercard, and it might sell a few more tickets, but wouldn’t a good bill of mixed genres do the same thing? What’s more exciting: five similar sounding Pavement knockoffs or five good bands of different genres?

 
(Sorry, Stephen.)

There is obviously something inherently interesting about getting a funk band that local music fans enjoy, an acclaimed local songwriter, and a punk band that moves local punk fans together on one bill.

The trouble in that isn’t in the mixed bill, it’s in the excitement: if one (let alone more than one) band isn’t an act that makes people say “I want to see them live,” you could make the 30 or 40 people on the verge of going to the gig all decide not to. But on the other hand, if you get a mixed bill where every band is worth seeing and has at least reached an “I’ve heard of them” level in your area, you’re more likely to get everyone from all different groups to go.

A common trap without mixed bills is booking the same bands over and over: each scene only has a handful of bands with a legitimate draw, so those bands then tend to get all the gigs of that genre. The Local Alt Band opens up for all the Alt Bands, the Local Punk Band opens up for all the Punk Bands, the Local Folk Band opens up for all the Folk Bands, and so it goes. But this cuts off the other local bands from building up and having a draw themselves. One good way for local bands to work around this is to legitimately promote the hell out of their gigs, and even if no one extra shows up, odds are the promoters will still notice the work put in and try to get you on other gigs.

What can’t happen on a mixed bill is any band being lazy. In 2017, every band posts on social media about their upcoming gig. That is the minimum a band can do. When a band complains that no one went to their gig and all they did was post on social media, you are hearing the music scene equivalent of a “nice guy” getting rejected by a woman and saying, “…but I was nice to her!” Congratulations, you did the literal bare minimum expected of you as a human. Maybe people would be more interested in your band if you posted flyers for your gig at other venues, went to enough shows that people knew you as a figurehead of the scene, gave out your demo for free until people listened, had some cool art around town or shirts that made people want to check you out, and/or if you blared your music until someone told you to turn it down (or turn it up).

There are a million ways to promote, but in person seems to be the best way. When bands merely tweet and post on Facebook, they’re not necessarily doing any work that will make anyone want to book them again. When a promoter books a mixed bill, they need bands that will promote in the real world; with a single genre bill, one or two slackers can pass.

Same goes with the promoter themselves. If you book Pile, Speedy Ortiz, Kal Marks, and a local rock band no one’s heard of, that show is going to do well whether the promoter does any work or not. It’ll take a bit of work to combine Speedy Ortiz with a cool punk band and a folk act people have been talking about, but a little bit of work will go a long way – the work is required though.

Mixed bills can actually help build smaller, unheard-of bands better than one-genre bills can. Until a band has a draw – its own brand and core identity figured out – every band should be trying to play in front of as many different audiences as possible. You might be a metal band, but you might be a metal band that only punks like because your lyrics are more political. You might be a soul act, but you might be a soul act that only prog rock fans dig because you write in weird time signatures. You might be a singer/songwriter, but you might be a singer/songwriter only metalheads like because all of your lyrics praise Satan. (If that’s the case, please email me your Bandcamp.) Bands will never know until they’re already there and any act who says otherwise is kidding you.

With all of that said, I’ll always expect most shows to be one-genre shows… and that’s okay. But I don’t aim for any of the shows I book to be that way. When I think of my favorite moments in music, I think of when Jelani Sei, an emo-funk group, opened up for Slingshot Dakota at a pizza shop, or when Pile played with math rock band Giraffes? Giraffes! in Western Mass, or when I got to play a show with both Mal Devisa and Animal Flag.

Combining different genres can literally be a mixed bag. But when every act is different, every act is more memorable. That helps the promoter, that helps the bands, and that helps the show. It just takes work.

Dan Bogosian is a full time musician, freelance writer, and part time promoter in Connecticut. He plays bass and guitar in Connecticut rock band Spillway, keyboard and synth in Boston punk act Fightsong, and bass in garage rock band Ruckie. His bylines include GQ, Pitchfork, and now Allston Pudding… obviously.

TRACK PREMIERE: Doctors and Lawyers – “Extratist”

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By Mary Kate McGrath 

Take a deep breath – the week is almost done. If you need some escape to get you through the last leg of this one, put on your biggest headphones and disappear into Doctors and Lawyers’ single, “Extratist”.  If nothing else, the hypnotic refrain of “simple days” should be soothing. The band has a deep and introspective sound that allows you to become entirely submerged in their sound. By mixing Arcade Fire-esque vocals with jangling guitars, and by setting the whole ordeal to a slower tempo. the band has created the a unique flowing world that will carry you into the weekend. 

This song is the band’s first time releasing music since putting out their full-length album, “Rocky Neck” in 2013. “Extralist” is taken off their forthcoming release “Impossible Problem”. The album was recorded in Georgia and it was mixed by David Barbe, who has also worked with Deerhunter and R.E.M, and mastered by Harris Newman, notable for his work with Wolf Parade and Ought. The band considers the Boston scene their home base, so be sure to keep an eye out for them around town. If you were a fan of the retro sounding tracks from the groups last release, dabble in this new song. It’s perhaps more serene, but definitely as captivating. 

Check out the song below, and stop back in again next week for another track from the band’s upcoming album, Impossible Problem to be released on February 16th.