The Hollows, you may remember as recent(-ish) winners of our 'Artist of the Month' poll. Just about a year after a debut album, this Brooklyn-based six-piece ensemble of multi-instrumentalists released in June a self-titled EP, where textural guitars and grand harmonies brought a new depth, drawn from roots rock influences, to their multi-layered folk jams.
The Bottom Dollars - who from the start pulled together a wide range of sounds from southern rock to blues, mixing-up an all-American high-impact burst of indie rock - dropped yesterday a new single, with which they're introducing the louder road they went down for their new album 'Good News Everyone' (due September 18th). In the first stages of a forthcoming tour, they'll be playing three dates with The Hollows, the second of which will be here in Bushwick at Paper Box (9.15) where they'll be sharing the bill with the high-energy performers of Mike Savino's brainchild Tall Tall Trees and Saint-Louis' Water Liars.
"Uptempo" and "Pop" are by themselves two concepts that - in the business of being an indie band - can take you quite far; but if on top of that you add to the equation also comparisons to The Smiths, then the hype can get out of control. Brooklyn's Drowners have more than one similarity with Morrisey's act, and although they will surely feel belittled by such comparison, they should not, because no artists really managed to be The Smiths' worthy musical heir yet (like, for example, XTC were for The Beatles, Robin Hitchcock for Syd Barrett, and The Strokes for Lou Reed - uhm, maybe...).
The band's 3 songs debut EP features the remarkable single "Between Us Girls" (streaming below) which immediately throws us back to the days of "Meat is Murder," with the electric guitar alternating between jangly parts and arpeggios, and Welsh frontman Matt Hitt singing semi-melancholically about some girls' hair length - rather than about how big they are... The edge is slightly punkier, while the songwriting reveals an almost clinical concision (the song clocks in just under 2 minutes, with the first chorus coming in after 26" - A&R allergic to intros will dig that).
The second song, "You've Got it All Wrong," beats a similar musical path, tackling the infinite well of inspiration that (for Brits) is life at the pub, with the difference of a slower bridge, which acts as a breather for the final chorus. Final track "A Shell Across the Tongue" is the punkier of the bunch, but also the one with the least memorable melody.
This is obviously a band with enormous songwriting potential. If they'll manage to write songs as good as these and integrate their influences in a more mature and personal sound, the world can be theirs. - PDG
