“Noose”, the new album from Downers, is a seamless hybrid of pop sensibility and the sonic boom of the grunge of old. Think Dinosaur Jr meets Pearl Jame meets The Smashing Pumpkins (but with good vocals). Its a shame that this is only three tracks, which is part of the reason we should only give you one preview for this Test Drive. We really don’t want to spoil the surprise. My favorite song in this EP is a track called “Erased”. The song is haunting yet powerful with a mean hook. The album as a whole is superb but for me personally this track stands out. But what really impresses me about “Noose” and even Downers as a band is that each song, and mind you there is only three here, sound like completely different bands! Where “Graze” (track one) begins as almost a hippie groove anthem, “Grown Out” (track three) ends with teen angst and tragedy that Nirvana could almost never capture. This album is a three track journey into the mind of a mad genius. Bravo!
About Downers & “Noose”:
‘Graze’ is taken from the new 3 track EP, ‘Noose’, which was released on the 1st of August on 7″ vinyl and digital download through Local Colour Records. The band will be playing a tiny in-store at Action Records, Preston on Saturday 8th August to celebrate the release (details below).
Action Records, Preston
The record is available at: www.localcolourrecords.bigcartel.com.
“The idea for this tune came from listening to Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Just Because’,” on ‘Graze’, explains Downers frontman, and former Me Vs Hero member Bobby Pook. “As we tried new songs and jammed more my vocals took a more soft indie style approach and we made it a more dreamy.”
Pook continues, “The video took ages to shoot, having to change cameras and it having a few different parts. Our friends Simon, Chelsea, Perry, Barry and Rowena helped us out, some of them by putting worms in their mouths and let us film them! Totally stoked with the result. This video brings the vibes home and ties them to the couch. Never to escape again.”
Combining a raw sound with infectious hooks and a DIY punk attitude, their highly anticipated new EP, ’Noose’ will be pressed on traditional black vinyl and limited to 100 copies, which come with a unique download code with. All artwork, design, videography and photography was done in-house by the band themselves.
Downers came together in early 2015, as Bobby had already begun writing material for the new project towards the end of his career with Me Vs Hero. Comprised of old school friends and friends from previous musical adventures, as a collective they all had an urge to go back to the 90’s guitar music that got them wanting to play in a band in the first place.
Across three tracks, ‘Noose’ is heavy on the fuzz and inspired by space, dreams and memories. Opener ‘Erased’ is based on a recurring, lucid dream that frontman Bobby has about being invisible. Bobby goes through stages of struggling with fear and acceptance every night. In the dream his invisibility is a gradual process, fading from normality to complete concealment. Elsewhere, ‘Graze’ relates to Bobby’s memories and glimpses of being very young, and how that it is almost another life altogether, whilst ‘Grown Out’ is a straight up small town song; battling with the struggle of being constantly being surrounded by negativity and striving to achieve something more meaningful.
Produced by Bob Cooper (Nai Harvest, Citizen, Self Defense Family, Brawlers, Rob Lynch, Deathwish Inc) ‘Noose’ is the follow up to their self-produced, self-titled debut EP, released May 2015.
The band are currently booking tour dates throughout the UK in support of the record.
LINKS:
http://facebook.com/downersruleok
http://twitter.com/downersband
http://downersband.bandcamp.com
