Live music preview: SLC act The Groanies dropped new EP, album release show April 10
One of the first Salt Lake City acts we saw after dipping into the SLC underground music scene was The Groanies who played Urban Lounge a couple years back. The garage punks impressed with a hard hitting set that had us coming back for more the next time the group played at International Bar. Then we caught ’em again at Urban’s Psych Lake City event. We were hooked. This up and coming band, hit us right in our garage-psych sweet spot. Naturally we were thrilled when The Groanies dropped a new EP this week and announced an album release show with Musor and Skrude on Friday, April 10 at Church and State. Advance tickets are available in the link or click the poster to grab your $10 ticket to what promises to be a fun night. The band let us know they organized a taco truck along with ice cream and coffee vendors.
Let’s dig into this five-track recording of heavy garage-punk music with a healthy dollop of psych added for good measure. The album is called, Burn It All and it’s 13 minutes of heavy, psych-infused aggression that will appeal to a wide range of fans. The platter kicks off with “On My Way” with thrashing guitars and heavy drums and bass, creating a wall of punk rock goodness with a four on the floor beat and a shredding solo that lights this 2:15 long tune on fire with six-string pyrotechnics. The recording abruptly shifts to the decidedly slower beat of “Ricky Don’t Fly” and heavy reverb and delay vocal effects evoking the likes of The Black Angels and Brian Jonestown Massacre mashed with a sludgy, noisy backdrop more in line with stoner rock acts.
The noisy goodness continues with “Burn It All” which sounds like bandleader Gage Omana channeling Dylan from Frankie and the Which Fingers while his bandmates deliver once again with Dallin Orr slamming his drum kit with ferocity while Trevor Eichelberger wrecks the bass guitar. That third track might be our favorite so far but it’s hard to ignore the relentlessness of “Don’t Die” which comes next on the album. The song contains classic, heavy guitar parts and a driving beat that makes you wanna haul out your longboard and go for ride down a steep hill as fast as you can. Or maybe just safely do that via Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 instead? Your call.
The album finishes off the listener with perhaps its heaviest track, “Derailer” with punishing bass lines, thumping drums and a buzz saw guitar that leaves all the aggression out on the table. One imagines The Groanies breathing heavily after completing this song live. We can’t wait to see it performed in front of a moshing crowd.
The album was engineered and mixed by Gage Omana and Isaac McCune and mastered at Sunspell Records. Cover art by Dallin Orr and Gage Omana. Advance tickets for Friday’s show are available at The Groanies online shop here. Additionally, KUAA and KRCL are promoting the show. Listen over at KUAA 99.9 FM for ticket giveaways this coming week.
Featured photo by Ryan Wesley Odom
Music Video by Mitchell Richmond aka Mr.
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