Charlotte, NC quartet Serfs released their debut EP, Common Feelings, today for free download. The 5-song effort is a blend of garage rock jangle, the crushing-yet-vulnerable dynamics of shoegaze, the chaos of noise pop, the snarl of punk, and the charm of indie pop. "The songs on this record were born out of a personal crisis I went through last year," says vocalist and guitarist Phil Pucci. "The record is largely about friendship and on a bigger scale, my contradictory desires to at the same time fit in and run away from Midwood, the part of Charlotte where I live."
Raleigh indie folk rockers Bowerbirds will be performing at the Ottobar tomorrow evening, touring in support of their brand new album, The Clearing (Dead Oceans). For those unaffected by that news, I recommend checking out the band's recent 10,000 Takes Session featuring a live performance of The Clearing's "This Year" as well as their North Shore Session featuring a performance of two other tracks from the new album: "Overcome With Light" and "Brave World."
Googling the name "Hectorina" won't really tell you much about the name or its significance. Instead, you'll probably learn a lot about baby names. What's a Hectorina? Who's Hectorina? Well, this particular Hectorina is a 3-piece math/psych/surf/indie rock outfit out of Charlotte, NC, fronted by Dylan Gilbert (someone I've failed to write about for roughly 3 or 4 years, forgive me) with ex-members of Dylan Gilbert & The Over Easy Breakfast Machine and Linus Van Pelt. The band's been working on a rock opera, which, based on these two songs, sounds like quite an exciting curveball -- at least in regards to what one might qualify as a "rock opera." Check it.
Two people come together, unified by a mutual love of, and for, one another. They work together to keep their relationship, to cultivate it into something they're proud of. But, one day, the one fractures back into two and the relationship returns to something about individuals rather than a unified whole. In his slow November, two guitars capture the essence of this frayed relationship, working together until the very end where they start to produce new rhythms unique unto themselves.
With a steady, progressively harder strum of his hand and lightly affected vocals, he fights off the pain as he reassures himself that he's not meant to be alone. There's something inherently optimistic about his chord progression that serves as foil to the melancholy he can't quite yet shake from his voice. This could have been drowned out by an overbearing amount of sorrow, but he's cognizant of the fact that pouring the detail of his emotions into his performance can say more than words ever could.
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He, being of course, Phil Pucci. Who may or may not write for the site from time to time. May. Does.
