Asbury Park is making its mark on New Jersey music even for bands that don't necessarily call the seaside music hub home. The recent EPs from New Brunswick's Monterey and Bergen County's Morningside Lane are two of the latest products to come out of the city.
Monterey, Sailors
Recorded at Asbury Park's Lakehouse Recording Studios, Sailors is a bit of a move away from the harder sound of this spring's The King's Head. Opener "Can't Live Like This," which documents the chilling of a relationship, peppers its clean and polished production with hints of the band's New Brunswick basement lineage in the form of some shouted "whoah oh"s.
Similarly, the title track hits on the theme of a relationship that's falling apart. Carter Henry's slight rasp, his guitar, and some moments of group vocals again reveal some pop punk inclinations. The whole collection, though, sits more in the anthemic alt-rock world than in the world of fist-pumping pop punk.
Monterey have referred to Sailors as a maturation of their sound. In that, they turned to the right people by recording at Lakehouse Recording Studios. All of the releases that I've heard come out of there recently display a polish and attention to detail that suits this material well, and a few of Monterey's rougher edges continue to shine through.
Sailors is available now at Monterey's Bandcamp page.
Morningside Lane, Mellow Drama
The latest from Morningside Lane is a product of Little Eden Studio. Recorded by Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls, Mellow Drama has a strong New Jersey strain running through its DNA. The title track opens the set, building from some simple power chords to add the vocals and layers of guitar. Something about the combined vocal deliveries of Marc Del Giudice and Jon Khan calls to mind Brian Fallon or even the coiner of that "Little Eden" nickname for Asbury Park.
Six-plus minute set closer, "Jazz Dance," comes quickly out of the gate riding some more go-for-broke vocals and trebly guitar. As the song closes out, the wall of guitar noise begins to sound like bagpipes.
Little Eden and Pete Steinkopf have shown, through a long line of collaborations, an ability to highlight the individual voices of some very different artists -- from The Obvious to The Battery Electric to Lost In Society to Smalltalk to Chris Brown, just to name some recent efforts. Even with that diversity, there's still something about a Little Eden recording, as evidenced by Mellow Drama, that says "Asbury Park."
Morningside Lane's Mellow Drama is out on 11/25.
No comments :
Post a Comment