AP Track Review
The track Strongman from The Brother K Melee is a barn burner of a song. Lucas Kwong and the boys throw a lot of punches, from the sort of spaghetti western beginning and then the headfirst fall into their fray, the chunky guitars and psyche rock diversions (before the chorus) the band blends it all together... art rock, post punk charges, blues rock, that aforementioned psychedelia and baroque rock / pop patinas into this gothic kind of blistering rock sound. It is, indeed, a pile driver of a song. I love the "oh, oh...oh's" and Kwong's utter vocal fall into the madness. As songwriter, storyteller and front man, he seems to embody every sinewy twist and turn, taking the punches and giving them too.
Strongman is from the bands lates EP "Get Inside"
The Brother K Melee is Lucas Kwong (guitar, lead vox), Sam Shaw (bass, backing vox), Adel Bagli (guitar) and David Cornego (drums, backing vox).
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Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
"2019 feels like someone in a mask popping up around the corner every 3 seconds," says Lucas Kwong, songwriter and frontman for THE BROTHER K MELEE. Kwong is explaining the concept behind the album art for "No Fault," the first single off their upcoming EP Get Inside, but he could be talking about the music itself: restless, dynamic rock and roll that's determined to take you by surprise.
The mask, designed by Steve Wintercroft (www.wintercroft.com) and worn by guitarist Adel Bagli on the cover, also serves as a decent metaphor for the identity crisis that birthed the band. Originally titled Brother K, the Brooklyn-based band was founded in 2011, when Kwong was still an English PhD candidate. Dissatisfied with the volume of his solo folk efforts (not loud enough), Kwong decided to meld the garage rock revivalism of his adolescence with his childhood devotion to Fifties rock 'n' roll. The project began life as a primal blues/rockabilly two-piece with David Cornejo on drums, before evolving to embrace punk, psychedelia, and a host of unruly influences - Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Nirvana, The Stooges, The White Stripes, Hamburg-era The Beatles, garage-gospel acts like The Caravans - audible on the 2016 compilation SEEK ASSEMBLY.
"We're drawing from a large pool, but to me, all good rock is just a release valve for modern anxiety," Kwong muses. "These are anxious times." Now featuring Bagli and bassist Sam Shaw the band channels their jitters into unmedicated anthems about dead saints, megalomaniacs, and that one dream you can't shake on Get Inside, out July 18. To paraphrase the chorus of "No Fault," hope it's some relief.
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