Premiere: Rubber LeBaron and the inspired ever shifting musical rock narrative of "Paper Thin"

 

"these walls are paper thin, they will be listening, they will be taking names..."

Los Angeles based Rubber LeBaron seem to shun typical musical conventions and the indie tropes of the day. Digest a fair amount of their art like this year's "Bug Bite" EP and you won't find the inclination for indie informed only by blues rock, or new wave-esque tendencies for the lead vox to either sound like it emanates from a phone / mini-megaphone or be lost in dense washes of reverb. You will, however, hear rock songs that have a timeless sense stylistically, songs that feel like hybridized art rock with progressive post rock musical references and a focus on storytelling, sideways or not. This is also the case with their latest "Paper Thin". 

From the onset, from the traveling carnival (in a Stephen King book) organ sound, to the mid-70's power rock meets power pop lead guitar, to the soul pop / lounge punk soft silky vocal aesthetic and melodies, the song is shifting so much (effortlessly, constantly) as to be genre-agnostic. There is a purity, artistic purity that gives way to theatricality that makes me smile. When those former carnival-esque organ sounds take on a kind of crashing together of artists like Boston or BeBop Deluxe I am starting to understand the wild sonic blending. In fact, the sound informed by jazz pop, soul pop, art rock all filtered through experimental sounds also made me think of Mike Patton's different incarnations. 

Rubber LeBaron, like their name, continue to be flexible, have a sense of deep art and acerbic humor and continue to surprise me. Bravo. The boys record and self produce "at home".

Music & lyrics by Will Bentley

Will Bentley - vocals, guitar
Rob Calhoun - guitar
Spenser Wilson - bass, vocals, glockenspiel
Max Hagen - drums
Bill Steinway - keys

-Robb Donker Curtius

Rubber LeBaron · Paper Thin

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

https://www.facebook.com/rubberlebaron

https://rubberlebaron.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/rubberlebaron/

https://soundcloud.com/rubberlebaron

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XTXRpF5n9_1Aq3uY3KEeg
https://open.spotify.com/track/0TTLZ9qh88dT0Fj2RA47fZ


Rubber LeBaron is a four-piece eclectic rock band from Los Angeles

Rubber LeBaron, alt rock, indie rock, blendo rock, genre agnostic, experimental rock, "Paper Thin", indie trope free, timeless sensibility, post rock, art rock, progressive, hybrid rock,