photo by justin kent // "just remember I love [you don't love me like you used to] / even if we're drifting apart [you don't love me like you used to] / just remember I love you [you don't love me like you used to] / homesick heart..."
The cagey rock tensions, angular funk and post punk noir of "Use 2" by Portland, Oregon indie rock outfit Bonus Room, and from their upcoming debut EP "Bunk", is unabashedly swanky, heavy on narrative and dream theater staging (sonically speaking). Letting the song wash over me has me thinking of many things like new wave attitudes, like velvet curtains at dark little venues and cross cutting stage lighting. Flashing on the song's pulpy aesthetic and old school iconic lead guitar players like Scott Thurston, Jonathan Richman and Jeff Jourard. This is the thing, the more I listen to the song's structure, the linear musical storytelling I imagine that a loop of electronica happened at practice and then bassist Erik Brownfield improvised the dicy, spicy bass line while drummer Ben Dorothy played off the mid range and low bass melodies, singer Chris lee's guitar rhythms full of dirty swagger, keyboardist / singer Derrin Brice syrupy delicious swells, etc etc. Ok, that is just in my imagination and for all I know (via Bandcamp) is that Derrin Brice penned "Use 2" with arrangements by 'the band'. I guess what I am trying to say is that the arrangements here feel less formed than possessed by a free wheeling party of accomplished musicians and musician stylists.
"just remember I love [you don't love me like you used to] / even if we're drifting apart [you don't love me like you used to] / just remember I love you [you don't love me like you used to] / homesick heart..."
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[“We had a bunch of influences when we first started hanging out and playing music, so it seemed like the project could go a bunch of different ways,” Brice says. Together, though, they channel everyone from Gorillaz to the Talking Heads, creating musical alchemy in the band’s basement studio, dubbed the Starlight Underground — it even says so in gold paint on the stairs. Bunk, then, is the culmination of all those diverse influences and band member backgrounds. Each song also will feature in-the-studio videos produced by Lee and Brice.]
[The upcoming single Use 2 continues in that glitchy gloom, about “a rough patch I was going through with a really old friend of mine,” Brice says. “It’s about me struggling with how people grow apart as they get older.” The songs tip-toes in on the heels of an ‘80s horror movie beat — courtesy of Lee — and then blooms like a night-time flower, intercut with anguished, echoey cries of: “You don't know me like you used to.” “I was feeling equal parts bitter and nostalgic and I just leaned into the moody nature of the beat,” Brice says of the song, which demonstrates the sheer ingenuity of a band that, although somewhat nostalgic, is firmly facing forward.]
Anyway, I love how "Use 2" sounds and what kind of vibe it gives off. For whatever reason I thought of a weird amalgam of Bad Suns, CAKE, Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers and the Motels.
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://www.instagram.com/bonusroom_band
https://bonusroomband.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/bonusroomband
If you want to know what kind of band Bonus Room is, you just have to hear the guys tell you the story of how they named their debut EP, Bunk. What started out as a rumination on childhood sleepovers in that titular Bonus Room led to a round of word association around the phrase “bunk bed,” which then led to the story of an epic filibuster in Lee’s hometown of Buncombe County, North Carolina. Somehow, a grandstanding politician coined the insult “bunk,” and history was made.
While this very true story might sound fanciful, what’s undeniable is that this Portland band is beyond bonkers-creative, melding post-punk, psych-rock, and a heavy dose of dancey doom on Bunk, which drops this fall.
Bonus Room formed during the pandemic — a collision of influences wrangled into a band that includes primary songwriters Chris Lee (vocals, guitar, keys, percussion) and Alaskan guitarist/singer/keyboard player Derrin Brice (the moon to Lee’s sun). Guitarist and engineer Wes Phillips and bassist Erik Brownfield also hail from Alaska, while drummer Ben Dorothy is an Oregon native. “We had a bunch of influences when we first started hanging out and playing music, so it seemed like the project could go a bunch of different ways,” Brice says. Together, though, they channel everyone from Gorillaz to the Talking Heads, creating musical alchemy in the band’s basement studio, dubbed the Starlight Underground — it even says so in gold paint on the stairs. Bunk, then, is the culmination of all those diverse influences and band member backgrounds. Each song also will feature in-the-studio videos produced by Lee and Brice.
The upcoming single Use 2 continues in that glitchy gloom, about “a rough patch I was going through with a really old friend of mine,” Brice says. “It’s about me struggling with how people grow apart as they get older.” The songs tip-toes in on the heels of an ‘80s horror movie beat — courtesy of Lee — and then blooms like a night-time flower, intercut with anguished, echoey cries of: “You don't know me like you used to.” “I was feeling equal parts bitter and nostalgic and I just leaned into the moody nature of the beat,” Brice says of the song, which demonstrates the sheer ingenuity of a band that, although somewhat nostalgic, is firmly facing forward.
Life is about evolution and so is music — and if the first offering from Bonus Room is any indication, they’re just getting started. Weird and wonderfully scrappy, it’s only a matter of time before the boys emerge from the basement and take the big stage.
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/bonusroom_band
https://bonusroomband.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/bonusroomband
If you want to know what kind of band Bonus Room is, you just have to hear the guys tell you the story of how they named their debut EP, Bunk. What started out as a rumination on childhood sleepovers in that titular Bonus Room led to a round of word association around the phrase “bunk bed,” which then led to the story of an epic filibuster in Lee’s hometown of Buncombe County, North Carolina. Somehow, a grandstanding politician coined the insult “bunk,” and history was made.
While this very true story might sound fanciful, what’s undeniable is that this Portland band is beyond bonkers-creative, melding post-punk, psych-rock, and a heavy dose of dancey doom on Bunk, which drops this fall.
Bonus Room formed during the pandemic — a collision of influences wrangled into a band that includes primary songwriters Chris Lee (vocals, guitar, keys, percussion) and Alaskan guitarist/singer/keyboard player Derrin Brice (the moon to Lee’s sun). Guitarist and engineer Wes Phillips and bassist Erik Brownfield also hail from Alaska, while drummer Ben Dorothy is an Oregon native. “We had a bunch of influences when we first started hanging out and playing music, so it seemed like the project could go a bunch of different ways,” Brice says. Together, though, they channel everyone from Gorillaz to the Talking Heads, creating musical alchemy in the band’s basement studio, dubbed the Starlight Underground — it even says so in gold paint on the stairs. Bunk, then, is the culmination of all those diverse influences and band member backgrounds. Each song also will feature in-the-studio videos produced by Lee and Brice.
The upcoming single Use 2 continues in that glitchy gloom, about “a rough patch I was going through with a really old friend of mine,” Brice says. “It’s about me struggling with how people grow apart as they get older.” The songs tip-toes in on the heels of an ‘80s horror movie beat — courtesy of Lee — and then blooms like a night-time flower, intercut with anguished, echoey cries of: “You don't know me like you used to.” “I was feeling equal parts bitter and nostalgic and I just leaned into the moody nature of the beat,” Brice says of the song, which demonstrates the sheer ingenuity of a band that, although somewhat nostalgic, is firmly facing forward.
Life is about evolution and so is music — and if the first offering from Bonus Room is any indication, they’re just getting started. Weird and wonderfully scrappy, it’s only a matter of time before the boys emerge from the basement and take the big stage.
Bonus Room, Portland Oregon, Songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Derrin Brice, indie rock, angular rock, funk punk, art punk, 80's new wave, post punk, hybrid indie rock, "Use 2" (Official Video), debut EP "Bunk",
No comments:
Post a Comment