So here I was, draped across my couch in a post Christmas morning stupor over my incredible new macbook pro. After a few hours of tweaking my baby to my liking, I grabbed my $50 iTunes card from my sister and downloaded a smorgasbord of new music to indulge in. When i was down to my last $10 bucks I ran across and album i had seen in the Disk Exchange the week before, and decided to take a gamble with an artist I had never heard. The Royal Bangs are a local band formed in 2005. The band signed to Audio Eagle Records run by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys in 2008, after which they released two albums, 08's We Breed Champions, and 09's Let It Beep. I purchased the latter and quickly fell in love with their techno rock sound. Being a huge Passion Pit fan, Let It Beep quickly drew my attention and didn't let go until the last bass beat had faded away. The Royal Bangs have really tapped into the 80 synthesizers revival that has played a huge part in the music scene of 2009. There was a distinct visual of a computer with its cords violently ripped from their sockets while electricity and bare wire ran rampant across a room that stuck in my mind while listening to the elaborate synchronized wailing. The Prog/World Music hybrid "My Car Is Haunted", with it's exotic collection of percussion diddles and off-beat rhythms, says, "In the world of lasers, we lost our s***", perfectly defining The Royal Bangs high adrenaline music. The have an obvious tone of very catchy guitar licks, slightly distorted for a great mix of crisp clean grunge. "1993" is a grand showcase of the band's guitar skills that rambunctiously sprint through most of their songs. Bleeps and bloops of heavy synthesizer pop around every song the band performs. Lead singer Ryan Schaefer's vocals act as another instrument, as his lyrics are often times un-distinguishable due to heavy distortion, yet his voice adds interesting depth to the songs. However, the neatest thing about the Royal Bang's is their consistent placement of incredibly distorted bass, violently thumping along like a heart, that reminds the soaring guitars that they are still planted in heavy garage jam music. The phenomenal mix can be confusing in places, but 90% of the music is a wonderful listen. Plus, have you seen their album cover? It might be the coolest album art of all time. Anyone who is a fan of Muse, Passion Pit, Crystal Castles, Radiohead, Daft Punk, or MGMT will have a blast with Let It Beep.
