Follow Friday: Bad Suns, Meat Puppets, Twin Shadow, and More.

Bad Suns

Los Angeles based hook generators Bad Suns, continue to see success with the band’s third full-length album titled Mystic Truth and followed it up this year with a couple of singles titled “Unstable” and “I’m Not Having Any Fun”. Bad Suns’ sound is inspired by the 70’s/80’s post-punk movement of bands like The Cure and Elvis Costello. Featuring response guitars with grooving bass and straight forward drums, Bad Suns got their first taste of success from their Transpose EP with their viral hit “Cardiac Arrest”. The addictive track explodes with open drums, spaced-out bass, and hard strummed guitars drenched in zephyr like leads which caught everyone’s attention. The success of the EP and their debut full length called Language & Perspective had the band touring with indie-pop darlings The 1975, performing their own headlining tour that year, and playing the Mojave Stage at Coachella.

Bad Suns drew inspiration for their second record titled Disappear Here from the book Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis and after releasing the single “This Was A Home Once” in 2017, they announced their move from Vagrant Records to Epitaph and from there released Mystic Truth in 2019. The record has a repeated theme of finding inspiration in simple things, much like the art piece by Bruce Nauman that inspired the record found in London’s Tate Modern, the neon piece with blue cursive states “The True Artist Helps The World by Revealing Mystic Truths”. Bad Suns continue to push for growth while simultaneously looking back at where they were in the beginning when they broke onto the scene. The combination of adding soaring vocals over piano melodies, while preserving the guitar and bass is what the band is known for. Check out one of the band’s latest single above titled “Unstable”.

I think this is the record where you’re trying to become an adult, and trying to be somebody that you’d want people to be proud of.

Christo Bowman (Guitarist) to Atwood Magazine

Bad Suns create hooks with Ernie Ball Regular Slinky, Beefy Slinky electric guitar strings, and Regular Slinky bass guitar strings.

Meat Puppets

Arguably one of the most important bands of the American underground music culture and inspiring countless bands to write unique expressive songs, the Meat Puppets began as kids who loved simply to rock out. Through their painstaking dedication to the love of music and punk rock mentality, Meat Puppets have created a cult following that spans generations. Since the band’s debut in the 80’s, Curt Kirkwood has been held in high regard as a tremendous songwriter who blends genres of various roots music with multiple styles of rock. There is a sense of outlying magnificence in the outlaw mentality of a songwriter who is fearlessly himself while transcending to whatever next sound the Meat Puppets are bound to create.

From highly acclaimed covers done by Nirvana on the famous recorded live performance of “MTV Unplugged” in New York, to their latest work on the record Dusty Notes with tracks such as “Warranty” or “Nine Pins” which sounds like a lost tape session from old Laurel Canyon road in the late 60’s. Like it or not, hit or miss, the Meat Puppets are still on the road to this day and have no qualms about the way they are doing it and aren’t making any compromises. Curt’s tremendous body of work as a songwriter keeps the band alive and the accompaniment and musicianship continue to inspire. Check out the Meat Puppets official video for “Warranty” above.

The industry has changed a lot, but once again, we’re in a place that is similar in that there’s no “well, how do we make it?” Well, good luck! I mean nobody sells a lot of records now — well I’m sure some people do, but it’s not comparable to what it was. There are a lot more acts now, it’s just an ocean of stuff that you can see if you start cruising around on the internet and see how much is accessible. But that just makes it more like it was, “wow I don’t really care, I’m just gonna play music,” and that’s all I ever wanted to do anyway. I don’t like having to think about where I’m going with it, I really just like to play. It’s similar to the ’80s right now in that I feel pretty free.

Curt Kirkwood (Guitarist) to Brooklyn Vegan

Meat Puppets play with Ernie Ball Regular Slinky electric guitar strings and Regular Slinky bass guitar strings.

Twin Shadow

The Dominican Republic born, Florida raised and Los Angeles dwelling George Lewis Jr., aka Twin Shadow, has been pumping out his blend of synth-pop, indie, chill-wave tracks since 2006, but not without some ups and downs.

After moving to Boston in 2000 to play in a band called Mad Man Films, George found himself wanting to find more work writing music for theatre and films. With his new learned experiences from Mad Man, he moved again in 2006 to New York City to start a new project called Twin Shadow. His first album, Forget, was received with critical acclaim including album of the year lists, and a reputation for bringing tons of “80s new wave” back into the mix with “sophisticated melodies.” The tracks built effortlessly on atmospheric synth tones, guitar melodies, and multi-layered vocal patterns, all culminating in infectious tunes that served perfectly both on a dance floor as well as music to relax to. His follow up album, Confess, arrived in 2012 and this is where Twin Shadow really began showing up on stages and charts around the world, including debuting on Billboard’s 200 at No. 54, and on the Top Rock Album chart at No. 18. With styles reminiscent of Prince, Duran Duran, and more. 

When Twin Shadow was ready for his first major record release, via Warner Music, George decided to create a more approachable record by laying off the massive synth layers and concentrating on catchy choruses, guitar leads, and a more contemporary sound. He also found a track being used in the film Paper Towns and constant play on radios around the country. Unfortunately, mid-tour, Twin Shadow, and his crew were in a massive bus accident in 2015 that almost completely derailed George’s career and required reconstructive hand surgery in order to play guitar again.

It really did change a lot of people’s lives completely. So the emotional toll is… I’m still calculating it. That’s kind of an everyday thing. I’m in that place right now where I’m looking at it, and realizing that I needed to just stop doing what I was doing for a second. I don’t think I knew why I was making music anymore. I felt like I didn’t have a purpose in mind.

George Lewis Jr. to Vice News

The result of the tour pushed George to take about two years of time off, spurred by depression, pain recovery, and relocating from New York to Venice, CA. In the midst of recovery and sorting these issues, Twin Shadow delivered a new record titled Caer, which almost ironically has some of the most pop-driven tracks of his career. Lyrically, it dissects these experiences and past traumas in life, but musically you hear pop tunes featuring multiple artists, ballads, and even a power-pop single featuring fellow LA-ers, HAIM. Recently, Twin Shadow has released a few new singles including “Crushed” in 2019 and a collab track with Duval Timothy, “Slave,” which explores the history of the transatlantic slave trade and how all roads have led to our current racial injustices in our culture. 

For now, Twin Shadow is continuing to write a new record but listen to the tunes below. 

Twin Shadow uses Regular Slinky and Ultra Slinky electric guitar strings, Earthwood Light 80/20 acoustic guitar strings, and Super Slinky bass guitar strings.

Tetrarch

Inspired by bands like Slipknot, Linkin Park, Lamb of God, and more, Tetrarch has been diligently building their brand of heavy and doing it their way since 2007. Started by guitarists Diamond Rowe and Josh Fore, Tetrarch was formed in Atlanta Georgia where they cut their teeth in the DIY metal and hardcore scene, honing their tight chops, live show, and energy with close to 100 shows in a year.

After some success with their self-released EPs and a single getting airplay on Atlanta’s top rock radio station, 96.1FM, the band found themselves getting offers to support bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Seether, and Alter Bridge. After their 2013 release of their Relentless EP, the band began getting noticed by outlets like Revolver Magazine, management by Outerloop Management, and headlining sets in their home state. 

Their debut full-length, FREAK, arrived in 2018 and debuted at #3 on the iTunes Metal Charts and #17 on the iTunes rock charts. Their latest single, “I’m Not Right”, has garnered over 1.3M views since May 15th, 2020. 

None of us in Tetrarch have ever been shy about the goals that we have for this band. Therefore, it is no secret that since the beginning we have always made our goal to become one of the biggest modern metal bands of this generation.

Diamond Rowe to Loud Wire

Recently, the band announced they signed to Napalm Records and are working on a new album soon.

Tetrarch uses Skinny Top Heavy Bottom, Skinny Top Beefy Bottom, and Mammoth Slinky electric guitar strings and Custom 45-130 gauge bass guitar strings. 

Worriers

Under the reevaluation of what relationships mean in the current world and the concerns of a younger anxiety generation comes the band Worriers. Singer/songwriter Lauren Denitzio dives into a lyrical autobiographical conversation on the band’s record You or Someone You Know while tackling the existential universal challenges people have to ask themselves today. The album was produced by John Agnello who has also worked on some of the biggest indie alt-rock records from artists like Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile, Alvvays, and Dinosaur Jr. The entire album was tracked live in 11 days in studios in New Jersey City and Brooklyn, and you can hear the fresh sound from the room cuts to the riff heavy guitars and the hard hitting driving drumlines. The Worriers show maturity in songcrafting while maintaining an edge while combining the conscious heart with modern rock edge. Check out Worriers live on Audiotree performing their song “Future Me” above.

There’s all sorts of things that we’re taught are the markers of success, and that’s not a new thought for me, that that’s not true, but I think that a lot of the songs are really dealing with not only giving space to the hurt and sadness of that, but then knowing that it’s going to be okay, and that you can make your own choices to create the life that you actually want to have.

Lauren Denitzio to New Noise Magazine

Worriers drive their riffs with Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom and Cobalt Power Slinky electric guitar strings and Super Slinky bass guitar strings.