Suris – This is the city
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Alternative Rock
Psychedelic-rock bands are usually very unreliable tour guides using all matters of tricks to entice the public to buy their tickets. There’s always some kind of destination promised or, at the very least, hinted at. The truth is that the psych-rock pioneers rarely know the way there themselves, make it out as they go along, and end up being the first casualties of the trip. Their followers are the second group to suffer from the experience.
You’ll usually see an old psych-rock journeyman sitting by themselves, staring into space, and mumbling something about seeing Hawkwind when they were at their best. For this kind of rock band to be at their best, to achieve their full potential means to become utterly terrifying. A well-drilled, imaginative, confident psych-rock group could lead people into the desert, could make them leave their loved ones, and have them donate their life savings. They are prophets and charlatans.
But, it takes a certain knowledge and gift for self-presentation. Suris’ This is the city is the work of a group that is not short of confidence, and ideas that hint at new, hidden worlds. It’s a tune that doesn’t stray from self-aggrandizing. It’s the self-belief of a band that knows that they deserve loyal followers willing to hang on their every word. Musically, this is psychedelic rock with a touch of Siouxsie Sioux’s post-punk wallop. It’s hard to know just where they’re all headed, but it’s clear who is in charge of the expedition.
Rock Cake – Leave Me Alone
Genre: Garage Rock
You can file rocking n’ rolling under Guilty pleasures nowadays, just in the same way as… err… revenge fantasies. Both of them are usually harmless, and not a heck of a lot of people take them seriously. This doesn’t add up to the notion that nobody enjoys them or partakes in them. Why, there are even some who might go so far as to suggest that these kinds of things make one’s life better, or, at least, much more bearable.
Rock used to be a much more serious matter! All stuffy, impenetrable stuff. You might laugh, but the story goes that John Lennon once asked Paul McCartney if he was about to get on the right side of the Rock Revolutionary War. Whatever his answer was, The Beatles split up in less than a year afterward. Then, there were all those double records that seemed to go on forever and stories about mourning your dead hamster. Very stuffy!
Rock Cake take the liberty of rocking out like a drunk dad on a Saturday night while all his family is watching n their single Leave Me Alone. This ain’t boring. In fact, Rock Cake are quite comfortable with making a spectacle of themselves and of their ideas on love. In short, they don’t believe in it anymore. They’re no fools for love, but dancing fools they sure are. The band swings like Eagles of Dance Metal, not knowing any better. Rock isn’t as serious as the Holy Book anymore, and maybe it’s for the best.
