"We did a count [in reviews of the last album, "Down for You Is Up"], and there were over 20 different bands we've been compared to, and it's such a weird range," says bassist Shyam Telikicherla. He's got a point -- imagine a band that alternately sounded like the Clash, the Velvet Underground, early R.E.M., Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., the Rolling Stones, the Flamin' Groovies and Unrest, depending on the listener. You wouldn't be the only one who's confused.
"It's weird because I like a lot of the bands that people compare us to, but I wouldn't say I'm a heavy listener of most of the bands," drummer Saadat Awan says. "I think it helps that [vocalist-guitarist] John [Masters] used to work at a record store."
"So that way we can figure out what these bands are," Telikicherla jokes.
Masters originally formed the band with a friend to create "noisy, low-fi kind of stuff with a lot of melody to it. We were fans of Sonic Youth, Pavement and indie rock like that." But once Telikicherla and Awan got involved, that plan went out the window. Awan added a propensity for experimental underground bands like Blonde Redhead, Engine Down and the French group Playdoh, and "We definitely have points where we all intersect, but personally, I come from a pop-new wave sort of place," Telikicherla says. "Some of my favorite bands are like the Jam, the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen -- heavy, melodic guitar-bass kind of stuff -- as well as Indian music. It all depends."
Each brings different tastes to the music, so it's possible to have songs on the band's new (and as-yet-unreleased) EP in which peppy New Order bass lines flow under Masters's chunky, Pavement-style chords while Awan tosses in odd little percussion fills. Then the next song will have a completely different mood, maybe droning guitar riffs over an Indian tabla beat. This sort of mix-and-match chemistry could sound forced, but the guys say it comes naturally -- during Telikicherla's first practice session with the band, they recorded a song for a 7-inch single. Within a month, they were onstage at the Black Cat. [Washington Post]
