St Ranger

                St Ranger released another sweet song off of their yet untitled album. I’m not sure if giving away music is a good business model. Perhaps it is important to give the listener some idea of what to expect. That’s what I assume the purpose is for this young, young group.

                When I hear they were all in other bands before this, I feel so lazy. How many people have been in bands since their early teens? Every day it is more and more people. I had a solo project, I’m not sure if it counts as the same thing. Laptop musicians aren’t really as beloved.

                Their most recent song “Shark Week” sprawls. I mean this in the best way possible. Seeing a band get messy is one of my greatest pleasures. What would “Teenage Riot” be if Sonic Youth decided to whittle down its length? Listening to “Shark Week” shows what happens when a band decides to stretch out. 

                “Shark Week” begins in the middle of things. Unlike the previous song, you’re just thrown into things. The drums are a bit more prominent in this one. I’m still pretty amazed at how St Ranger manages to sound so graceful. You’re reminded this is a five-piece band, it sounds so big. The vocals are fantastic. Again I’m reminded of the late 80s, when music began to pull itself out of the ‘New Wave’, out of plastic pop, and feel human emotions. That may be one of my favorite periods of music, hands-down. 

                Part of me wonders if they aren’t just going to tease out the entire album. You know, every couple of weeks release another track until lo and behold, it is summer. I wouldn’t be opposed to this approach. Seeing them live wouldn’t be a bad idea either, but unfortunately they haven’t quite made it to my neck of the woods yet. Perhaps they will sometime soon.

St Ranger

              Hm, a lot of things seem to be going on in Arizona, musically-speaking. Or maybe being such a fan of warm weather has me constantly looking towards there especially after such a cold winter. Whatever the reason, I’ve been kind of interested in what’s been going on there.

                St Ranger comes from Tempe, Arizona with a nice penchant for wordplay (their webpage shows themselves as strangerarizona, an appropriate and fitting description of what they do). Going over their tiny internet presence they are five guys who appeared in a series of fairly unsuccessful bands. You know the usual young guy thing (and these guys are extremely young). It is nothing that can be helped, similar to how Australians tour around the world for a couple years for little to no reason. After getting little to no coverage, they came together and busted out a bandcamp page. Then they toured around the Southwest for a while and had some positive feedback. 

                Now they’ve stated they sound similar to Grizzly Bear. That seems a bit right, perhaps Grizzly Bear mixed in with a bit of Surfer Blood. Looking over the bands they’ve toured with, I see a perennial favorite and the tragically on-definite hiatus Women. Women might be the closest comparison I can come up with, think of a clean shaven Women and you’re halfway there.

                “Ohnowoe” is their first polished offering to the world. Listening to it, I’m reminded the 80s mining has shifted to the late 80s. The build on the song is quite nice; it reminds me of some kind of fantastic, sun-bleached summer day. You know the kind where you do absolutely nothing productive but swim and drink beer. A great day is contained within the five minutes or so in this song. Despite their recent origin, they have a knack for hitting all the right points, the tone, vocals, etc. If this is the opener, I’m keen to see what follows. Since it is free and pretty excellent, I'd suggest checking it out.

                They’ve announced an album is expected sometime in the summer. For a band that seems to be summer’s child, that makes complete sense.