Friday, March 20, 2015

Band Review: The Band of Strangers


In honor of a new "Grimm" tonight (after leaving things at an interesting point, like they usually to do), I thought this would be a good time to review The Band of Strangers. They were recommended by Bree Turner, who plays Rosalee on the show and singer Ryan Saliman's sister-in-law in real life.

The Band of Strangers is an Alt Country Rock/American band. Working out of Los Angeles, they were first started in New York. That seems appropriate for a band with such far-flung roots. Simply going over their bio page, Saliman (who also plays guitar and writes songs) has ties to Colorado before New York, Lianne Ward (instruments and vocals) is from Massachusetts, guitarist Johnny Abella has roots in the Philippines and Pennsylvania, drummer Chris Lovejoy was raised in Texas between being born in and returning to New York, and bassist Matt DelVecchio is said to have taken his music around the world and back, which definitely includes Japan, England, Portugal, and school in Miami.

(I do not know if there is any relation between Matt DelVecchio and Dan DelVecchio of Face The King. Maybe.)

Most of the band members are listed as playing multiple instruments, and you will occasionally notice different sounds coming through. With the range of expertise and experience among the members, they have a fair amount of options open for how to fill in the sounds.

Currently there is a 6-track EP available, with songs that dip into country, blues, and folk. The most Americana-esque song may be "Bait N' Pole" which references "The Crawdad Song", an American classic, but updates it with rock guitar and possibly some innuendo. Songs like "Help" and "When the Light Gets In" kind of give me a Gospel feeling, though it is not a Gospel sound (which is I guess why I'm calling it folk).

My overall favorite track was "The Black Bird Song", which stirred my emotions musically and has a video with some pretty cool animation, so check that out.





No comments: