Author: IRC Staff

For a number of years now, we have been following and featuring the music of Idaho solo musician Storie Grubb.

This prolific and multi-faceted artist has a way of writing and recording off-beat, interesting and melodic indie pop-rock music that also has a number of other genre stratifications.

On his album, American Pastures, Grubb brings it all home by writing the tale, it seems, of America, through his eyes. But on the opening track, “Visual Aids,” his music takes on a more personal nature.

The interesting melodies and lyrics of “Visual Aids” are a form of illustrations in sonic terms. As a visual artist himself, Grubb wanted to “pay homage to the artists and musicians that inspired me.”

“I also write songs from different perspectives quite often. Though I leave it up to the listener to make each song their own and join me on a strange symbiotic musical journey.”

“Most of us feel the same deep down about the things that really matter,” he says, adding, “I try to paint a picture that anybody can walk right into. In the end, it’s a song about being a struggling artist.”

At first, the number of tracks (13) is daunting, which is alleviated by many are less than two or three minutes long. The opening track slides right into the psychedelic swirls of “From The Bottom Up,” a track that clocks in at 1:41 minutes.

“Faux Lover” bumbles along with a pulsing rhythm, lo-fi jangling guitars, and Grubb’s nasally vocals.
“It’s a quaint, powerful song about dating, love, breakup and all that stuff,” he says.

The song practically merges with “Pop Singers,” which sounds like an extension of “Faux Lover,” in a way, but with a slightly different signature.

In fact, if one is simply streaming the album and not paying close attention, the two tracks could easily be mistaken as one track with two parts (or just one track).

That’s forgivable considering that the average track is a bit less than two minutes flat. Therefore, it’s easy, at times, on this album, for some tracks to sound like they are one, rather than two.

It is not a big deal because there are songs like the wonderful psychedelic strangeness of “Build High Aim Low.”

On “The Gaff of the Century,” Grubb changes it up with a manic sensibility that dominates the overall mood of the album. But with “Gaff,” he throws in some sunny guitar playing.

The album’s title track is Grubb’s attempt to fill a space; paint a landscape. “I wanted to create sunshine in a sea of darkness,” he adds. “It’s also the title track so I wanted to create something that any listener could appreciate.”

If you’re open to off-beat, lo-fi DIY indie tracks like “Latah and Rosehill,” and post-grunge alt. rock songs like “Trust Fund Punks,” you’ll find those little snacks on the album as well.

Before long you’ll be transported to another realm. “Honky Tonk and Two Smoking Barrels” blends in a marching drum-styled percussion together with guitar noodling and a honky-tonk outro.

The closing track, “Over The Hill,” is a lament about aging. “It’s a personal song. I turned 40 last November. I was in a strange headspace for a bit there.”

“I don’t know where I fit in this world a lot of the time. It’s only through art and music that I feel I’m doing what I was put here to do. This song and really this whole album is about me coming to terms with my existence.”

Even though he is now 40, as he laments so, Gruff (whose real name is Sean Kelly) has a childlike (not childish – big difference) charm in his music, lyrics, and vocal delivery. It’s not hard to be pulled into his world.

From one track to the next, Grubb treats the listener to an array of artistic lyrics and musical styles, from the flourishes of country and western barn music to lazy, stoner guitar-driven verses and from a lo-fi psychedelia to upbeat indie pop.

Still, the baseline, fast-paced percussions, vocal delivery, and unconventional instrumentation – like slacker dudes on speed – underlies almost the entire album. Other examples include “Slinky Beezel” and the somewhat lo-fi punk-fueled “Fall For Anything.”

His music, as long as we have been listening to him, is always unique, creative, wordy – sometimes poetic – and completely unconventional. The one danger of short tracks is that once a listener gets into a track they dig, it can end all too soon.

Numbschool, a 7-track album dropped in February of 2019, is another, among many, albums dropped by Storie Grubb worth listening to, as can be said for the seven-track album, The Rat Race, dropped the month before. In 2019, Grubb dropped an album every month of the year.

Did we not say he is a prolific artist? In the past five years, he has dropped 20 singles or albums, all available on Storie Grubb’s Bandcamp page. And he is totally DIY – writes, performs all of the instruments (except where noted), records, and mixes.

Review by Phillip E. Daoust

Los Angeles solo artist Tracy Bryant has a lot on his mind.

Living in arguably one of the most superficial and affluent places on the planet, he contends, is a challenge for any artist who is innately averse to a world of cars, concrete, fires, earthquakes, smog, and fake, back-stabbing people.

His newest album, Hush, is an artistic storyline of the post-apocalyptic world that southern California has become is today. More so, however, it’s one of the best DIY albums we’ve heard in 2019.

Bryant employs dystopian-like instrumentation and lyric to build this storyline, as evident on the alt. rock/anti-folk opener, “I’m Only Taking What is Mine.” The track adopts a slacker’s swagger, shifting melodies and an overall grungy vibe tinted by shades of sci-fi-like sound effects.

The following track, “The Fool,” picks up the pace quite a bit, rolling out acoustic and electric guitars, an upbeat rhythm enriched with cool time signatures, pop-rock-oriented melodies, and Bryant’s interesting vocals. The overall feel is a punk-pop strut reminiscent of artists like Mac Demarco.

Another strong track is “Mask.” It is an anti-ballad with verses that flow in a repetitive musical order and which then converge at mid-point into a wonderful desert-sky electric guitar solo. A terrific song.

After three compelling tracks right from the start, it only gets better with the surfer/slacker vibe of “Looks Like Gold.” The upbeat, surprise post-punk gem is undeniably one of the best singles we’ve heard in 2019. It was also the No. 1 track on Uncut Mag’s CD Sampler.

The album is boosted by the talents of drummer Nick Murray (Cate Le Bon, White Fence) and bassists Brian Allen (Burnt Ones) and Kyle Mullarky.

Byrant reveals himself, and his musical idiosyncrasies, little-by-little as the album hits the mid-point. He writes about a plethora of modern-day urban problems and concerns on “Nightmare,” which is predictably dark.

“It’s a portrait of a dystopian world; a nightmare that might as well translate to our times,” Bryant says, adding that the song was written during the height of the ‘Me Too’ scandals in Washington D.C., New York, and Hollywood.

“There is no denying the everyday nightmare that many [people] experience in America,” he adds. “The song is about the looming darkness that exists, not only in the current state of this country but also inside of those who refuse to evolve or recognize their imagined privilege.”

That is a good transition for the track “Hanged Man.” Thanks in part to its Elliott Smith-like riff, the song is a guitar-driven pop-rock nugget that belongs on a movie soundtrack.

The guitars and piano, together with percussions from the bass and drums, work so effortlessly with Bryant’s thoughtful lyrics and strongest vocals on the album.

The melody and rhythm of “Bury Me,” are impossibly optimistic-sounding for such a drab subject matter.

Unlike “Hanged Man,” Bryant’s vocal style reverts to his more hushed register that is evident on the album. The bass is nicely paired with the zoned-out guitars; it chugs along and drives the track forward.

It’s no wonder then that “Bury Me” was officially dropped as the first single from the album. Within a few days, it gained more than 10,000 plays on Soundcloud.

He wrote the song with his wife, Kimberly Fitzner. However, the song didn’t take shape the way he wanted it to in the studio. He put it aside until later.

“We laid down the guitar and vocals and approached the song from a less band-driven idea,” he recalls.

Bryant performed the organ and electric guitar parts; he said the track fit with the rest of the album, so he included it. His vocals often range somewhere between the spoken word and song. He has a remarkable ability to employ his signature style in just the right places.

Then there is “Everending Story,” a pop-rock/anti-folk anthem of sorts with a big resonance. The sweet, twinkling guitar riff that runs along the top of a heavy steady percussion is unforgettable.

The album closes with “I Tried,” which is probably the most underwhelming song on an album full of overwhelmingly strong alt. rock/indie rock songs from an Artist to Watch in 2020.

With a strong verve for alternative rock, Bryant also possesses many of the qualities of a true-blood indie rocker: the freedom to experiment, write and record without constraints.

Lyrically, the album is engaging, disturbing and honest. Bryant also takes well-deserved shots at the taboo music industry and the characters and charlatans that comprise it.

Recorded over a six-month period in a studio nestled in the mountains above the famous Topanga Canyon just north of L.A. off of the PCH, Hush was produced by Mullarky (The Growlers, Allah Las) and mastered by world-renowned engineer Dave Cooley (Ariel Pink, Animal Collective).

Altogether, it is one of the best under-the-radar albums of 2019 that we’ve heard.