The band released in September a compilation, The Greatest Songs Of The Resonars, on Trouble In Mind label. It's a collector release with a one-time, LP-only pressing of 1000 copies. That new release reminded me how great is their 2013 album, so I wanted post some comments on it in the blog.
The band origins are from 1992, they released their first album in 1998. There's some ambiguity about this album that I didn't succeed sort. From many sources it's an album made by Matt Rendon only after the band split. But on discog which is often a safe source well controlled particularly on older releases there's a full credits of musicians for this album, and from another source I read that it was only four tracks on this album that was made only by Matt Rendon.
The second album released in 1999, Bright & Dark, was made by Matt Rendon playing all instruments. It's Psychedelic Garage Pop quite colored by the 60's Pop Psychedelic. Then the band retired. A first come back occurred with the album Lunar Kit released in 2002, it's still a bit 60's Pop Psychedelic but it has also some Rock, Boogie or Country colors on some tracks. The second come back was largely triggered by the label Burger Records that wanted re release their albums. The band released Nonetheless Blue in 2007 on Get Hip Recordings. This album focus on a more powerful music with only a light Psychedelic color, it's a sort of Power Pop with some 60's colors. Evil Drone followed in 2008 on Burger Records. That album comes back to Psychedelic Garage Pop with 60's colors, but it is more Lo-Fi and aggressive, and many tracks focus on speed. That makes it sounds more Garage. Burger Records also released in 2010 two compilations on cassette, they include the complete first four albums of the band. In 2012 the band released the Long Long Thoughts EP on the label Trouble In Mind, and Crummy Desert Sound on Burger in 2013.
This album got a troubled release, a first version leaked in 2012 with 11 tracks and rumors of a release on Burger at end of 2012. But it's been pushed back to 2013 and the leaked version was still the only version available and the album has already reached a little hype. The release was pushed back again and it's only many months after the leaked version that finally Burger released the album. That official 2013 release had one more track than the leaked version but it was rather late. I suppose it's not all bad because the vinyl release is sold out, but for such album it's not a surprise. The digital release could have suffer of this, or not, no idea.
It's very catchy Garage between Pop and Rock. It has a light Psychedelic color but not as much than some of the previous albums that are more colored 60's Psychedelic Pop. It seems even a bit more 70's colored, but I didn't pinpoint why I have this feeling. More than in previous albums, you could hear echoes of Pop like Beatles (by opposition to Beach Boys) but the style has no link with the Beatles. It is full of enthusiasm that overflows on all tracks. This enthusiasm and the energy magnify the album. This album is also going closer to Rock than the previous albums, it has more power and more energy. The whole is great hyper catchy stuff.
To listen: Streaming sites like Deezer, Rdio or Spotify. Or 130k vbr preview.
To support the artists: Buy the digital (including a FLAC version) at Burger, or on the various standard digital shops. You could also buy "The Greatest Songs Of The Resonars" which is a vinyl LP collector compilation at Trouble In Mind.
Where all of this is going if nobody buy the music? Be fair, buy the music you like dig.
