“King of Prussia is a sextet that dispenses regal, twee-pop with sweet harmonies, ringing guitars and infectious melodies.”— NPR
While it may be easy (before a spin) to dismiss King of Prussia’s new country western mini-EP The Time of Great Forgetting as an attempt at genre-switching “Weenery,” that isn’t what Deaner is talking about. This is a return to the band’s Southern Rock roots—minus, of course, the Marshall half-stacks, sweaty headbands, fingerless-gloved drummer and any aural evidence of “raw guitar prowess.” Ok, fair enough, it may not be a stylistic return to any such roots, but rather a slight figurative/literal return—a reference to the fact that most of the kids who contributed to the EP have played in (more or less) rock bands in the South for a good long while now.
The majority of the players are from Georgia or South Carolina, which are both, inarguably, The South. Now it could be argued that singer and song man, Brandon Hanick, isn’t really from The South. The stucco homes and strip mall sprawl of Dunedin, the singer’s West Central Florida hometown, hardly recall the portraits painted by a Twain or a Williams. But as a child and teenager, Hanick would summer at his mother’s holiday sanctuary—a single-wide mobile home in Istachatta, Fla.—smack dab on the Withlacoochee River. And while Florida is without a doubt the ¨North of the South,¨ Istachatta has a culture that could more easily be linked to that of Old Dixie. Gators—some mythical, others real—skulk the riverbanks in search of prey. The townsfolk have nicknames like J.B. Swamp, Treeman Jim, Roadhog, Lightnin’ Rod Billy, and the late great Alligator Judd. The Natty and/or Busch Light flows like wine, so if one´s going to attend the weekend bonfire, one better bring a gi-tar and his/her best can coozie. The details from this era may be fuzzy, but there’s a decent chance that Hanick probably played his first country tune at one such bonfire.
It’s also likely that Hanick’s departure from the States last year in favor of life in Barcelona gave rise to the nostalgia necessary to release such an “American-sounding” collection of songs. But for all the lonesome desert hawk guitar twang, pickin´ and grinnin´ banjo lines, and saloon-style piano parts, King of Prussia can´t (nor would they want to) completely escape their psychedelic and Brit pop roots. The Time of Great Forgetting, mixed and mastered by Jesse Mangum, producer of Black Kids´ Wizard of Ahhs EP, finds King of Prussia utilizing more organic instrumentation than was featured on its 2008 critically-acclaimed Kindercore Records debut, Save the Scene. However, the band still manages to weave plenty of tasty hooks into its epic tales of hazy nights spent in Reno, trips to abandoned mansions, and what happens when psychic powers fall into the wrong hands.
Home has (never) been forgotten
These days, the cast and crew that make up King of Prussia are scattered like the leaves from an old maple (N. Young, 1992). Hanick has been living in Barcelona for over a year now, with no immediate plans of returning to the States. Nathan Troutman (piano, drums, banjo, harmonica, vocals) has moved back to his hometown of Myrtle Beach, S.C. while Brian Smith (bass, guitars, keys, piano) is holding it down in the band’s former home base of Athens, Ga. Strings are realized through a transatlantic collaboration between Elizabeth Jones in Athens and Mireia Linkmeyer Gabino y Miren Garbiñe De Diego in Barcelona. Live, the band has been playing as a trio on and around the Iberian Peninsula, but the grand plan from The Grand Strand is for more of the American members (and the member who is now living in Pohang, South Korea) to cross whatever ocean they need to cross in order to (re)unite the various lands in which King of Prussia now lives.
"Those with seasonal affective disorder (or really anyone who finds these colder months depressing), will find that a listen to Save The Scene will work as well as sticking your head in a lightbox to up your serotonin production on a grey, snowy day."— Pitchfork
"The Athens, Ga. group's debut release heaps of promise."— Paste Magazine
“Their brief but wholly satisfying seven-song debut, Save the Scene, melds jaunty psychedelic whimsy and literate, orchestrated pop to tremendous effect. A wonderful discovery, and it’s nice to see Kindercore Records reintroducing itself with such accomplished projects.”— Stomp and Stammer
No comments:
Post a Comment