Freak Scene #27: Ian St. George Brings the Hooks on 'Emergency Index'
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, Ian St. George knows his way around a melody on his first album, the Greys have a new single and a dormant festival reemerges.
Though Ian St. George lists “the ‘unhappy valley’ of western Massachusetts” as the recording location for Emergency Index, there’s nothing morose about the songs on the Northampton musician’s first LP. On the contrary, the album is a collection of tight, vibrant power-pop songs full of chugging guitars and catchy hooks.
Apart from a couple of more subdued numbers, St. George blasts through these songs with crackling energy, but what’s more impressive is the instinctive feel he has for melodic hooks. St. George has a knack for crafting melodies that sound classic: there’s the big, punchy chorus that completes the candy-colored rock ’n’ roll bombast of “Kimberly,” or the way he conjures a sense of dreamy longing over an early-’60s girl-group beat on “Anytime at All,” where he shifts into falsetto without a second thought on the last refrain.
As if the hooks weren’t enough, St. George often pairs them with bold fuzztone guitar parts. A surging riff boils around his glammed-up vocals on “Goin’ Down,” while “No One Really Knows” features bright, silvery guitar turned up to the point of distortion, as if the strings were throwing off sparks in the studio. Go ahead: play it again. And maybe once more after that.
As for the unhappy valley bit, St. George has been frank on social media about wrestling with depression. As we know, that’s a chemical thing, but all the same, we’re glad he’s here, and making music as compelling as the songs on Emergency Index.
The Greys Spin ‘Cycles’
Northampton indie-soul band the Greys have an album release show booked for Dec. 12 at the Iron Horse. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s an album on the way, too: the foursome plans to release Sixteen Eyes the same day. After releasing the album’s first single, “Mona,” this spring, the Greys are back with a new jam, “Cycles.”
Tim Zucco’s scabrous guitar is the focal point here as he slings around snarling fills over the taut groove that Chris Merritt and Kevin Mason lay down on bass and drums, respectively. Caity Simpson rounds it out with vocals by turns sultry and full-throated as the band shifts through distinctive sections of the track.
Upcoming Concerts
After spending the past few years on hiatus, the festival Barbès in the Woods returns Nov. 22-24, this time in Sheffield at Race Brook Lodge. With just 300 total tickets, it promises to be a super-intimate weekend of music by artists from around the world, including Combo Chimbita, TEKE::TEKE, Yallah Yallah, Rogê, Bulla en el Barrio, Lollise, Underground Spiritual Game, Mehrnam Rastegari, Mamady & Mamady of Mandingo Ambassadors, Son Rompe Pera, Miramar, Snacky and more. Tickets and more information are available here.
River Roads Festival, happening Sept. 7 in Easthampton, has added Iris DeMent to a lineup that already includes Dar Williams, Paula Cole and Hayley Heynderickx. More information here.
Bridgeport’s Sound on Sound festival is reborn this year as Soundside Music Festival, happening Sept. 28-29 at Seaside Park in Bridgeport. The lineup Saturday includes Noah Kahan, Goo Goo Dolls, Fleet Foxes, Boyz II Men and Grace Potter. Sunday’s acts include Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Norah Jones, Teddy Swims, Gregory Alan Isakov and the Kills. The full lineup and ticket information are here.
Next week: Greenfield’s Mark Schwaber returns with his new album Glacier.
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