Let me be upfront: I have this odd anxiety about a certain variety of rock band. The moment I hear it, I fear for the day it will get played on say, DC101, and thereby lose its underground status (this happened with Carbon Leaf, and their newest album is god-awful; the same can be said of SR-71 with Tommorow, but that was a few years ago - needless to say, I'm still bitter).No Second Troy fits into this category pretty well: their songs have a certain dark smooth feel, like ice skating in the dark. This seems to be mostly generated by Jeff Wharen's understated deep vocals and the almost ethereal guitar and synth parts. Having e-mailed back and forth with the band's bassist and back-up vocalist, John Woolf, I feel like I can safely say that I'm comforted knowing they don't take themselves too seriously, especially considering the W.B. Yeats poem that shares the band's name.
I've spent this whole time avoiding using the scary P-word, because they seem to have one (it's producer, in case you didn't know), which gives me some insurance that they won't become un-awesome if they get signed to record label. Fans of Snow Patrol and the Arcade Fire should watch out, because they might get hooked.
Did I mention that they're based in DC?
Some upcoming dates:
June 23 - Alley Katz in Richmond, VA (John has promised to buy everyone who comes to the bar 15 cocktails, and a pony. He may have been lying.)
June 28 - DC9 in DC (duh)
July 13 - The Brewery in Raleigh, VA
No Second Troy - Burned
No Second Troy - Gardens
The band's website/myspace
Buy Narcotic from Amazon.com (also from iTunes and some other sellers, check their myspace)
Labels: artist profile, DC street cred, No Second Troy, rock
Give TGH a thumbs up!
I second that comment about "Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat." Give me "Indian Summer" any day.
So true.