By Gannopy Urena
2 min read
To find new local bands to review, I usually find a show poster when I’m running errands- in order to fit my shtick of finding new music in the real world. This month I cheated. It’s freezing outside and I’m barely seeing any new posters. I didn’t feel like walking around for a longer distance in the ice, snow and rain just to find a poster. So this time, I found the band Statehouse on Rosewater Record’s Instagram page, advertising a show that’s happening on February 5th. I did discover Rosewater records by looking at a poster on the street a few months ago, so a poster did technically lead me to Statehouse.
What makes me really excited about this band in particular is that it has members of color! I love small Allston bands and I love rock music. However, as a person of color myself I get weary of writing about white people. It’s really nice to see some fellow POC passionate about rock music in Boston, Massachusetts.
Statehouse is made up of three members who met in their freshman year of college (according to their Spotify biography). Gia Flores plays guitar and performs vocals, Wyatt Moran plays bass and performs vocals, and Ben Gurnon plays the drums. Statehouse was established in October 2019. They currently have 348 monthly listeners on Spotify, and 711 followers on Instagram.
Their newest album, Amends, released June 4th of this year, is a wonderful pop-punk/ emo album that definitely calls back to late 2000’s punk and rock music. Think Brand New Eyes era Paramore, May Day Parade, or All Time Low. Both Fia Flores and Wyatt Moran have that singing style demonstrated in bands like the Front Bottoms or Pavement- where there aren’t really many notes and they don’t particularly matter but the vocals sound amazing. Both Wyatt and Gia have beautiful and soothing voices.
They structured the album to have the first and penultimate tracks be instrumental. “Polaroid” sets the mood for the album well and blends perfectly into the next track, “Tumble”. “Nothing”, the second to last track, is a gorgeous, slow tempo track that is a nice contrast to “Docs”, which goes pretty hard and fast.
The lyrics are emo(tional), deep, and sometimes clever. In the song “Mouse trap”, Wyatt sings, “his tiny little tail runs through my mind”. I appreciate dedication to a bit. Gia croons in the song “Anywhere”, “So if we can’t be friends, why do friends come across the room, if we can’t be friends, why don’t I wanna leave this room”.
These three musicians have perfected a simple formula. A beautiful guitar, an anchoring bass, and some impactful drums and a raw sound. Listening to this band makes me feel like I’m 14 again, taking a walk through the woods and crying because my mom was annoying. I feel like I found a lost Paramore album from 2009. This album definitely hits that old school emo balance of sad and pensive music that encourages an energetic head banging sesh.
*Originally published in-print in Boston Compass Newspaper #143 February 2022
Comentarios