Thursdays with J.R. is our new weekly column from lifelong musician and lifelong-er music fan J.R. McIntire, drummer of Arctic Char and multi-instrumentalist on more projects than we have bandwidth to list.
Pick up that phone! This weeks track “Queens” by xox starts with what sounds like an archaic ringtone buzzing in the receiver just before the bass starts to drone a fuzzy, yet groovy bass line. The guitar and drums wash in perfectly. Great room sound on the drums and guitars. “Queens” is the first single from their new record Sell the Kids (out July 15th on Mishap records). We’re only a minute in when the vocals come in, brash and intentional. There aren’t many lyrics but the way they’re sang give them a weight that I cannot explain. “I saw you waiting” is repeated before an intense guitar noise break, very cool. Almost like a noise solo, tightly packed and then back to “I saw you waiting” as the song starts to groove again and diminish into the end. I know I say this a great deal but give this one a few listens, it gets better and better with each spin. Tight, short, rocking doom-groove. I quite enjoyed this from the simple 1-3 riff to the aggressive drums throughout. Fun in-car listen as well. Looking forward to the full record, great job xox!
Leave a Reply