Look for “Music Band” in the Facebook search box and about one thousand results pop up, including a slew of country acts and a page dedicated to Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay.” To find the page of the Nashville’s psychedelic-rock trio, one must swim through a heap of city’s profiles. Everyone here digs music, everyone’s in a band.
As is the case with rock n’ roll history, some of the most seemingly “lazy” names are really just euphemisms for a group that cleverly wires satire through their sound. Take “The Band,” for example; perhaps the tightest group of musicians in the history of rock n’ roll, whose name came from their beginnings as Ronnie Hawkin’s back up band. If you search for The Band on Facebook, you first have to scroll the pages of Chuck Norris and a Brandeis University rock group.
Music Band is a trio born out of upstate New York, but somehow avoided managed to harness sub-zero winters into a refreshingly humorous perspective sliced with good vibrations. Two years ago, they moved to Nashville on the inviting whim of good vibes, and a fancy to create post-college success through a city that supports a growing crop of well-curated grunge rock. Since their move, they’ve built a steady audience of fans looking to strip the pretension out of the music scene, reminding us that the most important quality in being likeable as an artist of any kind, is to take one’s art seriously without taking one’s self too seriously. Three-part harmonies and an ingrained sense of humor through instrumental urgency make Music Band one of our favorite new acts in Nashville, Tennessee.
Recently, Music Band released their “Can I Live” CS, a series of tracks featured in Diarrhea Planet’s Casey Weissbuch’s Cassette Series, released by Infinity Cat records. With a wailing electric guitar that cascades through steady drum lines, and muffled harmonies, Music Band showcases phenomenal command of psych-rock composition. There’s introspection there, too, but in an honest way, unclouded by an overt attempt at metaphor. “I can’t win, if I won’t change,” Lee, Harry, and Duncan sing on the anthemic “Can’t Win.” It’s an honest and audible display of the group’s soaring personal chemistry. “Can I Live” is a grooving exposition of the middle-ground: the space between crafting tight tracks laden with appropriate rests and speedy guitar recovery, between harnessing listener appreciation and hiding from the limelight of pretension. Compelling and sincere, Music Band is making essential music without the smoke and mirrors of self-importance.
You can stream “Can I Live” here.
Lockeland Springsteen 