Negative Association is one of the scene’s most intriguing younger bands. It released its first EP, Accidental Chemistry, on April 24, and it’s a perfect sampler of their distinctive musical mix of styles: louder shoegaze rock that also includes straightforward alternative rock moments with roots in the ’80s to today.
“We have chosen to take the hard and ugly parts of life and create something beautiful from it, and that’s exactly what this EP shows,” said singer Lola Anderson. “The lyrics of each song represent personal experience and growth, and the music is inspired by these emotions.”
To that end, the four songs on Accidental Chemistry veer from quiet and blithe passages to gritty distortion, bringing sharp dynamics to a take on modern indie rock. I heard shades of interesting but not massively popular bands from the past—such as The Geraldine Fibbers and Lush—mingle with modern masters of this style, such as Big Thief and Ratboys.
The band started two years ago with Anderson and her brother, Elias, who plays guitar. The other three members of the group—Brandon Lee on guitar, Slade Pronk on bass and Jake Carlson on drums—were all friends with the Andersons when they decided to form a band. They’ve since earned some great opening spots in town for groups like Black Pontiac and 9Million and have become a standout on all-local, all-ages bills. They also ventured to San Jose for a show.
This DIY spirit extended to Accidental Chemistry, which Lola Anderson said was recorded in the band’s own studio, where they “locked themselves in the basement for a whole weekend to fully record, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.”
“The recording process was not easy,” she said. “It’s a lot of trial and error and tests your patience like nothing else. Jake led the charge and completely taught himself how to mix and master.”
As for the future, Lola Anderson said the band is playing at the next Fairy Fair event on May 23 at The Potentialist Workshop. They also plan to head out of town more, with new shows posted on the Negative Association Instagram page.
“Now that we have a larger discography to share, we are planning to go on tour, probably next year, realistically,” she said. “Maybe we’ll take some small trips to the Bay (near San Francisco) before then.”
She added with a laugh: “We definitely have a few more songs we want to release as singles that we will get working on after a well-deserved break from working so hard on the EP.”
Apollo:Sent lands with its first album—after 20-plus years
Next, we have a new-old band. Or an old-new band. Not sure which is right, to be honest! I’ll let Apollo:Sent mastermind Josh Ah Sam explain:
“So, we started in 2005, and then we went on a hiatus in 2009, and then we took around an 18-year break,” Ah Sam said.
That break ends with Atlantis, the first album from Apollo:Sent, released to streaming (except Spotify) and Bandcamp in mid-April. The band’s original drummer, Phillip Eccles, is still in the duo, but Ah Sam plays all the other instruments, except for on “Challenger,” a song that features bass by the album’s engineer, Billy Romeo.
The reason for the hiatus was simple, according to Eccles. “People started to move away, and I got into another musical project that started taking a lot of my time and attention,” he said. “And sometimes, when you let your foot off the gas, it turns out that a small break turns into 18 years.”
The journey to Atlantis began when Ah Sam said he started writing again in late 2015. “I was mostly writing for the first eight years of it, and doing my own very low-level recordings,” he said. “I’m very much an amateur at that.”
Enter Romeo and his Lumberyard Studio. That’s where Ah Sam’s second band, The Scattering, recorded their latest EP, Now We All Burn, and Romeo offered his services. It was a long process to record Atlantis—Ah Sam said it was about two years on and off—but both Romeo and Ah Sam wanted Eccles back on board, even though he had since moved to Moapa Valley near Las Vegas.
From there, Ah Sam and Eccles did pre-production, both long-distance via files and in person in Reno. The drums were recorded by Romeo at Pale Moon Audio, which is a studio in Juniper Hills in Southern California, while the rest was at Romeo’s studio in Sparks.
Musically, Apollo:Sent has a base similar to when the band was playing in town in the ’00s: a mix of metalcore and emo. But there’s also some melodic punk and progressive elements thrown into the mix that bring it up to date.
Even though it took a long time to accomplish, Ah Sam said he was proud of the final result.
“I think at first, before the release, I had just a little bit of anxiety,” he said. “I think it’s just maybe a normal thing that people experience. But there was also a weight that was lifted from my shoulders, just by saying it was finished.”
Both Ah Sam and Eccles plan to perform these new Apollo:Sent songs in a live setting sometime later this year, in Reno and Las Vegas.
“I’ve been generally antagonizing Josh about a record release show since before we finished recording,” Eccles said. “I’m super-pumped to do it, and I think we’re going to make inroads into getting together for live rehearsals soon.”
Apollo:Sent will be a full band for the live shows, if all goes according to Ah Sam’s plan.
“I definitely want to find somebody for bass and lead guitars, and I have a couple of people in mind. I just haven’t asked them yet,” he said.
You can get more details on everything Apollo:Sent at its Instagram page.
Furrow seeks a new drummer
The excellent heavy psych-rock band Furrow, featured in a previous Music Notes, is now without a permanent drummer.
Furrow, shown with former drummer Mike Mechanic at a show last year, is searching for a new drummer. Photo/Mark Earnest
The band announced earlier in April that Mike Mechanic has left the band; bassist Bobby Lee said the drummer “left on good terms to follow his own creative dreams.”
Lee and guitarist Wolfman Grimes are still playing their scheduled Furrow show on Wednesday, May 6, at Alturas Bar, with South Lake Tahoe drummer Jen Callahan from the band Pizza Fingers deputized for that one show. Lee added that the band is looking for a permanent drummer, so if you want to throw your hat (or sticks) into the ring, you can contact the group at the Furrow Instagram site.
Let us know more about your band
Whether you are a veteran musician or just starting to play, we’d like to know more about what you and your bandmates are doing in the scene. You can write me with the news at markearnestwriter@gmail.com or become my pal on Instagram.