THE FRIGHTS
A couple of months after graduating from high school, Mikey Carnevale (vocals/guitar) and Richard Dotson (bass) got together as The Frights to play a one off 30 minute set as sort of a joke. The feeling they got from the crowd in their hometown of San Diego inspired them to become a “real” band almost in spite of themselves. Along the way, they recruited Marc Finn (drums) and released You Are Going To Hate This (produced by Zac Carper of FIDLAR) in February 2016. Jordan Clark (guitar) added to the band’s musical prowess in the ensuing year of touring around North America. The Frights signed to Epitaph in early 2018 and got to work on Hypochondriac. Like You Are Going To Hate This, the band’s third full-length was produced by Zac Carper of FIDLAR (who’s also produced albums for SWMRS and Dune Rats). But for Hypochondriac, Carnevale took a more deliberate and exacting approach to his songwriting, resulting in The Frights’ most nuanced work to date. After a sold out show at The Observatory North Park in their hometown of San Diego the same date as the release of the album, the band embarked on the Hypochondriac headline tour that is documented on their upcoming live album.
REMO DRIVE
To find their muse again, REMO DRIVE went back to where it all began: their parents’ basement. It had been a long time coming for the Paulson brothers – Erik (vocals, guitar) and Stephen (bass) – who formed Remo Drive in Bloomington, Minnesota, in 2013 and have since captivated audiences around the world with an earnest, idiosyncratic brand of indie-rock and two highly lauded albums: 2017’s Greatest Hits and 2019’s Natural, Everyday Degradation.
When the Paulsons stumbled across a Tascam recording desk on Facebook Marketplace in 2019, they thought it might make a nice starting point to demo songs for their then-forthcoming third LP. But $250 and a few weeks later, they found themselves fully entrenched in making the actual album itself. Not only that, but the safety and security of their parents’ home provided a welcome respite for the brothers, who have learned they’re most creative without a ticking clock and prying eyes peeking over their shoulders.
“Our workflow is naturally different from what most producers and studios like to do,” Erik explains. “We take things in our own weird approach and order. There’s a sense of privacy working at home. It doesn’t feel like you’re working with the door open during the incubation process.”
The resulting album, A PORTRAIT OF AN UGLY MAN (due out June 26 on Epitaph) finds the band truly in their element – both physically and sonically. Whereas the Paulsons filtered their buoyant songwriting through the concise lens of storytellers like Bruce Springsteen and The Killers on Natural, Everyday Degradation, LP3 is more spontaneous, awash in the same sort of acrobatic guitar arrangements and levity that made Greatest Hits such an underground favorite.
