Track Of The Day THE LAUGHING CHIMES
Since the band’s early inception in 2021 with their debut LP, “In This Town”, Southeast Ohio-bred brother duo Evan and Quinn Seurkamp have exhibited the breadth and mastery of a sparkling and nimble jangling pop sound with clear nods to the ’80s past of early REM, folksy Dunedin gleams, Sarah Records affiliated Razorcuts and Creation Records mainstays such as The Loft/Weather Prophets, yet reinvigorated with a healthy dose of intensity, freshness, and personality.
The newest single, “A Promise To Keep,” via the longtime impeccable Bay Area‘s imprint Slumberland Records, thrums with darker hues, ‘blooms and echoes of Southern Gothic rock as well as the ambitious grandeur of late 70s UK post-punk forebears’ affirms the press release, creepingly instilled by the lurching gloom from new member Avery Bookman‘s bassline and the sparse eerie bell tolls, whilst the desolate recurrent 6-string chord incantation and the decadent Lou Reed-ian crooning instantly reminds me of the mid-80s Lloyd Cole and The Commotions unfading allure.
The song triggers urgent punchy snare drums, to drive a sparkling and swaying sprawl of obsessive jangly guitars weaving crystalline, fluid, melancholic arpeggios, with sinuously plangent moody basslines, encircled in a background of lonesome spectral keyboard glows and subtly strident distortions, into the pain-woven intoxication of wistful heartfelt croons, that tremble and ache with depth and poeticism, wandering into a haunting anthem about the countless abandoned towns filling the East Coast mountain region known as the Appalachia.
The flip hosts a compelling, utterly personal, stirring bittersweet version of “Ballerina Out of Control” from everyone’s 80s guitar pop aficionado favorite and unavoidable most wanted list staple, The Ocean Blue.
Keep up with The Laughing Chimes:
