Milwaukee has always been a great destination for out-of-town bands. We have an ever-growing number of venues willing to take a flyer on bands from all over the country and the world, offering Milwaukeeans the unique opportunity to check out some truly amazing bands we might not otherwise get to see. In this installment of “You Should Know,” we take a look at a bizarre but strangely exhilarating two-piece psychedelic sludge band hailing from Brooklyn. It’s time to meet Lost Coves.
Check Them Out
Saturday night at Quarter’s Rock ‘N Roll Palace, opening for Milwaukee’s sludge metal icons Northless.
What’s The Big Deal?
You know how most bands will tell you that they don’t really sound like anything else, before inevitably coming across as a blatant Thursday rip off? Well, I can honestly say that Lost Coves have carved out a unique niche where few other bands have tread. Part experimental prog rock, part psychedelic stoner post-punk, and all volume, the duo of Dylan Ricards on bass/vocals and Bil Saunders on drums creates vivid soundscapes that can transition from gorgeously melodic lull to horrifyingly pummeling dissonance in an instant. It is not a passive experience for the listener, as you are inevitably sucked into the band’s twisted world.
Lost Coves made an appearance at this year’s South By Southwest music festival, playing a set that Space City Rock declared a “a sprawling, misanthropic bundle of post-rock tension and noise, staggering and stuttering like an angry, knife-wielding guy with a head full of cold medicine.” And the reality of it is, that does a pretty solid job of summing up Lost Coves’ distinct, highly enjoyable brand of sonic chaos.
How’s The Latest Album?
Released early this year, the Until We Break Bone EP is the third effort from Lost Coves. The formula remains more or less the same as on the previous efforts: mix epically bruising metal with elegant space psychedelia, shake violently, repeat. The EP consists of just four songs (and two of them are actually under 3:30 minutes long), but the band has a way of making this feel like an eternity, in a good way. Perhaps it’s helped by the fact that the other two clock in at six and eight minutes long (the droning opener “Onset” and the schizophrenic “The Fall,” respectively). The band has an incredible knack for taking four tracks of pure disconnected, disjointed dissonance and turning it into an experience that you can’t turn away from, even if you wanted to.
What People Are Saying
“They like to lull you into an altered state, then thrash you around a bit, before turning you over and rubbing your back.” – Brent Rose, Gizmodo
“Among the thoughts I had during the course of listening to them: ‘These vocals are terrible.’ ‘These vocals are genius.’ ‘What the hell are these two doing?’ ‘Oh man, this is excellent.'” – Jayson, To Eleven
Audio
Listen to tracks off of the band’s Until We Break Bone EP here.
