The Seratones, from Shreveport, Louisiana, are touring now in support of their debut album Get Gone. Each of the bandmembers has managed, in their short lifetime as a functioning unit, to incorporate at least half a dozen pop-music trademarks into the act. It’s to the point that they appear to be overcome by cliché. This is not meant as criticism, however. The Seratones’ music is fresh and engaging, even if it is not particularly innovative. For example, “Music that’s about waking people up” is one of their artist statements; what child of the ’60s has not already heard that?
But what keeps it from becoming one of those “my-first-trip-to-a-place-the-rest-of-you-have-already-been” stories is that the Seratones bond their different (and sometimes antagonistic) influences of punk, alt-rock, and gospel into a thing that sounds much like Memphis soul as performed by three longhairs with electric guitars and drums. There’s a sweet voice on top; that would be A.J. Haynes, with Connor Davis on guitar, bassist Adam Davis, and Jesse Davis behind the drum kit.
The Seratones is likewise another one of those zero-to-60 stories: from a Louisiana Music top prize in 2013 to a three-record deal on Fat Possum Records to guest spots on late-night TV shows, the climb out of Louisiana practice garages and nightclub obscurity has been steep and fast. But don’t quit those day-jobs just yet: the word is that Haynes is still a high school teacher and that the other members also have day gigs. Humbling for a band that Paste magazine included in their Top 20 Bands of 2015 and which headlined earlier this year in Austin at South by Southwest music festival and have rocked the CMJ music festival, Reading/Leads, and the Hangout Music Festival, to name a few. It can only go up from here.
The Seratones, from Shreveport, Louisiana, are touring now in support of their debut album Get Gone. Each of the bandmembers has managed, in their short lifetime as a functioning unit, to incorporate at least half a dozen pop-music trademarks into the act. It’s to the point that they appear to be overcome by cliché. This is not meant as criticism, however. The Seratones’ music is fresh and engaging, even if it is not particularly innovative. For example, “Music that’s about waking people up” is one of their artist statements; what child of the ’60s has not already heard that?
But what keeps it from becoming one of those “my-first-trip-to-a-place-the-rest-of-you-have-already-been” stories is that the Seratones bond their different (and sometimes antagonistic) influences of punk, alt-rock, and gospel into a thing that sounds much like Memphis soul as performed by three longhairs with electric guitars and drums. There’s a sweet voice on top; that would be A.J. Haynes, with Connor Davis on guitar, bassist Adam Davis, and Jesse Davis behind the drum kit.
The Seratones is likewise another one of those zero-to-60 stories: from a Louisiana Music top prize in 2013 to a three-record deal on Fat Possum Records to guest spots on late-night TV shows, the climb out of Louisiana practice garages and nightclub obscurity has been steep and fast. But don’t quit those day-jobs just yet: the word is that Haynes is still a high school teacher and that the other members also have day gigs. Humbling for a band that Paste magazine included in their Top 20 Bands of 2015 and which headlined earlier this year in Austin at South by Southwest music festival and have rocked the CMJ music festival, Reading/Leads, and the Hangout Music Festival, to name a few. It can only go up from here.
Comments