Premiere: Hoax Hunters' Evocative "Transparency"

Richmond post-punk trio Hoax Hunters returns this week with a seven-song set of potent guitar music titled Clickbait, a collection stocked with lean arrangements, muscular rhythm playing and sumptuous guitar tone. The set was recorded in late July and early August at Richmond's Scott's Addition Sound, and six of the tracks were penned by fronter and guitarist (and noted photog) PJ Sykes. The centerpiece is the raging and breathless title track, a fiery and uptempo indictment -- thick with guitar distortion and marked by Mr. Sykes' incensed declamations -- that arrives at a spine-tingling, hard stop like a freight train plowing straight into the side of a mountain. While the EP is uniformly strong, it isn't all as ferocious. "Breakthrough" moderates the tempo, and Sykes reigns in his tenor for a more ruminative presentation, and the relatively -- relatively -- delicate "Transparency" ups both the restraint and the melodicism to deliver a tune fairly reminiscent of classic Versus. Clickbait cleverly closes with a recitation of the album credits during a song called "What Everybody Ought To Know About Clickbait," which, really, is an idea whose time has come, at least in the decontextualized digital music age.

We are pleased to be able to premiere for you today the aforementioned "Transparency," which you can stream via the Soundcloud embed at the foot of this item. The song is the closest thing to a ballad on the record, and the appealing high bend in the verse's guitar riff picks at the scab of a formidable nostalgia for things as sweet and timeless as Bettie Serveert's triumph Palomine or the aforementioned Versus' The Stars Are Insane. Cherub Records releases Clickbait as a digital download Friday via its Bandcamp page, where pre-orders are already being taken for five American dollars. 25 fans are able to purchase Clickbait bundled with a bumper sticker supporting an apparent 2016 presidential run by the EP and/or its title track, which, depending on your chosen political party, either is or describes your strongest candidate; those that pre-order Clickbait will also receive an unspecified bonus track. An online performance celebrating the short set is being planned, but in the meantime Sykes fêtes the EP with a solo set Thursday night at the fifth installment of Richmond venue Strange Matters' Locals Only series. Also on the bill are Among The Rocks & Roots, Lou Breeders and Antelope King, and full deets for the night are right here. We last wrote about Hoax Hunters here almost a year ago, on the occasion of the release of the band's terrific cover of The Dambuilders' "Smooth Control." Hoax Hunters' debut LP Comfort & Safety was released in August 2014 [review].

Hoax Hunters: Bandcamp | Facebook | Tumblaaaaaaah

Video Premiere: Hoax Hunters' Fiery Fireball "Erase"

Last month Senior Writer Edward Charlton made a strong case in these electronic pages here that Hoax Hunters' multidimensional fireball "Erase" was the Richmond post-hardcore trio's most compelling composition to date. Here's the whole quote: "The standout track -- which apparently features "homemade electric dulcitar" from a guest player -- combines an experimental sound-collage introduction, a quick-burning hardcore song, and an extended, searing coda (which talks the listener down from the intensity of the previous numbers) to create what is perhaps Hoax Hunters' most compelling composition to date. The chorus' dynamic, shout-along chant channels both the rage and joy that these guys bring to their music. "You. Can. Not. Erase," Sykes proclaims -- the final declaration that the hard work and values of those within a scene will live on, again and again."

Presenting the tune live would seem to present myriad challenges given the collaged opening minute and distinct movements, but we think the video above is proof of a challenge met. Doubled-down upon, even, as instead of the recorded version's opening minute of ambient noise and feedback, fronter P.J. Sykes and band -- here abetted by a gentlemen named Dave Watkins -- open the tune with more than two minutes of feedback, coaxed by hands hammering the backs of guitar necks. Then, after delivering a passionate, fiery iteration of the tune, Hoax Hunters return it from whence it came, ashes to ashes, a conflagration of feedback hungrily devouring the song, until all that is left is Mr. Sykes and his guitar hanging off the front of his amplifier like an astronaut hopelessly clinging to the exterior of her spacecraft. It's quite a video. The performance was filmed at the release show for Hoax Hunters' debut LP Comfort & Safety, which was held Aug. 8 at Gallery 5 in Richmond, VA. The trio recently performed at Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival, and its next show is Sept. 28 in Richmond with The Awesome Few. Comfort & Safety can be purchased from the also Raleigh-based label Negative Fun right here. New music is apparently already in the offing.

Review: Hoax Hunters | Comfort & Safety

Richmond threesome Hoax Hunters with its debut long-player has created an expansive, divergent set of punk-worshipping monoliths, each tune shaping an American post-hardcore lineage into formalized and nostalgic architectural shapes. The electrifying new set, Comfort & Safety, firmly establishes the trio as a noisy, squalling force, one that is both more informed and more nubile [HEY NOW -- Ed.] than many of its peers.

Hoax Hunters has been a fixture slowly rising up from the RVA scene for several years; it released a split single with Richmond dream-pop luminaries The Snowy Owls in early 2013. Long before the creation of the band, fronter and guitarist P.J. Sykes built a reputation as a go-to music photographer, relentlessly and selflessly documenting the local indie rock scene, and having work featured in Spin Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post and elsewhere. Mr. Sykes has also contributed photographs to a slew of highly regarded albums from Clicky Clicky faves including legends Superchunk and Versus. Unsurprisingly, Sykes' connected-ness within the mid-Atlantic music scene is the source of one of Comfort & Safety's strongest, defining traits: his love for currently overlooked post-hardcore standard-bearers from the mid-to-late-'80s Dischord stable -- groups like Rites of Spring, Gray Matter, Three and early Fugazi -- is reflected in his songwriting. These aforementioned bands moved punk into broader, more melodic, "mathy," and noisy territory, and to this reviewer their contributions at times seem overshadowed by trendier names and louder personalities. Hoax Hunters, however, honors these deeper and deeply important roots of the American underground, and casts their sounds and ideals within a modern framework, much like contemporary beloved and buzzed smashers Metz and Hausu.

Hoax Hunters' connection to The Snowy Owls is also illuminating. While far from a shoegazer outfit, Sykes and co. interestingly mix the vocals quite low, a move that emphasizes the shifting lead and rhythm patterns, which come courtesy of The Snowy Owls' drummer James O'Neill. Mr. O'Neill's drums bash loudly, and his great tom work is heavily foregrounded on Hoax Hunters' buzz-sawing rocker "Volume" and its tense thriller "Riskless Business." Clever studio trickery throughout injects interesting depth and dimension to Comfort & Safety and varies from song to song. Single "Breathe" utilizes swirling flange and panning in its opening moments to tasteful effect, and Sykes' various vocal filters here and elsewhere supply a subtly grit to the proceedings. Like many classic albums, these production methods give Hoax Hunters' debut a kineticism that accretes across the record toward album highlight and de facto closer "Erase." The standout track -- which apparently features "homemade electric dulcitar" from a guest player -- combines an experimental sound-collage introduction, a quick-burning hardcore song, and an extended, searing coda (which talks the listener down from the intensity of the previous numbers) to create what is perhaps Hoax Hunters most compelling composition to date. The chorus' dynamic, shout-along chant channels both the rage and joy that these guys bring to their music. "You. Can. Not. Erase," Sykes proclaims -- the final declaration that the hard work and values of those within a scene will live on, again and again.

Comfort & Safety was released last week on vinyl and as a digital download (sorry, no CDs, retro futurists!). Raleigh's Negative Fun is selling the LP (the very first to be offered by the label), and it is for sale right here. Richmond-based Cherub Records is handling the digital download sales, and if that is more to your taste, this is where you want to be. Stream the entire set via the Bandcamp embed below. -- Edward Charlton

Hoax Hunters: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internerds

Review: The Snowy Owls | Within Yr Reach EP

Richmond, Virginia-based shoegaze quartet The Snowy Owls popped onto our radar about a year ago via the compelling digital single "Yr Eyes." The tune has proven to set the template for what has followed, as the dark, hazy promise of its JAMC-inflected fuzz and echo feels fully realized on the foursome's excellent new EP, Within Yr Reach. The act self-released the 30-minute set earlier this week and feted it with a release show in its hometown Friday night. Its eight songs double down on the band's '80s alternative rock and darkwave influences, presenting an affecting amalgamation of the early music of The Cure and The Chameleons that is as remarkable for its songwriting as it is for its consistent, pervasive tone. The Snowy Owls have a world view, and it is dark, concise, guitar-drenched and weirdly beautiful.

Within Yr Reach commences with one of the collection's two short intrumental tracks, "Pilcrow," a slow march of gauzy, reverbed chords from which catapults the firm beat of the title track. The song "Within Yr Reach" echoes It Hugs Back's early single "Other Cars Go," but eschews that band's motorik rhythmic tendencies in favor of just a touch more swing. Perhaps the best example of The Snowy Owls' relatively straightforward approach is the jaunty, feedback spangled rocker "Fortunate Isles," which trades on a sturdy rhythm, a simple arrangement of over-driven guitars, bass and drums, and well-conceived production, all of which highlight the fact that when you've got a great song with a great melody, there's no need for the extreme and heavy-handed auditory trickery many shoegaze acts favor. The foursome's respect for solid basics extends to a certain extent to fronter Matt Klimas' lyrics, which balance blurry abstraction and literal clarity, and even repeat certain imagery, to plot in simple terms the dimensions of an idealized -- if unconsummated -- relationship across the EP's eight songs. Within Yr Reach succeeds because the arrangements are relatively spartan, allowing each instrument to tumescently billow within the open aural space, even as Mr. Klimas and his band of merry men wash everything with reverbs and regularly distress the guitar leads with barely controlled distortions.

Brilliant and patient album closer "Falling" emerges from an elastic bass line into the sort of dysphoric dark vibe that made The Cure's Faith and Pornography so terribly affecting. Guitars gather for the chorus in proportion to the deepening reverb on Klimas' murky vocal. The play between the steady inevitability of quarter notes and so much saturated reverb, along with the song's wistful melody, makes it a fitting final statement for Within Yr Reach. Thanks to the good graces of Mr. Klimas, we are able to offer you a free download of the track, which you can snatch at this link. Stream the entire, excellent EP via the Bandcamp embed below; you can buy the collection at Bandcamp for a scant $3 American dollars for a limited time.

The Snowy Owls: Internerds | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitters