Alice Magazine NYC - Chapter 3

What I think about ‘Modern-Rock’ or ‘Alternative’ music in the year 2016 is as follows;
A lot of modern, maybe a guitar or two and some live drum kit samples, an extra
fuck or bitch or some other cuss word thrown into the chorus somewhere that
it doesn’t need to be so the song gets an explicit rating, and a singer in a leather
jacket, preferably wearing pants that cost more than my rent. All so they can register
their songs under ‘rock’ on iTunes. There’s no balance in the dynamic anymore.
Hell, there’s barely a dynamic, all I hear when I turn the radio on is analog drama
with the most depressing, desperate, and subdued first position guitar chords laid in
somewhere underneath “synth track #11”. On top of all that, it seems the only bands
playing real rock ‘n’ roll music seem to be out on their eighth farewell tour, but something’s
gotta give sooner or later, right?
My hope for the lost art of keeping the ‘rock’ in ‘Modern-rock’ or the ‘Alternative’
in... the word ‘Alternative’ was rejuvenated late last year when I started touring in
what seemed to be the underground revival of all things sacred to a rock ‘n’ roller.
Glam bands, and funk heads, and new-age nimrods in a mad dash across the country
to revive the art they so sorrowfully mourned for. In the continuation of my efforts
to join the movement, my call to arms, if you will. I continued on through the winter
and spring, in search of something exciting, perverse, and existential. In the early
spring month, I ended up on a national run that started me in Los Angeles. It was a
three band package for twenty-eight shows in thirty-nine days or something like that.
The days, highways, cities, and plethora of hotel rooms all begin to blend together
somewhere near the end of week two anyway.
The band I had been routing with since October was on the bill. As was a Canadian
group of guys who were all kind, generous, and talented as hell. They were much
bigger in Canada than America, and that probably says something about the disparity
of the state our music industry is currently in, but that’s a story for another time. The
headlining act, originating from most corners of the country who had settled in Los
Angeles by way of Brooklyn, was Dreamers.
Dreamers is a trio. Marc Nelson on bass, vocals, and synth. Jacob Wick on drums
and vocals. Nick Wold on guitar and lead vocals. The night the tour started, at The
Roxy, on Sunset, I spent most of their set across the way at the Rainbow Room catching
up with an old friend over Margaritas and a sub-par cheeseburger. Shortly after,
I came to regret my decision. I returned to the venue near the end of their set and
continued to drink in celebration of finally ending the four-day drive out from New
York. The last song Dreamers played that night was a cover. I’m never particularly
fond of most bands who do covers in our day, because they’re mostly just songs off of
the radio, to draw the crowd in. I particularly dislike when bands end their set with
a cover. But this experience changed my opinion on that. Nick Wold came up to the
microphone prior to the performance and said “ We’re gonna do one more song for
you, and if you don’t mind, it’s going to be a cover. There are a lot of crazy, terrible
things going on in this world right now and we need to take a stand and change that.
We need a revolution.” As Nelson and Wick began to add noise behind him Wold let
his guitar amp shreek out a rebellious feedback and continued “ Our friend Max from
Arkells is going to come out and help us out with this one, sing along if you know it.”
The song was ‘Revolution’ by The Beatles. It was a flawlessly original rendition with
the most conviction and understanding I had ever seen anyone play the song with.
They knew what they were saying, and they meant it. From that point forward I stuck
around for as many of their sets as I could while we traveled together. Their honesty
and conviction carries over into their originals too. Each night I watched the trio play
several of the tracks off of their upcoming record, “This Album Does Not Exist” and
the execution, emotion, and expressiveness only got better each night. This is not a
band one can get bored with easily when watching them play live.
Dreamers unique brand of Modern-Rock is the perfect Alternative cocktail to claim
the genre respectfully and skillfully. Tracks like their latest single, ‘Sweet Disaster’,
incite references to The Rolling Stones, The Ramones, The Talking Heads, and more.
With influences like that, it’s difficult to fall away from the path of success. The overdriven
grunge-like guitar tones, straight drum beat, and throaty bass all cut through
the track like any rock record should, although, they’ve artfully added synthesizers,
electronic drums, and other analog electronics to attribute to the claim of the ‘Modern-Rock’
category because that’s what it is. Modern, and rock. Without the addition
of any tongue in cheek radio cliches that could let them slide into the iTunes classification.
The debut album from the trio is due out at the end of August and they’ve already
had three of the tracks debut on alternative radio and I have a feeling this is only
the beginning. When “This Album Does Not Exist” drops I suggest you grab it. Even
more so, I suggest you keep tabs on this band and catch a ticket to one of their shows
when they come to your city. And you can hope that the show you see is only half as
good as the time they played at Nuemo’s in Seattle that packed the legendary grunge
birthplace out and blew the roof off with a full blown rager of a dance party, right on
the stage to conclude the night.