Sleepless Nights at Gus' Pub - Jan 28th 2010

Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:00pm
@ Gus' Pub w/ The Hamilton Trading Company & Doug Mason (CD Release!!)

The Sleepless Nights - www.thesleeplessnights.com/
Doug Mason - www.myspace.com/dougmason
The Hamilton Trading Company - www.myspace.com/keithhamilton

Dan & I headed out to see The Sleepless Nights off, on their latest tour, in support of their new EP "The Phone Booth Outside The Video Store".

Dan took the time today to sit down and give the EP a good listen and write his thoughts, while I worked on the photos and videos...

Sleepless Nights free EP series - "The Phone Booth Outside The Video Store"
by Daniel Nightingale

Everybody's Dancing starts off with an in your face quarter note bassline, before adding flourishes of guitar and synth. Just as things start to get repeatitve the band breaks into a great, catchy chorus, complete with rock and roll guitar, big synth, and a great quarter note triplet turn around. The production is tight and very defined: filtered vocals recall early 2000's garage rock trends but add nice delay trails and filter sweeps. You can't really tell if the solo is a guitar or a synth, since guitarist A A Wallace has a pretty heafty pile of tones at his disposable.

Politics Part II has a much more epic indie rock feel - almost a throw back to the bands earlier, 2-drummer, 2-bassist days. It's a short and sweet piece of instrumental rock with a great drum shuffle, that leads right into You Don't Anymore - it starts on the same note before relaxing into yet another flavour of indie rock, almost 90's Superchunk/Low meets Franz Ferdinand. The vocals, while sad, still have the same swagger as the rest of the songs. These guys clearly have a pretty huge range of influences, and they pull off pretty much everything with out breaking a sweat, it seems.

The second half of the song gives the bass and drums some nice breathing room and reverby vocals fade off into another synth-y guitar solo. It's pretty clear that these guys have been working on perfecting rock and roll for years now. After countless tours, albums, lineup changes, more tours, records, EPs, and even more touring it's clear that there's no giving up for these guys.

Politics Part I provides the missing vocal cues from Part II. The vocals are cock-sure and thick with ego, but a stinging truth none the less. Wallace clearly relishes his roll as lead singer and lead guitarist, but great drumming and solid bass playing don't just serve the guitar and voice, but make sure they have something to say as well. It's great to hear the synth parts fully fleshed out, as the sometimes they have a hard time cutting through in the live show (especially at a venue like Gus' which lacks a proper soundperson and PA).

Overall this EP is short but sweet, and proves that the band just can't stop writing great songs and playing music, no matter what - they're driven, just like the record. Four songs seems short, but at the final price of exactly $0.00, you can't really beat the cost to enjoyment ratio.

Download it now from http://www.thesleeplessnights.com/










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