Nature, aggression, and melody had a love child, and they named it Dave Eats Mud and nestled it ever so gently into the waiting arms of DC, MD, and VA. Then Dave Eats Mud released a self-titled EP (in 2018). Then Dave Eats Mud releases another self-titled EP in 2022 and now they are featured in this week’s New Music Friday! A little mysticism, a little science, and a whole lotta good music on the website this week. Joining us this week are singer-songwriters Pete Gardiner and Mara Sol with their respective offerings, The Rocket Summer gives us something electronic to dig our teeth into, and we get down and dirty with something a little on the heavy side by Pryma.
As always, this and more great music can be found on the Alchemical Records Multigenere Mixture playlist on Spotify. Wanna tell us what you think? Drop a comment below or join us on Discord and share your new music discoveries with us there.
“Fox Den Fun Times” is the opening track from the latest EP by Dave Eats Mud. The song sets the pop-punk vibes felt throughout the entirety of the project before transitioning into “The Davis’ Pool” with it’s flickers of complex rhythms and arpeggiated guitars. “Bovine Burglary” probably aludes to alt rock and grunge a little more; sure it has that signature Dave Eats Mud vibe, but it also has a Nirvana-esque quality to it that can’t be missed. “Wolf Lake” begins like it’s going to take us deep into the sludge rock category, but taps into Social Distortion level enthusiasm and is served with a side of searing guitar solo (don’t forget to eat your veggies). A quality that we’ve admired recently among other releases that we find to be true of this EP, is how difficult it is to sound indie while also sounding professional. Does that make sense? Go too far one way and it’s ametuer hour; go too far the other way and it’s too mainstream to be indie. The second of these eponymously titled Dave Eats Mud EPs has really dialed into the sweet spot in between. You can support these folks by picking up your copy of the EP on the band’s Bandcamp.
Pete Gardiner is an Irish singer/songwriter who is well on his way toward becoming the next global icon. Why? While it may not have been his intention, “Promises” masterfully taps into arrangement and production techniques found in country music, which in 2016 was reported to be the fastest-growing genre worldwide. Remove the southern twang, and you have a songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist who checks off all the necessary boxes to reach country music fans while fitting neatly into a number of other broad genres finding overwhelming appeal. “Promises”, speaks of financial stress and love, ending on a hopeful note for the future.
“The couple in ‘Promises’ are really struggling and the honeymoon period is a distant memory. But they still love each other enough to stick together and find a way forward and the song ends on a note of hope that I think we’re all looking for.”
Mara Sol brings to mind DMV songstress Lynn Hollyfield, among others, whose sweet voice and optimistic tones always make us feel we finally beginning to unravel all of life’s lessons. “The Road” has a forward movement to it, propelled mostly by syncopated rhythms found between the kick drum and the arpeggiated guitar. The song never really ‘takes off’ but rather builds a kind of constant tension as drum fills signal the transitions from verse to chorus before a brief movement signifying the ending. “The Road” is one of five songs found on Mara Sol’s latest EP, Walking the Road, released in October of this year.
A Tantric-like acoustic guitar tone provides the foundation for “M4U” by The Rocket Summer, known for pushing out into the early 2000’s Alt Rock scene with their first major label Island Def Jam album Do You Feel. Layer upon layer, “M4U” (or ‘Made For You’) takes on a determined and confident tone accentuated by vocalist and producer Bryce Avery.
Finding creative solace in the deserts of California and his home state of Texas during the pandemic, he found inspiration in the solitude. “I had very little interest in making music that was too lonesome,” he explains. “Perhaps as a defense due to how naturally solitary these last few years were for a lot of us. I felt like if I just could swim through the rains that poured on us and not allow them to extinguish the sparks of what I knew was coming, that we’d eventually be together again experiencing music and that it finally wouldn’t only just be mine to groove to.”
If you are looking for something truly unique to add to your own playlist here at the close of 2022, “M4U” may be just that track. It hints at the familiar, but draws from so many influences and emotions that it isn’t easy to pinpoint the exact space where the song ‘exists’ or wants listeners to land; which, we feel is an excellent metaphor for how most of us have felt during the globally trying times the song was written in.
We love saving the heavy stuff for last. Pryma, a new band on the UK rock & metal scene, leaves us unsettled with “1:23:45”. It is the last track (of six) from their newly released EP, Uncaged. It is dark, aggressive, and contains a deep dissonance that feels like you are at the bottom looking up toward the surface. Musically everything you head-bangers are looking for is here, but unlike some of the other songs found on Uncaged, “1:23:45” does not take you to where you expect. This raw and vulnerable EP represents grief, loss, mental health, and personal experiences of the band. Let your darker side out a little this weekend with Uncaged.
Daniel Warren Hill is an American musician, writer, and motivational speaker. He is best known as the frontman for Washington DC area Alternative Rock band YellowTieGuy, as co-founder of Capitol Groove Collective, and increasing the exposure of artists on a global scale through his work with Alchemical Records.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
