LANTERNS “Apocalypse Youth”
I give the fellas in LANTERNS a lot of credit for being a young, unsigned band willing to venture into the realm of pop music that thinks outside the box. This method of writing put forth on Apocalypse Youth certainly won’t put them on the fast track to stardom, but something tells me they are cool with that. Through the course of five songs, LANTERNS provide listeners the opportunity to hear just how noisy pop music can get. “End-Times Blues,” with its heaping helping of bass, feedback, and rough vocals proves that they’ve got the noise factor down. Then “Creation Myth” comes in with its classic-pop tilt and simple “do, do, do” chorus over a wall of wailing guitar noise. The rest of this short EP is full of similar tricks, with standout moments coming during the tail end of the aforementioned “End-Times Blues” and in “Desperate Wolves, Beacon Flames” where the lead riff provides the foundation for a great tune that meshes well the band’s two greatest assets, pop guitar licks and noise. The only question mark with the disc is the final track, “Electronic Warrior Kisses,” which has little to offer beneath its rambling, distorted vocals. All in all, I keep thinking of LANTERNS as the antithesis to all the sugary pop bands striving to write hits for summer car rides. In these guys’ world, these tunes would be blasting from a beat-up 1990 Escort, windows down because there’s no air conditioning, but the people inside all the more happy to be sweating and singing along to a band that knows what it’s like to be real.
Self-Released
