aaamusic | On 07, Sep 2011

“Bedouin” MP3 Link: http://bantermm.com/tracks/SteelPhantoms-Bedouin.mp3

Aaron Harris and Yosef Munro met as teenagers in Pittsburgh, PA and have been playing music together ever since. After high school they both moved to Montreal to be music majors at McGill University, but Harris dropped out when he got a chance to play drums in the pop band Islands.  When that ended the two relocated to Brooklyn, got their bearings, and after a few false starts met up with with guitarist Jesse Newkirk and Steel Phantoms was born. The boys developed a plan to compose deft, deceptively simple pop hits with one foot firmly rooted in garage rock and 80s new wave and the other stepping blindly into oblivion.

Yos and Aaron see the pop canon as a funnel of ideas moving through spacetime, little portions eddying off at times, strong tendrils forcing themselves in at others, large swaths glowing with ingenuity and pulling the surrounding dust with them ever closer to the end of existence. They note the holes in the great stream and see with immeasurable clarity where and how those empty patches can be filled, and they see themselves, quite humbly, as having been vouchsafed the infinite power and vision to do just that.

Their second EP, Forer, is more congruent and introspective than their first and eponymous EP, and its subdued intensity gives it a power and energy all its own. The EP’s single, Bedouin, is a tight, synthy, new-wave inspired gem that takes several subtle twists and turns, its stunningly smooth and bright guitar textures complementing the dark vocals and driving percussion. Short Stuff is an epic foray into the world of guitar-rock that tests the limits of what a power trio can do, its many sections coming together to create a stream-of-consciousness performance that ends the EP with a bang. Pinkeye is a garage-rock hit for the 21st century. Danger Wave is a glam-ballad that ends with a tropical, hypnotic joy. Over the course of the six-song recording, Munro and Harris alternate lead vocal duties and often back each other up with ethereal and expertly-arranged harmonies (they are impressive as a live band–Aaron sings effortlessly while drumming and Yos sings while doing backbreaking yard work).

The band has been compared to Richard Hell, The Modern Lovers, Wolf Parade and others. With dates supporting Islands, Active Child, CANT (Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor) and countless numbers of Brooklyn and Manhattan shows over the past two years, Steel Phantoms, with Forer in hand, are ready to conquer 2011.

Steel Phantoms on Bandcamp: http://steel-phantoms.bandcamp.com/
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Forer Tracklist

1. Floodlight
2. Bedouin
3. Danger Wave
4. Pink Eye
5. Slow Loris
6. Short Stuff