Let's get acquainted with Royal Bangs. Not just a great name for a hair salon, this fuzz-rock trio from Knoxville, Tennessee, is coming down to South Florida for gigs at the Vagabond in Miami on February 18 and at Respectable Street on February 19. Given the level of crunchy, fierce energy captured on "Grass Helmet," these should be shows of joy, passion and fervor.
This track is an appetizer from the band's upcoming Flux Outside, which hits the streets in late March. Having heard it, there's some wonderful keyboard work, and an overall looseness that edges towards the pleasures of Broken Social Scene's upbeat clamor. This is the follow-up to the spry Let it Beep, which offers equally gutsy material, like "War Bells."
Grass Helmet by Glassnotemusic
Royal Bangs. With Band in Heaven and Alexander. 9 p.m. Saturday, March 19 at Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Click here.