Oh, has the world changed, or have we changed? Arguably, it's a bit of both coming to play in West Palm Beach rock trio Lavola's latest single, "The Queen Is Dead." Just to get the question on newcomers' minds out of the way, no, this is not a cover of one of the most bruising Smiths songs ever recorded.
Given the broad range of punk, psychedelic, and pop influences at Lavola's core, there's probably some familiarity with Johnny Marr's sturdy fretwork on the mid-'80s version of "The Queen Is Dead." Beyond that, these are two entirely different musical portraits of dissent.
"How do you speak when your tongue's on fire?" Lavola's Julian Cires sings in the opening seconds and begins fueling his own vocal blaze across the rest of the track. Filled out with Cires' deft pedal-shifting, five and a half minutes pass with a wealth of different ways to skin an electric guitar. Bassist Matt Hanser and drummer Brian Weinthal, all the while, grow muscles on top of muscles to match their bandmate's fury with speed.
"The Queen Is Dead" shows the still-young band coming steadily closer to matching its live complexity and power on record, and we'll have plenty more to say upon release of the entire Leaving Paris EP in February.
MP3: "The Queen Is Dead"
Lavola CD-Release Party. With the Howling Winds. Friday, Februrary 11, at Propaganda, 6 S. J St., Lake Worth. Click here.
