Explosive West Palm Beach trio Lavola has been grabbing local headlines like nobody's business with less than a year under its belt. Last month, the group's exploratory rock 'n' roll wowed audiences and industry reps alike at the AEG showcase at Propaganda. The band's dynamic set was so impressive that it edged out two established local groups (The Clementines and Goolsby) and secured an opening spot at the Silversun Pickups gig at Boca Raton's Sunset Cove held one week later on June 16.
Lucky for those of us who missed out on the monumental guitar noise
shelled out by this bruising three-piece that night, the band has
decided to release the gig in its entirety as an album -- the aptly titled
Live at Propaganda. With every song checking in at over five minutes,
it's hard to discern any radio-friendly hits, but it's safe to assume
that airtime on the Wild 95.5s of the world are far from the mind of
these sonically adventurous musicians.
The track we've put up, "The
Queen Is Dead" (no relation to the mopey Manchester band the Smiths' hit),
highlights all the group's touchstones: fierce guitar work, walls of
reverb, untamed musical bridges, and lead singer Julian Cires
ever-evolving vocals. Cires' harmonies are perhaps the one
aspect that most people will take home with them after listening here.
He poses a cadence that's somewhere between Perry Farrell catharsis and
Thom Yorke despair. Although it would be a shame not to give kudos to
Lavola's rhythm section too -- particularly drummer Brian Weinthal's
cascading cymbal work.
Download an MP3 of "The Queen Is Dead."
The band will continue its local onslaught with scheduled performances
at Roxy's on July 29 (opening for Dave Matthews Band touring member Tim
Reynold's band TR3) and the Respectable Street Anniversary Party on July
31.
