West Palm Beach Indie Band Rivers Goes Trap with Samlightning Remix

Though we love it, we know, we don't give trap music enough play here at the County Grind. Lord knows, there's enough of it oozing out of every car speaker around in these parts, but not enough local beatmakers are touting the speedy, bass-heavy genre.

Danny Brunjes, frontman for the percolating, boozy indie rock group Rivers hit us up with the prospect of a new "trap beat remix" of one of its tracks. We thought: "What an unlikely pairing."

And the song, "Blistering Summer," off the group's lauded self-titled debut EP couldn't be much more on the opposite end of the trap spectrum, with its charging guitar lines and introspective lyrical content. We knew this ought to be interesting.

And truth be told, it is. Nashville-based producer Samlightning flips the frolicking tune on its freaking head, completely converting the track from something we'd expect to hear at Propoganda on a Friday night to a bombastic, dance floor-ready number that would best be served somewhere in Wynwood at 4 a.m.

See also: Rivers Debuts the Band and EP Today: "We're Shooting for the Moon"

More fuzzy progressive-electro than "trap," per say, we are almost inclined to like Samlightning's take better than the original. Stripping away the reverberating guitar licks in favor of big, booming beats, Brunjes' delicate words are juxtaposed into deeper perspective.

"Though the song is called 'Blistering Summer,' the remixed version is rather wintry," admitted Brunjes to County Grind last week. "We couldn't imagine how our indie pop rock songs could be tweaked into electro-ballads, but we sent him the vocal stems just to see what would happen."

This effort sort of reminds us of that time Bright Eyes went electric, in his Digital Ash in A Digital Urn, effort, but where that album was rather blase at times, this track is more radiantly effervescent.

"Even though the music is really happy sounding, the lyrics are rather depressing," explained Brunjes. Samlightning, a fan of the band and a personal friend of Rivers' guitarist Eric Blythe picked up on that, and wanted to take a stab at the song. "He said he wanted to put something together that matched the lyrical nature." We say he succeeded.

Rivers performs at For the Love, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, February 7, at C&I Studios, Next Door, and the Garden, 541 NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $35 for general admission and $200 for VIP, which includes open bar, preferred seating, and parking. The festival is all ages. Visit c-istudios.com and exposedprandevents.com.

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