2017 –Slepton Records
Release Date : Oct 27,
2017
By Phillip Smith;
Sep 28, 2017
Valley Fever, the latest release from Conrad the Band, has completely caught me by surprise, and I’m loving it. Hailing from Bakersfield, California, and now living in San Francisco, this duo comprised of childhood friends Matthew Shaw (guitar/bass/vocals) and Nick Andre (percussion/synth/production) unveils a six-track masterpiece loaded with bleeding-edge techno, vintage guitars, and hardscrabble stories revolving about a cast of unfortunates.
A seductive bassline, a hypnotic drum beat, and huge
doses of electric fuzzy guitar effortlessly lure me into “Devil’s Gonna Find
You”, an intense song with an ominous presence which speaks of junkies and
public transportation. “Food for the
Fishes” is beautifully engineered and emits a floaty, cotton-candy sweet melody
in Flaming Lips fashion while describing a melancholy dream about
parting ways.
A poetic despairing tale of a miserable sad sack in “Teddy”,
takes a series of dark turns while exploring end-games ranging from the homicidal
to suicidal. By its finish, my heart is
racing. A chill beat and dreamy synth usher in “One
More Smoke”. This melody about staying awake
until dawn with a pack of smokes and a bottle of booze makes for a perfect epilogue for the preceding “Teddy”. As if drawing
musical inspiration from the best of the Seventies television crime dramas, “Poor
Davy” blasts a barrage of gritty synth sounds topped off with an extra helping
of pimping bass. Valley
Fever ends with a beautiful Velvet Underground-like track about doom
and love called “Black and Blue”.
Albeit a short one, clocking in at just around
twenty-two minutes in length, this is one cool-as-hell album. I honestly can’t wait to hear what comes next
for Conrad the Band.
