If there’s another band out there with a smarter or stronger set of influences, they haven’t crossed my path lately. And we’ve got an opportunity for you to take home said band’s debut 7″ and catch them live this coming Saturday night (6/12) at the Black Cat.
“The Cheniers are an Arlington-based trio that plays simple songs. There aren’t too many parts. There’s a lot of repetition, a fair amount of distortion. It’s definitely indie rock. It might be lo-fi, but not really intentionally so. But not unintentionally, either. Does that even make sense?
Main inspiration comes from old New Zealand bands from 30 years ago – The Clean, The Doublehappys, Toy Love. The B-side of the The Cheniers’ debut 7″ is basically a straight rip-off of a song by the Doublehappys, in fact. Don’t tell Shayne Carter. Or, tell him and see if he wants to fly us down to New Zealand to play with Dimmer. That 7″ is out right now in Windian Records, the fantastic D.C. punk label, and will be available at the Black Cat on June 12.
Oh, and The Fall is another very major reference point. The first song on the A-side of the single, “45 Days,” is very much indebted to “Grotesque”-era Fall. (Probably the best Fall era, FWIW.) The other song on the A-side, “Here Comes Trouble,” is most people’s favorite. Probably because it’s about drugs and has a saxophone on it. It’s hard to argue with that combination, admittedly.
Another fun fact about this record – all of the art was done by David Berman. He was in Silver Jews, kind of the greatest band of all time. He also does neat drawings.”
And yes, we’ve got the aforementioned Windian 7″ and a pair of tickets for one winner for Saturday’s show in exchange for your well-referenced pleas in the comments to this post.
Plead your case. Drop some salient names. Reference a thesaurus. We don’t care. Just make it good and make it before 5PM this Friday (6/11) and we’ll put it together for you. Just like you expect—and remember to leave us some contact info!
The Cheniers – Here Comes Trouble (Mp3)
Authorized for download!
