“Our story, a story, all stories. Told in verses, in underground language, in sub frequencies. Not audible, only felt, intuited, imagined in some deepest psychic space that you are yet to know. A strange story. Of the future, of yourself. Of everyone.”
—Steve Olinsky
The best way, and perhaps the only way, to accurately label Akron/Family, is out-of-this-world. The three-man band, consisting of drummer Dana Jansen, guitarist Steve Olinsky, and bassist Miles Seaton, who all collectively serve as vocalists, is known for their otherworldly style that impassioned them to record songs from their most recent album S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT on the side of the mountain.
Akron/Family is about to release another album on April 30, Sub Verses, which they are touring now—and we’ve got your chance to catch them live with tickets to see their show presented by the 9:30 Club at U Street Music Hall!
“As with other Akron/Family records the Idiomatic perspective shifts restlessly. From Shamanic hypno-mantras to Noise-damaged Soul anthems to North African street frenzy, from Droning Microtonal Balladry to modular synthesizer destruction to Lynchian Doo-Wop and back again. The sound is propulsive and driven by its physicality, and a disciplined acknowledgement of Lineage.”—Miles Seaton
From the beginning, with recordings of a creaking chair and songs featuring glockenspiels in their self-titled first album, Akron/Family has done things quite unconventionally. They had a birthday party when they thought up the name of their seventh album. One of their former band mates left in order to live in a Buddhist Dharma center.
They don’t have an actual reason as to the origin of their band’s name. Because of this, the music you get from Akron/Family is noticeably organic. You may not be totally able to pin-point what exactly you are listening to, but it is undeniably recognizable as the band’s style nonetheless.
So let us take you to another realm and see Akron/Family live by commenting below with a song/ artist that you think embodies this spontaneity that Akron/Family infuses into their music. I’d pick “Border Crosser” by Trails and Ways.
A winner for the pair of tickets will be chosen at noon on Wednesday, April 24. Don’t forget to grab tickets if you don’t win!
