“Night and Day,” The Slang’s follow-up to their 2014 debut EP, is a multi-textured alternative rock soundscape full of desperately emotional hopefulness that should easily resonate with fans of REM, U2, and even the Psychdelic Furs a little bit.
The band is currently a tale of two Johns: Bobo and Newsome. John Bobo tackles piano, guitar and vocals, as well as principle song writing duties, and John Newsome handles the bass work, but that’s not quite enough to flesh out their layered sound as additional musicians handle percussion, organ, synthesizer and strings.
Calling Washington DC home, they braved the trek to the hostile environs of country-western dominated Nashville, Tennessee to record their five lively tunes at Ocean Way Studios with producer/engineer/mixer Russ Long.
The EP kicks off with the ‘Ballad of Everything’, a soft rocker propelled by a bass line reminiscent of those that drive along The Police’s softer tunes as the song swells towards a big, college rock chorus.
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‘Breakthrough’ continues the momentum, starting with a piano intro and breathy vocals that quickly builds into the EP’s most robust rocker.
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‘Miracle Sound’ features a dreamy guitar riff set to entrance the listener on the chorus.
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‘Night and Day’ opens loud, balls-out, all instruments roaring as a counterpoint to the sparse drum-lead verse, and a quiet piano based ballad.
‘Remember to Forget’ rounds out the affair as it becomes increasingly amplified and urgent as it reaches its climax.
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The Slang have even had their music featured on a Troma Film’s DVD menu screen, (those ‘Toxic Avenger’ guys), but searching high and low, no amount of Google-Fu would reveal which DVD their song appears on. Could it be ‘Honky Holocaust?’ Or maybe ‘Bikini Swamp Girl Massacre?’ Perhaps it’s the tantalizingly entitled ‘Toilet Gator.” It would be a damn shame if the world’s to be left in the dark on this most important of factoids… Stay tuned for updates and BREAKING NEWS!!! as this story develops.
