Modern Rock in Motion reviews The Red Step, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Josh Caterer, Hypnosonics and Junk Ranchers
Old faces turn up in strange and different places in this edition of Modern Rock in Motion.
Author:
By Peter Lindblad
Old faces turn up in strange and different places in this edition of Modern Rock in Motion. It appears that The Black Heart Procession’s Tobias Nathaniel has opened a separate branch in Serbia with The Red Step, while the Smoking Popes’ Josh Caterer visited The Hideout in Chicago to amplify songs of his grandparents’ generation with a whole new band and never-before-released records from a beloved side project of Morphine’s Mark Sandman finally see the light of day. Sunburned Hand of the Man pushes the boundaries of New Weird America in a heady, thrill-seeking masterpiece, and the Junk Ranchers’ sparkling debut LP arrives about 34 years late. Let’s dig in.
Speedball Baby and
Five Dollar Priest – ironically only bandleader
Tony Pinto has since labored in obscurity), the talent is undeniable, but what brings it altogether are the songs themselves. With a clear love for both sixties-derived folk rock of the R.E.M. variety and the then-current British and Australian neopsych guitar bands, plus a dash of gothic moodiness, the Ranchers infuse the brooding “Without a Doubt” and “After All” and the rocking “Drowning” and “Shadows” with a seemingly effortless balance of memorable melody, nervous energy and emotional gloom. Mixed and mastered by
Kirk Swan – whose band
Dumptruck provides a useful reference point –