It’s finally here! The long awaited new EP from Sunshine Riot, of which we’ve reported on 3 of the 4 tracks within already, is just about ready to be consumed by yer earholes. It’s got Steve Albini (Nirvana! Shellac!) recording the sounds at his Electrical Audio in Chicago and the quartet of Steven Shepherd, Mark Tetreault, Jeff Sullivan, and Jonny Orton creating said sounds so you already know this owns, right?
It would be SO easy to just hyperlink to the three tracks on Loud, Bright and Violent that we’ve previously reviewed and just treat this as a single review for “Man on the TV” but no! We’re professionals and owe it you and to Sunshine Riot to paint this vivid picture for you.
Context is everything, right? For us, especially, we tend to refrain from any kind of judgement of a given record based solely on advance singles because who knows what it says about what’s to come? Is it meant to entice loads of new fans, appease the mainstays, or is it the beginning of some new sonic direction? Whatever the case may be, we dig the big picture and it doesn’t get bigger than opener “So It Comes” with a bombast right out the gate driven by Orton’s commanding vocal presence which is traded for a subdued approach at the onset of “Looking at the Past” as Shepherd and Sullivan’s drum and bass presence is heartily felt with their unified rhythmic rumble.
“Man on the TV” is the “new” track here and has a hybrid Pavement/Old 97’s vibe with Orton’s croon shining brighter than ever amid some similarly shining guitar moments from Tetreault before “Room To Moan” closes up the Loud, Bright and Violent shop with a downtrodden Grunge meets Americana Rawk fest.
Loud, Bright and Violent arrives on April 21st. You can pre-order, pre-save and all that jazz TODAY by heading here and for the latest on Sunshine Riot, follow them across their socials by clicking here, here, or here.