Hailing from the Rockwell-esque Greenville, IL, Missouri bordering Midwesterners Eagle Scout do nothing less than shake up their sleepy small town with their big sounds.Taking scraps from post-punk, indie and pop, the five-piece blankets its listener in a quilt of well-equipped craftsmanship and smart lyrics. High energy to say the least, Eagle Scout is a band that delivers youthfulness and musical know-how in one brilliantly packed punch.
The band will be debuting their sophomore release, New Hands this Tuesday, February 16th through Cavity Records, following up their 2008 EP Pandamonium!. Recorded at Glow in the Dark Studios with producer Matt Goldman (Underoath, The Chariot, Cartel) and available in a digi-pack format through their label, via Absolutepunk, and already offered as a live stream in its entirety via myspace or purevolume, there’s no reason to miss out on this album.
New Hands is a raucously good time, offering ten thoroughly thoracic attacking tracks that manage to nestle their percussion right into your chest. Listening to this album while walking down the street had the same effect on our stride that the second half of Beyonce’s I Am…Sasha Fierce did the first time we heard it. While that might seem like a pretty far-fetched comparison, we dare you to listen to this album without wanting to stomp and strut along.
Tracks like the opening ‘At Arms Length’, ‘Currents’ and Spies Like Us’ take a serious shine to Minus the Bear in it’s instrumentals, seasoned with subtly woven synth and vocals the likes of Piebald and The Promise Ring- two comparisons that we don’t think anyone can shake a stick at. There’s also a structural similarity to Mean Everything to Nothing era Manchester Orchestra in these first few tracks, though the two bands sounds are worlds apart.
Implementing fast paced, cymbal heavy drums, shimmery guitar, and yelps at all the appropriate times New Hands has a consistency we love, but that we
will be the first to admit borders on repetitive for the first half of the album. Luckily these songs are so damn catchy that we’ll allow it, no questions asked.
The band does shake it up a little midway, and we feel that the last half of this album is where the good stuff really is. It’s here that we find songs like ‘I Am Your Ghost’ and ‘Weaker Science’ where effects are tastefully added, choruses written just for singing along are belted, and honest lyrics like “We had faith but lacked commitment/ And carried with it our righteousness/though we had fire we lacked desire/ we forgot our names/we forgot our place” are put to good use.
‘No Devil Lived On’ offers the greatest deviation from Eagle Scout’s beaten path, with an organ-y background you might find behind a Mates of State song, pop-punk claps sure to be a crowd pleaser, and guitar that falls more in line with the pop-rock standard instead of the spacey Minus the Bear style the band tends to favor.
Wrapping up the album is ‘Our Body is Walls’ which is just as high energy and moveable as any other track, observing, “Well if quality means commitment then the quantities are low” before breaking down into a spacey effect, ambient guitars and slowed cymbals, giving the record it’s first chance for a deep breath since music started.
With an infectiousness that can’t be ignored, Eagle Scout has created an album just in time to save your spirit during this long stretch to spring. Look out for New Hands in stores and online February 16th, and look forward to upcoming 2010 tour dates to bring the magnetism of these musicians live to you.
Eagle Scout Online:
Cavity Records Digital Sampler
Myspace
Purevolume
Youtube
BigCartel
Facebook
