Performer is stoked to offer you an EXCLUSIVE first listen to the new EP from Los Angeles-based band Trashclub. Black Out is out tomorrow, March 10th, on Position Music. Pre-order now on iTunes, and be sure to follow the LA duo on Facebook. Stream the new record below, and learn more after the jump.
ABOUT TRASHCLUB
Evan Andree and Travis Bunn never expected to form TRASHCLUB. The two met by chance in Los Angeles, where they’d separately relocated—drummer Bunn from Arizona, and singer/guitarist Andree from Atlanta—to try their hand at songwriting and producing. The two hit it off instantly, ended up playing each other some tracks they were working on, and decided to link up the following week to make some music together.
While Bunn (who also plays in L.A. indie-pop band Dead Times) and Andree (whose music has been featured on shows like Bad Girls Club & 16 and Pregnant) had originally planned to sit down and work on songs for other artists, they ended up saying screw it and defecting to Bunn’s practice space to just hang out and jam instead. “I woke up a little hung over, so all I could really do at that point was just go play shit loud,” laughs Bunn. “I couldn’t be in a sterile, two-computers-at-the-kitchen-table writing session. This shit was a totally different agenda. This was like, drums, guitar, beer. Loud. Let’s do it.”
Loud, fast music certainly comprises a lot of what they grew up listening to: Though Bunn has produced everything from pop to hip-hop (working with artists like Jen Awad and r e l), in high school he fell hard for DIY punk, listening to a ton of Minor Threat and Fugazi. Andree, meanwhile, had a similarly eclectic upbringing, listening to a lot of ’90s pop music as a kid, then as a teenager branching out into punk (he namechecks MXPX & Pennywise) and hip-hop.
TRASHCLUB
The duo’s partnership is now in full swing with TRASHCLUB, a garage-inspired dance-rock venture featuring Andree on vocals & guitar and Bunn on drums, percussion and backing vox. Sharing production duties, they’ve churned out more than a half-dozen of tracks, the first of which, disco-punk anthem “Out of My Head,” was recently featured on Showtime’s Shameless.
TRASHCLUB’s new debut EP, Black Out, showcases seven strident, hook-heavy rock & roll tracks that play as one hell of a soundtrack to young, reckless and freewheeling city life—albeit with a playfully gloomy and self-deprecating slant. The song “Crystal Chandelier,” Andree says, “is like party noir. It’s all about drinking to excess and not caring at all. But it’s definitely not like, ‘Yeahhh, party!’ It’s like, ‘Yeahhh, I’m blowing it again.’”
The band’s hometown of Los Angeles also had a strong impact on the sound of the new EP, especially its darker, seedier corners. “I’m a really big fan of Chinatown, the parts of Downtown L.A. that are super grimy,” Bunn says. “There are these restaurants that are completely dark on the inside—wood-paneled walls, black leather booths. Those are the spots I like to hang out, and we’re all about it on this record.”
With Black Out, Andree & Bunn have created a free-spirited give-no-fucks set of rock & roll tunes, unfettered by the narrow confines of commercial songwriting. “The most fun thing about this project for me—when we got together that first time to play,” Andree says, “we weren’t worried about coming up with something in a certain box. We’re just rocking out, making everything up as we went along.”