“Look At The Bones is a Seattle-based emo revival-revival project with an even mix of hunger and experience to offer the exploding PNW music scene.”
On September 21, LATB handed in their “first gift to this world” , releasing the project’s first EP “Home Sweet Home”. This EP is their first release as a conglomerate, a first-look at the group made up of fresh faces and a veterans in the local scene. The connection they share is “organic”, according to guitarist Rohan Rangray, he said it felt like they “had to start writing” once they started playing together.
The EP begins with a distorted intro with an audio excerpt from cult-classic TV show Trailer Park Boys. That’s like the “green flag” of a bad-ass midwest emo song, right? The song continues into a head-bopping drum and bass melody under a great opening vocal from Rohan. The band pulls inspiration from bands like Algernon Cadwallader, very evident in the first track and by the homage with the bands own name*.
The title track shows off the groups ability to adapt by changing from a loud, driven vocal, to a softer female vocal. The opening vocal comes from Olga Breslavets, who is actually Rohan’s wife! The song quickly picks back up in to the fun beats similar to the first track, and with Rohan’s voice right back on top of it. This song is Alex’s favorite song to play, not only because she thinks it’s the most fun, but it’s also the first track they wrote after she joined the band to fill in on bass. The songs lyrics paint a pleading character, asking for cooperation and forgiveness. I like the theme of the song, it reminds me of a bad or toxic relationship but with a happy beat, right on cue for their target audience.
MS Notepad Apology opens up with a fun, brain-tingling guitar part and some gang vocals. It gets very punk, distorted guitars and angry lyrics, but rides that midwest emo line at the same time. Slowing down midway through, they channel their inner “Marietta” and throw in the classic “whoah oh” outro on top of another audio recording from “The Royal Tenenbaums”.
The fourth track, “Dear Daisy”, is my favorite of the five-track, twenty minute EP, and it’s also Rohan’s favorite to play. He explained that it’s the first one he had to really nail after former guitarist Chester Cun left the band. Rohan really shouted out Chester for how much work he put into the band early on and helping them get over those first-show jitters. It’s a tough guitar part and I’m a sucker for a satisfying riff.
The closing song, “I Don’t Mind Being Alone” sounds like a sad story of someone imprisoned in their own mind, not saying the things that they wanted to. I love the lyrics to the song during this part, makes you really feel for the character it’s portraying. The track goes right back into an almost island-like riff and blast beats galore, ending with a couple groups of parting lyrics for the listener and future concert-goers to scream right back at them.
This was my first time interviewing and writing anything on my own, and it was a really fun way to learn even more about bands that I get interested in. Look At The Bones seem like a very excited group, through our zoom call, expressing the drive they have to keep on making art together. Alex wears many hats as the veteran help they need to guide them through the trials of the DIY experience.
Rohan talked about the albums theme as being “serendipitous” , meaning that his conversation with Rodrigo over a burger, has blossomed in to a fun project that is only just beginning for them. The album cover art itself shows its own lucky encounter because the graffiti was painted over the day after he had taken the picture. “Some things happen for a reason”, he explained, ” we are ready to show everyone what we have to offer”.
FFO:Algernon Cadwallader, Marietta, Forests, Good Sleepy
https://look-at-the-bones.bandcamp.com/album/home-sweet-home
Rohan Rangray – Vocals/Guitar
Rodrigo Alvares – Drums/Vocals
Alex Anderson – Bass/Vocals
Chester Cun – Guitar/Vocals
Olga Breslavets – Vocals
Abbas Husseini – Mixing Engineer
Mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air
Writing Credits:
Rohan Rangray, Rodrigo Alvares, Alex Anderson, Chester Cun, Nik Paulson
The Diygest 
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