Last week Sunflower Bean returned to New York for a welcome home show at Baby’s All Right, after a tour across the country based around their many SXSW dates. It seems that every time I see them more and more people are talking about them and excited to see them play. And for good reason. Anytime the young New York trio are playing New York, you can bet I’ll make my best effort to come out and watch them rock out. I wasn’t alone, as the crowd at Baby’s included Julian Casablancas and Dev Hynes.
Things were kicked off by another New York trio, Monograms. They mixed garage rock ideas with some synths creating a easy to digest collage of sounds that got the crowd warmed up and ready to go. You can find their debut EP Fader over at bandcamp.
Up next was Brooklyn’s Honduras, a garage-rock quartet who I was introduced to last year when they opened for Kaiser Chiefs at Music Hall of Williamsburg. They caught my attention that night, but they improved upon that performance at Baby’s sounding even tighter and fierce, with a vicious oomph packed into all their rompers. They’re set to release their debut album Rituals this June via Black Bell Records.
This was my third time catching Sunflower Bean live and yet again they managed to impress and improve upon all the previous performances. The trio of Julia Cumming, Nick Kivlen and Jacob Faber, just know how to lock into a groove and run away with it completely for 45-minutes straight. Although they’re still young enough to sport those pesky black x’s on their hands and are forced to stick to red bulls while on stage, the band run through their songs with the intricacy and confidence of a band well into their years. One minute they’re hammering away at sludgy Black Sabbatch riffage and then they’re weaving into stop-start psych-freak out jams. They may be young, but Sunflower Bean are a fully realized band that know what they’re doing, and their live show just keeps getting better and better. You’ll be pressed to find a harder worker band at the moment than Sunflower Bean, which is why they’re one of the best live bands you can see in New York at the moment.
They’re currently finishing up recording their debut album, which should be released sometime this summer. They’re currently unsigned but are probably being courted by every label imaginable. Cult Records is a New York label looking to build its roster and Julian seems to be a fan. Let’s see what happens. Either way, we’re sure that debut album is going to be a stunner.
Find photos of all three bands posted below.
Monograms:
Honduras:
Sunflower Bean:
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