ROUGH, RAGGED, RAW AND READY: "YOUNG RANDOLPHS" POST SOCIAL

"YOUNG RANDOLPHS"

POST SOCIAL:
SHANNON CONNOR: Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
MITCH DEITZ: Guitars, Vocals
SAM GALLIGAN: Bass Guitar
BRENDAN MANLEY: Drums 

All music and lyrics by Post Social

Produced by Post Social
Released October 3, 2015

Boys, you are truly a force to be reckoned with!

The arrival of "Young Randolphs," the second album from Madison's very own Post Social, serves as a brilliant culmination to my activities upon Synesthesia with the band as I have first heard the new material upon the completion of their extensive, exclusive interview with me. While I already knew that the album was forthcoming, it was upon another visit to B-Side Records where I gathered my very first taste of what the collective of Shannon Connor, Mitch Deitz, Sam Galligan and Brendan Manley had been cooking up for quite some time, and completely on their own, with this homemade and self-described lo-fi effort. "Do you wanna hear a little of the new album?" asked Manley's Father and B -Side owner Steve Manley. Do you even have to guess what my answer was?

The track was entitled "Gentle Ben," and like a flash of lightning, I was INSTANTLY struck by the crisp attack and chiming tone of the guitars and once the tightness of the rhythm section and Deitz's soaring lead vocals arrived, I was just lifted completely off of my feet. Trust me. My mouth was completely hung open! The entire song felt to be a sonic whirlwind as the bed of interlocking guitar patterns from Connor and Deitz challenged and tickled my eardrums, while Manley's drums propelled the groove, and bassist Galligan delivered supremely with perplexing and stunning fluidity. This new music from Post Social was a blast of addictive high energy that only ascended by the time the song reached its end. I flat out LOVED what I heard and was ready for more once the album reached its release date. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait that long.
 
After reaching out to the band once again to express my enthusiasm over what I had just heard, Shannon Connor soon e-mailed me links to the entire new album, which as of this writing is still unreleased.  And finally, as a bit of a preface to what I would soon be able to hear, Connor informed me, "It's definitely a very different beast than the last record."

Indeed.

Where the band's self-titled debut album "Post Social" (released December 6, 2014), was clean and crystalline in its production and presentation, "Young Randolphs" is as described, a more lo-fi effort, where feedback squeals, tape hiss, bleeding into the red vocals and other scrappier odds and ends are clearly audible. Musically, the album is a rougher and rowdier affair as we are hearing the sound of a band euphorically bashing it out, with continuously impressive instrumental agility, on a collection of 12 songs that they just have to get out into the world right f'ing now!

"Offline" abruptly opens "Young Randolphs" in mid cacophony, the band sounding as if they are either tuning up or falling apart. After a  few moments, the track soon blazes open into a bouncy post-punk assault that features the syncopated, choppy guitars of both Deitz and Connor, Manley's consistently propulsive drumming, the kinetic yet melodic bass work plus Deitz's increasingly distorted vocals (from slow motion to "Kid A") as well as a brief keyboard solo. The song feels as a statement of intent for what we will hear with the remainder of the album, as well as serving as a rambunctious sonic display, immediately signaling to the listener a line in the sand from the band's lush predecessor has defiantly been drawn.

The following five songs of "Young Randolphs" hit as hard and as fast as the most precisely thrown speedball and the effect is exhilarating. Beginning with the aforementioned "Gentle Ben," Post Social keeps accelerating the pace with the high flying "TV Row," the anthemic "Wall," the raucous wail of "Everyone" and the bad boy prowl of "Nascent Apprentice." It is truly a relentless sequence, one that gave me the impression that this just may be what a full live performance by the band just might sound like. For this first half of "Young Randolphs," these are undeniably performances of joyous urgency from a group of friends who know, push and support each other tremendously. Not once does any one member attempt to wrestle the spotlight for themselves yet all four of them provide the listener with exceedingly much to listen to and digest...that is, if you're not too terribly exhausted from all of the jumping and dancing, for this music feels tailor made to get you off of your feet.

By the time we reach the album's second half (as I am presuming), Post Social brings us "Blue Sky's Got Me Feeling High." Conjuring up an image and location that exists "Down by the schoolyard/Where the river meets the lake," the band provides what could be sort of a "morning after" lope (beautifully suggested by Galligan's lumbering bass work) that slowly rises to rapturous exhalation all in the space of just a hair over two minutes.

Where "Django" announces unapologetically that it is time to rise to our collective feet again with more rapid fire musical outbursts (even though those boys you should have never played poker with took all of your winnings), "Young Randolphs" soon begins a more meditative sequence of songs that are just transfixing to the ears. With Shannon Connor taking the lead vocals for both the dreamy "Haunt Me" and the gorgeous "Green Screen," the guitars magically shift from attack mode to a headspace that shimmers, shines and unearths a realm of nostalgic bittersweetness that is achingly melodic. In fact, it is yet another track that somehow, someway pulls my mind to a place where The Smiths and early Fleetwood Mac could co-exist.

Mitch Deitz returns to the mic for the melancholic, minimalist "Trophies" in which the titular "Randolph" no longer young, is ensconced in a bar side lament over peak days in the high school hallways long gone. "I had trophies and girls!!!" he howls over and again, with a singular lonely guitar, archaic drum machine beat and mournful keyboards sounding perfectly illustrating this character's isolation and heartache.

"Ohio," the band's current personal favorite track to perform live, is the album's undeniably dynamic closer. It is the type of song where I honestly wonder how they even conceived of piecing it all together as it feels as it is made up of seemingly disparate parts. An off-kilter rhythm and time signature, the choppy guitars from the album's opening combined with some stuttering special guitar effects, martial drumming and an encircling bass line, all of which leap together for the windswept chorus and then breaks apart all over again. No wonder the band loves performing this song so much and you can easily hear the pride and enthusiasm of the writing and playing from beginning to end.

Post Social's "Young Randolphs" successfully avoids any sense of the dreaded Sophomore slump with complete confidence. As previously stated, the album is a scrappier, tougher affair than their debut due to its DIY punk rock aesthetics. Yet, just as with the first album, Post Social's superior abilities are at the forefront and on this second time around, they are only continuing to impress tremendously.

Mitch Deitz remains the consummate front-man, seemingly (and happily) shredding his vocal register each time he reaches the mic while Shannon Connor serves as a perfect counter-point with his more pensive, introverted vocal style. As guitarists, both Deitz and Connor have raised their games and expanded their musical vocabulary. Yes, those intertwined guitar lines are mesmerizing and continue to chime like bells. But, on this new album, both guitarists have allowed their instruments to snarl, chomp, crunch, squeal, roar and even fly into the skies with lyrical solos to heroic effect.

The rhythm section of Brendan Manley and Sam Galligan is nothing less than formidable. Manley lightning fast percussives certainly set the pace with full dexterity, without bombast and if you do listen closely, you will be able to pick out the points where it feels as if he is actually leading the band. When Manley's crash cymbals and paradiddles kick in, Post Social effortlessly advances into the next gear, leaving their competitors far behind in the musical dust.

To my ears, Sam Galligan is indeed the band's secret weapon. Like U2's masterful Adam Clayton or XTC's Colin Moulding, Galligan's bass playing is fully involving and endlessly inventive. Never content to just ride that one note ad infinitum, Galligan curls around the music, playing melodic hopscotch in a fashion that fully supports his bandmates and elevates each song in the process.

In addition to the band's superior musical and songwriting abilities, "Young Randolphs" further confirms that Post Social is keenly aware of how to craft an album as a complete and individualistic musical statement, by knowing which songs to place next to each other, while building the excitement and intoxicating the listener to want to experience the flow all over again. As with their debut album, we can easily hear that the song is the star and all four members of the band are in lockstep as they each serve the song, while simultaneously demonstrating their ferocious musical chops. Even when all four members of the band are not present for a specific track (Connor performs bass duties on "Offline" as well as all of the guitars on "Green Screen," Manley sits out on two tracks and finally, solely Deitz and Connor perform "Trophies"), the fullness of Post Social as a complete unit is always present. There is not one jaded moment whatsoever. Only the elation that comes from creation and playing together.

While I marveled at the musical references the band reminded me of, from a dash of Gang Of Four here and there to moments of early XTC circa "Black Sea" (September 12, 1980) and "English Settlement" (released February 12, 1982) and certainly The Police circa "Zenyatta Mondatta" (released October 3, 1980), with "Young Randolphs" I honestly feel that Post Social have established themselves as a unit that sounds like no one other than themselves. This new album stands firmly on its own musical feet as a work that serves not necessarily as an advancement but as a widening of its own musical scope, providing the listener with hearing the music of Post Social from a different angle.

I urge you to please give the music of Post Social an honest chance, if you have not already done so. With "Young Randolphs," the opportunity will be made that much easier as the album is planning to be released as a FREE DOWNLOAD from the group's Bandcamp page, as well as a cassette version (!) for the low-low price of $5. A modicum of a price to pay in order to hear new 2015 music this vibrant, exciting, creative and feverishly performed.

Dear readers and listeners, for my ears, Post Social's "Young Randolphs" has been happily addictive for me as I have listened to this album from top to bottom on repeat, just as I had with the band's first album. Trust me folks. I have been playing this album nearly as much as the latest Tame Impala album, and you know that's A LOT! This just may even be one of my favorite albums of 2015, for that matter. And as for you?

You won't know until you try it!