Down North w/ Trans Future
Saturday, July 2 // Doors at 7 PM // 7:30 PM // $10 // $15 Tour Supporter Ticket “Dude sings like James Brown… bass is less slap and more groove.” – The Stranger “A sound that’s downright impossible to resist.” – Seattle Weekly ‘No Retreat, No Return, No Surrender.’ – The Down North Motto There are some performers who come to music later in life. Then, there are folks who you can just tell were voracious students and consumers of music since before they could talk. Seattle / Los Angeles / North Carolina based quartet Down North fall squarely into the latter group. Trying to pin genre tags onto their unique brand of psych-infused punk soul is an exercise in futility. These creatives pick and choose just-right bits and flavors drawn from the whole of modern western music like painters with unlimited palates. Front man Anthony Briscoe, bassist Brandon Storms, guitarist Nick Quiller, and drummer Conrad Real (who also plays with Ayron Jones and icons Digable Planets) were on a roll following the release of the No Retreat Volume 1 EP (2018). The record had been well received by the press, and extensive touring plans were in place. Then, the global pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt. When other artists might have succumbed to despair, Down North strives to live their motto: No Retreat, No Return, No Surrender. “We tried to see it as an opportunity,” explains Briscoe. “We’ve been known as a great live band. This time we really wanted to show that we could capture that magic in our recorded music.” The music that Down North has laid to tape on No Restraint Volume 2 is driving, crisply executed, and tight as all get out. It is funky – but it would be wrong to call it funk. Strong pop melodicism anchors searing punk energy. Brash technical virtuosity nods to Alternative rock. Funky gospel metal, maybe? Regardless of what you call it, this record exudes its creators fierce focus and determination. It is powerful, defiantly celebratory, and downright captivating. No Retreat, No Return, No Surrender indeed. Self-described as New Wave Soul and Roll, Trans Future’s sound reflects the eclectic influences that warrant the inventive term, but a closer listen reveals their music is as much about what’s not there as what is. Each musician’s part is salient and distinct, but leaves space for the musical conversation to unfold. While space can be what makes things fall apart, the space TF creates is the architectural element that holds their music so tightly together. Space seems to come naturally to a band who formed in early 2020, masked and distanced, in the height of the pandemic. Their new album, Scream on the Inside, is out now! For further information, accessibility, and inquiries please visit https://www.zootownarts.org/meet-the-zacc/about/.
