The Shones

Boston surf rock transplants The Shones have been in town less than a year, but delivered a radical debut EP earlier in 2013, and now are giving us a follow-up. Harbinger EP takes strides towards different rock territories, starting with their signature surfy riffs in “Ghost Coast,” slowing things down for a psychedelic take on neo-softrock in “Kaleidoscope” and weaving through poppier constructions in “Paradigm.” The EP is a timely release here in the midst of summer, as feel-good tunes are a-plenty, and the energy remains rather positive throughout. The youngsters have a supreme pop sensibility, but they don’t let it pigeonhole them, and instead offer a smattering of different hook-heavy feels. Check out the entire EP below, and visit The Shones’ bandcamp page for more. - Allston Pudding

Boston surf rock transplants The Shones have been in town less than a year, but delivered a radical debut EP earlier in 2013, and now are giving us a follow-up. Harbinger EP takes strides towards different rock territories, starting with their signature surfy riffs in “Ghost Coast,” slowing things down for a psychedelic take on neo-softrock in “Kaleidoscope” and weaving through poppier constructions in “Paradigm.” The EP is a timely release here in the midst of summer, as feel-good tunes are a-plenty, and the energy remains rather positive throughout. The youngsters have a supreme pop sensibility, but they don’t let it pigeonhole them, and instead offer a smattering of different hook-heavy feels. Check out the entire EP below, and visit The Shones’ bandcamp page for more. - Allston Pudding

Consider yourself privileged as you stumble upon The Shones‘ selft-titled EP released March this year. Having played for the last seven years in Madison, Wisconsin, listen as this five-piece band reinvent their sound in the buzzing Boston music scene. The Shone’s consists of Fransiscus Pobar Lay (Lead Vocals), Alex Leeds (Bass/ Backup Vocals), Paul Arbaje (Guitar), Henry Stoehr (Guitar), and Teddy Matthews (Drums/ Backup Vocals).

Dirty Feeling sets the stage as it offers three essential elements for the band’s musical brand—rock, blues, and garage. This opening track solidifies what The Shones can offer to their listeners.

Following with a steady guitar and drum hook, Wendy bites the ears with an edgy surf rock aesthetic. The band’s high energy in making recording the song is evident that it can be easily translated and absorbed to the listeners.

Using a bit more surf rock, Hold Up features chill vocals and steady instrumentation. While closing track Bolero wraps up the album in a slow escalating piece that’s condensed with tightly woven acoustic rock tunes.

In The Shones EP, the band has successfully placed their self in the game as someone to watch out for. With a new face lift and fresh tunes, this EP screams that the band is officially separating itself from the pack.
- Frost Click

My first listen of the day came in the form of a surf rock EP, self titled, The Shones. It’s hopefulness in the form of music. Is that the sun I see peeking through the sky? No? Well, maybe it’s the music that’s giving me this sunny disposition. Having reinvented their sound within the past couple of years, The Shones have found, what I think is perfect for the upcoming denim short weather. Pull out your headphones and download this sucker. - Dingus

The Shones is a band that has been active for a very long time. They play something in between surf punk, garage punk, blues rock and good ol’ rock’n'roll. However, sometime in 2012 they decided to re-locate from Madison, Wisconsin to Boston, MA. It wasn’t a hasty judgement, because they wanted to change their style around totally and also their music. So, they arrived for real in 2013 when they released their debut-EP titled “The Shones EP“. Since this was of interest for the Invisible Guy, he began to investigate it further. After writing some lines about their newly released EP, he wanted to ask some questions. So, Teddy Matthews, whom is the drummer and back-up vocalist in the band – answered these questions in his own manner. Have fun!

You’ve been active as a band for a very long time, but suddenly decided to leave your own area in 2012 for Boston. The reason for this was to re-invent your own sound and style. But what happened from the later years that got you going to Boston?

- Yeah, we have been playing together since 6th grade, and during our last year of high school we decided that we wanted to take at least a year to work on music. We did not want to stay in Madison, WI because we wanted a change of pace as well as a broader music scene to be a part of. We decided we wanted to go to the east coast because the cities are all much closer together than the west coast, and we chose Allston because we had heard that there was a very active underground scene here. People always ask us why we did not move to New York, but I think that Boston was a great choice because the scene here is very collaborative and open.

Since you’re now in Boston since September of last year, you’ve been recording stuff and released an EP titled “The Shones EP”. Which is a long trip from 2012-2013, when it was released. Why did it take so long to put it out?

- When we moved here we wanted to start fresh and see how changing our surroundings would affect our sound. So when we got here we began writing and practicing. At that point we knew we wanted to release a proper record at some point but did not know whether we could do a decent job on our own or if we should pay for studio time. Once we had a bunch of material written and we had been practicing and performing it, we decided to use a couple of drum mics that we had lying around to record some practices and see how it sounded. Even just using four mics for everything and doing it live sounded pretty good so our bassist Alex, who has a background in producing hip hop and electronic, decided to try and teach himself how to record, mix, and master. After several practice recordings we decided to record the final product, which was all pretty time consuming considering we were learning as we went.

The aesthetics of the EP seems to be a little bit of everything. When I saw it, I thought of America back in the 50's or 60's, including some of the more tobacco-influenced stuff. Who made the artwork and what do you make of your own aesthetics?

- Our good friend Miles Jackson is an incredible artist who works out of Chicago but does work all around the country. We came to him and asked if he’d like to work with us and he was more than down so we threw him some ideas that he ran with. As we reinvent ourselves after high school, there is much more of a 1960's/surf undertone to our music. At the same time it isn’t completely beachy or washed out, so we like to call it Northern Surf. For example, I like to listen to the band Beach House in the summer but it also fits really well in a snowy winter wonderland type scene. We don’t sound like Beach House but I think our music fits the same way.

Do you have any other material that you’re hoping to get released any time soon?

- We have a lot of material already started and it all is cohesive in its sound, so a second album will be underway very soon and the process should be quicker now that we know what we are doing in terms of recording. We also came up on a couple more mics so the next album should be even better for several reasons.

Thank you for answering these questions! What’s happening in the near future for you as a band?

- Right now, we are working on booking shows for the spring and beginning plans for a tour in august. We are conceptualizing a video for one of the songs off of the album, and we should have some merchandize soon too. - Invisible Guy

The Shones is a band that has been active for a very long time. They play something in between surf punk, garage punk, blues rock and good ol’ rock’n'roll. However, sometime in 2012 they decided to re-locate from Madison, Wisconsin to Boston, MA. It wasn’t a hasty judgement, because they wanted to change their style around totally and also their music. So, they arrived for real in 2013 when they released their debut-EP titled “The Shones EP“. Since this was of interest for the Invisible Guy, he began to investigate it further. After writing some lines about their newly released EP, he wanted to ask some questions. So, Teddy Matthews, whom is the drummer and back-up vocalist in the band – answered these questions in his own manner. Have fun!

You’ve been active as a band for a very long time, but suddenly decided to leave your own area in 2012 for Boston. The reason for this was to re-invent your own sound and style. But what happened from the later years that got you going to Boston?

- Yeah, we have been playing together since 6th grade, and during our last year of high school we decided that we wanted to take at least a year to work on music. We did not want to stay in Madison, WI because we wanted a change of pace as well as a broader music scene to be a part of. We decided we wanted to go to the east coast because the cities are all much closer together than the west coast, and we chose Allston because we had heard that there was a very active underground scene here. People always ask us why we did not move to New York, but I think that Boston was a great choice because the scene here is very collaborative and open.

Since you’re now in Boston since September of last year, you’ve been recording stuff and released an EP titled “The Shones EP”. Which is a long trip from 2012-2013, when it was released. Why did it take so long to put it out?

- When we moved here we wanted to start fresh and see how changing our surroundings would affect our sound. So when we got here we began writing and practicing. At that point we knew we wanted to release a proper record at some point but did not know whether we could do a decent job on our own or if we should pay for studio time. Once we had a bunch of material written and we had been practicing and performing it, we decided to use a couple of drum mics that we had lying around to record some practices and see how it sounded. Even just using four mics for everything and doing it live sounded pretty good so our bassist Alex, who has a background in producing hip hop and electronic, decided to try and teach himself how to record, mix, and master. After several practice recordings we decided to record the final product, which was all pretty time consuming considering we were learning as we went.

The aesthetics of the EP seems to be a little bit of everything. When I saw it, I thought of America back in the 50's or 60's, including some of the more tobacco-influenced stuff. Who made the artwork and what do you make of your own aesthetics?

- Our good friend Miles Jackson is an incredible artist who works out of Chicago but does work all around the country. We came to him and asked if he’d like to work with us and he was more than down so we threw him some ideas that he ran with. As we reinvent ourselves after high school, there is much more of a 1960's/surf undertone to our music. At the same time it isn’t completely beachy or washed out, so we like to call it Northern Surf. For example, I like to listen to the band Beach House in the summer but it also fits really well in a snowy winter wonderland type scene. We don’t sound like Beach House but I think our music fits the same way.

Do you have any other material that you’re hoping to get released any time soon?

- We have a lot of material already started and it all is cohesive in its sound, so a second album will be underway very soon and the process should be quicker now that we know what we are doing in terms of recording. We also came up on a couple more mics so the next album should be even better for several reasons.

Thank you for answering these questions! What’s happening in the near future for you as a band?

- Right now, we are working on booking shows for the spring and beginning plans for a tour in august. We are conceptualizing a video for one of the songs off of the album, and we should have some merchandize soon too. - Invisible Guy