ATRINA

Atrina
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With Film School. 9 p.m. July 20. Free. BAR, 254 Crown St., New Haven. (203) 495-1111, myspace.com/shakipresents.
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For what feels like, in retrospect, a glorious yet brief moment earlier this decade, Atrina was one of the most promising rock bands in town. Powerful and confident, they struck a balance between rock history and hipness, a kind of zeigeist-capturing cool.

With a lineup of four vets of the regional rock scene, a muscular and moody sound that could be described as some sort of post-punk art-garage rock, and a handful of cracking songs, the band gigged around New Haven in support of the gritty and thoroughly rocking EP Searching for a Better Way, then…seemed to disappear. Atrina’s last gig was at Toad’s Place at the end of July 2003.

But now, five years later, they’re back, playing a show at BAR this Sunday, toting an advance CD-R (the disc is currently being mastered in Chicago) of the new EP, {beautiful evidence}. The disc, and the band’s current incarnation (which includes Vultures/Goose Lane drummer Dave Parmelee, Bloarzeyd/Humanoid bassist Phil Law, both new Atrina members, and longtime bassist Will Ianuzzi, also of The Vultures), represents “a continuation of the next natural step of the band,” singer/guitarist Kelly L’Heureux said in a recent phone conversation.

The band’s working in, she says, “a similar style, different feeling. Especially when you bring two people in who were audience members before, they absorb it in a new way. Every song is kind of just a mood. Everything that fits that mood is right.”

In a recent e-mail, L’Heureux explains that while Atrina “kind of fell apart” in 2003, after which she “dropped out of the scene for awhile,” she long viewed the band as an unfinished project.

Atrina’s show at BAR, playing with Californian neo-psych band Film School, features the films of Ancient Domain, the nom de film of a college friend of L’Heureux’s. Sales of Atrina’s CD-R will be funneled directly into pledging for L’Heureux’s bike ride for the Connecticut Challenge in support of cancer survivors. Once the EP comes out in earnest, a dollar of each sale will continue to go toward the Connecticut Challenge.

-Brain LaRue - New Haven Advocate

Atrina
- - -
With Film School. 9 p.m. July 20. Free. BAR, 254 Crown St., New Haven. (203) 495-1111, myspace.com/shakipresents.
- - -
For what feels like, in retrospect, a glorious yet brief moment earlier this decade, Atrina was one of the most promising rock bands in town. Powerful and confident, they struck a balance between rock history and hipness, a kind of zeigeist-capturing cool.

With a lineup of four vets of the regional rock scene, a muscular and moody sound that could be described as some sort of post-punk art-garage rock, and a handful of cracking songs, the band gigged around New Haven in support of the gritty and thoroughly rocking EP Searching for a Better Way, then…seemed to disappear. Atrina’s last gig was at Toad’s Place at the end of July 2003.

But now, five years later, they’re back, playing a show at BAR this Sunday, toting an advance CD-R (the disc is currently being mastered in Chicago) of the new EP, {beautiful evidence}. The disc, and the band’s current incarnation (which includes Vultures/Goose Lane drummer Dave Parmelee, Bloarzeyd/Humanoid bassist Phil Law, both new Atrina members, and longtime bassist Will Ianuzzi, also of The Vultures), represents “a continuation of the next natural step of the band,” singer/guitarist Kelly L’Heureux said in a recent phone conversation.

The band’s working in, she says, “a similar style, different feeling. Especially when you bring two people in who were audience members before, they absorb it in a new way. Every song is kind of just a mood. Everything that fits that mood is right.”

In a recent e-mail, L’Heureux explains that while Atrina “kind of fell apart” in 2003, after which she “dropped out of the scene for awhile,” she long viewed the band as an unfinished project.

Atrina’s show at BAR, playing with Californian neo-psych band Film School, features the films of Ancient Domain, the nom de film of a college friend of L’Heureux’s. Sales of Atrina’s CD-R will be funneled directly into pledging for L’Heureux’s bike ride for the Connecticut Challenge in support of cancer survivors. Once the EP comes out in earnest, a dollar of each sale will continue to go toward the Connecticut Challenge.

-Brain LaRue - New Haven Advocate

searching for a better way... ep
If you're looking for music that has certain antecedents, all you have to do is determine what influences you're looking for and then be prepared to find the answers in the strangest locations. Anymore it seems that if you're looking around in the big cities of the Northeast, what you're going to find are bands that have refined their specialty to the point that they can accomplish the style they seek to attain with severe precision, but if you knock them out of their box, you're left with someone who flounders. Atrina is a band that combines the aggression of a Dischord band with the angular guitar wails of people reared on the sounds of Sonic Youth, and all of that is churning away beneath the impassioned wail of vocalist Kelly. “Sulu” is the opening track and it rambles around looking for a center but ultimately decides that bulldozing through the middle is the best track of all. It's the deliberate drumming that defies you not to start clapping along at the beginning of “Memento.” Then suddenly, all of the elements that made you enjoy listening to the array of female-fronted Alternative bands in the '90s comes crashing headlong in a big wave. The song has the rhythmic insistence of Elastica, and the exuberance of the Breeders, and the pure pop of Veruca Salt all wrapped in one. Just when you expected this band had hit its limits, “Sci-Fi #2” heads off in a drifty, floaty direction that draws tight comparisons to My Bloody Valentine. “Eviscerate” takes elements from the three preceding tracks and sticks them all into a 7+ minute opus. Ultimately, the way that Atrina pulls it all together is similar to Eyes Like Knives. The band isn't afraid to use force to get its points across, but similarly knows that it can lull you into a spot that will make knocking you from your headphones all the more satisfying. (Jeff Breeze) - NORTHEAST PERFORMER

searching for a better way... ep
Noisy, down-and-dirty, metal-tinged rock. Singer Kelly nails that wail/sigh vocals that meld smoothly with fuzzy guitars. Although there's an apparent Slint influence, these kids are best when they drop the arty songs (promising but ill-fitting) and stick with the rock 'n' roll, hoochie koo. (Annie Tomlin) - PUNK PLANET

searching for a better way... ep
If you're looking for music that has certain antecedents, all you have to do is determine what influences you're looking for and then be prepared to find the answers in the strangest locations. Anymore it seems that if you're looking around in the big cities of the Northeast, what you're going to find are bands that have refined their specialty to the point that they can accomplish the style they seek to attain with severe precision, but if you knock them out of their box, you're left with someone who flounders. Atrina is a band that combines the aggression of a Dischord band with the angular guitar wails of people reared on the sounds of Sonic Youth, and all of that is churning away beneath the impassioned wail of vocalist Kelly. “Sulu” is the opening track and it rambles around looking for a center but ultimately decides that bulldozing through the middle is the best track of all. It's the deliberate drumming that defies you not to start clapping along at the beginning of “Memento.” Then suddenly, all of the elements that made you enjoy listening to the array of female-fronted Alternative bands in the '90s comes crashing headlong in a big wave. The song has the rhythmic insistence of Elastica, and the exuberance of the Breeders, and the pure pop of Veruca Salt all wrapped in one. Just when you expected this band had hit its limits, “Sci-Fi #2” heads off in a drifty, floaty direction that draws tight comparisons to My Bloody Valentine. “Eviscerate” takes elements from the three preceding tracks and sticks them all into a 7+ minute opus. Ultimately, the way that Atrina pulls it all together is similar to Eyes Like Knives. The band isn't afraid to use force to get its points across, but similarly knows that it can lull you into a spot that will make knocking you from your headphones all the more satisfying. (Jeff Breeze) - NORTHEAST PERFORMER

A little touch of garage, a little bit of electroclash, and a whole lotta rock. This relatively new band from the hinterlands of Connecticut have loads of songs you can download from their site. If their live show is as intense as their recordings, they'll be showing up on the bigger stages pretty soon. - RAINERMARIA.COM

A little touch of garage, a little bit of electroclash, and a whole lotta rock. This relatively new band from the hinterlands of Connecticut have loads of songs you can download from their site. If their live show is as intense as their recordings, they'll be showing up on the bigger stages pretty soon. - RAINERMARIA.COM