Great Young Hunters
Newport, Kentucky, United States | SELF
Music
Press
The band’s sound is a mishmash of Noise, Indie Rock and Pop. Often, their songs veer off from one genre to another, crashing together sounds that, by all rights, simply shouldn’t work together. Hill’s love of wailing guitar distortion, effects and emotive vocals combined with Sims’ razor-sharp drumming technique, Lomax’s funky bass lines and Coombs’ growing versatility have helped Great Young Hunters craft a sound that, while always cohesive, keeps listeners unsure of what to expect next.
-Nick Grever, CityBeat - CityBeat
N/A - N/A
Discography
Civil Twilight
Photos
Bio
The house band for the eschatological cruise ship party that you'll weepingly learn you've missed while waiting at heaven's will-call, the Great Young Hunters are redefining lazy indie rock with their Midwestern sensibility.
This Cincinnati four-piece's songs, constructed of spastically pieced-together moments, wake you up only to tongue-kiss you back to sleep with their melodic careening. It's this genus of noise-pop, informed by both My Bloody Valentine and Pavement, that makes you want to grab a girl and slow dance and toss your digital calendar off the proverbial 5th floor balcony. Not afraid to start a set with twenty seconds of ear-bashing noise only to transition into an indie lullaby of the ilk that you'd put on a birthday mix-tape for your tween sister, the Great Young Hunters are after something big.
Frontman Nick Hill's carefully disorganized, half-spoken lyrics intimate the thoughtful yet poetic reasoning that builds the Hunters' songs. Hill's volatile riffs and blistering solos rocket over band mate Dave Coombs' engineered sonic layers, which vividly range from ethereally psychedelic synth to distorted grungy droning that will make any music bar-goer blush. Brandon Lomax's funk-driven, fuzzed-out bass lines are more than background low-end filler, they're heavy and delicious. Ben Sim's provides the band's heartbeat with the pep and rhythm agility of a drum corps major gone rogue.
Having adopted the epic spirit of Built to Spill, their live set is an animated, swirling thing in its own right. "On Orange," is a glass half-full tune comprised of bouncing vocals, seventh chords, and perky drums. "Just Forget It" opens with an airy instrumental improv then shamelessly dives into concise and familiar rock. It's this complex structuring that's both refreshing and evolving pop's sound. Armed with songs like these, the Great Young Hunters are ready to take music with a capital M by the face.
A living, jumping alarm clock for the indie enthusiast, the rising Great Young Hunters are a fiercely sultry, promising Queen City rock group.
-Kirsten Johnson, 1/10
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