Gun Runner

Give a listen and one might conclude: the sound of Gun Runner could've come from, really, just about anywhere. True? But that's only geographically speaking. Because their aural identity is distinct and comes with indisputably identifiable source names. Such as creatively hands-on keyboardist (Wurlitzer, organ, more) and principal vocalist Sean Davenport, given to a signature soulful croon with ominous edge and anxious texture, evident in deeper brooding or up-swooping falsetto. It's a voice that can make any song compelling -- which works out nicely, considering Gun Runner's already catchy bevy of tuneage. Their well-drawn originals come in tones of rock & roll, R&B, what-is-this and mixtures thereof, along with a fine use of open space and a fresh coat of judiciously applied alt-art-ambient-etc. (Ahh, words/labels: never the best way to convey sonic essence...)

And Davenport’s voice stands right back up to any passing evocations that may register upon hearing Gun Runner's six-song 2010 EP Bad Neighbors or material from their forthcoming 2011 debut album. Definitely more Tom Petty than Bob Dylan; more like a thing that can flit between the melodic nonchalance of Pavement's Stephen Malkmus; the enunciated emphasis of Cold War Kids’ Nathan Willett; occasional Cure-like warbling; some Spoon-ish get-down urgency; even traces of Jonathan Richman (without the ever-stuffy nose). But again, it's all in passing.

Oh -- and, say, you're just now learning that Davenport started playing in bands in Boston (indeed, even studying at Berklee School of Music there), and presently considering if that may represent some scene/sound tie-in to go along with the ref to Beantown vet indie icon Richman, etc. Wrong. Similarly inconsequential is the fact that Davenport migrated down to Brooklyn with Boston band Abigail Warchild, playing keys and thus participating in the musically fertile NYC borough's diverse underground rock culture. He was impressed but never “went Brooklyn” (which is good, cuz ya can’t). In fact, Davenport eventually moved back home to San Diego, where, instead of feeling like a hired gun, he could work on his own musings, developing something that, again, was never dependent on any local connection.