Rayon

Rayon can thank Echo and the Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant for its name. After opening for the British band a couple of years ago, Walter Ensign expressed bewilderment about the band's name. "Why don't you call your band Rayon??h Ensign remembers Sergeant telling him. "It's one word, and it sounds British." And it stuck.

Though the name suggests Ensign's trio sounds synthetic, Rayon is anything but. With the frontman's flanged vocals poking through lush guitars, Rayon's music seems as organic as an ocean swell. "We're still trying to define" the sound, Ensign says, "but I love layers, even if it's just to experiment. Layers of strings, layers of guitars ... I like doing trippy things."

Rayon's live set offers some neck-snapping surges. It figures to get even stronger with the addition of drummer Brian Keats to a lineup that includes peripatetic bassist Mimi Star.

Kevin Bronson
?gBuzz Bands?h
March 10, 2005

- Los Angeles Times

Listening to the indie-Rockers of RAYON, It's hard not to think of time travel:
They roll from heavily textured 80s rock a la New order into melodically sweeping, jingle-jangling ?e60s psychedelic.

- Pasadena Weekly

I resent how pretentious indie music fans are. We pride ourselves on discovering fresh underground music untainted by popularity, smugly applauding ourselves for appreciating music too complex for the masses. The Los Angeles-based band Rayon has just put out their first EP, titled "Blow Away," and I’m almost reluctant to give it a positive review because I know this is precisely the material indie enthusiasts love to champion.

But the part of me that can’t turn my back on good music always wins, so here it is: Rayon’s first EP is an impressive debut, and if it’s any indication of future productions, Rayon will be a band to watch.

Rayon received their name from guitarist Will Sergeant of British post-punk band Echo and the Bunnymen. Sergeant suggested naming the group after the fabric, saying "It’s one word and sounds British." Rayon guitarist/vocalist Walter Ensign decided he liked what Rayon stood for, and the Bunnymen’s profound influence upon Rayon can be heard throughout the EP.

Echo and the Bunnymen serve as a good starting point for Rayon: if the Bunnymen are post-punk, Rayon is the next step in the progression, mimicking the dark guitars and moaning vocals of the Bunnymen, but diverging with a fluid, hypnotic bass line and atmospheric tone. The potent, dark undertones of songs like "Don’t Worry" are beautifully highlighted by bassist Mimi Star, who purportedly jams with an intensity that doesn’t match her diminutive stature.

The EP is not without its flaws, and Rayon still needs to learn a thing or two about creating songs that can stand independent of each other. But the jagged, yet surprisingly comforting quality of Ensign’s Lennon-esque voice carries over the whole of the album, making it well worth your while. Rayon makes music that moves, and this is motion in which it is easy to lose oneself.


— Angeline Baecker

http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=16143 - The Daily online Californian

Rayon
March 10 @ Galaxy Concert Theatre, Santa Ana

By Anne Sowers

It's rare to show up to a gig with more than one band on the bill and not be bored to tears by the first act. Once or twice in my hundreds of shows attended, an opening band has actually horrified me. The potential to be totally blown away by the opener is infinitely smaller, but on March 10 at the Galaxy, in Santa Ana, Rayon accomplished just that.
The near sellout crowd had come to this strange venue in an Orange County business park to see Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople. They were aging rock fans, a mostly male and generally forgotten demographic, the sort you figure were probably attending new wave shows 20 years ago.

The fans wear less black these days but they are no less enthusiastic, and tonight Rayon was, in their best estimation, amazing. People who had never heard of the band turned up at the merch booth raving, then bought all the EPs the band had with them, not to mention most of the T-shirts. Inevitably, I heard comparisons like Echo and the Bunnymen and The Who from awed audience members ?Eboth of which sum up Rayon's trippy style of melodic retro-rock.

The reason I am relaying this information to you via the reaction of middle-aged audience members is because I'm a little biased. I can't say that March 10 was the first time I've seen Rayon play. Walter Ensign and Mimi Star, singer/guitarist and bass player, respectively, are both friends of mine and they play frequently around Los Angeles, lately with a revolving cast of drummers. Happily, they seem to have settled on a fantastic one at last ?EBrian Keats ?Ewho has hit things with sticks behind more New York- and L.A.-based bands than you're care to count.

If Ensign and Star are mysterious by nature, Keats is slightly easier to track. A quick Google search will tell you that he once played with The Misfits, and if he looks familiar it's probably because you've seen him around town backing the likes of Jason Falkner.

Having seen a number of Rayon shows, I can say that the band has never sounded better than they did at the Galaxy. Backed by Keats?Estrong, refreshing drumming, Ensign and Star seemed to wield their instruments with extra muscle. Everything was tight, on time and more dynamic than usual.

The band ripped through several standards from their five-song limited edition Blow Away EP (still available at Amoeba Records and through cdbaby.com), including my favorite, the darkly shimmering “Gave You Up.?EEnsign paused only briefly between songs to shake the hair out of his sunglasses and introduce the band. The rest of the time, he sang with a voice that evoked “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?Eera Lennon, or curved his body around his guitar, crafting the layers that make Rayon sound like anything but a three-piece.

Star, in a miniskirt just as daunting as her big black platform boots, provided the low end with plenty of rockstar attitude. According to Rayon lore, Star once submitted a tape of her playing to Courtney Love when the mercurial woman was looking for a new Hole bassist.

On this night, Rayon closed their set by debuting two new songs that are more up-tempo and rocking than their older material. They also have another great new tune in their arsenal called “It’s OK,?Enot played on this night, which is getting airplay on Indie 103.1.

Blow Away is currently available. For more information, visit www.rayonmusic.com.


- Campus circle

"Rayon is a psychedelic rock and roll band with an edge. The bass and drums drive the band as the guitar and vocals take you on the most melodic trip you'll ever take." - AJ, New Rock Amoebite
- AMOEBA records