The Sutras

Clever, spunky, mischievous and yet not too irreverant to be cool, messy and downright sexy, these indie/emo rocksters deliver a brew, taste-tested to perfection, with both a spacey, distant vibe as well as gritty, edgy, grinding coarseness that might occasionally flash you back to the 50s. If you want the guitars to penetrate like needles and the vocals to remind you of that bastard who left you, if you want the harmonies to wash over you something like that drink in your hand, the Sutras could be just your band. What does all this mean? It means a damn great album, top-to-bottom. Okay, don't listen to me, Listen to them.

- CD Baby

Anyone that claims to have musical taste should watch out for the newest CD from The Sutras, titled Thousandaire. With a band like The Sutras, any audience can identify with the stark honesty and simple intensity with which they write, record and produce. A pleasant surprise from a genre that Iíve neglected, Thousandaire has me throwing my old Pixies, Flaming Lips and Pavement CDs back into my player rotation.

Thousandaire is the kind of release where you get your $12.50 worth by listening to it over and over as it grows on you because of the maturity in it, not the lame catchiness of some other recent genres.

Enjoy almost every piano part, especially in "Beat Me Up," as you hear bells floating through the sound and then punctuate the rhythm and melody. Track seven, "Youíre Not the Man," engages the voice of a lead singer with quality and endearment, while tricky synthesizer sounds in the background do not interrupt the clarity of his voice. My choice pick of this album, "Nepotism," has amazing promise as one of the most definitive and stylistic indie-pop songs of the year. Labeled track number 11, fun guitar sounds and creepy synthesizer effects somehow combine with a catchy harmony in the chorus, which results in toe-tapping, at least.

The Sutras definitely have class, intelligence and ability in the indie-pop genre, which reflects on their mature attitudes and intense songwriting skills. If you want that album you can easily listen to anywhere you go, do yourself a favor and take a few listens to this upcoming release. Let me know if you are as pleasantly surprised as I was when I threw it in the first time.

I recently had the chance to talk to Kevin Denton, a.k.a. K-Dogg, and AJ Strauss about their upcoming album release.

The Triangle: So what influenced the song "Hiatus," an ex-girlfriend of AJís or something?

AJ: Actually, weíd been on hiatus from the band for about five years. Our bass player got married and we each had jobs that we started.

T: So what number release is this of yours?

AJ: Actually we started the band back in 1993. And I was primarily a classical piano player with some experience in jazz. I was playing in an Elvis Costello and the Attractions type band. We searched for guitars in the Cornell area and we finally found our guy and started The Sutras. It was a hard time in the early 90s, being a band with a keyboard player. And it didnít become cool again ëtil about three or four years ago. So we had a tiny release and then we got a deal with Pop Records in Durham. Now with Thousandaire we are shopping around for labels again.

T: When I listened to this album, I heard a lot of influences such as The Flaming Lips, The Pixies and MC5.

AJ: Thatís interesting because I spent a couple of years wanting to play and get back to indie music. The final straw was when I picked up My Bloody Valentine. Weíve also been compared to Pavement and we tried to make our guitars sound like that.

T: Thousandaire sounds like so much fun. Did you have a great time recording it?

AJ: Actually, it was one of those times where everything just came together. We had a great engineer in a studio that really accommodated to us, and let us stay over night sometimes. We did have fun and when we heard it back we thought that. But weíre glad to hear that you could hear that in the record and that you gave it a good listen. Thank you.

T: No problem. I was really pleasantly surprised.

AJ: Itís hard with musicians, but I previously played in a funk band with K-Dogg as just two MCís and we wanted to go back to what we liked. So we brought the piano back in and we were dorks again. Think of some of the great rock bands and you know the dorkiest member is the keyboard player, like Journey, Guns and Roses, Survivor.

T: But you canít knock those bands, just because of one lame-ass keyboard player.

AJ: [laughter] We donít. I mean one of my greatest influences, like I said, is Elvis Costello.

K-Dogg: We donít try too hard to be indie punk rockers, so we just do our own thing.

T: Howís your live act?

K: We definitely donít just stand around.

AJ: Yeah I like to hop around and jump to different instruments. We keep the crowd interested. We should start touring next spring and we are definitely heading to Philly.

T: I canít wait to see if your show is just as fun as the album. Thanks for the interview guys, and Iím sure youíll have no problem getting praise for this album.

AJ: Thanks for the great feedback and giving it a good listen. Weíll look forward to see you there as well.




Frank Solla
New Release
- Drexel University Triangle