EARLY SPRING “Silent Barn Live” (self-released)




Early Spring seems to be a shoegaze trio specializing in live releases. I don’t know much more about them than that. Well, their names are on their Bandcamp page. And the fact that they’re from Brooklyn. But that’s it. Stop pestering me for more information! Who do you think I am? Some guy with unlimited internet access and a vocabulary that would knock your socks off? That’s all I got folks. Kevin Bruce, Jonathan Pogoda, and Nari Kim will have to fill in the rest. I am a ship adrift in the sea of Early Spring’s lack of information.

What I do know is that I’d like to see Early Spring live. OK, there, I said it, I think they’d make a pretty swell concert experience. For three people, Early Spring makes an awful big racket. The rhythm section isn’t flashy, but it doesn’t have to be. They’re steady and provide the backbone for Pogoda’s guitar pyrotechnics. Pogoda probably has an enviable effects rig. Lots of distortion and delay and wonderful, delicious feedback. Like early Starflyer 59, who I actually saw live in 1995 or so. It’s the kind of otherworldly stuff you dream about. The vocals are buried pretty deeply, and that’s just as well – there’s nothing that really stands out about them, and they’re mumbled into the microphone. They’re clearly secondary to the magnificent din. The five tracks come in under a half hour.

Good luck getting your hands on the tape, as they are $5 and sold strictly at shows. I have $5, but I don’t have any way of getting to Brooklyn right now. I guess I’ll just have to settle for the promo copies to come rolling in. Sweet, sweet promo copies. I’m like a cassette gangster.

Check that, a cassette god.



--Ryan Masteller