Taste Test, Edition #1: The Spencer Lee Band, The Motion Epic, Jailbox & more

Welcome to Taste Test, a review wrangling of SubmitHub-only gemstones.

“River Water” by The Spencer Lee Band

The control frontman Spencer Lee flexes on “River Water,” an acoustic-torn mid-tempo that was written during a particularly tragic time of his life, is glorious to behold. “Scraping change again / Seen so much my friend / How my world can seem so wrong…” he sings, both in weeping flourishes and exhausted frankness, about being homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. His vocal is merciless, and he’s not especially bitter about the experience but simply offering up a warning.

“Temporary Lovers” by The Motion Epic

Steeped in the razzle-dazzle of ’80s glitter-pop, The Motion Epic’s “Temporary Lovers” quenches the craving for the disco-reflective dance floor. Mastermind Pat DiMeo transports the listener to a time when even popular music had rich, expansive meaning, and his heart is just like neon, stretched across bubbling orbs and lush, warm synths. It’s like reliving the majesty and magic of San Junipero all over again.

“Bird Rib” by Jailbox

The weight of life bears down on us all. Indie-folk band Jailbox, out of Missouri, brood on “getting older” with “Bird Rib,” a slow-burning examination of the past, the present and the future. Change is all around them and forever embedded in the fault lines they so unapologetically embrace. Their fingertips curl around life’s rough edges, in resignation as much as pride. The cracks, the scars, the tremors are just a part of them now. And that’s OK.

“Ask Me Anything” by Neil Frances

The guitar spurts and fizzes. The duo of Neil Frances are unconcerned, as the vocal slugs along in unhurried and silvery flicks off the tongue. The production tangles like a garden of weeds, but it’s never so heavy and cast in shadows that you lose any real sense of identity. “Ask Me Anything” certainly imparts a stylistic stamp that quakes throughout much of their debut EP, Took a While, out now.

“Grindstone” by The Rungs

New York band The Rungs’ new psych-rock track “Grindstone,” a primer of their new EP, out later this fall, rumbles and races upon a mountain of carbonated guitar, tickling between syrupy drum work and quivers of other instruments. Lead singer Mandy Gurung whispers into a filter, which allows her silky timbre to dice and slice along the way. It’s as trippy as it is cerebral and casts such a piercing glow, you’ll never forget it. Guaranteed.

“Sometimes” by ASHRR

Don’t lose your head (at least not completely). Alt-pop group known as ASHRR bend and break guitars over their voices, scarring their flesh with a metallic bruise. They wear their wounds around the edges of their hearts, and that’s OK. You have to bleed to grow. “Sometimes” is weirdly chaotic in execution, tasting Bowie on the melody and something even more bizarre in the blanket of production that crunches like a freshly-fallen snow. It’s blinding, erratic and scorching to the touch.

“Can’t Cheat Fate” by Kela Parker

Some believe fate is immovable like a mountain. In the case of Americana singer-songwriter Kela Parker, whose “Can’t Cheat Fate,” a cut from her new record The Dreamer & the Dream, is a towering one, her fate is intertwined with the music itself. “You have to trust the road you’re on,” she stresses, fiddle and guitar smirking around her feathered voice. The melody cries for relief, and the only way to achieve redemption is barreling down the gravel road ahead. Parker rises to the occasion and serves up a sublime performance.

“Carried Away” by Overstreet

If DNCE was a bit dirtier and possessed far more delicious swagger, you’d have Overstreet. It’s a bleachy and dreamy band founded by Chord Overstreet. Yes, he’s that blonde (and sometimes aloof) bombshell from Glee. “Carried Away” is reliably tropical affair, drenched in boiling lemonade and smacked with palm trees. The production’s brightness is only surpassed by Overstreet’s cool and groovy vocal. It’s 100 percent swoon-worthy.

Photo Credits: Jon Hoeg / Kela Parker Album Cover Art / Frank Ockenfels 

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