Canyons and Locusts stir up a noisy melodic racket with ‘To Art Bell’
New single from the Boston + Phoenix noise-rock band raises a glass to the late radio host and simpler times on Friday, December 8
NOW PLAYING: Listen to ‘To Art Bell’ via Spotify
‘The Red Angel’ EP is dedicated to Justine Covault and set for early 2024 release
Boston, MA [December 8, 2023] – Canyons and Locusts are a band with a lot to say but not a lot of time to say it. And that’s because of a variety of reasons, both imperative and inconsequential. Counting both Boston and Phoenix as home bases, the noise-rock duo is equipped to fill the expansive distance in between with a melodic cacophony, and the latest sonic serving of their big-room sound arrives on Friday, December 8 with the release of thunderous new fuzzed-out single “To Art Bell.”
The stomp-along track, penned as a shout-out to the famed American broadcaster and Coast To Coast AM radio host, is the latest to be taken from Canyons and Locusts’ forthcoming EP, The Red Angel. Set for release in early 2024, with lead single “Buck Dharma’s Eyes” already sparking on the streams, the record is dedicated to the late Justine Covault, a staunch supporter of the duo whose label Red on Red Records previously released last year’s Roll The Dice album.
Canyons and Locusts were in the midst of recording the tracks on The Red Angel over the summer when Covault unexpectedly passed away. Left without a label home, Justin Keane (vocals and guitar) and Amy Young (drums and backing vocals) trudged forward, unleashing their new music with the guidance and enthusiasm Covault passed along before leaving us.
Picking up where October’s furious “Buck Dharma’s Eyes” left off, “To Art Bell” is a hazy fever of gritty alt-rock and Midwestern college rock that clocks in at just over two minutes in runtime. And it’s not lost on the band that this chaotic and noisy tune is inspired, in part, by a radio host who’s timbre and cadence helped put listeners at ease.
“Somewhere in the late ‘90s when we were all scared of Y2K and the end of the world and there was just that energy – especially in NYC where Amy and I both lived at the time – I discovered Art Bell's show and would usually listen to that late at night and on into the early AM,” says Keane. “It was this glorious mishmash of chupacabra and Bigfoot and reverse speech and exorcism and not anything like what we think of as 'conspiracy theory' today. And his voice was just perfect for the middle of the night.”
Young adds: “I got turned on to Art Bell back in my 20s when I was doing a lot of subcultural exploration and it was among the interesting landscapes to wander. What’s interesting to me is Justin and I having these same thoughts and it being something we never talked about.”
After Bell passed away in 2018, Keane started working on a concept album about a fictional universe combining The Omen (a shared Canyons and Locusts favorite) and the universe of the 1994 OJ Simpson trial. That record never got finished, but it birthed an initial song for Art Bell, and Keane, who says “there has always been an Art Bell song kicking around my head,” re-approached the idea while putting together music for what would become The Red Angel EP. He brought the composition’s bones to Young, and working together in the studio, the music came together in about 15 minutes. The lyrics, however, took a little bit longer.
“Lyrically, there's significance to the title,” admits Keane. “It is sort of a crazy quilt nostalgia letter to his radio show on one level, but on a deeper level it is a love letter to a specific time period, that late ‘90s window – before 9/11, before the Patriot Act, before so many of us in America seemingly lost the ability to interact with and conceive of each other as humans instead of members of one of two particular thought tribes. It’s this time where you could listen to a show like Art Bell without being called a 'conspiracy theorist' or, on the flip side, where you could say things like I think everyone has a basic right to health care without being called 'woke' or a 'snowflake.' I should also say a big part of the nostalgia is for a time when we had Art Bell talking about crop circles instead of Alex Jones talking about Sandy Hook being perpetrated by crisis actors.”
It’s a lot to pack into a song with a 134 seconds of fiery rock and roll bliss, but Canyons and Locusts are keen to plant musical and lyrical seeds into the listener’s head, almost like aural prompts into the recipient’s own personality, and allow the songs to evolve and adapt based on interpretation. “To Art Bell,” as well as the band’s songs that came before and are set to come after it, glide along the surface of stated meaning, with a deeper field of nuance tumbling endlessly underneath. And that’s something Art Bell likely would have appreciated.
“I think the current style and sound of the band – evident in ‘To Art Bell’ – reflects where we are in life and where we came from,” says Young. “Urgency and time were factors then and they're factors now but it's different. Everything we know and everything we are is on the table – in the most freeing, incredible ways. People talk about safe spaces and to me, with this project, our time in the studio is both safe and sacred; there's no existential worry, it's complete absorption. And I think that's also important because I know that's something we want for everyone – to feel the freedom to focus on one's self or one's group project for who and what it is at that time, without fear!”
Co-produced by Keane alongside Ethan Dussault and recorded at New Alliance Audio in Somerville, “To Art Bell” is Canyons and Locusts making the music they want to make, on their own terms, and on their own schedules and timelines. And when December’s musical landscape is often littered with holiday songs and year-end lists and look backs, Keane and Young are busy unleashing their own original, seasonally inappropriate music because now, at the end of the day, is as good a time as any. And the chapters of The Red Angel EP are unfolding with increased momentum.
“Musically, we’re trying to fill a whole room with sound,” Keane concludes. “Lyrically, the record touches on a variety of things, like how everything isn't as it seems, the need to dig deeper, and a warning to not lose oneself in relationships, of any kind. It's okay to scream and yell in joy and sadness. But our sadness isn't quiet, it’s loud.”
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Canyons and Locusts is:
Justin Keane: Vocals and guitar
Amy Young: Drums and backing vocals
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‘To Art Bell’ production credits:
Produced by Justin Keane and Ethan Dussault
Recorded at New Alliance Audio in Somerville, MA
Single artwork by Canyons and Locusts
Canyons and Locusts short bio:
Canyons and Locusts are a two-piece band featuring Boston’s Justin Keane on vocals and guitar and Phoenix’s Amy Young on drums and backing vocals. Fueled by the chaos of the world and an urgent need to be part of the conversation, the two took the indie rock foundation they built together in previous bands, adding new levels of noise via pervasive, edgy guitar sounds, low and thundery drum beats, and vocals that capture a mix of emotions and power dynamics. A new EP, The Red Angel, dedicated to Red on Red Records’ Justine Covault, is set for release in early 2024, led by a pair of singles in “Buck Dharma’s Eyes” and “To Art Bell.”
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Media praise for Canyons and Locusts:
“Canyons and Locusts …new song has that garage rock fuzz Boston is famous for along with some mid 90's power pop hooks. ‘Buck Dharma's Eyes’ is equally as melodic as it is discordant, but that's most of the fun. It's a groovy quick little rock song that is fun while having more than a little bit of an edge to it. It has a little bit of a Replacements meets The White Stripes sound going on.” _If It’s Too Loud
“Canyons and Locusts’ new track ‘Buck Dharma’s Eyes’ brings back memories of the early 2000s. With the gritty guitar and equally gravelly vocal performance, you can imagine this tune introducing the latest coming-of-age blockbuster that will have teens and young adults lining up around the block.” _Indie Band Guru
“‘Buck Dharma’s Eyes’ presents a raw indie rock energy, gritty and live-sounding in its authenticity but mysterious, thoughtful and elusive in its vague though cutting lyrical journey.” _Stereo Stickman
“Canyons and Locusts do a lot with just two instruments and they've had a signature sound since the first single. Their newly released song ‘Buck Dharma’s Eyes’ has that sound. They've managed to keep things interesting with melody and lyric content and that’s the case here. We really want to read into ‘Buck Dharma’s Eyes’ but the lyrics don’t reveal anything specific. The repeated use of ‘amen’ also raises the stakes. The verses when read without the music almost seem like a meditation, a calming. Is the title just a way to get the word ‘dharma’ (cosmic order) into the song? It’s all intriguing.” _Boston Groupie News
“‘Buck Dharma’s Eyes’ initially leads with a fuzzy melodic tempting but soon reveals its garage punk instincts as Keane’s distinctive tones share their emotive contemplation. Already that pop catchiness is fuelling the track’s swing though, a listener involving courting simply adding greater potency to its aligning sonic discord and emotive anxiety. As a whole, ‘Buck Dharma’s Eyes’ is a track bound in thick infectiousness, its contagion of noise and melodic fire cast with a similarly organic trespass of enterprise which we for one were very quickly enamoured with.” _The RingMaster Review
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