Indiana’s THE COLD STARES (originally from West Kentucky) project revolves around guitarist/singer Chris Tapp and the drummer Brian Mullins… a friendship that dates back to their twenties when they were in bands together. They went separate ways only to return to musical creativity a decade later.
If you’re looking for deep, direct, vibrant rock ‘n’ roll with an energetic guitar and talented stomp, you’ll love the sounds you’ll find here.
We’ve described their sound as “punchy rhythms and a scruffy nervousness that is never sentimental and always granular…’
Now they have announced ‘Voices,’ a new full-length album, due March 10th via Mascot Records.
an evocative slice of testamentary retro-vintage blues with circumspect musicianship and touchstone lyrics…
Raw Ramp Music Magazine
Recorded almost entirely over the course of just two days with producer/engineer/mixer Mark Needham (Taj Mahal, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Walk the Moon, Fleetwood Mac), the album is the band’s most mature and varied release to date, blending rough muscle with soft emotion in equal measure. To celebrate the announcement, the band has unveiled an official music video for the album’s lead single “The Joy,” (described below) which draws from Pink Floyd while it basks in the joy of discovering genuine love.
“This song takes a step outside of our normal catalog and tackles the topic of finding happiness after heartache,” guitarist/vocalist Chris Tapp explains.
“I think it will connect with those people that have overcome trials, and those who have survived toxic relationships and finally found happiness.”
After touring relentlessly for the last years, the band is now embracing a whole kind of chemistry as they launch into their next creative chapter, adding a third member and channeling the classic power trio sound they grew up on. “The chains were off when we made this record,” says Tapp. “Suddenly, all the parameters that had dictated what we could and couldn’t do just disappeared and we were free to create whatever sound we wanted.”
That sensation of complete artistic independence is at the heart of Voices, which takes The Cold Stares’ unique blend of blues, southern rock, and hard rock to new heights.
It would have been easy for Tapp and drummer Brian Mullins to simply ratchet up the volume here, but instead they capitalise on the addition of bassist Bryce Klueh by becoming more subtle and creative in their approach, pursuing a raw, unpolished sound.
When you add it all together, you get a gutsy, dramatic record that’s as honest as it is exhilarating, a high-octane dose of genuine rock and roll that pays homage to everyone from Cream to Led Zeppelin while grappling with love and loss, sin and redemption, hope and regret.
“A lot of these tunes deal with really personal things that have been on my mind for a while,” says Tapp. “I just had to live enough life and get enough experience under my belt to know how to talk about them, to know how to feel comfortable opening up those veins and sharing whatever came out.”
Characters fueled by similarly desperate longings—for hope, for purpose, for comfort—turn up throughout the record. The haunting “The Ghost” channels the redemptive fervor of a Sunday morning tent revival, while the epic anthem “Nothing But The Blues” wrestles with hard times in a down-and-out town.
“Nothing But The Blues is kind of a continuation of the theme of our song ‘Hard Times,’” adds Tapp. “I was thinking about what it takes to play ‘authentic blues,’ which traditionally meant suffering through the horrors of the old south. In my mind, there are so many things that can definitely set you down in the blues in the current world we live in.”
‘Throw That Stone’ (video shared below) is an evocative slice of testamentary retro-vintage blues with circumspect musicianship and touchstone lyrics that mark the point when self-forgiveness edges onto the cool-cold blade of downcast desperation. If they’re looking for a theme tune for the post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us, this would be it!
‘Come For Me’ is perhaps a little more upbeat yet maybe even more pugnaciously bruisier than other tracks on this remarkable album! The riff sounds as if it has been pulled from the entrails of a decaying beast. The rhythm is a larrupping on the decaying timber of a mausoleum door, and the general trajectory of the musical lurch is towards peppery resolution instead of any easily won, (and therefore) vapid redemption.
While ‘The Joy’ is a beeswarm anticipation of chastisement (maybe deliverance too) but we all know these things don’t come without deadly torment (and that’s what blues is all about.) Yet the song is not without impeccable beauty though any sacred wonderfulness the listener will enjoy (especially, for example, during nthe magnificent guitar solo) won’t arrive without anguish. Sensational!
band link: https://lnk.to/TheColdStares
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