photo by Lizzie Leigh
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased tracks, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s selection, featured on The Morning Show with John Richards, is “Hey Unbelievers” by Robbers on High Street from the 2011 album Hey There Golden Hair on Tijuana Gift Shop.
Robbers on High Street‘s newest and third album, Hey There Golden Hair, features the band with its largest lineup yet, full to bursting with six members. It’s been a long road since their unsung beginnings as a trio in New York. The thriving early 00′s garage rock scene in Brooklyn may have birthed the band in the beginning, but with each album the group’s come into their own as confident and unabashed purveyors of late-60′s Anglophilia and early 70′s AM rock. The band reminds as much of The Beatles as they do Elvis Costello, combining catchy, upbeat melodies with gruff and impassioned lyricism that stabs as much as their piano chords.
Today’s track, “Hey Unbelievers,” showcases the band’s eclectic instrumentation (hey there, organ!) with their clever and unbelievably hooky choruses that sound straight from the classic rock airwaves. It’s this kind of showmanship and full-band vocal effort that make you believe in Robbers On High Street’s thrilling energy, combined with a brass section that bounces and warbles along with the best of them.
Check out the adorably retro 16-bit video for “Training the Tricks” below, hit up the band on Facebook, and be sure to check out the band’s upcoming Seattle show at the Funhouse on September 21st.
3 Comments
Shouldn’t they be called Robbers on Spoon Street?
Spoon? They never did the full band sound like this, I don’t think. What it really makes me think of, this new song, is Sloan. I hope that Robbers on High Street have a similarly long and prolific career to that great band.
Loving Robbers on High Street’s new album...the band is really meshing at this point in their careers.