click to enlarge - Courtesy
- Shy Husky, Shy Husky
(Self-released, digital)
Two decades ago, Upper Valley four-piece Shy Husky might have had some company in the local music scene. The '90s-loving alt-rock outfit flies the flag for big, distorted guitars, pounding drums and the melodic, pop-infused vocals that so defined that rock and roll era.
Nowadays, the quartet is one of the only bands in Vermont putting out the kind of driving hard rock that once flooded the airwaves of modern rock radio stations. Strangely, that devotion to a bygone brand of alternative rock kind of works for them.
To be clear, the three songs on the band's new, self-titled EP aren't some kind of tribute to the last days of radio rock. Rather, they're an update, suggesting a cross between those rock bands and proper pop music. Singer and guitarist Spencer Bladyka has the über-clean delivery and melodic phrasing of a pop singer, as opposed to the caveman-like growl that plagued '90s rock. When Shy Husky show off their pop-punk side on "Never Alone," Bladyka is clearly in his comfort zone as he launches into a chorus full of soaring backing vocals and hard-charging guitars.
"A Single Thing" sits somewhere between Fall Out Boy and Fountains of Wayne. There's a hint of emo in the rah-rah choruses, but the song swings for the fences with its melodic vocals and anthemic thrust. Guitarist Leo Charuhas weaves his playing expertly with Bladyka's guitar — sometimes adding to the chug, sometimes unleashing clever riffs and evocative solos.
Recorded at Norwich's the Station studio with producer Matt Appleton, the EP is slick and manages to maintain the edge Shy Husky display in their live shows while also showcasing their catchy, poppy aspects.
The second track, "Never Alone," is a perfect example. "I've been kicking off my sheets at night / I've been noticing I've been feeling lonely and uptight," Bladyka sings as the band pounds along in a pensive arrangement featuring a bouncing bass line from Jeff Meyer-Lorentson. He and drummer Hayden Dow have a lockstep relationship throughout the EP, expertly moving between punk bombast and more radio-friendly levels of aggression.
Granted, calling Shy Husky radio-friendly doesn't really work anymore, because, well, the radio isn't especially friendly to so-called modern rock bands these days. The group's sound doesn't render them anachronistic, however, and the EP finds its members celebrating what pop-punk and alt-rock can be in 2023.
Rather than a tribute or a rip-off, Shy Husky's music sounds like a distillation of decades' worth of rock. Are they going to convert the skeptical masses back to those heady days when the guitar ruled the airwaves? Probably not. But their EP is a solid debut that rocks, and these days that's more than enough.
Shy Husky is streaming now at shyhusky.bandcamp.com.