Toronto's Rikers immediately struck us here at MUF and immediately snapped us out of our search for Christmas music and moved right back into some excellent indie rock.
The band's influences (New Order, early U2, the Bunnymen, Everly Brothers) tie only a piece together of what the band sounds like. With the dramatic Springsteen-esque vocals of Ryan Kennedy (vocals) and the shimmering guitarwork of Russ Davidson, we were caught head over heels in all of their rock glory with their track below, "Easter Eyes". Surprisingly, the band has only been in existence since this past summer; such immediate chemistry would beg to differ.
Their upcoming release, Kings English EP was mixed in New York by Kevin McMahon (The Walkmen, French Kicks), and will be available for digital download within the month (what better than to spend your iTunes gift cards on?).
To listen to their song "Curtain Call", head over to their website.
MP3: Rikers - Easter Eyes (buy)
When did your band form?
We formed this past summer (2008). Rikers started out a bedroom project for myself and the other main songwriter. Once we started to get a feel for the direction that we wanted to go, it turned into a more concentrated effort to finish some recordings and put a live band together.
Who makes up Rikers?
Rikers is made up of myself ( Ryan Kennedy) on vocals and Russ Davidson on guitar / keyboards. We both contribute equally to the songwriting and we have a rotating cast of musicians that fill out our live band.
Do you plan on touring any time soon?
We've been waiting until we have something released to start touring but it will be a big priority for us. We've got an agent in the UK/Europe and we've been across Canada enough times in previous bands that keeping ourselves busy shouldn't be a problem.
What is the name of your EP?
Our EP is called 'Kings English'. We recorded a lot of it ourselves and then went to Ottawa to do vocals and overdubs with Shawn Bradley ( Mellowdrone ). Then we sent it to New York to be mixed by Kevin McMahon ( The Walkmen, French Kicks).
Thanks again to Ryan Kennedy of Rikers for sending us this track! Please visit them through the respective links below:
Official - http://www.rikersmusic.com/
MySpace - www.myspace.com/rikersrikers
0 Comments:
