Ears Wide Open: Wild Awake

Kevin Bronson on June 5th, 2014

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Wild Awake is the new band helmed by Brijesh Pandya, the drummer for funk/jazz/R&B revivalists Air Life, among other bands. The EP Pandya has made with mates Sherman Pascoe, Antonio Dangond and Blake Estrada couldn’t be farther from Air Life’s sleek ’80s stylings, and it belies Pandya’s background in jazz studies at Cal State Northridge. Instead, Wild Awake deals in Americana-tinged indie-rock ranging from the introspective and boozy (“Jessi Throws Down” and “Early Bird”) to the foot-stomping and raging (“The Foreigner” and “Damage Control”). Wild Awake’s forthcoming EP (out June 26) was made with engineers Kyle Neal and Joel Jerome and mixed by Raymond Richards. That’s Pascoe’s tasty lap steel on “Early Bird,” a lovely paean to every new day.

||| Download: “Early Bird”