Stream: ALOKE, ‘Head on a String’

Kevin Bronson on June 18th, 2015

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Before he was imploring people to “Never Trust a Happy Song” as part of Grouplove, Christian Zucconi was playing out that distrust as part of the New York post-hardcore band ALOKE. Inspired, Zucconi says, by “grunge, hardcore and post-punk-like Fugazi,” he and bandmates Paul DeCourcey, Alex Walker and Alex Charpentier had a good thing going; reviewers praised their work ethic and sheer ferocity, and in 2007 ALOKE decamped to renowned producer Steve Albini’s house to record a full-length. “Alive,” passed on by labels and agents at the time, has been on the shelf since then, ALOKE having broken up in 2009 after Zucconi returned from the artists’ retreat in Greece with Hannah Hooper that birthed Grouplove. Some ALOKE material morphed into Grouplove songs, such as “Colours,” “Itchin’ on a Photograph” and “Gold Coast.” But the songs from ALOKE’s original “Alive” sessions remain untouched by computer or click track. The album is raw, bitingly emotional (much of it was inspired by a nine-year relationship Zucconi had before meeting Hooper) and at moments — “Married on a Farm” (watch a live performance with Hooper in attendance here) and “Head on a String” — epic. Now, the album has found a home on Brooklyn-based The End Records, which will release it on July 17.

||| Stream: “Head on a String,” “Old Lady” and “Unforgettable Mess”