Ears Wide Open: Boy Band

Kevin Bronson on November 13th, 2015

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Boy Band is indeed all-male, but the L.A. quartet thankfully sounds nothing like any well-scrubbed pop-bots you find on an 11-year-old girl’s bedroom wall. They go by the names John War, Cubbi, Dorvin Borman and Gourn, and they are, in the words of Chris Cubbison (Cubbi), “all over the map.” Last week they released an EP of experimental electronic pop, “Six Songs,” which floats between trip-hop, glitch-pop, psychedelia and being stranded alone on a desert island holding conversations with a soccer ball. Cubbison and bandmates John Warlick, Devin Bierman and Josh Menashe trade off instruments and vocals throughout the EP, which was produced by Warlick (who once interned with a major pop producer) and features the guitar work of Menashe (who also plays with Triptides and Miya Folick, among others). All four have solo material in the works as well, but somehow they will find the time to work with up-and-comer Jordan Raf and piece together a full-length Boy Band album. “2 U” is an appropriately trippy introduction: “Take me to my favorite repeating moments / the safest places to go,” it pleas, but it’s fair to say that throughout “Six Songs” (available for free download), Boy Band hasn’t played it safe at all.

||| Stream: “2 U”