Ears Wide Open: Greyface
Kevin Bronson on
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Justin Taylor, Ryan Malina and Julien Bellin are longtime friends who originally met in the Florida punk/hardcore scene in the 1990s. Their exploits since have been many and diverse: In recent years Taylor fronted the art-rock band Black& (Black Sand) and the electro trio Jutty Ranx, who this summer released the best dance-pop album not enough people heard. Both Malina, a multi-instrumentalist/producer, and drummer Bellin have played in myriad bands in L.A. and elsewhere. Now their paths have crossed again, leading the trio back to guitar-driven alt-rock as Greyface. They’ve been working on batch of songs that range from space-rock to crunchy power-pop to grungey anthems. All hail the power of the guitar? Greyface’s first single “What Did You Lose?” abides, complete with a neurotic spoken-word bridge. They hope to have an album released by March.
||| Stream: “What Did You Lose?” and “Thank the Light”
||| Live: Greyface plays Tuesday at Harvard & Stone as part of Vox Waves’ residency.
[…] Back in late 2015, we introduced Greyface, the L.A. trio of Justin Taylor, Ryan Malina and Julien Bellin, three friends from way-back-when in Florida whose respective careers have seen them explore hardcore, experimental rock, electro-pop and shoegaze. So their story goes that in 2015, the threesome got together for a pre-concert (they were en route to see Blonde Redhead) jam session, and Malina recorded it on his phone. After sharing it with a friend, engineer Tom Syrowski, the latter booked a session a Henson Studios. There, the first songs from Greyface’s full-length, “Greyola,” were born. The album, out Feb. 10, ranges from crunchy alt-rock to starry-eyed (and guitar-twinkling) anthems. (And props to the band for still liking albums, for whatever reason.) The spacious and melancholy “Delilah” seems plucked from the wee hours of the ’80s, when the overnight DJ on your favorite FM station would spin an album track by one of the New Romantic bands and you’d make it home (more or less) all right. […]