Premiere: Night Riots, ‘Fangs’

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Night Riots (Photo by Jonathan Weiner)
Night Riots (Photo by Jonathan Weiner)

Alt-rock quintet Night Riots were born up the 101 in the sleepy town of Templeton, but they’ve fashioned the sound of urban desperados wandering rain-slickened streets, hearts playing tug-of-war with hope and despair. The band — singer Travis Hawley, guitarists Nick Fotinakes and Matt DePauw, bassist Mikel Van Kranenburg and drummer Rico Rodriguez — became something of a hot fuss last year with their EP “Howl,” featuring the single “Contagious” (4.5 million Spotify spins and counting). Since then, they’ve been working on a full-length with producer Joe Chiccarelli, whose credits including Morrissey, Spoon, the Strokes and My Morning Jacket, among many others.

The title of that album is “Love Gloom” (out Oct. 21 via Sumerian Records). And the melancholy that descends on those suffering unrequited love is turned inside out on the guitar- and synth-laced new single “Fangs,” a vampire-movie-ready rocker that finds a hyper-emotional Hawley emerging from his tomb to declare “She is the only light I need.”

||| Stream: “Fangs”

||| Live: Night Riots play the Troubadour on Oct. 21, supported by Dreamers and Mainland. Tickets.

||| Previously: “Shine”