Ears Wide Open: Dronen

Kevin Bronson on December 15th, 2014

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Dronen_photo3byJohnPonceDeLeon

You hear those over-driven guitars? Pummeling rhythm section? Angst-y yowls? It’s 1995 calling, in the form of Orange County trio Dronen. The band – Daniel Olivas, Victor Aguilar and Carlos Chevez – announced their presence in 2013 with the album “Digital Pathways (Analog Pathogens),” which served as something of a shout-out to the radio giants of the 1990s, and their fans. The follow-up is an EP titled “284 Days” (due Feb. 3) – which, owing to various complications and life’s curveballs, is the amount of time it took the trio to make the recording. Going on two deacdes after grunge and its neo- variants plays themselves out, this music still feels like flannel, and Dronen wears it pretty well.

||| Stream: “The Loss of All Things Real”

||| Live: Dronen plays Tuesday at the Cinema Bar.

Photo by John Ponce De Leon

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The Stygian Heresy – Hello! My 'public display name', especially in conjunction with the blog title, might be viewed, suspiciously, as darkly religious. Sure, it could be that; but, heh, not today. 'The Stygian Heresy' originated as my (personal in-joke) reply to prog purists, whose tiresome denunciations of early Styx as being too commercial always call to mind that it was Messieurs Curulewski, DeYoung, Panozzo, Panozzo, and Young -- and no others -- that first introduced me, via their epic track "Suite Madame Blue", to the world of prog rock. Here we are forty-some years on, and I'm after indy rock. You already know I'm not (quite!) prog-obsessive; so it needn't be radio-toxic to have my full attention. From the American progrock underground, I'm still all ears for Cathedral, Lift, Carnegie, Zazu, Leviathan, Polyphony, Yezda Urfa, Newcross, White Clover, Cocky Fox, Proto-Kaw, Axcraft, Hands, Atlantis Philharmonic, Babylon, Pre, False Prophet, Asia (U.S.), Booth Davis & Lowe, Mirthrandir, Jimmy Hotz, Lauri Paisley, Folly's Pool, Jasper Wrath, Brimstone, Laser Pace, Ixt Adux, Pentwater, Metaphysical Animation, Covenant, and their too-cool ilk; not forgetting the progenitors: Ramon Sender, Barry Silverlight, Frank Zappa, and Touch. Outside of Music, there are a number of things that make my world go 'round, and keep it spinning: Literacy, Art, Astronomy, Geology, Evolutionary Biology; and Cats. Hmm. I listed cats last. That was probably not a good idea. Thank you for stopping in. -Mark

Mark says:

December 15, 2014 at 3:49 pm

Wow. Thumbs up, cheering. I tried following Dronen on Soundcloud. I’ll keep trying.