Ears Wide Open: Trends
Kevin Bronson on
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L.A. indie-rockers Trends sound nothing like the music their name suggests. No overcooked production, vocoders or robotic drum beats here, just dynamic, emotive, warm rock that recalls the Silver Lake scene of the late ’90s and early Aughts. Indeed, says singer-guitarist Marina Paiz, “Our band name is a play on the fact that trends are an everlasting concept — if something falls out of favor, it comes back 20 years later.”
Begun as Paiz’s lo-fi solo project, Trends now includes drummer Karen Moreno, lead guitarist Abraham Urias and bassist Jose Valiñas. On Jan. 24, the quartet will release their debut album “Palettes,” produced by Andrew Murdock (who has worked on albums by the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, Lou Barlow and Alice Cooper, among others).
“Palettes” chews through several flavors of indie-rock as the songs negotiate time-honored themes of relationships and the elastic qualities that make or break them — tolerance, forgiveness, communication and introspection. Standout tracks such as “Ampersand” and “Branches” pivot from tender to tough in a heartbeat; for instance, the dreamy opening of the latter song is pierced by a wake-up call of buzzsaw guitar at the 1:25 mark. “Breathe in / back out / Forgive / all sin / Let us / back in,” Paiz sings in the calming outro.
“What You Know,” which the band teased last week, spends two minutes as a jazzy confessional before a burst of guitar squalor puts an exclamation point on Paiz’s declaration that “I can tell just what you want / You don’t want to be alone.” Along with the haunting “Wind Waker” and the punk-rock closer “Tommy,” it’s one of many surprises for the taste buds on “Palettes.”
||| Stream: “Branches,” “What You Know” and “Ampersand”
||| Live: Trends perform tonight at the Satellite as part of Satellite Nights, along with My Double, My Brother, Sofia Wolfson and Thom Sawyr. Free. They also play Jan. 17 at the Smell. Info. They celebrate their album release on Jan. 25 at the Roar Room (3645 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta).
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