Ears Wide Open: Archer Oh

Kevin Bronson on November 8th, 2022

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Surf’s up … in Moreno Valley?

That’s where you’ll find Archer Oh, a quartet whose surf-inspired throwback rock ’n’ roll is stuff that quickens pulses not only with its urgency and raw emotion but with intensely visceral lyrics.

The band — singer-guitarist Arturo “Archer” Medrano, guitarist Diego Jacuinde, bassist Juan Cabrera and drummer Pedro Hernandez — will release its sophomore album, “Gradients,” on Nov. 17. Archer Oh’s debut came out back in 2015, and there have been two EPs and a handful of singles since.

“Gradients” deals with no less than the five stages of grief, with Medrano’s vein-busting vocals leading the way. “Tell yourself that nothing’s gonna change / While your face’s color starts to drain / And somehow all your efforts are for naught / Despite yourself, you’re the same / The same, the same, the same,” he sings on “Drawings of Nothing,” and if existential dread were sweat, he’d be drenched.

“The times I’m drunk on aren’t so sweet,” Medrano sings on the latest single, “Rotary,” feeling trapped in a vicious cycle and resisting it.

The album was recorded in a barn in Twentynine Palms with producer Aaron Talabucon. “Gradients” is out Nov. 17.

||| Stream: “Rotary”