Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

New Music Monday: The Growlers

GrowlersThe music of The Growlers is unmistakable.

Sure, you can hone in on some influences baked into the work of this California-bred band. Heck, even they’d cop to a few, like Ricky Nelson and The Clash. But once those same RIYL tags have been filtered through the minds and hands and voices of this five-piece, there’s simply nothing else like it.

Recommended Videos

The Growlers took the phrase “Beach Goth” as an apt descriptor of their music. Sunburned and salty, that term perfectly describes their distinctive melding of reverb heavy surf guitar and Bakersfield-style honky tonk with ‘80s post-punk.

This is especially true of Chinese Fountain, The Growlers’ fifth full-length set to be released on September 23rd via Everloving Records. The 11 songs found on it are some of the strongest that they’ve committed to tape yet; a byproduct not only of eight years in the trenches together, but finely honing their gypsy folk dirges and psychedelic sea shanties to fans at close to 150 shows each year. The connection between vocalist Brooks Nielsen and guitarist Matt Taylor (the principal songwriters of the group) has only grown deeper.

“The band played better than they’ve ever played,” says Nielsen. “We’ve got the process down now. There’s less screwing around to get the songs laid out and we weren’t waiting around for take after take. We knew it and we played without much time to spare.”

That confidence bleeds through every track on Chinese Fountain, with the band assured enough to layer in shades of many new influences: the loping ska beat of “Dull Boy” and “Going Gets Tuff,” the playful disco beat behind the title track, or the Teardrop Explodes-like agitation of “Good Advice.”

Not that the band left themselves much room to second-guess anything. The five spent about three weeks writing the tracks, and about half that time in the studio recording them. That may sound rushed, but it’s not as if you can hear any strain on the finished product; Chinese Fountain is as rock solid and watertight as anything in their still-growing discography.

There’s evolution to be heard in Chinese Fountain as well, courtesy of some of Nielsen’s most pointed and poignant lyrics to date. He takes our obsession with the online world to task on the funky title track. When he drops the bomb that obliterates that most famous of Beatles’ claims with “The internet is bigger than Jesus or John Lennon” he re-contextualizes Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” in the same breath. He urges positivity no matter the obstacles (“Going Gets Tuff”). Too, he reveals a tattered heart to the world on tracks like “Rare Hearts” and “Love Test.”

“This is my chance to let it all out,” Nielsen says of these songs. “I kind of bottle things up and don’t really get emotional. But I think if I don’t open up, I’d be a really stale person.”

Order Chinese Fountain from their official site, Amazon, or iTunes!

http://www.thegrowlers.com/

Dave Sanford
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Bill Hader will co-write a new HBO series about the Jonestown massacre
The story of Jonestown has been infamous for almost 50 years.
Bill Hader in Barry.

If you watched Barry all the way through to its conclusion, you're likely aware that Bill Hader is a kind of dark guy. He's always talking about his fascination with serial killers and murderers, and now he's channeling that fascination into a project for HBO. Variety is reporting that Hader will co-write and potentially star in a new HBO series about the infamous Jonestown massacre.

Hader is co-writing the series with Daniel Zelman, and while it's still in development, the show could potentially be Hader's next star vehicle with HBO, where he also worked on Barry.

Read more
The new Fantastic Four trailer gives us much more of the movie’s plot
Marvel is betting big on this movie to introduce a slate of new heroes.
The cast of Fantastic Four

In a summer filled with massive released, Marvel's Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of the very biggest. The film is introducing its titular heroes to the MCU, and in a new trailer, we're getting a sense of exactly what that will look like.

In the trailer, we get a brief glimpse of the Fantastic Four's backstory as well as more a peak at their alternate, retro-futuristic version of Earth. We also learn that Vanessa Kirby's Invisible Woman is pregnant, and begin to understand the threat of Galactus and the Silver Surfer, who are the film's big bads.

Read more
Superman star Rachel Brosnahan has offered some new details on Clark and Lois’s relationship
Brosnahan is set to take over one of the biggest roles in comic books.
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane in Superman

The first peaks at James Gunn's Superman that we've gotten so far have suggested that there's going to be plenty of kissing in the final film. Lois Lane is a crucial part of Superman's story, but her role has varied from adaptation to adaptation. In a recent interview with Collider, Rachel Brosnahan, who plays her in this version of the story, has offered some new details about the nature of Lois and Clark's relationship in the film.

"They've been together for about three months," she explained. "And they're asking some questions about the future of their relationship. They're not sure if this is something that was just a really great fling or something that could be forever, and they have really opposite worldviews, and they bump up against each other that way. So, it was a really fun way into a familiar story.”

Read more