Chris DeLine

Reminiscent to a distortionless My Bloody Valentine, Austin’s AM Syndicate delivers a chorus of pop-conscious rock songs while lead singer Omar Chavez’s drifting vocals continually distance the band’s sound, finding a patch of sound unto itself. No more evident is this than on the band’s “To the Peasants of the Emperor,” one of the many airy songs currently featured on the band’s MySpace page. But deeper, and slightly uncharacteristic of the band’s makeup is that of “My Neighbor the Sleepwalker.” Emphasis is often taken away from percussion and in this track drummer Vince Dercan delivers something closer akin to that of his former band, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, than anything else I’ve heard from AM Syndicate. In it, Durcan’s beat isn’t overwhelming, but rather proper; one that is circumvents corrupting the song by playing to the Chavez’s guitar rather than over it, all the while allowing keyboardist Golfball to squeak in a few moments of spotlight.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]