The New Trust, on tour from Santa Rosa, California, will play two gigs this weekend: tonight at Underworld, and with a killer lineup of other alternative groups tomorrow at Pipe at the EP release party for one of Taiwan’s thriving indie-synth bands, The Looking Glass.
Support band Roxymoron played a show at Underworld last weekend, setting the house on fire and winding up the dance floor as much as headlining act the Deadly Vibes.
Roxymoron will join The New Trust tomorrow at Pipe, with The Looking Glass, grunge-pop guest artists Hi-Life Wedding (also playing Underworld tonight), and Ween cover band Skycruiser.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEW TRUST
The lineup, while unique, is a mix of like attracting like.
In an interview earlier this week, Josh Staples, The New Trust’s lyricist, vocalist and bass player, described the group’s sound. “Optimistic, atheist, post-punk? Sentimental, liberal doom-pop? We’ve always been somewhat comfortable being categorized in the indie rock/punk realm,” he said.
Known for short songs — most clock in under two minutes — and energetic live shows, The New Trust, “one of the best bands to look forward to,” according to Alternative Press Magazine, began life in 2003 as a 10-year project with Staples and wife Sara Sanger (vocals and guitar) and two other musicians, including current drummer Julia Lancer. One of the members left a few years after, and though the band worked as a trio for a couple of years, it is now back up to a quartet again with the addition of guitarist Chris Brum.
Staples, who has also played with The Velvet Teen for the past decade, said the project is going well, and attributes the band’s relaxed attitude to having long-term goals. “We’ve been able to play shows and tour with some of our favorite bands, travel the world and write and record three plus albums — so many cool things that many bands don’t get to accomplish,” he said.
Sanger recalls “a really nice time between 1999 and 2005 when a lot of bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Cursive and many others were really defining what it was to be indie.”
“It may not seem like it at first, but once an influential indie band jumps onto a major label it can reverberate through a lot of delicate systems,” she said. “I think we are mourning a time when it was a bit easier to be an indie band and support yourself.”
Staples lives in the moment while performing. “I’m too busy singing and sweating and knocking around my bass most the time,” he said. “I know that each one of us is really working hard up there. Julia’s screaming and pounding the hell out of her drums; Sara’s barefoot, sweaty and bent backwards.”
Though Pipe has issues with it’s sound system and an outdoor area where half the crowd sits drinking beers bought from the convenience store, these hardworking musicians might be enough to keep the punters inside the venue, instead of outside listening through the walls.
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