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Animal House: Slothrust are ready to bring the ‘silly’ to Allston

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Studio 52 is a community artist space located in the heart of Allston, and is proud to support the Boston music scene and local artist community.


Slothrust have one warning for Boston fans prior to their Allston gig this weekend, and it may or may not be what you’d expect from a rock band: “Things might get silly.”

As Kyle Bann, bassist of the New York-based trio, starts to reflect on their upcoming show at Great Scott on Sunday (August 13) with Tancred — the final show of their North American summer tour — things start to wax a tad nostalgic, and memories from the band’s early days creep in.

“Boston is Will and Leah’s hometown,” Bann says of his bandmates, drummer Will Gorin and vocalist/guitarist Leah Wellbaum, respectively, “and a formative place for the band as a whole. We recorded our first album in Allston, and have been playing shows there since the very earliest days of the band. We’ll have lots of friends around, things might get silly.”

Two albums have passed since their Allston-recorded album Feels Your Pain, and their latest yield, 2016’s Everyone Else, is a ten-track experimental odyssey in whatever the hell rock music is these days. Better yet, they hear that Manchester Orchestra really likes the new album — the Atlanta, Georgia group recently reached out to Slothrust to open their European tour this fall. So that’s a solid vote of confidence.

Earlier this month, Slothrust dropped the b-side “Milking the Snake,” an on-the-road treat that furthers the band’s animal theme. Between “Milking the Snake,” a rapid fire punk tug-of-war, and Everyone Else track “Horseshoe Crab,” a soft grunge dirge, the band displays both extremes of their capabilities, flexing a stark but impressive tempo change. “Pigpen,” however, falls somewhere in between, perhaps the best sample of Slothrust’s fuzzy flair overall.

“I would spread my wings/If they weren’t so goddamn heavy,” Wellbaum proclaims on the chorus, offering up a metaphor that could be deciphered a million different angsty ways (although in a millennial world, it’s not exactly hard to come up with a dozen interpretations at any given moment). The “Pigpen” music video demonstrates up a more colorful and confectionary vision for the track, however, as all three band members had their faces built into cakes in a few shots, complete with icing flowers and rainbow sprinkles: Equal parts inventive and unsettling, especially considering the band didn’t use any special effects for the clips.

“No photoshop! We were all literally built into cakes, with icing and everything,” Bann says. “The icing got everywhere, in my eyes, ears, nose, but not as much in my mouth as I would have liked.”

And while things at Great Scott aren’t likely to get that bizarre on Sunday, when the cool cats (sloths?) are back in town, it’s hard guarantee any good and/or normal behavior.

SLOTHRUST + TANCRED :: Sunday, August 13 at Great Scott, 1222 Commonwealth Ave. in Allston, MA :: 9 p.m., 18-plus, $13 in advance and $15 day of show :: Facebook event page :: Advance tickets :: Bowery Boston event page :: Featured photo via Tell All Yr Friends PR