New Music Spotlight ::: A Review of SKATERS - Manhattan

SKATERS – MANHATTAN

Most collaborations occur by happenstance, being at the right place at the right time, discovering common interests, and things working out from there.  That’s the tale of SKATERS. In 2012 Singer Michael Ian Cummings (MIC) happened to be at the same party at the same “really fancy-ass house” party in Los Angeles as English guitarist Josh Hubbard. A few months after meeting when J. Hub was coming in to New York, he got in touch with MIC saying they should play some gigs together. They recruited two of Cummings’ friends, bassist Dan Burke (Dano) and drummer Noah Rubin (NoNo B). They strung together three shows mixing together songs Michael and Noah had been working on and mixed in some Pixies and the band was born. Not long after they signed with Warner Bros. and released Schemers, their first EP.

The four former-bartenders began working on their debut full-length Manhattan, at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. The aforementioned album starts with some hi-hats laced over the sound of NYC subway sounds as the announcement “This is a Manhattan bound train” muffles through before pounding drums and convulsive guitar take over. ‘One of Us’ lays the blueprint for the “fun and games” to follow. A beautiful introduction to this punk rock influenced by the likes of Devo, Mission of Burma, and The Cars. Next is the controlled chaos that is “Miss Teen Massachusetts.” The track brings the sound from inside the eye of a tornado, tells of a last ditch love request, likely re-counting native Bostonian MIC’s past.

 From one love request to another the band’s second single ‘Deadbold’ pleas “give me one more try”. The beginning of the track has a punkish “Lisztomaina” feel to it. Seven drum beats flow into a Jamacian jam on “Band Breaker’ with calculated broken rhythms reflecting the diversity the band shares with it’s home. The album begins to click with “To Be Young in NYC”, a reflection of the member’s time as bartenders and all the things they saw on a nightly basis. The upbeat “Symptomatic” could have easily been lifted from a lost Oasis album. “Fear of the Knife” is lower key with a simple guitar hook reminiscent of simpler rock & roll. The raucous closer “This Much I Care” evokes early work from another New York staple, the Strokes.

Manhattan is roller-coaster ride for the listener; one moment an all-out assault and the next a leisurely jog through the streets. The one thing that is clearest from Manhattan is the material lends itself a live show. 

  

Top Tracks

Miss Teen Massachusetts

Symptomatic

Deadbold

This Much I Care

B Rating: 80

R Rating: 77

Overall: 78.5

Local Shows: none upcoming

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