On Friday, February 21, indie rockers Native America and Cardinal Sons will join alt-country outfit Gold and the Rush at One Eyed Jacks for a show to celebrate the release of the band’s new EP It Is So You. Last week, Gold and the Rush dropped a good-humored video for the album’s unhinged underdog anthem “Los Angeles Athletes,” the second song it’s made available off of It’s So You. Earlier in January, the group debuted the wayward, drifting ride “Halfway Home” on YouTube.
Gold and the Rush will release its new EP It's So You at One Eyed Jacks on Friday, February 21, 2014.
One of the Big Easy’s best kept secrets, Gold and the Rush stoked a stagnant New Orleans rock scene in 2011 with its incendiary first outing, Burn. Reckoning the reckless volatility of Honky Tonkin’-era Mekons and the restless, country anguish of Faithless Street-era Whiskeytown, a flicker of brilliance found its way through the band’s churning, emotionally-charged clamor and jangle. A year down the road, the choice EP caught the ear of producer Sean Moeller, founder of acclaimed indie outpost Daytrotter, who cut a stellar session with the group in February 2013.
Armed with a new batch of songs, last fall, the college crew comprised of singer/guitarist Jake McGregor, guitarist Mark Strella, bassist Sam Ferguson and drummer Chris Littlejohn, retreated to Algiers’ Living Room Studios with producer (and Vox and the Hound drummer) Eric Rogers to lay down the tracks that would become It Is So You. If the two tunes the band’s put forth so far are any indication of what in store for the rest of the record, then Gold and the Rush will surely have itself a nugget.
A band of brothers, John, Joe and Dave Shirley’s Cardinal Sons’ catchy, lo-fi yet lush pop has garnered the fledgling trio an ardent local following over the course of the last two years. The effervescent ephemera and wistful rush found on the four tracks of the Cardinal Sons’ auspicious and infectious 2012 endeavor Make an EP offers a glimpse into the group’s kaleidoscopic purview, which swells and swirls in surges of spontaneity as its songs take shape.
Last summer, die-hard d.i.y. tribe Native America delivered the mercurial magnum opus Bad Weed / But Still Weed, initially available only on cassette and sold exclusively at its live shows. Currently, the five-song extend play, a full-on blitz of garage punk psychedelia, is available via its Bandcamp page. Just recently, in early January, Native America cut its own riotous Daytrotter session.
Tickets to see Gold and the Rush, Cardinal Sons and Native America on February 21 at One Eyed Jacks are $7 and available online. Doors for the show open at 9:00 p.m. One Eyed Jacks is located at 615 Toulouse Street (map).
