In this week's issue of Phoenix New Times, we profiled 10 new(ish) bands we expect to dominate Phoenix iPods and boomboxes this long, hot summer. We'll be focusing more deeply on those artists over the next couple of days on Up on the Sun.
See the entire list: 10 Phoenix Bands You Should Be Listening to This Summer
If songwriter Tyler Broderick had been more into trends, the debut from his band DINERS might have been a scuzzy, hissing, lo-fi bedroom record.
And that might have been great -- but a very different kind of great than Throw Me a Ten, the air-tight pop EP he crafted in Mesa's Audioconfusion studios instead of locked away in his basement. The record's chiming hooks, multi-tracked harmonies, and bouncing beats benefit greatly from the clarity.
"I started out with a vision of wanting it to be really lo-fi bedroom-pop songs," Broderick says. "Then I was, like, that's a stupid idea. I should just have it be good quality and not try and hide."
Hiding would make sense, as Broderick ended his long-running project Hello The Mind Control after a period of frustration; but Throw Me a Ten doesn't sound frustrated or stunted. Songs like "How to Live" and "Good Friends" share DNA with classic power-pop/jangle rock like The Las, and ground with contemporaries like Phoenix-gone-Seattle band iji. "Old Souvenirs" features a Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac shuffle before breaking into something that alternately recalls classic surf rock and the scuzzy grind of Pavement. The records mellower moments -- like the stark "Half Moon" -- are no less impressive, as Broderick paints stark images around a bubbling electric piano.
At only 19, Broderick is already something of a scene veteran, having attended shows at all-ages clubs like Trunk Space for the past couple years. Throw Me a Ten is a loose concept record, he says, about heading out to see bands, and the alternate excitement and malaise inspired by doing so.
It hasn't taken Broderick and his crew long to follow up the EP -- before embarking on their "Family Values" tour, they issued "It Was Weird," a "cassingle" followup. The song features a slack groove and guitars drenched in exquisite reverb. Like the band's remarkable debut, it's nearly impossible to get out of your head once you've listened, the kind of music made for driving with the windows down at night, probably home from some show.
DINERS are scheduled to perform Sunday, June 17, at Trunk Space.
