Tempe's Flying Scorpion might still be a young band, but that doesn't mean they're new to music.
As the one-year-old hard rockers release their first three-track disc, Z, at Yucca Tap Room this Saturday, they bring years of experience from former and current local bands like Mourning Maxwell, Slowpoke, Meet Corpse, The Smith Family Band and Saddles. From folk rock to metal, that band's background is certainly diverse. You can hear it, and that's exactly what rhythm guitarist Alex Kling wanted, but not what he expected, when he started the band on his own just over a year ago.
"I didn't expect to end up with the four super stallions I play with now," Kling says. "They all play in other bands... and bring many different aspects to the sound that has become the current Flying Scorpion. At the same time, we are a new band and we are still developing quite a bit, and I'm happy with what we have done but even more excited with what we'll be doing in the near and distant future."
And in the super near future is the release of their first three-song disc. It's not an EP or an LP, though some might call it a "clever way to label a short-ass EP," he says.
Two of the CD's tracks can be heard now, but you'll have to go to the release show to hear the third, "Friendz." You might notice a running theme with the letter "Z."
"Z" is a metal-meets-alternative rocker Kling started writing when he lived in Spain in 2010, and "there is definitely no reflection of the flamenco I was listening to at the time," he jokes. The track melds Chris Elliott's Grohl-inspired lead vocals with impressive guitar riffs.
"Enemiez" is a jump-up-and-down anthem worthy of a moshpit that's bound to get things crazy at Yucca this weekend.
The preview the show the band released this video, which is part is part promotion and part really... awkward dating video.
The free show includes The Dagg Nabbit Stubbs, Ace High Cutthroats, The Author and Snakburner and starts at 9 p.m.
