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<\/p>\nAs Major and the Monbacks*, Super Doppler signed with tastemaking independent record label Yep Roc* just a few months ago, but the Norfolk, Virginia band isn’t exactly a new act. \u201cThere was a long and winding road to Yep Roc,\u201d says multi-instrumentalist Neil Friedman. \u201cWe’ve been playing together as some form of this group for almost ten years now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band is organized around two pairs of brothers \u2013 Friedman and his twin Cole on bass, and Michael Adkins and Bryan Adkins on keys\/guitar and drums, respectively \u2013 plus a percussionist (Tyler West) and another multi-instrumentalist, Harry Slater. Slater wrote about half of the songs on Moonlight Anthems<\/i>, the band’s Yep Roc debut.<\/p>\n
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Fairly or not, bands with brothers have developed a reputation for infighting: the on- and offstage dust-ups among the Davies brothers (the Kinks), the Gallaghers (Oasis) and the Everly Brothers are the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll legend. But so far, Super Doppler has avoided that kind of internal strife. Playing in a band with one’s brother \u201cdoes make bickering easier and more commonplace,\u201d Friedman admits, \u201cbut it’s never going to boil over into something that could break up the band.\u201d He pauses and adds with a smile, \u201cI’ll cross my fingers and knock on wood when I say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Super Doppler didn’t wait for a record deal to make its second full length (the band self-released Major and the Monbacks<\/i> in 2015). Friedman says that the band recorded Moonlight Anthems<\/i> \u201cbefore we had any label support at all. We obviously wanted a record label, so we recorded [the album] and shopped it around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group was aided in its creative efforts by producer-arranger Matthew E. White (Natalie Prass, Foxygen), who worked behind the recording console on Moonlight Anthems<\/i>. \u201cIt began as, ‘We should get Matthew to produce our album, ha ha’ \u2013 kind of joking, really,\u201d recalls Friedman, and then they actually connected with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatthew is world-renowned now,\u201d says Friedman, \u201cbut we knew his name just from playing around Virginia; he’s based in Richmond, and we play there all the time.\u201d The band didn’t even have to provide demo recordings to win over the producer. \u201cHe just asked us, ‘What are you trying to do? What do you want it to sound like?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though the band maintains a regular live performance schedule, the songs on Moonlight Anthems<\/i> weren’t written on the road. \u201cI can’t write songs when I’m in and out of a van all day and every other day,\u201d laughs Friedman. Several of the new record’s songs have been in the band’s set list for a while. \u201cA couple of them \u2013 like ‘The Clap’ \u2013 we had played live before recording,\u201d Friedman says. Other songs were new: \u201cwe just rehearsed them, arranged them for the band and brought them straight into the studio. ‘Holidays’ is like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Super Doppler isn’t a jam band \u2013 there’s a conciseness to the band’s songwriting and arrangements that owes more to 1960s rock and pop rock influences \u2013 but the musicians do sometimes stretch out live onstage. While the self-released debut does have some longer musical passages \u2013 \u201cI listened again a few weeks ago and was surprised at all the instrumental breaks we had,\u201d says Friedman \u2013 Moonlight Anthems<\/i> represents a more streamlined approach. \u201cWe focused more on the songs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Some of the band members’ influences arose from deep immersion into music when they were young. The Friedmans’ grandfather owned Frankie’s Birdland, a popular record store in one of Norfolk’s African American neighborhoods. \u201cI never had a lack of new things to listen to \u2013 or [musical] opinions pushed on me,\u201d says Friedman with a laugh. \u201cOne of my first summer jobs was working at the record store. I got paid two CD’s a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several of the songs on the band’s latest album incorporate a soulful horn section that features as many as five auxiliary players. But on the band’s current tour, the horn players stay home. \u201cThe songs hold up live without them,\u201d Friedman says. \u201cThe first album pretty much just caught us in a room playing; the psychedelia of Moonlight Anthems<\/i> is harder to reproduce onstage. But we bring it.\u201d<\/p>\n
* Days after this story was filed for print publication in Flagpole<\/i>, Major and the Monbacks changed their name \u2013 apparently without issuing a formal press release \u2013 to Super Doppler. They also parted ways with Yep Roc prior to the album’s release (which Yep Roc then cancelled). I’ve updated the text where applicable, but the album in hand still reads \u201cMajor and the Monbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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