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<\/p>\nThe hypnotic grooves and commitment to melody on Shadowless Man<\/i>, the latest release from Doc Aquatic\u2019s latest album, display the group\u2019s skill at both drawing from classic influences and filtering those through the band\u2019s own modern-day vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways the hardest question to answer is, \u2018What does your band sound like?\u2019\u201d says keyboardist and bassist Charles Gately, who\u2019s been with the band sine its start in 2010. \u201cSo I say, \u2018It\u2019s like Pink Floyd in that it\u2019s synthesizers with rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, and it\u2019s like the Flaming Lips in that it\u2019s totally pop songs. It\u2019s psych-rock, but with a pop sensibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the standout songs on Shadowless Man<\/i> is \u201cLowland, Shimmer & Gleam.\u201d And there is a shimmering, polished quality to the album\u2019s songs. The high production values let the songs shine. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of ear candy when you put on headphones, for sure,\u201d Gately says. \u201cBut there are melodies, and grooves, and catchy things too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doc Aquatic returns home for its album premier show after playing in Manchester, Tenn. at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Ahead of that potentially high-profile show, Gately expressed guarded optimism. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of early in the day, so who knows? No one may be there,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we\u2019re still gonna have a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band began as a quartet, eventually paring down to three musicians. But as time wore on, the nuanced texture within Doc Aquatic\u2019s original songs led the group to expand to five people. Gately plays bass, but he also adds layers keyboard textures using vintage synthesizers like the vintage Roland JX-3P, a machine from 1983. And while working on Shadowless Man<\/i>, Gately says that he and band mates (and brothers) JC and Zack Hayes realized, \u201cWe\u2019re either gonna have to start playing to a click track and have triggers, or we need to get more people in the band.\u201d<\/p>\n
The expanded Doc Aquatic now includes two multi-instrumentalists: Kevin Boggs and Max Murray, both also of opening act Fashion Bath. \u201cAnd now the first time, the songs sound live how they\u2019re supposed to,\u201d Gately says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d he backpedals, \u201cthere are a few minor things that are missing, but that\u2019s what the record\u2019s for.\u201d He allows that some of the deeply subtle elements of the recordings can be lost onstage, but that\u2019s not really a problem. \u201cThose things are made up for because there\u2019s five dudes onstage rocking,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a bunch of cool lights and smoke everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The hypnotic grooves and commitment to melody on Shadowless Man, the latest release from Doc Aquatic\u2019s latest album, display the group\u2019s skill at both drawing from classic influences and filtering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,57,62],"tags":[237,3508],"class_list":["post-14930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-psych","category-rawk","tag-asheville","tag-doc-aquatic","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15006,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14930\/revisions\/15006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}