Buice - The Walrus EP

Buice

​The Walrus EP
self-released; 2018
​
3.5 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Buice is an Atlanta indie band consisting of Hayden Locke (bass/vocals/production), Russell Houk (guitar/vocals) and Ian Valdés (drums). The band formed in June 2018 and recorded a demo called The Walrus EP.

The demo is really lo-fi even for this type of raw garage/indie rock but the band can definitely bring the goods. Things get going with “The Gods Must Hate Me” which consists of heavy ’70s style rocking with these breaks in between where one of the guys goes into a spoken word section. It worked well enough and the talking is kept to a minimum.

The band mellows out somewhat with “Overdose.” The verse is bubbly and a little bit jazzy sounding. I liked the syncopated bass part. The intensity revs up a bit as the song progresses and proves to be a pretty catchy song. The band burst into surf rock with “Walrus.” It’s one of the highlights and sounded like a song that could have been in Pulp Fiction. The chorus is heavy and felt a little more grunge inspired.

“Grow Up” features exaggerated vocals which are somewhere between speaking and singing. You can feel the momentum building as it progresses. Once you get to around the three-minute mark the vocalist is screaming and you get a pretty epic sounding guitar solo.

“Break Me” is a light, funky and breeze song which again features a mix of spoken word and traditional singing. They close with “Thirteen” which embraces a ’50s pop aesthetic and style.

​The band is in their embryonic stage but has a lot going for them. Getting a proper studio at some point and refining their style a bit more should be on their to do list. I’m looking forward to where they go from here.

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