Toronto’s Yound call themselves a “cosmic rock group” that were formed in a basement in Grimsby, Ontario “as a means to work through the emotions of the lockdown.” Their debut album is the self-titled Yound, which they describe as “an introspective journey of dramatic swells and cathartic releases. Booming drums, chest-rattling bass, soaring guitars and heady lyricism come together to form Yound’s dark aesthetic.”
The band members are Dave Hostetter (vocals), Alex Woolaver (guitar), Chris Masson (drums) and Mark “Kitty” Zuccato (bass). They describe this album as “five polished studio recordings paired with two looser live-off-the-floor cuts, showcasing Yound’s diverse sound and approach to music making.” They compare their music to Jim Morrison (The Doors), Black Sabbath, Leonard Cohen, Godspeed You Black Emperor, White Stripes, and Patti Smith. Recording took place at Grayson Music in Toronto on Pro Tools, with the first live pass reserved for vocals, guitar and drums. Editing, mixing and mastering was by drummer Chris Masson. I have a close friend who plays keyboards in one of the best Doors tribute bands in Los Angeles. When I see them live, I know I’m not seeing the real Jim Morrison onstage, but that shamanistic attitude within the lead singer’s performance and the ritualistic pageantry of those songs always teleports me into that other-world headspace. Singer Dave Hostetter is not “doing” Jim Morrison in the strictest sense, but he’s clearly feeding off that same energy and I got buzzed in that same way listening to him. “Realm of You” starts with Spanish-style electric guitar, similar to the classic band Love. Simple and dirge-like, the band takes its time setting its ghostly, vaguely sinister stage. The guitar carries a lot of the weight, which makes sense knowing that guitar and drums were laid down first, upon which Hostetter begins to slowly recite, sing and pontificate. Though he’s got Jimbo’s attitude, on this track Hostetter reminds me of scenester Kim Fowley in one of his darker incarnations. Structurally the track recalls early Patti Smith. The song runs close to eight minutes, and concludes with a classic rock descending motif like Cream’s “White Room.” “Falling” has a similar sound to the previous track, though Hostetter’s poetry is even darker, almost like Black Mass incantations. “Oh Superman! In Lucifer!” Musically the band follows more of a Black Sabbath template, which is certainly appropriate. “Mushrooms” starts with surprisingly tender guitar trills with lots of reverb. Hostetter’s vocals are more like movie narration, though it might be a horror movie you’re afraid to watch. “People make love on the streets / Mushrooms make love to the corpses they turn into brains.” Eventually the simple guitar chords take on the kind of jazz flavor that Doors guitarist Robby Krieger is famous for, including a middle section where the notes seem to be searching for a lost melody. Based on the title of the two-minute track “2020: The Man on the Internet (Interlude)” I was expecting a short instrumental, but it was here that I realized who Hostetter really sounds like: Denver’s Peter Tonks, a longtime musical gadfly with his band Cowtown who’s known for just this kind of Dylan-Morrison-Lou Reed style poetry set to music. It’s an acquired taste but one that’s hard to shake once you get it. “Holy Lights” is the one song with a true hard rock structure, though Hostetter’s continued ranting of “Holy lights light up” really sounds like “Who’d I sign up?” which works just as well for me! Hostetter really digs into this one, as evidence by his increasingly frantic speech-singing that soon reveals hoarse and ripped vocal chords in a sea of endless reverb. Musically this one gets almost Hendrix-crazy toward the end. The final two tracks both come from “The Grimsby Sessions” that the band says were exploratory jams to gather song ideas. As such they are essentially “bonus tracks” though that’s maybe a bit early for a brand new band! “Drywall” is an uncredited remake of Link Wray’s “The Rumble” while Hostetter creates a full-throated performance out of an angry letter or journal entry about - I kid you not - floor tiles not matching the drywall patterns! It’s a wild journey but maybe meant just for hardcore fans of the group. It also features one of the widest reverbs I’ve ever heard. The second Grimsby session is called “Final Story” which features a mellow, cyclical guitar pattern over which Hostetter recites a few lines. Eventually the drums kick in and Woolaver’s guitar becomes almost painfully distorted, leading to a huge, loud ending. This is an interesting and diverse start for this band. If I were the producer I might have honed these tracks a bit, but what’s here certainly rocks and shows great promise for things to come!
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