Westing officially sheds its old name; emerges into 'Future' with new album
Plus, looking for Fresno bands on the Bottlerock Napa lineup?
One could read something into Westing’s debut release, if they were so inclined.
Like, the more things change, the more they stay the same, or some such.
After all, the album (out on Riding Easy Records in February and up for presale now) is called “Future,” and the just-dropped first single is called “Nothing New.”
As in “nothing new under the sun.”
“It’s more focused on songwriting than ever, but has a good balancing amount of fun to keep things up,” that band’s frontman/guitarist Daniel Story Rice says of the new creative output.
“It’s still riff rock but it is harnessed in a more carefully crafted way.”
For the uninitiated, Westing is a reconfiguring of the Visalia rock outfit Slow Season, which got passed over some during the nearly 10 years they were playing, despite having done three albums for Riding Easy Records, including the label’s second-ever release.
The LA label is now leading a resurgence of heavy, riff loving bands, working on foundations set by Zeppelin and Sabbath, but also any number of more underground late ’60 and ’70s psych rock groups. See: the label’s Brown Acid series.
In a practical sense, Westing (the name taken from the title of Slow Season’s 2016 album) is a psychological reset if nothing else.
“We needed a fresh start, that’s really it,” Rice says.
The band did pick up a new member, in the form of Ben McLeod (best know for playing guitar in the Nashville band All Them Witches).
They met McLeod opening for All Them Witches at the Casbah in San Diego in 2014 and again in 2016.
McLeod nerded out with Slow Season drummer/recording engineer Cody Tarbell over tape machines and production, “then talked about a collab in 2021 as the pandemic started to wind down,” Rice says.
The album was mostly recorded over four days in August 2021.
“It’s got the best attributes of Slow Season in our rhythm section merged with new fretboard strengths coming from Ben,” Rice says.
Fresno fans take note, Rice says, the band is looking to connect with the scene. So expect to see them live.
“I see a cool creative spark among my homies up there.”
You can follow Westing on Instagram and Facebook.
The Fresno (and adjacent) bands playing Bottlerock 2023
It’s festival season and this week we got lineup announcements from both Coachella and Bottlerock Napa.
Whether you’re more interested the former or the later says a lot about your contemporary pop music literacy (and maybe something about your age).
But let’s save that for another day and instead talk about the Fresno (and Fresno adjacent) bands that landed on the Bottlerock lineup. They all play Day 1 (Friday May 26) if you wanna to get those one-day tickets (on sale now).
Airborne Toxic Event is not an area band, but is included here because drummer Daren Taylor grew up in the are (Kingsburg) and played in several bands (Dr. Rocket and the Moon Patrol, PinkEye, It’ll Grow Back) in Fresno before moving to Los Angeles and teaming up with Mikel Jollett. The pair would go on to from the band and releases a series of singles including 2008’s “Sometime Around Midnight.”
Similarly, Stone Foxes is technically a San Francisco band, but the founding members grew up in the foothills and were/are connected to the Fresno music scene. Brian Bakalian (who plays in Sum Umbra, Brim, etc.) continues to play with the band as time and schedules allow. The band released its sixth album, “On The Other Side” in November.
By somewhat of a contrast, Great Northern is a Los Angeles band, relocated to Fresno. The band is singer/instrumentalist Rachel Stolte and Solon Bixler, whose familial name carries some weight with a certain set in town (see: the Wild Blue/Wild Blue Yonder). Earlier this month the band released a set of new singles.
They are available on Spotify now.
That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com