We learned a lot of things on the Vanya road trip to SXSW back in March. One, people in Mississippi hate British accents. Two, the drive from Boston to Austin is kinda brutal, especially once you get past Nashville. And third, the Rare Occasions are one of Boston’s brightest new bands.
The rock quartet performed live at our party with Berklee College of Music, playing the closing slot but landing pretty much first among bands that turned our collective head that day. We might have drunkenly said something to them about the Berklee-ness of their 2013 EP, Applefork, but underneath the music school’s funk coating was a rock band eager to break out.
That breakout has arrived with today’s release of Feelers. It’s a massive step forward for the guitar-rock crew, taking all the promise from earlier tracks and filling the fucking arena with rock from the floor seats to the rafters.
“Dysphoric” is the rock ripper stateside fans have been awaiting from the Arctics, and ukulele intermission track “Goodnight” should be flashing across our Hulu advertising screens soon, and closer “La Mort” has just enough weirdness mixed into the shoegaze to keep basements afloat in 2014. And that’s just the beginning, middle, and end.
This is a record that deserves multiple spins. Cancel your Tuesday and drink it all in.
