#echo courts

Echo Courts - Control 

Reverb Party’s July Mixtape (2016)

Get ready to trip out and groove with the July Mixtape, featuring a ton of great new tracks released in July. John Dwyer and Thee Oh Sees continue their prolific output and transport us to outer space with ‘The Axis’. Mild High Club keep us there, floating in the ether, with ‘Skiptracing’ and the Allah Las bring us back down to the edge of the earth where the sand meets the ocean with ‘Could Be…

WKNC Interviews: Echo Courts 

DJ Sparrow sat down with Echo Courts for an interview on June 25th. 

New Audio: Echo Courts 120 Minutes-era MTV Channelling New Single

Echo Courts is a Greensboro, NC-based quartet, who specialize in a jangling guitar-based psych pop that sonically seems as though it owed a great debt to the…

THIS ONE TIME AT BANDCAMP: Volume 33

Springtime music is different for everyone, but embrace the newfound warmth, put away your winter socks, and check out these three awesome bands that will warm you up despite the clouds.

Ice Cream Social by Echo Courts

Echo Courts [Greensboro, NC]: Get lost in Echo Court’s beachy tunes that make you feel like you’re gently and willingly floating away in the ocean.  Their Ice Cream Social EP is a dream pop journey through feelings both happy and sad, and makes you wish it was just a little warmer outside. Echo Courts is instantly likable, is easy to fall in love with, and puts on a great live show you should see if you ever get the chance. 

RIYL: Real Estate, Wild Nothing

Favorite Track: "Mary"

NOYES by NOYES

Noyes [Lawndale, CA]: For only three people, these California boys create exactly what their name suggests. However, their noise rock remains accessible and melodic, full of lo-fi vocals and grungy guitar riffs. The slower sludge punk still has just as much edge as their fast-paced counterparts and saturated with young adult angst that we can all relate to. 

RIYL: Fugazi, Protomartyr

Favorite Track: "Fall"

Lost No Labor by Soft Cat

Soft Cat [Baltimore, MD]: Music can take on a lot of different personalities and airs, and Baltimore’s Soft Cat cast spells of beauty and kindness with its delicate yet intricate chamber folk. Flutes, violins, chellos, and unusual percussion all make it on the bill and blend with a tight perfection that’s hard to match. Do yourself a favor and listen to all of Lost No Labor, and you’ll be sure to come out with a soft smile on your face.

RIYL: Mutual Benefit, Flaws-era Bombay Bicycle Club

Favorite Track: "When It Breaks"

-Sydney Sanial (sydneysanial)

"I've Been Down" - Echo Courts

Carving out a space in surf-rock must be a disheartening venture in indie-rock, given how well-trodden the territory has become in the last few years. It's hard to tell with Echo Courts, who seem at home with a little reverb and rhythms built for bright, powerful sunlight. "I've Been Down" is the first track off Ice Cream Social, a debut that's somewhere between Kaputt and Belong on the spectrum of romantic placelessness. 

The main refrain features singer Kelly Fahey detailing the vertigo of heartbreak "I've been down for so long it feels like up to me," but it's not clear whether or not he's concerned about it. The lyrical ambiguity never ends, but when they're not busy talking about getting stoned or issuing pithy statements about time, the band puts a confident foot forward in several directions at once. 

For instance, take the highlight moment in "I've Been Down." Fahey raises his voice, the guitars sear across, and suddenly Echo Courts find a little more than sheer comfort. It's success, and it fades to black in a way that tells you that they're aware of it. 

Echo Courts will be playing North Carolina's Phuzz Phest this year. You can listen to the rest of Ice Cream Social over at their Bandcamp.