#seaknuckle

<5K: Volume 13

THE OLD STORY OF THE NAMESAKE//JUST WHAT’S GOING ON HERE There’s an xkcd comic that exposes the secret coalition to make certain YouTube videos go viral: they have to get exactly “300+” likes from the committee, and are then certified to spread like the plague onto innocent newsfeeds worldwide. In that vein, I present you with <5K: exposition on bands that have less than 5,000 likes online. Perhaps one of them will be the next to pass that mysterious threshold into the world of fame and fortune… after all, once you get 5,000 likes, you sell out every show and your records go gold. That’s how it works, right?

I don’t usually write up bands that aren’t currently active, but I’m making an exception for Free Moral Agents (4,555 likes). They were the jazz-electronica-slowmotion-dub-project of master keyboardist Ikey Owens, who played for Jack White, Mastodon, The Mars Volta, Reel Big Fish, Sublime, and many others. Owens acted as bandleader and arranger for Free Moral Agents, encircled by a revolving cast of friends and guests. Everybody’s Favorite Weapon is standard-setting dub, swirled with electronic smoothness. It’s not easy to find their music online, but it’s worth the search.

You can watch a nine-minute mini-documentary about the band here.

FFO: Gorillaz, BadBadNotGood

<a href="http://atlasatlast.bandcamp.com/album/atlas-at-last" target="_blank" data-mce-href="http://atlasatlast.bandcamp.com/album/atlas-at-last">Atlas At Last by Atlas At Last</a>

Atlas At Last (608 likes) are a DC band making some damn good post-hardcore. Their latest EP, A Composition of Functions, fits a full album’s worth of crushing sound into its 18 minutes. Atlas At Last have been gigging hard, pummeling the crowd with screaming enthusiasm that leaves listeners sweaty, bruised, and nodding. It’s damn good post-hardcore. Catch them at The Dougout and around the dark parts of DC, plowing through the pain of existence wherever you can still mosh. A Composition of Functions is out October 31st.

Listen to Atlas At Last here.

FFO: Nouns, Snowing

<a href="http://seaknuckle.bandcamp.com/album/nailed-it" target="_blank" data-mce-href="http://seaknuckle.bandcamp.com/album/nailed-it">Nailed It by seaknuckle</a>

Seaknuckle (337 likes) are doing it, man. Nailed It, their only release as of yet, contains just four songs of such bombastic energy that you’d swear they were field recordings taken during a band practice in the middle of a raging party. The overlapping vocal melodies, fierce riffs, and relentless drumming make up tracks that are both catchy and innovative. It’s vibrant and full of details. It’ll make you want to see Seaknuckle live, and it’ll put you in front row.

Listen to Nailed It here.

Fun., Foxy Shazam

Frederick, MD’s Signs Point East (1,030 likes) are a tough act to pigeonhole. Instead of being limited by style, their music is threaded by earnest delivery and fullness of intent. Whichever particular genre they’re channeling on any given song, they do it completely, and that’s what makes you pay attention. They combine funk danceability with jam-band rock ethics, making it easy to imagine them keeping heads grooving this summer at campouts like Domefest. Put their moxious EP on at a party and watch people get down.

Listen to Back to the Start here.

FFO: Dale and the ZDubs, Big Something

-Asher Meerovich is a writer and musician in College Park. He likes to be near water. Read more of his musical explorations at hire-me-rolling-stone.tumblr.com.