Antennas Up
“When it comes to local bands, it’s easy to lose touch. Then one night, when you least expect it and you’re drunk as a skunk, you catch this one band and you’re all like, ‘Damn, you got hot.’ Such is the case with Antennas Up, a slick and musically sexy trio.” Richard Gintowt, The Pitch
When learning of a band who wears their fascination with spaceships, videogames and assorted results of hyper-accentuated technology on their sleeve as Antennas Up does, one might make the assumption that their obsession is a reflection of a rather cold persona. Thank God, their debut album is now available and any pre-conceived notions of frigid, scientific vibes are swept away by dance floor-worthy grooves that share loyalties to funk, neo-soul and electro-robot rock. The songs on this self-titled debut are incredibly inclusive, with hypnotic rhythms weaving in and out of infectious melodies, drawing listeners closer. Innovative studio techniques bring a modern edge to tunes that are guaranteed to fill the dance floor, generating collective joy between the audience and band. This kind of accessibility is not contrived but a direct reflection of three extremely extroverted guys who bonded together to make intelligent music that is also a lot of fun.
In 2008, Antennas Up formed in Kansas City and began work on their debut. Guitarist and world traveler Bo McCall and drummer/programming genius The Ryantist met on their high school marching band’s drumline. Meeting up with Kyle Akers in college, they began writing together, but chose to take a more innovative approach instead of the conventional path. Taking inspiration from the Dust Brothers, they decided to base their writing on sampling. But – instead of sampling others they sampled themselves. They locked themselves in a room and recorded numerous lengthy jam sessions. With the raw material, they looped, cut, stretched and shifted the audio to create something totally different. From there, more recording came into play as new parts emerged. “It was like having a conversation with a new song taking shape,” explained The Ryantist. A goal was to blur the line between the traditional understanding of instruments and sounds – the album has vocals that sound like guitars, basses that sound like high pitched Nintendo games and live drums that sound like fuzzy drum machines. Thus, many of the sounds a listener might believe they can identify have been transformed radically in the hands of Antennas Up.
The songs on the album address a broad range of subjects, from the down-to-earth issues of relationships (“Don’t Wait Up”), to otherworldly accounts of time travel and spaceship romance (“5P4C35H1P”). Taking wildly disparate subjects and elaborate recording techniques and weaving a unified album is where the band’s talent shines – their allegiance to all that is dance-friendly provides the glue.
During their early years, Antennas Up wrote, recorded and began to play live more and more, moving through several singers (vocalist Lonnie Coleman sang on the album) before passing the mic to Akers. He proved more than up to the task, bringing a bright quality that is versatile and powerful, reminiscent of David Byrne and British blue-eyed soul practitioner Jamie Lidell.
Album completed, the trio set out to ramp up their live show and give it their usual unique spin. Unlike most indie bands, Antennas Up tour with an entire multimedia production that includes an interactive light and music show. Their tech-centered show started with a slight obsession with guitar effects pedals and morphed into a mini-mountain of effects and lights connected by over 1000 feet of cable. The band controls audio backing tracks, lights and video through one central box. Not only do they manipulate light and images during their shows, they have audio tricks in their sleeves as well, transforming Akers’ bass into a synth/guitar using pedals. With the ability to switch to a bass line in the computer, he can free himself to play harmonic leads with a wild guitar tone, pushing his instrument beyond its intended purpose. Akers explains, “Of course the live show’s cornerstone is the music. But to us, the show is about more than just what songs we perform. We want to set our show apart from what you would typically expect to see going to a club on a random Friday night. When people walk in and see a band with full stage production, it makes an impact. And what’s great is, we bring our entire setup with us, and are able to duplicate it in every room across the country.”
Antennas Up carved out their own musical realm, a domain in which the chillier aspects of technology are offset by the warmth and good humor emanating from this trio of musicians.
Antennas Up on Myspace: