Chicago’s Vaudevileins occupy a choice spot for emerging guitar rock bands. They are accessible enough to appeal to fans of arena-filling alt-rock acts like Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age but, dig deeper, and you will hear the influence of indie rock trailblazers Bob Mould, Split Single, Superchunk, and Slint.
Vaudevileins latest album Lights Out follows a series of LPs, EPs, singles and live recordings and was released to coincide with the recent solar eclipse.
Album opener “Killing Feelings” has received some regional airplay and nods to 90’s rock and power pop. The track opens with a pop-punk bass line and the sharpened guitar riffs are pure ‘Nirvana’. Singer Jeff Julian has a great set of pipes and knows how to draw the listener in with a killer vocal hook.
“Eyes Open” also benefits from his passionate vocals and the track opens with some progressive guitar work courtesy of Alex Jaskula. The production has a bit of an 80’s stadium rock sheen but the song would not be out of place on a record by 90’s indie bands Verbow or Sugar.
The next couple tracks, “Erase the Truth” and “Cut From You,” are darker but still melodic, the former recalling Soundgarden and the latter drifting toward the heavy space occupied by The Mars Volta and Coheed and Cambria.
Lights Out‘s title cut finds the band firing on all cylinders, Julian’s stadium-ready vocals riding waves of spaced-out guitar anchored by the top-notch rhythm section of Bill Aldridge on bass and Brennen Chouinard on drums.
The album’s lone instrumental track, “Loophole,” finds Vaudevileins nodding to the “big guitars” of hometown heroes Naked Raygun, Pegboy, and Tar, while “Wide Awake” is a showcase for Julian’s poetic lyrics: Preparing to leave you all behind/And watch you go below the glass; Staring beyond the obvious/We talk through voices that know us.
Album closer “Wasted Talent” ties things up nicely. All of Vaudevileins’ influences come together in just over four minutes of blistering rock; fragments of Grunge bounce against power pop hooks and the lights go out for good.
More at https://vaudevileins.com/
