Unsigned Band Spotlight: Casino Zone

The text accompanying the track ‘Loralie’ that was sent in to explain this bunch of Northwest guitar abusers was ‘Motown Grunge with that Alien Ant Farm vibe’.

Eh?

Over on the band’s Myspace, however, there’s just one word in the genre descriptor - ‘pop’.

Neither of these seem to really properly give any indication to what they actually sound like.. and after listening to the preview track, I’m even more perplexed. They don’t sound anything like either of the descriptions!

Despite this, the most endearing thing about Casino Zone is that they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously. Their rocky-documentary style of storytelling could easily unravel if a hint of pretence was detected, but they manage to get away with it by being almost ironic in their grandeur - spiky, over-the-top guitar parts; wandering bass lines and serious speaky bits and all.

I’m struggling to find a comparator for that sort of thing - the only one which comes to mind (and it’s not immediately), is Rapider than Horsepower’s exaggerated, unhinged approach to vocals. Whilst not as off the wall as this, there’s a whiff of the same sort of thing here.

As a track, ‘Loralie’ has enough variation in it’s 3-and-a-half minutes to keep you interested, with ever changing riffs and melodies. It would be interesting to see if all the songs in their repertoire kept up the same pace.

Check their Myspace here.