Since 2005, Ross Farrar has been the lead singer of Ceremony, the Bay Area punks who have progressed from feral hardcore to stately, stylish postpunk over the course of their existence. Last year, Ceremony released their album In The Spirit Now, and the lead single “Turn Away The Bad Thing” continues to rip extremely hard. But now Farrar has a new project that he’s only just unveiled: A band called Spice.
Spice also features Ceremony drummer Jake Casarotti, as well as members of bands like Sabertooth Zombie and Creative Adult. This summer, they’ll release their self-titled debut album, which they recorded with Basement/Self Defense Family producer Sam Pura.
Thus far, Spice have only shared one song, but it’s along the lines of the kind of things that Pura’s past collaborators have done. “First Feeling” is a grand, anthemic song that draws on the aesthetics of DIY hardcore while reaching for something bigger and slower. It sounds a bit like what might’ve happened if the Rites Of Spring had covered Echo & The Bunnymen. Check it out below.
In a press release, Spice say:
In the beginning, we were very conscious of what the shape of the record was going to be: short (thirty minutes or less), variation (a mix of short and longer songs), emotional, but not gushing, powerful, but not overt. We wanted there to be a single thread that connected everything, continuity, a sense that the record was one complete organism
To authentically express pain can be difficult. It comes towards us every day in some shape or another, and parsing out which side to expel can prove arduous. With that, choosing what to hold that pain in, how to package it can also be hard. Then besets the question of form. In the adverse, too much sentimentality can soften form, yet too much pain — well — a good balance is due. At the onset of any artistic endeavor there is a (conscious or unconscious) search for form. Form is the vehicle’s engine, it lies beneath everything, a scaffold for content, where content stays.
Spice is out 7/17 on Dais Records.
