Indie rock doesn’t get any more diverse than these guys. Based in Isla Vista, California, these alternative/reggae rockers give you a taste of everything on their latest album, Automatic. Iration made up of five members: Joseph Dickens (drums), Joseph King (engineer), Cayson Peterson (keyboard/synth), Micah Pueschel (guitar/vocals), and Adam Taylor (bass). These busy bees have already released two full-length albums, No Time to Rest (2007) and Time Bomb (2010) as well as three EPs. They also have several tour dates coming up stemming from July 13 all the way to September 21. You can go to the band’s website and RSVP for tickets when they swing by your hometown. Save your money, kiddies!
This third album, released on July 2, delivers a smorgasbord of song variety. That is not to say that the track listing is a sloppy combination put together blindly trying to hit a mark. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The band’s diverse musical ability is what makes this band so great. I got a sweet taste of that laid-back West Coast flavor as the track listing delivered me over here with the title track and “Mr. Operator” (which had the smooth vibe of the slow-dance reggae dancehall that had me swaying my hips; something quite unexpected out of a band), and took me over there with the funky “Milk and Honey” (featuring Lincoln Parish) and back down to earth with the painfully relevant lyrics of “Burn” and “Splintered Heart.” While it is good to be skillful in one style of music, it is an even greater feat when an artist or a band chooses to explore and create music outside of the norm; to be artful in more than one genre illustrates an open creativity that is free to take whatever direction it chooses and does not worry about pleasing one archetype of listener. Iration has demonstrated that they have the right stuff to make this happen and if you are a connoisseur of great music in all forms like me, you’ll be nodding and bobbing your head to the sweet jams off this album too.
Music and merch packages are available on their site: http://pr.irationmusic.com/automatic/
Iration on the web:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iration
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iration
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/irationlive
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/iration
— Simone Brown
