No Filler Music Podcast - Sidetrack: Balkans and the Post Punk Revival Revival

Episode Date: May 26, 2019

Following our Strokes episode last week, we take a look at Balkans, a short-lived act from Atlanta that garnered obscure success with their self-titled debut in 2011. With the rock landscape already having moved past the post-punk revival of the early 2000s, Balkans proved that there was still some juice left in the lo-fi garage sound of their predecessors while still bringing something fresh to the table with an album that changes tempo nearly as often as it changes tracks. Singer-guitar player Frankie Broyles' off-key and monotone vocals pays perfect homage to Casablancas atop often relentless percussion and angular punk guitar riffs. An excellent album for those longing for a fresh take on the post-punk 2000s, Balkans proved that the next generation of rockers were paying attention and gave hope that perhaps the movement wasn't completely troubled and done. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866533 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. And welcome to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked and hidden gyms to fill the space between the singles on our favorite records.

My name is Travis. I got my brother Quentin with me in a different time zone, as we agreed to say going forward. There was no agreement, dude. I think it sounds dumb. Yeah, you're right. You know what, dude? You're with me in spirit, though. Okay?

All right. My spirit is with you. Yes. If you want to. In the form of your voice being transmitted to me over several thousand miles. If you believe in that kind of stuff. I don't. All right.

So today we are talking about this little group, this short-lived group called Balkans. I mean, really, dude, I don't know much about them. I wish we still had our music blog. So if this is your first time listening, sometimes we'll reference something called New Dest and that was a indie music blog that myself and Quentin

and one of our buddies Josh we ran for three or four years back in the starting in 2009 and it ran for like I said like two or three years but anyway I think you ran for a little bit longer than that maybe five years but anyway Balkans came on our radar

or Balkans came on our radar I think either through an email or did we stumble upon them? Like how did we even find out about these guys? It was an email, dude. I got the email from, I think, you know, a promoter, which, so the intro song that we played just now is a song that there is called Adita V. And it was a single with, I think, Zebra.

You know, we talked about how influential the strokes were for us at the age that we were in 2001 when Is This It came out. I feel like Balkins is almost like a graduating class, you know, in the like post garage rock revival, you know? This is like, this is a band that was influenced by that sound because you, you kind of pick up on bands like the Walkman. Yeah, they certainly carry the torch for that, for that revival that happened in the early 2000s. Yeah. So these guys were kids, man, when they formed. And apparently they've known each other since childhood.

Quite a few of them. They met through grade school and high school. They were early 20s or teenagers when they formed Balkans. And they made a huge ripple for, you know, a good three years or so in their hometown Atlanta. But I don't know if they got too much success outside. of their hometown. But they made it to our ears, dude. And I'm hoping that a lot of people are going to be hearing this stuff for the first time, you know?

This is just one of those bands that were super short-lived. I mean, that's one of those things where it's like they don't exist anymore. Can you even get the record anymore? Can you buy it anywhere? Like, do they have a band? Do they have a band camp or something? Maybe. Anyway.

Yeah. I mean, dude, you know, go to discogs.com. I'm sure you could find a copy of one of their records. But, dude, that reminds me. Do you remember the man, the undoing of David, right? Yes, I do. So I was so desperate to hear music from them again that I went on Amazon and purchased a used CD of their first fooling we dig with fingers crossed. Wow, dude.

That's a super, you know, side note. And I was just thinking that we should probably cover that album this coming October because it's like perfect. for... Dude, that would be really interesting. Yeah, dude. So that's happening. So the Balkans, they have a SoundCloud profile, and their single, or at least I think it was a single,

Troubled and Done, has 5,233 plays to date, and it was posted eight years ago. Yeah. Actually, I'm sorry. I misspoke. That's how many favorites it has. They have 286,000 plays to date. So there you go.

this song definitely I mean it got it made it made the rounds you know I think they you know to me the pictures I saw from them like they just seemed like they were kind of this college band you know that would play like small house shows and stuff and maybe small videos and yeah yeah from the way that

from what I've read about the guys that's that's what got them the audience you know and like the support in Atlanta was their super awesome live performances yeah And I feel like they're another one of those bands like the strokes that were super practiced and technical with their time signatures and stuff like that. And that's what made, you know, like and their melodies are very unique. This album, dude, they're self-titled is a really fun listen all the way through.

Let's just get into it, man. Let's play some tunes. Yeah, let's do it. So we chose this band, Balkans. because we're always nostalgic for anything new to us, you know, because we have a special place in our heart for that blog. I wish that we could have kept doing it. But this is one of those...

For me, Balkans was like the first truly, like, unheard of band that reached out to us that we shared on our blog. Dude, this really was the early days of the blog. This is maybe like post number four or five. for the block, you know. Balkans were like the, in the early days. Yeah, definitely. But, but in that same like vein of like, when I look back at the music we covered,

like Balkans stands out. Yeah. I always remember Balkans music. So, yeah, let's play some tunes. All right. So we're going to just go to the next track. This one's called I Can't Compete. What a great riff.

The drummer is killer, you know. Yeah. that's what I was going to say. For me, for me, a lot of what I enjoy about Balkans is the beats and the bass line, dude. Holy shit. So this goes in line with what, you know, what I love about the strokes and what we talked about last week. You know, these are, every single one of these band members are bringing their own, you know, flare to their instrument.

The drummer is super solid and, you know, it's super simple drum beats, but very, very, memorable. Same with the bass guitarist. So I know that the lead singer is Frankie Broils. He played guitar in Deer Hunter for a little bit. Wow, okay. That's a big time, dude. Well, so I also found out that they opened for Atlas Sound, which is... Well, yeah, it also says they've shared the

stage with Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Oh, yeah, dude. So yeah, you know what? They got around, man. They made a splash. That's what's disappointing. It's like, you know, They seemed like what could have happened. You know what I mean? Like it's just one of those things. Now it says here years active 2008 to 2012 and then 2017.

So did they just kind of go back and do another tour? Yeah, they did a reunion show. It's at the bottom of their wicket page. I don't think they're still around. Gotcha. Okay. So what became of these guys? Did they start other side projects?

Well, brother, let me just say that you're jumping the gun, okay? I had some goods lined up. Okay. Let's play the next one. Let's play the next song and then we'll save that for later. Yeah. So we're just jumping to track three. And this one is just shy of, well, it's not just shy of it.

It's just over two minutes long, so we're going to play the whole song. This one is called Zebra Print. So here's the, that's the song where I hear some like, Walkman the Walkman influence, especially you know that song like the rat by the Walkman? Oh yeah, dude, of course. Right?

Yeah, totally. The intensity of that song. Yeah. So anyway, you know, I'm going to say this right now, dude, the strokes never jam out that hard. Never. No. Never.

And that's, yeah. So anyway. But so let's, I did, I want to talk about this because I don't think we, we told vendor enough last week. But like, The guitar strumming patterns that the strokes gave us, I need to dive deeper into bands that came before the strokes that had that sound.

And I'm talking about the sound just like we heard now. You know, and the blockins are doing it. Other bands have done it since the strokes. But, you know, it's just that it's a simple guitar strong. I mean, you know, it comes out of punk rock, you know. It comes from like, you know, those alt rock bands, like, talking heads and stuff back in the day. Oh, yeah.

It kind of comes from that. But I'm just saying, like, when you listen to Talking Head 77, like their first record, which we did an episode on, you know, it's similar kind of guitar. Like you said, more simple strumming patterns and stuff like that. Nothing too complex. But what I like about the Balkans record is, you know, we talked about with the strokes how Julian was super kind of, Perfectionist.

Perfectionist and, you know, everything about that first strokes record was super tight because they rehearsed the shit out of it. They were extremely well rehearsed, yeah. Yeah, and so it was super tight, and it sounded that way. What I like about this record is it sounds more like underground, like, you know, rough around the edges and stuff.

This is what I like about it. But, yeah. This is one of those bands where it just, puts me in it like takes me to a house party in college you know yeah exactly that that energy you know and just that you know it's got like I said but you know it's got a little bit of punk rock to it yeah

so there are a ton of great songs on this album that's the only two that we've got lined up for you but uh Frankie broils released a solo record just a couple years ago bro, bro. Did he? And yeah, and it's fucking great. You know who it reminds me of?

I'm going to tell you. Long wave. It's in the long wave vein. So it does, so it's a little more melancholy. A little bit. A little bit. And like, because he's doing it himself, I imagine that he's providing all the beats because it's all electronic drum beats.

But it's a little, yeah, it's got a little more of a sad, somber tone. Kind of like, that's what I loved about. Longwave. So here is what Frankie Broils is up to. Okay. So this is a song off of Frankie Broil's

solo album called Slow Return that came out a couple years ago. So this song is called L. Bright. Man, I absolutely love it, dude. I love it. Isn't it beautiful? Now, man, hey, I don't know if we, I know you mentioned Deer Hunter

when we were talking about kind of what they've done and whatnot, but he was actually, a guitar player on monomedia. Yeah, I mentioned that he played guitars for Deer Hunter, dude. Well, did you say that he was on an actual record, though? No. I did.

So that's, dude, that's fucking, deer hunter is a, is a pretty well-known name in indie rock circles, you know? And, you know, the funny thing is like, that's another band that I feel like we kind of forget about as far as, like, Deer Hunter is still carrying on, like, you know, you. that sound like deer hunter falls in the vein of i think the post-punk revival uh stuff and and and they started making records what like well i guess they started one never mind i take all that back because they started with it so they were there at the beginning just like the rest of it yeah but they're still going strong man so deer hunter yeah exactly yeah and he does he does atlas sound um they described themselves as ambient punk so yeah right on the

knows, dude. But they sound, they have that sound, you know, and they're still making music that I enjoy listening to, Deer Hunter. And they formed in Atlanta. So it's no surprise that, there you go, that Balkans found a spot, you know, to open for them. Or Frankie did, yeah. Yeah, well, no, but, but, uh, oh, they, for Atlas for, yeah, Balkans opened for Atlas sound. I got you. Well, which is another, Bradford Cox. That's what I'm saying. He, he, he found his way on, onto the into the studio with him, because like I said, he, he, he plays guitar. on monomania. But yeah, it's good stuff. So the rest of that album is is pretty dark. Like I said, not dark, but it's got, you know, it's a darker vibe, which is what made me think of Longwave.

Well, I was going to say I definitely can hear what you're seeing. And I think, wake me when it's over has a same kind of like almost like a melancholy kind of like a wistful kind of logging for something, you know. It's absolutely my favorite song of Longwave. I love this song so much, man. Hands fucking down, yeah. So let's wrap it up, dude. It's getting long. Yeah. All right. It's getting long.

And we were trying to figure out how to play some Longwave. When are we going to cover them? Right now, dude. Yeah. And maybe we can jump back and do this whole album again. So, you know what? We were talking about another band that was kind of in that same era. of that garage rock revival of the early 2000s.

This is their first album that came out in 2003. It's an album called The Strangest Things. Next week we're going to get back to you. Another full-length episode. We're going to cover television and their album from, I think it was 1977. Yeah. Their album called Markey Moon, which came out in 77. So, yeah, until then, as always, hop on our website, no-filler podcast.com.

There you can read the show notes and all the other stuff. Man, I'm so tired of fucking saying the same thing over and over about our freaking website. Hey, man. But all I got to say is check it out. Yeah. It's a labor of love that Travis has poured his heart and stolen to. I don't know about that. Well, they don't have to know that, dude.

I'm a fan of it. I'm glad that it exists. I think people should check it out because there's a lot more information that we put up there for every band that we cover. So anyways, we're going to fade us out

with a song by Longwave. This is a song from 2003s The Strangest Things. It is called Wake Me when it's over. And we will shout at you all next week. Thank you so much for listening as always. My name is Quentin. My name is Travis.