The Gold Sounds

These three guys came out of nowhere, both with respect to yours truly and actual geography — they’re right out of Deer Park, on the edge of the ever-scenic Houston Ship Channel, and the first I heard of ’em besides their name came in the form of a self-released CDEP and DVD they sent in, packaged with mugshot-like photos and a poster, besides. I was bowled over the minute I slapped the EP into the car’s CD player.

At their heart, they’re a garage-rock band, I think, but there’s a lot else going on on top of that. Chris Fuentes’s guitars roar and blaze, sounding nicely thick and meaty while throwing in cool little bits of melody, Dee Donnelly’s drums pound and push things along, and brother vocalist/bassist Sean Donnelly puts all those post-Strokes “garage” bands to shame. More than anything else, they remind me of the Kings of Leon, partly because of the way they seem to effortlessly jump between bare-shirted rawk and trippy neo-psychedelia and partly because of the country tinge that hangs around the whole thing.

Unfortunately, they’ve only got the one 5-song self-titled, self-released EP out right now, but it’s pretty great (esp. opener “Blow My Soul to the Floor” and the aptly-titled “College Radio,” which has its hooks deep, deep in my brain). They’ve been playing out quite a bit lately, though, so here’s hoping there’s more to come from these guys.

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