by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
It’s hard to believe it but it’s been four years since Rong blew our collective minds with their debut album, wormhat. The Massachusetts based quartet are one of the most exciting new bands we’ve heard in a long time, their energy is propulsive, their compositions delightfully deranged, and everything comes together with a fiery implosion. The band’s line-up has changed a bit over the years, with Adric Giles (drums), Olivia W-B (vocals), and George Hooper (guitar) now joined by none other than Max Goldstein (bass). The pedigree of musician in Rong is as exceptional as they come, the results equal parts brilliant and experimental, unhinged yet impossibly tight. Their sound is confounding, rooted somewhere between post-hardcore, noise rock, jazzy metal, mutant prog, and art punk, though any genre description feels off the mark. Rong can’t be pigeonholed, but for the uninitiated, try to imagine a more acidic Melt-Banana or Botch on helium, and you’re on the right path.
Just in time for their on-going tour with Sea Moss, Rong return with their first new recordings, a split EP together with fellow Massachusetts weirdos The Cost Ov Living, released a few weeks back on Mutual Aid Records. The songs are brutal and sludgy at times, piercing with distortion as they break into a sprint, the whole thing always threatening to collapse, but instead shifting directions mid collision. Rong explore the carnage and the aftermath, the cause and the effect, squawking and squeeling in a state of smoldering recklessness. “Coincidence” is a great example of what makes Rong so special, led by W-B’s hyper acrobatic vocal performance and poetic lyrics, seemingly exploring the idea of place and escape from our society ravaged by greed. While their yelps bend, shake, and spark, Rong are convulsing from one movement to the next in rapid form, Hooper’s guitar absolutely swarming between tangled rhythms. They wrap themselves in knots, forming the jaw-dropping essence of their signature “heavy weirdness”. The video, directed by the band’s own Adric Giles (an equally wonderful visual artist), manages to overload your senses on equal footing as the music, which is no small feet. Part performance video, part kaleidoscopic slideshow, part photo dump, it’s a joy to watch as you experience your senses frying.
Check out the tour dates below.
Tour Dates with Sea Moss:
7/06 - Queens, NY @ Trans-Pecos
7/07 - New Brunswick, NJ @ The Grander Canyon
7/08 - Sinking Spring, PA @ Gnome Hutch
7/09 - Washington, DC @ Rhizome
7/10 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
7/12 - Richmond, VA @ OSB
7/13 - Knoxville, TN @ Pilot Light
7/14 - Nashville, TN @ Betty’s
7/15 - Cincinnati, OH @ DSGN CLLCTV
7/16 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
7/18 - Columbus, OH @ Cafe Bourbon St
7/19 - Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
7/20 - Brighton, MA @ Pasta Planet