Rochester’s The Loner(s), Drive Me Home Please, and label, Bangkok Blend combined efforts to release a split last Friday, aptly titled the loner(s)/ drive me home please. For new listeners, The Loner(s) is a more lo-fi, sometimes strictly instrumental version of All-Time Quarterback or Secret Stars, while Drive Me Home Please combines simple synth pop mixes with depressed, Jordan Dreyer-like (La Dispute), self-conscious spoken word poetry. The mixing of the two artists proves fruitful, displaying the bands’ likenesses and potentials for further opportunity in the music industry.
Stand out track from The Loner(s) is “How To,” a song driven by the lonely despair that accompanies all loners. A kind acoustic guitar riff supporting a two-note analog synth flourish provides a chill environment. Unfortunately, the singer’s low coo croons of unrequited, incommunicable love – “I like you, but I don’t know how to.”
“Drive Me Home Please” by Drive Me Home Please is another glimmering track, demonstrating a very noticeable increase in talent from Zach Hallenback. His voice is much less brash while his mix bears a new, bass-driven orchestral front. The song, as a whole, represents worrisome fears with Hallenback pleading, “I can’t be by myself. Can you please drive me home and hold my fucking hand?”
Hopefully, these boys get a better handle on life and its, at times, dismal roadblocks. You may grab the The Loner(s) / Drive Me Home Please split here.