Rong’s debut album, Wormhat, is a trip down a harsh wormhole of sound and chaos that all too eerily and all too closely resembles our own cacophonous reality. (Successive listens can make reality tear at the seams so that I am almost able to see the spaces between the pixels, but alas, the world is still ruthlessly intact.)
To me, this is precisely what is most appealing about this monstrous work of art that arises as the next benchmark of New England noise rock. Rong does not imitate, but acts in the lineage of Guerrilla Toss, Arab on Radar, and Lightning Bolt (I’m sure, dear reader, you can think of many more.) The other appeal to Rong is the political-social stance of their lead singer Olvia W-B, who actively promotes anti-ICE protests and organizations to help stop the deportation of our neighbors and community members.
Some bands dance around political issues but Rong’s message is in perfect line with their musical voice: defiant, unflinching, and unavoidable. Now they are unavoidable in the north-east scene and are oh-so-slowly spreading their tentacles down the eastern seaboard and beyond.
The band consists of George Hooper on guitar, Nick Weideman on guitar, David Silverstein on bass, Adric Giles on drums, and Olivia W-B on vocals. They formed in a halfway house somewhere in the south over a strong bond of Patrick Swayze and fruit cobblers. Or something like that, they actually just asked me to make their bio up.
Off the heels of their split with western mass freaks, Landowner, Wormhat comes as the first individual release of this band who is defining their voice as the loudest band in Boston, and possibly New England. Soon you won’t be able to miss them.
Album Art: http://pencapchew.org/
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Chris Hues is a human & writer from Boston, Ma & music editor of bostonhassle.com. //// They can be reached at [email protected] or @crsjh_ via instagram & twitter.
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