What Does It Get You? Review

by Griff Stevens

AllofaSudden is an indie-rock band that blends the sounds of classic rock, funk and jam-band to create their own unique sound. The band is comprised of: Tyler Shusterman – guitars and vocals, Jonathon Cole – guitars and vocals, Chris Allmond/Dave Goebel – drums, Matt Rowe/Ville Villeponnen – bass and Kirby Hammel – keyboards, piano. The San Francisco based band has released their fourth album, What Does It Get You? and the new album finds AllofaSudden expanding their rock foundation to incorporate influences from soul, new wave, EDM, and grunge into its guitar-forward groove. The album has seven tracks that are bursting with memorable melodies and lyrics all lathered in tasteful, but assertive guitar playing.

“Left Behind” is a perfect example of the aforementioned influences. The feel has a soulful grunge vibe that has an EDM effect on the vocals. The melody is strong, and the band fills the space with EDM colorizations and guitar riffs over a driving bass and drum beat. The harmony offers nice twist and turns with a spoken interlude and a bridge that has a sparked lift which builds to the recap. The layers are subtle, with a building emphasis. The guitar rings with fiery playing that has elements of southern rock with an emphasis of melodic and energetic styling.

The title track is set to a driving rock feel with overtones of punk and psychedelia. The verse highlights an evocative layering of vocal harmonies. The guitar playing is varied in both sounds and textures and offers a pervading melodicism. While it is hard to pin AllofaSudden into one specific genre, the band has a keen sense of rock infused melodies and tasteful guitar work that makes each song have a sound and a purpose.

What Does it Get You? showcases a band that is evolving its sound and one that has the open mindedness of blending genres to do it.  Together they have created a lasting offering to their discography and the beginning of expanding their base to a cross pollination of varied genres.  Strong playing and great writing ideas simply distill down to a great listen and isn’t that what most fans are really looking for. Their favorite band, playing tunes they want to hear.

Tracks to sample first: “Left Behind,” “What Does It Get You?”  and “Serious People.” The song to take a chance on is “Till We Meet Again.”

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