The Ekphrastics are a new band fronted by Frank Boscoe of The Gazetteers, Vehicle Flips, Wimp Factor 14. Mark Wolfe, Paul Coleman and John Lancia are the other members in the band who last week released their debut album Special Delivery. It’s one of those records that are an instant delight. The Ekphrastics write unassuming timeless indie pop tunes that are scrappy, lo-fi, and above all super catchy. The music will put a smile on the face of fans of underground pop, and the lyrics will further raise the corners of their mouths. “My neighbor works late, late at night // From my window I can see his basement light // His time zone is GMT+9 // That’s where all the best cryptocurrency is mined,” Boscoe sings in Making Fun Of Bitcoin. The song is a perfect combination of schadenfreude and FOMO.
Special Delivery is full of wry and sharp observations on every topics like landscape painting, ski accidents, track and field. One of the highlights on the record is a sequence that starts with the title track. In the song, The Ekphrastics write about a delivery man who, to his annoyance, has to make a special delivery to a woman named Becky Jane Joplin each day. “your driveway is long and your driveway is steep.” Then, in the subsequent song The Ballad Of Becky Jane Joplin, The Ekphrastics switch to the perspective of Becky Jane Joplin. We discover that she is actually fed up with her letter sending boyfriend and has fallen hard for her delivery man. The Ekphrastics, they are my kinda band!
Special Delivery is out now on CD at Harriet Records.
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