Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Eldridge Rodriguez has been a mainstay of the local scene for a long while. Consisting of Cameron Keiber (guitar, keys, vocals), David Grabowski (bass, keys), Clayton Keiber (guitar) and Dennis Grabowski (drums, percussion), the band have released eight albums, most recently Slightest of Treason at the beginning of 2020. A product of the social conditions from which it emerged, the album captured an America embracing its reactionary roots, as well as the ongoing retaliation from those opposed to the trend. A record that was fittingly “moody and stark and prone to escalation,” we wrote in our review, “be it in noise, in rhythm, in desperation or feeling,” something which lies at the heart of the Eldridge Rodriguez sound:
There is energy to be found in the unlikeliest of places. In anger and fear and sadness and doubt. Slightest of Treason does not so much harness this energy as unleash it, letting the deluge follow whatever tributaries it finds, trusting in the intuitive connect that comes from such an authentic outpouring.
The record was meant to be supported by a tour, starting with a release party at Boston’s Great Scott, but the pandemic arrived and shuttered these plans along with so many others. Set back by the resulting stasis faced by the most sectors of the arts, and made to watch as the country’s inequalities were brought into sharper relief, Eldridge Rodriguez instead chose to return to the studio and begin work on a follow-up. Their pressing energy once more pushing through whatever stood in its way.
Released by Midriff Records, ‘Megalodon’ is the first single to emerge from that period, along with b-side ‘Alice Drills’. There’s a certain accessibility to the single perhaps not seen on the previous record, the Eldridge Rodriguez bite still present but applied to poppier ends. A sound that’s a little brighter, possessing a carefree bounce however wry and cutting the lyrics. As though the band have stumbled across a certain slacker rock acceptance amid the trauma of the moment. As the refrain at the end opines, “the best you can do is move on.”
Photo by Patrick Ruth. Cover painting by Cameron Keiber, design by Cameron Keiber, Clayton Keiber and David Grabowski