Do It Panther Style
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 10, 2011 4:30PM
We admit we were recently surprised to discover recently Panther Style's just released ¡Emergencia! was actually their debut album! Panther Style is one of those bands that feels like it's existed in Chicago forever. This is partially due to the long local music lineage of the members' previous projects, including but not limited to Mary Tyler Morphine, Siderunners, Dyslexic Apaches and the Reptoids. But we think it's also because, like many Chicago groups, they've just quietly worked hard, played shows and tried to write good music. And ¡Emergencia! is proof that they've succeeded at all three of those goals.
Panther Style allowed their catalog plenty of time to develop and cook and acquire its own unique flavor, and the results were well worth the wait. Panther Style is first and foremost a live group, so the music on the album was recorded with all the band playing together. It lends the whole affair an immediacy; the band is tight as hell but there's a certain swagger to their attack. The music is refreshingly straightforward indie rock, filled with big fuzzy riffs and a thumping relentless back beat, all thundering along together, leaving a greasy smear in the pavement behind it.
This is the kind of rock that was played in basements before the Alternative Nation transformed much of the "underground" into a homogenous mixture of bland copycats. The quartet's potent blend of brawny pop is catchy enough for folks looking to shake their hips while being loud and aggressive enough to draw in the punks and the metalheads. Panther Style has mastered the simple equation most bands seem incapable of pulling off; write solid tunes, turn the amps way up and let loose.
Download the lead track off ¡Emergencia!, "Seeing... Just Not Believing," for the super low price of an email address, and if you like it then ink the band onto your calendar for their album release show at Beat Kitchen tomorrow night.
DOWNLOAD: Panther Style "Seeing... Just Not Believing"
Panther Style plays an album release show for ¡Emergencia! with The Bon Mots and Wells-Next-the-Sea tomorrow, June 10, at Beat Kitchen, 2100 W Belmont, 10 p.m., $8, 17+