Photo by John Fedowitz
Raw Feels is one band that sounds exactly like its name. Out of Fredericksburg, VA, songwriter Ben Woods’ low, pained shoegaze vibrates with enough ear-bleeding feedback to garner comparisons to My Bloody Valentine covering Joy Division circa Unknown Pleasures. Woods’ wail scrapes up and down rhythmically volatile shredding for “sonic devastation worth coming back to over and over again,” as the band describes their sound on tiny label Bad Friend Records’ website. Their single “Isolation” (no direct relation to Joy Division’s version) — the first off their forthcoming self-titled LP due January 10th - develops layers of distortion worth revisiting, if for nothing else than to decipher Woods’ fuzzed-out monotone.
Opening with distant, maddening static, “Isolation” breaks into a steadily chugging guitar riff behind Woods moaning, “Things are moving backward with you/They’ll never be the same/To come so close/Yet far too short.” The song itself echoes the sentiment by coming so close, but never quite building to, a resounding climax. Instead, it smolders with buried screeching guitars that express everything Woods holds back in his lyrics. Watch the song’s corresponding video below and download the WAV file via their Soundcloud.
Visit Raw Feels’ Bandcamp page to pre-order Raw Feels.
