Slapped & Kissed by UK Magazine +”Firefight” to Appear in New Video Game

The Adarna
'Road to Resonance'
Jet City Rock (apparently)
Independent Release

See that genre? That's what Seattle's The Adarna want. Doesn't sound like that though. Sounds like a bag of indie, some usual rock and a bit of inspiration. Nice beat on "Drugstore Cowgirl" an tough, grooved riffing, which is almost lost in a dropped out verse but is brought back by a cymbal hissing chorus. "Firefight" has potential to be boring, until they decide to go all Cult seen through a modern "whoa" shout-along.

Don't forget that indie thing though; "Lithium Kiss" seems to be a bit Fraz Ferdinand but then loses it's nerve and goes the 80s icy goth lite thing. "Gift of the Gab" mixes the two well with a tight little backbone and spectral guitars, nondescript chorus though. "These Monsters" does this a lot, hear it and shrug. Then they come up with some dirty bass and a breezy stride to the next song, "Shapeshifter" is nothing special but chart fights dirty blues rock and that's always a good knockabout; the mix gorgeous meaty yet pin sharp, and when they go for it, moments of exhilaration are formed.

Adarna don't know what they want to be, but this dichotomy will stand them in good stead; this Jet City Rock is making stop-offs at lots of places; if it doesn't know where it's going, getting there will please enough people. They're going to be huge. In spite of seemingly railing against materialist and fame, this music is designed for it. Road to Resonance? Road to Relevance more like.

-Steve Swift, Power Play Magazine

Well first first of all you're getting a jump on an early review that hasn't come out just yet, but we are pumped to see this all the same.   Despite the new feeling of being kissed & slapped after reading our review in Powerplay Magazine.   🙂 I think there's some fun, good, and honest opinions on our music, but I thought  I might speak on a couple of the points mentioned in this article because I wear the tightest pants in this family boyo.

• Jet City Rock (apparently) "See that genre? That's what Seattle's The Adarna want. Doesn't sound like that though."
  • It's not hard to find us online and we've talked at lengths about why we call our genre Jet City Rock.   Rock is expressed in many forms, this is one of the main reasons that bands hate putting labels on themselves.  With that being said, we did put a label on ourselves.  Jet City Rock.  We are from Seattle, the south-side near Boeing Field and appropriately name "Jet City".  What does that sound like?  It doesn't sound like anything.  If we called our genre "Cap Hill Rock" or "Emerald City Rock" that wouldn't have a sound either.  It's a location.  Heck, rappers do it by calling out area codes in songs or styles.  All of us come from far corners of the US, but Seattle is where we met.    So our reviewer has a point of saying we didn't say "Grunge" or "Hard Rock" as our genre.  Rather we chose to focus on a location for you to decide what you hear as an audience.

• "Adarna don't know what they want to be, but this dichotomy will stand them in good stead; this Jet City Rock is making stop-offs at lots of places; if it doesn't know where it's going, getting there will please enough people. They're going to be huge."
  • First of all, thanks for saying we're going to be huge.  That's awfully nice of you!  Second, this is our first LP.  It's not meant to be a get-to-the-point album as that's what our previous EP's were for.  It's meant for people to see various colors of The Adarna.   I think we can all appreciate a straightforward genre album just like the rest but....this is art and part of what makes Jet City Rock work is that it's a smorgasbord of styles.  It worked for the Beatles, Queen, and even 21 Pilots.  We can promise our listeners this, our goal will always be to write something new and not a copy of another track we did.   So buckle in, there's a huge array of rock sub-genres you'll be hearing for years.

• "In spite of seemingly railing against materialism and fame this music is designed for it."
  • I'm guessing he's referencing "Do What the $$ Says " (DWT$S) and "#Famous".     I'm not a huge fan of spelling out what a song is specifically about, however, I'll say that "DWT$S" is taken from a story about a ninja stripper assassin...which is just a fun story.   #Famous was really just talking about how online fame and status can cause a divide.  For some people it brings us closer with someone we admire, for others it gives them some kind of grandiose delusion all based on a number of followers.   I freely admit, the songs are "designed" for listeners.   They're not written for ourselves and majority of the time we are simply story-tellers that empathize with the devils and angels that circle our lives.

In summary, this is a person's first take on the album without doing research on us as individuals or as a band.   So it's great to hear how we come across without seeing the full package of the band.

What did you guys think of the album?