For well over the past ten years, people have been suggesting that Rock n Roll is dead. However, each time a new band comes out with a rock inclination (i.e. The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, etc.) the world proclaims them to be the band that brings the genre back from the dead. Public Access T.V. may be the latest band to revive a certain spirit that is lost in music of our generation. John Eatherly, with the aide of Xan Aird, Max Peebles and Pete Star are a quartet that has enough vision to inspire a new wave of post punk resurgence. Since their start, NME has proclaimed them “New York’s Hottest New Band,” and with their nostalgic style, appropriately paired with ‘70s CBGBs punk rock attitudes, leather coats, jean jackets, and torn shirts, it’s not hard to see why.
Last year while on tour, the band kept going with renewed energy even after they had found out their apartment in New York City was completely destroyed by a gas explosion. The group of four took an unlucky situation and turned it in their favor, booking as many shows as they could and eventually staying in London with Cinematic Music Group to record their debut LP, Never Enough. The unpredictability of life didn’t stop them or crush their spirits and it resonates strongly within the music. They went on to release their double A-side “In Love and Alone” / “Patti Peru” last fall, and from there continued to release tracks, create music videos, and perform with the likes of Palma Violets, The Strokes and Hinds. The LP is full of enthusiasm and high energy, and their sound is a combination of seventies rock with an eighties pop beat. It’s heavy on guitar, with brass and a slightly vintage voice.
“Evil disco” could easily be found in an eighties romantic movie, perhaps one by John Hughes. The melody has a saccharine tone with light keys and soothing guitar strums with a banging chorus. It’s such a direct combination of eighties pop aesthetic and fifties riffs, that it’s shocking how well they pair together. The track “Summertime” is a bright beam of light, fitting it’s name perfectly. The drums and keys sound like steady clapping giving it a positive vibe with beachy guitar, a lethargic drawn out voice and bubbly background vocals.
There is something so fitting in the way that “I Don’t Wanna Live In California” speaks to the wave of unsatisfied New Yorkers who can’t deny that there’s nothing quite like living in the city that never sleeps. Despite their anti-California stance, the band’s sound fits the ‘seventies rock craze that’s currently finding itself in the midst of a large movement on the West Coast with labels such as Burger and Lollipop Records. Public Access T.V. makes monumental music reminiscent of the grandiose of Foxygen.
Never Enough is the kind of full-length debut album that people crave—the one that brings together all the optimism and excitement of creating something new. It’s an album where each vibrant track could shine as its own single, which is wildly impressive if you consider what the band went through to get here.
Written by Misha Sesar
