On The List :: GROUPLOVE @ The Troubadour [7.27.10]

GROUPLOVE have a story that would put most bands to shame, an updated, rock-music Kerouac. Lead-singers Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi met in New York, took to Greece after only a few days, met the rest of the band (I'm paraphrasing here), began making music, ultimately tattooing the word, "GROUP" on their forearms before deciding to all throw away their private pursuits and move to Los Angeles to become a band. This means a lot to these five people. Zucconi stares at Hooper before their last song of the night at Los Angeles' famed Troubadour and kisses her flush on the mouth. It is a moment of raw, unfiltered emotion, something between the joy and lust of youth and people who have nothing to lose because they've given it all away.

Of course, if GROUPLOVE were just a dramatic story, a chance meeting of fresh-faced, agreeable people, it would end in that moment. As it happens, this story of mortgaged futures and unbridled hope comes with a stunning first single, an excellent EP and a next 12-months as bright as any band in the United States. On this night in LA, the band is tight and loud, with Zucconi's vocals alternating between the soaring yips from the Issac Brock catalogue and a richness and purity all his own. Over a seven song set the band will play 80-percent of their self-titled EP, plus a stunning version of new cut, "Close Your Eyes And Count To Ten" and a few others we presume will show up on a full-length in 2011. Zucconi works himself into a frenzy, pushing the limits of what this writer has ever seen anyone do while holding an acoustic guitar. All of this leads, nearly inexorably, to the band's best song and set closer, "Colours."

Predictably, "Colours" is a broadly cast, meta-analysis shot through the rosy hues of youth. Unpredictably, it might be the best unsigned song of 2010. As a visual intro, Zucconi kissing Hooper is one of those shocking moments that feels desperately appropriate after the fact. "Colours" proves stunning, complete with the band screaming, "We call it ... life!" in one of those this-is-everything moments that feel like you're being pushed back in your seat by the acceleration of an airplane. And that's what this is, the moment before take off for a band on the verge of something seriously big, having cut themselves loose all just to get up in the air.

Listen :: GROUPLOVE - "Colours"

[Elevator] GROUP :: "Colours"

From the outset GROUP's lead singer, Christian Zucconi, is insistant that he is just like you. This is the final couplet of an opening lyric that describes himself as "a man, man, man/up, up, up in the air." Zucconi is slicing a little bit of magic realism as he tells a story where he gets to fly with the planets and still ask for understanding.

Tweaking like a late Modest Mouse record, or at times like a more acoustic, folksy Silversun Pickups, GROUP deliver a propulsive, stomping, instantly catchy anthem with "Colours." The song has two distinct movements, with an E-string bridge in the middle, the second-half relying on the lyric, "We call it ... life." Zucconi, over-layed with a delicate female vocal, wails into the sky before reinsisting, "yeah, we call it ... LIFE!" It's one of those, "this is everything" moments where you, quite reasonably, feel like your heart might pop. GROUP pleads they're just like us but they suggest something different - a place in the sky where elevation is just part of the process. It really ain't that bad. We call it life.

Listen :: GROUP - "Colours" [mediafire]