White Reaper (Kentucky; Tony Esposito guitar, Ryan Hater keyboard, Sam Wilkerson bass, Nick Wilkerson drums), signed to Polyvinyl since 2014, is dropping a new album Asking for a Ride next year. Here’s the first single released, “Pages”:
My favorite White Reaper album is You Deserve Love (released three years ago now) — this album showcases White Reaper’s maturation as a rock band and puts it solidly on my bands to watch.
Fifth track “Hard Luck” — strong drums & vocals make this one of the most cathartic tracks on the album. Sounds like quintessential 80s-cusp-of-90s garage rock.
Sixth track “Raw” references the backing of The War On Drugs “I Don’t Wanna Wait” and a similar reverb styling. It uses the same chord progression on electric synth and guitar solos that sound comfortingly familiar but serve to stress White Reaper’s independent sound. “Raw” is “I Don’t Wanna Wait” meets midnight local emo punk band set.
You may have heard “Might be Right” before — it made Billboard Alternative in 2020 — I just had never realized that this was by this band:
“Eggplant” is a hazy throwback to chords of the ‘80s in an even folksy bluesy way, “Ring” is a twist back to ‘90s garage and the culminating titular track “You Deserve Love” is a powerful if not groundbreaking track styled classic punk.
White Reaper tour tickets for February & March 2023 are already on sale. By way of stage presence, see their KEXP live set compared to The War On Drugs: