The Slowdown Set To Release 16 track Debut Album 12/11
The Slowdown, a 6-piece band of brothers and friends from Kansas City, just put the finishing touches on their first full-length album. The debut is a riff-based, roots-inflected, electronic-infused, and deftly experimental take on full-bodied rock – equal parts Jerry Cantrell, Jason Faulkner, Jeff Tweedy, and Jim James, and laced with bits of Self, early Aerosmith, and M83. They’ve released a music video for the album’s first single – the colorful, intense, brooding, and mysterious “A Mirror, A Torch” – and followed it up by premiering the standout track “To Wonder” on AltPress.com, gaining subsequent attention from The Vinyl District, Pure Grain Audio, The Deli Magazine, LMP Magazine, In Forty Magazine, and Faronheit, as well as a hometown nod from the Kansas City Star. The band has also honed a tight live show, with notable performances at SXSW in the Midcoast Takeover showcase and at Middle Of The Map Fest.
Frontman Sam Hoskins and keyboard player Joe Hoskins got their start as members of the regionally-renowned rock/pop band Elevator Division (Second Nature Records), which The Pitch anointed “one of the region’s best acts of the past decade.” Josh Johnson (guitar) & Jeremy Wilson (bass) have spent time behind the boards of numerous KC venues, not only learning the art of capturing the perfect stage mix and the science of blending tones and textures, but also observing the finer points of live performance (eg. never put one’s beer adjacent to one’s pedalboard). The band is rounded out by Austin Turney (guitar) and Drew Little (drums). With A, The Slowdown showcases powerful anthemic songs that build around the voice of Sam Hoskins, which is “a profound thing” according to Hugh Welsh of The Pitch. “At its zenith, it pulverizes like a wall of water…Sam’s voice detonates.” Around Hoskins’ vocals, the songs expand in the hands of three guitarists who execute smoothly-crafted songs with layered guitar work that doesn’t get in its own way. This December, the band is presenting their debut full-length album A, recorded at Earth Analog studios near Champaign, IL by Matt Talbott of Hum, mastered at the Blasting Room in Ft. Collins by Jason Livermore, mixed and engineered by Jeremy Wilson, and produced by The Slowdown.
Check out this track: “To Wonder“
Check out the Video for: “A Mirror, A Torch“
“A melodic distillation of brooding post-hardcore and alternative rock…Sam [Hoskins'] voice is a profound thing. At its zenith, it pulverizes like a wall of water…With six players, the music comes together like it would for a top-tier rock band. Though there are four guitar parts, none fizz to the surface. The Slowdown’s sections merge like the contents of a cocaine energy drink.” – Hugh Welsh (The Pitch, Kansas City)
“Driven by Sam Hoskin’s whispy vocals, atmospheric backing vocals, and constantly moving backbeat, with a heavy alternative but bluesy Jerry Cantrell-style guitar solo to top things off.” – Michelle Bacon (The Deli Magazine)
Band: The Slowdown
