written by Maria Arroyo
Scantron is a garage-rock band from South Philadelphia who released their EP Electric City, earlier this year. They intertwine elements of hard rock with funk and psychedelic influences to create a more unique sound to call their own. The band consists of James Everhart, George Murphy, Jared Loss, Tyler Yoder, and Robb Mathews, some of which have been former members of the band, Low Cut Connie.
Everhart shares the train that touring had on him back with his old band, and talks about the decision he made to come back home and take it easy.
In the summer of 2018, he hit a wall. Six years on the road laying heavily on his psyche; he was recently married and burned out on the grind of touring… Later that fall, he found himself reinvigorated, working through a new batch of songs that expressed the hurricane of feelings he was still weathering.
Their first song on the EP, “Dreams,” brought forth their dirtied-up hard rock sound that was partnered with high-intense energy. I loved the use of a wide array of instruments to really stretch their limits and add to their already established sound.
Their next song, “White Linen Sheets,” brings more of the psychedelic rock side to surface in the ambient setting, and in the overall production of the song. They have a strong sense of rhythm and use that to their advantage to keep you moving with the song. While their high-energy remained intact, I had some issues with the dynamics of the song across the board. The majority of the song stayed at the same dynamic level, leaving no room to grow and expand upon to really show the song’s full potential. Certain musical parts that should have stuck out more didn’t rise above the rest. That’s like creating this insanely brilliant guitar solo, and then deciding to not give the solo it’s shining moment above the rest of the mix.
“Tip Top Inn” is similar style-wise to the others, but brought some amazing harmonies and darker undertones to the surface. Those darker undertones added some more depth to the EP as a whole and added a new perspective that the songs didn’t have prior to that. Closing out Electric City is their song, “In There/ Out There.” Like the other songs, this song showed strong influences of funk and rock, while maintaining a strong sense of rhythm deliverance and an overall cohesive EP.
Scantron is onto some great ideas, but I think they could benefit from showing some more influences from other genres or experiences to add even more perspectives to their music. Keep representing South Philly, you guys!
