GOLDSTAR: Transparent Red Vinyl LP

Los Angeles six-piece The Sophs have ridden a wave of notoriety ever since signing to Rough Trade Records on the strength of their demos – which they cold-emailed to labelheads Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee before they ever even played a show. Following last years releases of stand-alone singles Im Your Fiend, Sweat, and Death in the Family and worldwide touring, the band are ready to unleash their debut albumGOLDSTAR.

The bands brutal honesty, flamingly intrusive thoughts, and broad genre-spreading caught the attention of Rough Trade founders Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee immediately. When Ramonsent a demo reel out to his favorite indies, he wasnt expecting any replies. But Travis and Lee were in his inbox the next day, asking if hed hop on a call.

Rough Trade heard the sort of creativity and variety and dont expect me to act pretty sentiment that could get The Sophs including Ramon, Sam Yuh (keyboards), Austin Parker Jones (electric guitar), Seth Smades (acoustic guitar), Devin Russ (drums), and Cole Bobbitt (bass) a slot on nearly any stage. At any moment, The Sophs are entering pop-punk; blazing through funk; talk-singing to the audience. Their enthusiasm for every iteration is evident, and Ramons rich, full voice deftly nestles into endless categories, utterly chameleonic.

We never try to be as versatile as we end up being, Ramon said.GOLDSTARhas a Delta Blues-style song; it has a ZZ Top-inspired tune. To some degree, The Sophs see song creation like pop art: theyre focused on the idea of reproducing something over and over again until it’s meaningless. I want to steal and plagiarize and borrow, Ramon explains.

The record asks, wheres my gold star? Wheres my validation? Why am I not being rewarded for how much of a good person I am? Am I doing mitzvahs for the right reason? The titular track which kicks off with flamenco-style fingerpicking wrestles with the philosophy of reallybeing goodand what that looks like.

Most of The Sophs songs dont let the listener relax mostly because you never know whats coming next. The band has a passion for sudden and complete destruction, for playing with the tension between pulled-back silence and total explosion. Thats where you hear The Sophs members as they really are: explosively positive, happy, collaborative. Think of the degenerative posturing instead as a jesters privilege. When theyre playing together in a room, you see nothing like the character theyre putting forward. Instead, you feel a bombastic, thrilling energy that underlies the sextets creative power.