THOSE MANIC SEAS Teleprompter-driven vocals notwithstanding, Richmond’s Those Manic Seas sounds like 2002 all over again. There’s the asymmetrical, sinuous guitar of pre-Good News for People Who Love Bad News Isaac Brock, the disco-rock stomp of early-‘00s Brooklyn indie, and just enough hints of U2 and Radiohead to give the whole thing a radio-ready glaze. Yet Those Manic Seas educate these largely out-of-use rock tropes with bits and pieces of things that have come since, such as persistent delay-loaded guitar work that implies an after-hours Explosions in the Sky. Tommy’s Pub.
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2012.
