Gold Crayon - 'Please Make Out'

photo by Tim Meeks

Gold Crayon color in the perfectly balanced shades of psychedelia, glam-rock and power-pop on their debut album Please Make Out. The Detroit-based outfit have dropped a handful of singles over the last three years, as well as made sporadic appearances at well-known festivals and the regular rock clubs, but now we have a proper full length out online (and eventually coming on vinyl).

Gold Crayon make the kind of aerodynamic rock tunes that are so sleek, unruffled and collected that you just wanna step out of the way and not muss it up with overly intellectualized adjectives or hyperbole. While their primary influence-stew would ladle you an ultraviolet-glowing dish of T. Rex, The Strokes, and garnishes of Ty Segall and Aladdin-Sane-era Bowie, I'm inclined to liken them to bands like Spoon, Yo La Tengo, or Guided By Voices (have I dropped enough names, here, sheesh...), in that there's something consistent, undeniable, instantaneous, compelling, fowrad-thinking-yet-classic-feeling...about what they do!


The drums can be as big as arena rock, the vocals can be as ethereal as the spaceist-space-ballad, the bass gets to explore some interesting and funky phrases, and the keys/guitars interweave their dazzling jet streams in pretty melodic trajectories. You're picked up with a Krautrock-esque motorik beat on "Green Eyes" and it evokes a sense of ascension/propulsion. "Part of the Scene" brings it down to a foot-stomper of a blues/punk riff for the growly verses only to expand and blossom for a flourishing chorus that lets those vaguely 70's sounding tone from the keys as they curl you through to a bridge; by the time the song ends, it's a full on sludgy rock ballad.

The rhythms go post-punk on "You're A Ghost," with flexed drums fills and the bass kinda pulling everything with it as the guitar knows just where to put the right amount of riffy embellishment and when it should pull back for something more ambient, while the vocals literally sound like they're emanating from someone mid-descent down a swirly slide. (Oh, but I guess they could be mimicking a ghostly wail too...but my simile's a testament to the kinetic nature of their arrangements.)

I know I've been riffing on how they're a "consistent" band that fits into a few quadrants of the rock realm, but they're a refreshing amount of variety on here. "Please Make Out" is a post-rock nocturne with ethereal buzzy bursts from the bass and the drums spreading things out through the verses only to explode on the cymbals through the chorus. It has an ominous feeling that wouldn't have been out of place on Bowie's Blackstar, but that's the last time I'll drop a name. Things brighten up immediately with the "I Need You's" wavy-scaled guitar line supported by yet another intricate tempo formation from the bass and drums. "The Drone" is a perfect closer because it feels intent on getting every last ounce of energy out before a show ends, before a door closes, before a sunsets--there's classic rock 'n' roll everything-or-nothing urgency here. But it's a perfect place to end on the vocals - which, at that point, have proven an ability to just soar with grace and theatricality over each track with dynamic control to wail or whisper, draw taut or tenderly unfurl.

Follow on Facebook for updates on their next show. The album you're hearing was recorded and mixed at Rustbelt Studios by Steve Lehane and mastered by Eric Hoegemeyer at Tree Laboratory (in Brooklyn). Gold Crayon are: Greg Beyer, Michael Krygier, Steve Lehane, Steve Stetson, and Taylor Pierson.