Left to right: Jeff Rose, Jordan Asher and Dave Barnard.
By Bill Meredith
Jordan Asher, of experimental electronic Boca Raton trio Young Circles (www.youngcircles.com), refers to the group as “three really impulsive guys.”
Considering that they were playing garage-band rock under the name Blond Fuzz only a month before – and as Stonefox a few months before that – it qualifies as an understatement.
Vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Asher (age 23), bassist/guitarist/vocalist Dave Barnard (23) and drummer/percussionist/vocalist Jeff Rose (24) have been friends and bandmates since high school. Until recently, they were stunning rock audiences with their mix of Rolling Stones-influenced guitar riffs, Led Zeppelin bombast, David Bowie glam, and modern retro a la the White Stripes, Black Crowes and Stone Temple Pilots.
After having changed names over the summer from Stonefox (mostly because it was also being used by a Spice Girls-type act in Europe) to Blond Fuzz, the three were leaving clubs and crowds in their wake en route to the inevitable record label signing. They had a tour of the West Coast booked for November, but then a funny thing happened on the way to their late-October release party for a third independent CD (and first under the name Blond Fuzz), Perfect Breakfast.
”We’ve always recorded songs that have never ended up on CDs because they were such drastically different material,” Asher says. “Dave was going to a music festival in New York, and we wanted an additional CD of more experimental stuff for him to show off up there. So we recorded five songs, listed the band name as Young Circles, and established the website so other people could check them out. Two days later, a public relations company contacted us. We took that as a sign that this was the right direction to go in.”
That PR firm is Crash Avenue, based in Louisville, Ky. With a small roster of emerging artists, the independent management and publicity company is run by three music-loving friends who seek out new sounds that feature something different.
”I’m writing about music and bands all the time,” says Crash Avenue associate Michael Powell, “and whenever I run across a band that’s difficult to describe in words, I’m intrigued. Dustin Judah, our radio and and media guy, heard Young Circles and recommended them. They have a sound that’s distinct, and it stood out against all the other stuff we were listening to.”
“We could tell that they weren’t trying to sound like anyone else,” says president Jeffrey Smith, “which is unique in itself.”
Asher says the band “hadn’t gotten that kind of response in three years of playing garage rock, and this took only two days!
“We really weren’t feeling it so much as Blond Fuzz anymore, anyway,” he adds. “It’s easy to turn your amps up and be the loudest band in South Florida. I’d rather people remember us for something different.”
He’s selling Blond Fuzz short, but that’s a classic case of being too close to the fire to feel the flame. The band was something different; a white-hot mix of blues, glam and retro-rock the likes of which South Florida had never seen.
Asher used a Jack White-like setup of separate guitar and bass amplifiers, plus an octave pedal, to eliminate the need for a bassist. Barnard’s guitar lines and screaming solos intertwined with Asher’s patterns; Rose gave no quarter to his drum kit, and the group’s three-part vocals added to its impossible-to-ignore aura.
That Blond Fuzz emerged from Boca Raton, of all places – with its strip malls and pink corporate high-rises – gives hope to every original garage band here in cover-centric Margaritaville.
That being said, Young Circles’ forthcoming five-song Bones EP offers its own intensity despite the musical U-turn. Its keyboards, electronica elements and hip-hop influences conjure up Radiohead, Beck and The Beatles, but there are also exciting new possibilities, especially live. Barnard’s guitar playing is now occasionally reminiscent of Reeves Gabrels and Adrian Belew (both of whom worked with Bowie), and even British fusion experimentalist David Torn.
Belew is part of the modern, 21st-century lineup of King Crimson, an uncompromising, 41-year-old warhorse that’s had a huge influence on Los Angeles progressive neo-metal act Tool – a group that sports live muscle not unlike that of Blond Fuzz. One new Young Circles track, Sharp Teeth, creatively fuses pop and hip-hop elements with shards of Barnard’s metallic guitar.
”That’ll always be in us,” Asher says. “’Sharp Teeth’ and ‘Bones’ were actually the last two songs we wrote during the ‘Perfect Breakfast’ era. And ‘Halfway Up’ is spacey and almost psychedelic on the recording, but if you hear it live, it’ll have that intensity. We’re really just trying to bring more color to the music we write now; make it less black and white. And we’re definitely embracing technology to do so.”
The keyboards and effects indeed create colorful textures throughout Bones, and hearken back to Asher’s first musical love.
”Before I picked up the guitar, I was writing electronic music,” he says. “I was 16, and had a computer but not a guitar, so I pirated some beat-making programs and just had some fun with it. I knew nothing about it, so I taught myself, making up beats and weird, backward, trippy electronic stuff. That was my first experience with music.”
Asher’s roots stand out on the track Hellhound Sights, on which his layered, programmed chords sound robotically futuristic. His description of what to expect during Young Circles’ live shows sounds like an audience’s dream – and perhaps a sound man’s nightmare.
”Dave played guitar in Blond Fuzz, but he was the bassist in one of our earlier bands,” he says. “So he’ll be doing both simultaneously with Young Circles, like I did with Blond Fuzz, but he’s great at both. The bass playing, and the sounds he creates on a song like ‘Lightning’ are incredible. With my background in hip-hop and electronica, I’ll focus on the electronic side, playing more keyboards and percussion and less guitar.
“And Jeff will be coming out from behind the drum set and playing at various stations on stage. We took one of his old bass drums and attached legs to it, and bought some pieces of pipe and other toys. He’ll be banging away on all of it with sticks and mallets, and he’ll be up front with us, which will make things more exciting.”
“We’re also using a Roland sample pad,” Asher continues, “to capture the sounds we might otherwise not ever be able to find again. We’re setting our sights on Miami, where I think people will really understand this stuff, but we’ll take on shows at the Culture Room [in Fort Lauderdale] and Respectable Street [West Palm Beach] when they come our way, because those are the right rooms for this material. We’ll have to limit ourselves to places with great sound systems, because these songs need to have a larger-than-life sound. We’ve drawn up stage grids, and realized that we’ll need tons of microphones. The sound guys are going to love us.”
As for the band name, it does indeed refer to the traffic circle that Hollywood Boulevard turns into between the beach and Interstate 95. But there are also multiple other possibilities.
”The more we talked about, the more we realized that it evoked interesting images,” Asher says. “When you’re young, you’re usually pairing off into one circle or the other, so it can refer to cliques. A person who’s been through a lot can develop premature bags, or young circles, under their eyes. And there are the circular lines when you cut into a tree that tell you how old it is.”
These three unique Boca musicians might not have that many circles in their collective trunk just yet, but one thing is certain – they form one of the few bands that ever could’ve pulled off this kind of musical one-eighty.
”Bands like The Beatles, Stones, Nirvana and Wilco all have a chemistry,” Asher says. “Everyone in those bands was filling out a certain space, and it seems like we’re there now. I feel comfortable; like I’ve re-connected with something. I’ve always had a love for a really strong melody, and I think we’ve found that again.”
Young Circles performs at 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at the White Room, 1306 N. Miami Ave. in Miami (305-995-5050).