The first time I saw the great Santa Cruz band Scowl, someone in the pit got kicked so hard that he had to be helped out of the venue. That was two years ago. Now, Scowl are playing on late-night TV. That's crazy. It's even crazier when you consider that Scowl are still a hardcore band in a lot of ways. I'll probably go see them play a DIY venue in a few months, opening for Drain. This is a band with its feet in two different worlds, and that's a fascinating place to be.
Last week, Scowl released Are We All Angels, their first LP for new label Dead Oceans. It focuses a little more on the crunchy-sweet alt-rock hooks that have always been there in the band's music. It still rips hard, but Scowl popping up on Colbert isn't quite as surreal as Knocked Loose doing juddering, abrasive metalcore on the outdoor Kimmel festival stage. Scowl's performance probably didn't scare any adolescents. Instead, this was just a great band playing a great song, with that added "we're not supposed to be here" electricity.
On Wednesday's episode of Stephen Colbert's Late Show, Scowl ripped their way through "Tonight (I'm Afraid)," the last of the singles that they released before Are We All Angels came out. Bandleader Kat Moss, a born star, held the center of the screen and ramped up her urgency until she was in the feral-growl zone at the end. The rest of the band threw themselves around with abandon. They looked cool as hell, like they could've been in the first Decline Of Western Civilization, and the song has the right kind of nervous momentum to reach that moment. Scowl belong on TV, and now they're there. As someone who's been rooting for them since the first RBS show, it's a beautiful sight. Watch it below.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2RNndDSKDSY
Are We All Angels is out now on Dead Oceans.
