Bad Suns and the future of indie
- Jamie Dunn
- Nov 20, 2015
- 2 min read
BadSuns are a four piece band founded in 2012 in sunny Los Angeles and since then have garnered moderate success in the indie circles. The group has a unique sound which has drawn influence from early post punk bands such as The Cure and U2's pre-stadium rock days. Among this touch of punk they have been compared to other indie artists such as the 1975, Coasts and Atlas Genius with their modernized alternative sound. Their biggest single "Cardiac Arrest" has reached 20 million streams and the entire album around 1 million. This shows the band has had quite the early success and plan to continue this rise. With this continued success, I suspect more artists will draw influence from this urban punk indie fusion as it is extremely listenable and not mainstream even in the alternative scene. I really believe more bands will and should follow this earthy trend if they want to progress and grow a larger audience. In fact, Coldplay's most recent single "Adventure of a lifetime" is extremely BadSuns-esque regardless of intention.I sincerely hope BadSuns will continue to grow a larger audience as they are great song writers, creative producers and different than most indie out there (especially the drummer of whom I think is fantastic). Here are Fresh Penguins 5 favourite songs by the four-piece.
1. Cardiac Arrest: BadSuns most popular song and the first song I heard by the band. When I heard this piece I was drawn by the harmonics and earthy tones. It has an urban groove that represents the image of BadSuns and is a pleasant listen to all kinds of music fans.
2. We Move Like The Ocean: Another harmonic based song with extremely tight drums. It features Chris Martin-esque false setto and a variety of percussion sounds including a shaker.
3. Transpose: Yet another rythm based song with melody, guitar, bass, and drums flowing together flawlessly. It features a lyrical battle with the struggles of a songwriter fighting the music industry without success. With lyrics such as "Maybe I've been wasting my time" and "it's hard to justify what you can do", BadSuns clearly prevailed and made it to a point where they know they weren't wasting their time.
4. 20 years: The only BadSuns song released that is not featured on their album. It came on their first EP and features a 1975 inspired guitar riff and lyrics focused on his life from the day he was born until today. A good listen that I highly recommend.
5. Salt: BadSuns second biggest song, it is backed by a woodblock, bass, and a catchy melody. The line "These memories are nothing to me but salt" is delivered in such a way that it is stuck in your mind for days and weeks to come. The song was also released with a music video that made news following the story of an identity crisis which takes one on an emotional ride. The song is catchy and the type of song we hope to see more of from BadSuns in the near future.
Similar artists: The 1975, Coasts, Maudlin Strangers