100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 76: Radical Hearts
Ladies and gentlemen, and all local music enthusiasts, welcome back to the fourth annual outing of our year-end daily local music spotlight, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’ll be showcasing a new band or artist on the cutting edge of the Northwest, presented by Verity Credit Union. Make sure to check the #100Bands100Days hashtag at Twitter daily to stay on top of all the bands featured, and make sure to follow Verity on Twitter and NW_Music_Scene as well. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored Northwest-based musician and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the sun yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. Today’s outing of our year-end journey takes us to Seattle to look at a brash new rock band lighting the city up, Radical Hearts.
As their name may imply, Radical Hearts are a band that don’t like to keep things subtle or reserved. Through their tunes, which sound indebted to dynamic punk ferocity as much as sturdy college-friendly indie rock, Radical Hearts bring an urgent and conscious angle to the crunchy riffs and galloping drums. Lead singer Parzival Myr has a distinctive presence on their songs, his lyrics biting and his performances impassioned. The emotions he brings to the band’s music can be surprisingly intense at times, as with songs like the band’s debut single “Nuclear Summer,” a somewhat dark, but nonetheless welcoming indie-garage rock song about nuclear warfare and our inevitable impending doom, but at least we have this catchy tune with which to all sing along before the hydrogen bombs fall and take us all out.
Though dark themes may run through Radical Hearts’ October 2016 self-titled debut EP, there’s a certain lovable hippie-ish nonchalance to the EP that takes the load off and makes their songs instantly appealing. With Parzival, originally a Spokane-via-Nashville native, drummer Jesse Lee Honor of Seattle roots rock band Heels to the Hardwood, and Jake Nannery, whose primary background is being the frontman in folk bands, Radical Hearts come from pretty radically different backgrounds, but their shared “Screw it, life’s short, let’s live while we’re here” mentality gives them a good amount of chemistry and common ground.
Radical Hearts are a promising band to keep on the lookout for if you want a taste of where Seattle might be going next.
(You can listen to the debut Radical Hearts EP below via Bandcamp; make sure to keep up with the trio via Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and their official website.)
A huge shoutout to Verity Credit Union for doing so much for the music community and for being such a great partner.
