Standard Recording Company’s New Music Night
Locals Only
Thursday, March 8

It was a relatively quiet crowd that greeted the debut of the Standard Recording Company’s New Music Night at Locals Only. Quiet everywhere but on stage, that is.

After an opening acoustic set by Chad Serhal, Brooklyn’s Hologram delivered a combination of electro backgrounds, bluesy rhythms and throaty vocals, at once otherworldly and raw. Quite entertaining, though the clashing sounds could get somewhat grating.

The Sundresses, from Ohio, performed a hard-rocking, bluesy power-trio set, deeply influenced by the 1960s and country rhythms (think Johnny Cash, not Toby Keith). The vocals were somewhat weak, but were made up for by the sheer drive of the songwriting and storytelling. The band alternated between brief poppy songs and expansive epics driven by great big slabs of sound — not to mention the band’s range, which brought in elements of 1930s bebop, 1960s rockabilly and surf guitar. In a night dedicated to new music, the Sundresses displayed perhaps the most potential.

Streetlamps for Spotlights closed out with the kind of late-alternative throbbing rock reminiscent of days on college radio (the stuff you found on the B-sides and played on the 4 a.m. shift). It was a bit repetitive, but hypnotic and alluring in its mystique.