Spawned from drunken promises at an LA house party to "jam together", soon-to-be Skaters vocalist Michael Ian Cummings and guitarist Josh Hubbard made a hazy pact. Fast forward a few months, and England-based (and ex-Dirty Pretty Thing) Hubbard informs Cummings that he'll be arriving in New York in a few hours. Not content with flying that far "just to jam", Hubbard and Cummings began setting up gigs, recruited a bassist and drummer in the form of Dan Burke and Noah Rubin, and Skaters was born.
If Skaters were made into a collage there would be dollops of searing 70s New York punk alongside the city's poised and detailed indie cohorts of the 00s. Comprising of two Bostonians, one Englishman and one Los Angeleno who all first met as a band in Manhattan, Skaters are a mix of a band who's music's sound is heavily rooted in New York City. The album acts as a sometimes frenzied, sometimes inspired scrapbook of NYC.
"Deadbolt" is a seedy verse with an instantly catchy chorus. Inspired by a shooting the band saw from their studio, the guitars sound like they're waiting to spark until the chorus gently sets them alight. "Bandbreaker" is a reggae-pop (yes, really) stomper with a bass line that will infiltrate its way into your brain and won't take no for an answer. Slightly sugary, with some fuzzy guitar lines to add to the sound, "Bandbreaker" is definitely a high point.
"Schemers" is a blazing 3 minutes of expertly delivered twinkling guitars and paced drumming. So far so formulaic, it's good but it merely feels like a beginning. Skaters's sound is easily identified as being the New York sound we're all familiar with, but if they pushed their sound a bit more they could really be onto something. Manhattan is an energetic and spikey offering that needs to focus more on Skaters as a band than the city they've grown to be a part of.
