White Reaper is a cool-named trio who are rubber-burning their way out of the Louisville, KY DIY scene. There’s a dude named Tony Esposito who sings and plays the guitar, and twin brothers Nick and Sam Wilkerson who play drums and bass respectively. Their self-titled debut EP will appeal to fans of Wavves, Japandroids, and Jay Reatard. Hate to drop the sounds-like bomb on you right off the jump but it’s impossible to ignore. Fuzzy vocals and poppy, sun-kissed rock ‘n’ roll is the name of the game here.
The drumming is pretty dope. Lots of nice rolls and foot-stompin’ high hats. I don’t pound the skins myself, but if I had to guess, dude’s got a tambourine attached to his high hat because there is a lot of that old kick drum / tambourine syncopation thing going on here; like something you’d hear on a King Khan & BBQ Show record. Sometimes the toms sound like an empty pizza box being hit with wooden spoons, which is a splendid effect.
“Conspirator” is a sweet jam that fuses star-spangled hooks and fluid, quivering rhythms with anthem-ish vocals. It’s the kind of psychedelic-y garage punk that makes your head bob while your hand is simultaneously reaching for the ear plugs. Glorious, glorious white noise I tell ya.
And while they cram as much buzz into every available nook and cranny, the overall resonance is pretty compressed; like a band that’s used to blasting it out in small spaces. A buddy walked in to the room when I was playing this, scrunched his nose and said, “that sounds like a cassette that’s been turned up way too loud.” So yeah, in other words it sounds pretty damn cool, okay?
Speaking of cool, that’s the name of one of their songs. Another one is called “Funn”, which I personally would have spelled with only one N but that’s beside the point. The point is White Reaper is both cool and fun. And when it comes to rock ‘n’ roll that’s all that really matters now isn't it.
