After more than half a year of work, Loyola-based band Bantam Foxes debuts their first full-length record, “Trimph,” at Freret Street music venue Gasa Gasa tonight.
The trio is comprised of three Loyola students – psychology senior Sam McCabe on guitar and vocals, music industry studies senior Collin McCabe on bass, mandolin and vocals, and Jared Marcell, A’08, on drums.
In August 2012, the band’s “Another Image, Another Frame” EP placed in the top 200 records on college radio in the country, and they follow up this recent success with their latest debut.
With nearly two years of musical experience under their belts, the rock ‘n’ roll band said they had one goal – to make a good rock ‘n’ roll record.
“There are a couple of tracks that are almost shoegaze, and there’s another track that has electric mandolin,” Collin McCabe said. “We like to try and bring as much pop music into it as we can without making it pop music.”
The garage rock album features 10 songs, and the band said it has been in the works for about seven months. The album’s single, “Die Alone,” was released on August 14.
Sam McCabe said that “Die Alone” is actually one of the last tracks that the band wrote for the record, and initially it wasn’t a favorite.
“Right when we started recording, it finally started becoming something that we were actually going to be interested in,” Sam McCabe said.
Sam McCabe said a Loyola class influenced several of the songs on the new record.
“I took a song writing class last semester with Jim McCormick, and some of the songs I wrote for that class are on the record,” Sam McCabe said. “Songwriting was a great class to take because it gave me the opportunity to see what I can produce by myself.”
In terms of fitting into the music scene, Collin McCabe said people are excited to hear something that doesn’t fit into that mold of New Orleans music.
“There’s so much of the indie ‘DIY’ thing going on in New Orleans and we don’t fit into the whole ‘DIY’ aesthetically,” Collin McCabe said. “As a rock ‘n’ roll band, I think we stand out.”
Up until the release of “Triumph,” Bantam Foxes have produced three EPs entitled, “Twin Tone,” “Another Image, Another Frame” and “Fascination.” Sam McCabe said there is some overlap of material on the new record.
“Three of the songs that are on ‘Triumph’ were on ‘Fascination’ but we rerecorded and re-worked them,” Sam McCabe said.
Collin McCabe said that the new record tells the story of a year on the road, with the band touring on any weekends that they could.
“This album is capping off a whole year and a half of extremely hard work,” Collin McCabe said. “That’s why we’re excited to finally get it out, and we already have plans to record another EP.”
The Bantam Foxes record release party is tonight at Gasa Gasa on Freret Street. Doors open at 8 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at the door for $7.
Julia Nolan can be reached at [email protected]
