All the Saints

A Chilled Intensity

originally published May 7, 2008

On Boston label Killer Pimp's website, it claims to have a preference for bands whose sound is "nothing less than loud and intense." Well then, that explains why Atlanta band All the Saints is the latest signing. This power trio excels in both intensity and volume. It's the kind of music you can feel in your chest. Live, it reverberates off the walls, through the floorboards and shakes you to your core. Song after song of dark, ominous low-end drone pulsating underneath wailing, epic melodies saturate the air and absolutely fill the club. All the Saints gave "the loudest band in New York" (A Place to Bury Strangers, also signed to Killer Pimp) a run for its money at the Caledonia a couple weeks back, summoning the ferocity of bands like Black Sabbath and the spiraling psych-rock of Blue Cheer. This is some serious rock from a band that's… not so serious.

"We're all pretty goofy guys," laughs bassist Titus Brown. "There's definitely a humor aspect to our music, but there is also intensity. It's like a chilled intensity. We hate that rockstar image - just do your shit, but don't take it too seriously, you know?"

For Brown, these swelling, heavy songs have proven to be a therapeutic outlet. Brown and guitarist/vocalist Matt Lambert and drummer Jim Crook are all fun-spirited, approachable guys. Brown suggests that all this dark music actually keeps the band light at heart. "Everybody has good days and bad days, but you get the bad days worked out within the music so you can focus on the good," he says.

Sometimes it's hard to decipher the lyrics in All the Saints' songs as they lilt and soar along with such overpowering instrumentation, but an astute ear will pick up on the prevailing themes of greed, excess and pretension. "In my whole life being super happy has never really caused me to sit down with a guitar and start messing it," says Brown.

Whatever the inspiration, All the Saints have been diligently at work for the past year to bring us what will soon be titled Fire on Corridor X. The debut full-length is actually out now as a self-titled record, but Killer Pimp will be reissuing the record on May 28 with a new title, new package and hopefully much greater distribution. Brown is disarmingly modest and realistic in his hopes for the record and the band.

"My dream right now is to just make a living doing music. I mean, you'll finally play a show with a band you really love and you realize that they have day jobs, too. That's just the way it goes. You go out and do what you love, and then you go home and make some more money so you can go out and do what you love. That's the cycle; and I'm happy with that."

Brown says it has taken a year to get these songs on record because it was a struggle finding time to go into the studio between full-time jobs and touring. Now that Killer Pimp has stepped in, Brown hopes it will be just a couple of months before the next project gets under way. All the Saints already have material for the sophomore release, and if everything goes as planned we won't have to wait a another year to hear it.

In the meantime, All the Saints have teamed up with kindred spirits Dead Confederate to go out and "do what they love" up the East Coast in June. You can catch them with local rockers a.armada and Pride Parade before the big tour.

Michelle Gilzenrat

WHO: a.armada, All the Saints, Pride Parade
WHEN: Friday, May 9
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
HOW MUCH: $6 (21+), $7 (18+)