Band: Providence band Transparent.
Who they are: singer Keith Allen, guitarist Adam Riley, guitarist John
Farley, bassist Chris Bowers, drummer Rich Bocchini.
What they play: Power pop, modern rock, math rock. The sound is
minimalist, raw and unhurried, but not passive. It is the
melody-drums-more-melody style of such popular bands as the Foo Fighters
and pop rockers Three Doors Down. But these songs are arranged to
showcase interlocking rhythms and intricate arrangements, not just
hardcore rock's furious drums and crashing guitars.
Thematically, Allen sings about yearning, with a fistful of angst. "I
will do anything to keep you satisfied," he sings in "Anything In 3."
Influences: Quicksand, Shift, Glassjaw, The Smiths.
Name game: "We wanted a name that gives no inclination as to what we
sound like," Riley says on
www.transparentband.com -- the band's Web site.
History: Transparent formed this year. "We'd known each other off and on
for a couple of years," says Bocchini. They've all played in different
bands. Bocchini was working most recently as a play-by-play announcer
for minor-league hockey teams in Bridgeport, Conn., and Tennessee. The
band hooked up after meeting at Jerky's, a bar in Providence. Bocchini
was wearing a Shift T-shirt. He remembers: "One of the guys saw it,
said, 'We love Shift. We're writing some songs in that style. Do you
want to be in a band?' "
Recording: Transparent has released a four-song EP (Red Planet Press),
that includes "Anything In 3." The disk was recorded last month at Don
Fury's Cyclone Sound, in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
"I slept in front of his desk. Adam slept next to my drum set," Bocchini
says. "The studio was above a freak show. Any hardcore band that
mattered recorded with Don, so the influence is on there."
Where to hear them: Transparent plays Saturday at the Green Room, 145
Clifford St., Providence, with Betty Finn and others.
