Nothing quite cuts the sensation of rolling down the street in an animalistic feral fit, while going through the nostalgic remanences of your teenage rage. Something about the rise of grunge kicking off the 90s brings some old sadness but also, as a teenager at the time, being unwieldy and angry. An unadulterated and non-distilled anger to alleviate that sadness at the world. On comes “Sane” by KooK and immediately I was invested in who these guys were. I found myself almost dispelled, being transported back to a teenager again just wanting nothing more than going to groove and rage at local shows in some stranger’s basement somewhere. At the mercy of the riffs, sounds, heavy hits, and vocal lines one could try to resist cranking the stereo and rocking out to no avail.

HIT THE LIGHTS hit the scene on the last day of January this year by San Diego based three piece band KooK. Originally starting as a small collection of singles, which luckily came together as a full release. HIT THE LIGHTS brings you back to that 90s grunge era of the raw rock and roll residual taste of Seattle. The record is a twenty minute time capsule of classic groovy, catchy, heavy hitting, nostalgic grunge. For the most part KooK follows familiar musical convention; That being they utilize verses, bridges, and crescendo to get us into that juicy chorus. However, there are sometimes where they break that convention for something a little more interesting. The song “be ok” really grasped me the most in the record. It entices you in using the songs chorus to open, but in an altered way; a soft and melancholy way that connects you to the bleakness of grasping at desire of freedom but never quite achieving it. Of course, then launching into a fit of over-the-top anger from said pent up perpetual failure. The song structure follows an unusual convention as there aren’t really defined segments to the song. “be ok” doesn’t have a noticeable intro/outro, verse, or bridge section as is typical song structure, the interesting thing about this song is that it more so is a string of choruses together in different variations in instrumentation and vocal styles, so it never feels boring or repetitive. In fact, it’s easily replayed over and over to get that sensation jumping into the big parts to continue the chaos. Essentially the only parts to the song are Chorus, break, and a brief solo that acts as a bridge and yet it is excellent in its design and its simplicity. It doesn’t have more and doesn’t need it. The song brings me feeling of helplessness and reminds me of the teenage years when making a typical “character growth” mistake gets you stuck in a misery loop, irrationally telling yourself the same thing over and over; always needing to say it, and always needing to hear it.

The real star of the show for the records sounds are the guitars. The band only features one guitar player rocking the classic grunge sounds of Fender and Marshall, and even some Krank amps. They sound huge, powerful and awesome. The guitars on the record are certainly double, if not quad tracked, and yet were still able to achieve a diverse and huge guitar sound on the record from the cleanish sounds, to the solos, to the monster walls of sound. These huge sounds are not only complimented but exaggerated with the “Bonham” style heavy drumming that is not never overly complicated or too much. In fact the entire kit seems to mimic the ambiance of the record where the entire kit seems very low tuned, the snare fat and wide, even the hi hat sounds a bit sad. Using more simplistic drum styles with well-tuned, huge drums there is no fluff given on the record. Everything sits very well with itself taking up only as much room as it needs to. Unfortunately, more information isn’t given on the gear used, or signal chains for a better idea of how recording or processing was done

There is a majestic aura about this record, it is remarkably nostalgic as if it came out right alongside Nirvanas Nevermind. The band uses motifs such as interplay of melodic lines between the vocals and harmony, while other times having almost no melody, slurred vocals, wavering melody lines, large dynamic jumps, repetitive harmony and vocal lines that beat you down, and of course what would grunge be without some chorus effects. “Sane” is an example of the use of repetitive lines where the chorus beats into your head where he is repeating telling you he is sane, all over a heavy groove and simple chord progression in an animalistic way. 

HIT THE LIGHTS is a great representation of a true modern classic and returns to the forefront the true essence of grunge in its full glory. Their huge guitars, fat drums and driving basslines really hit home and transport you back to the peak of the genre.  Fighting this record in a boxing ring it would be akin to fighting an angry drunk badger. I hope if they ever shoot a music video for this record I really hope they overlay it as the early MTV videos as it would blend perfectly with the classic character and greatly look forward more releases by them.

HIT THE LIGHTS was written, and performed by KooK (Hudson Goldstein, Ty Morgan, Gabe Randal)

Recorded at Studio West in San Diego by [unknown]

Mixed by [unknown]

Produced by 1 Million Music

Mastered by [unknown]