The Peach Kings where created when Texan born Paige Wood met Silver Lake, Los Angeles Native Steven Dies back in 2010. The two musicians had an instant chemistry, quickly coming up with a catalogue of songs. Coupled with these tracks was a fan base and excitement around the pair. So much so that they took home the first price at Alternative Apparel’s “2010 Unsigned Artist of the Year Awards”. Beating four other bands to do so.
Off the back of the win the band released their very first EP, Trip Wop in 2011. The three songs are: Easy, Little Things and By Your Side. As you may have guessed the songs are nice and chilled out, with the mix of clean guitars and laid back slow tempo electronic drums. Though they are not the fastest, riff laden songs they will still get stuck in your head. Especially Little Things (which is also a good motto to live by). This effort shows how effortless it is for these two to create together. Paige’s voice is great and Steven’s guitar is well placed. It showed a bright future ahead could be in store.
Again the talent shown on Trip Wop was only built upon on the double acts next instalment, Handsome Moves (2012). With this the band doubled the amount of songs. This obviously translated to twice the amount of greatness. Kicking Handsome Moves off is the super fun and groovy Fisherman. With a more distorted guitar and simply but effective drum beats really gets this extended play off to a strong start. Then on to the song Do For Me, Steven adds his vocals. It is a very good move as I personally think that it adds to the dynamic and along with Like a Stone where Steven also does vocals along Paige, are two off their strongest songs. Like a Stone is amazing, the guitar is great, the alternating of the vocals between the two members is brilliant (props to Mr Dies on this one he hits a high rather high note, after which I dare you to say that males can’t do falsetto well!!!); the lyrics are clever and well written. The build up is top notch, I love this track. Soon Will be and Lonely are the two stripped down songs off the EP they fit in and are a call back to Trip Wop.
The latest release was the Mojo Thunder EP in June of 2014. The lead track, Mojo Thunder, not only tremendous sonically but is also accompanied by an equally impressive video, I urge you to watch it. With this they add yet another element to their sound with a really cool keyboard line. Hold On follows Mojo Thunder starting off with a palm muted guitar line, then comes in the bass (my favourite part of the song). It flows rather well and will get you hooked. Say What is a special song to me because it falls into the rather small selection of songs that I will actually boogie to, only because it gives instructions on how to Line Dance in this case. Finally, rounding out the EP is Be Around. Their finest song for me. Lyrically it is a stand out because it helps to form imagery but also puts you in the boots of the person that Paige is singing about. The guitaring is fuzzy, warm and the way in which the band places clean sounds against the distortion is second to none.
All in all The Peach Kings are going places. This is shown by the never ending hype that they have gathered in a relatively short amount of time. The great news is that there shall be a full length album out this year. So go and treat your self to one of the best up and coming bands around, The Peach Kings. Check ‘Em Out.
