Vast Robot Armies
After the loss of 90s icon Chris Cornell, much of the music world that was enamored by the canonical contributions from Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave & numerous collaboration has been doing a lot of soul searching. In between these solemn silences & ruminating on what any of it all means on the life/death plane of existence rises Toronto’s Vast Robot Armies of whom celebrate the boisterous spirit of the 90s with the world premiere for their single “Dinner Music” that coasts on a power-pop axis of amazing. The quartet of Jay Thomson, John Agee, Joe Wells & Chris Metcalf offer up a revised rendering of what the lessons from all your favorite fallen heroes from yesterday meant to begin with & what they mean to today’s audiences & artists.
“Dinner Music” is one of those songs that spun itself into inception from a conversation about the titular topic of what indeed consitutes an audio score that is appropriate for dining table discourse & the like. And with that & after just 15 minutes time the bare bones of “Dinner Music” was made and transformed into a heavy hitting anthem that sounds as if it was 1994 all over again. This is the jam you want to hear while biking with your friends, or blaring at a family or buddy’s barbecue where lively conversation is encouraged amongst everyone. For everyone longing for big crunchy riffs that rip & wind-tunnel vocal deliveries that instill the spirit of speeding vehicles in marathon-like competitions; Vast Robot Armies emulate the essence of your favorite angst-ridden alternative rock superstars by flying a flag of flannel pop high up on an iconic totem pole of heroes.
VRA penned the following introduction about the inception behind “Dinner Music”:
Sitting in a kitchen at a house party in early spring of 2017. Sitting with a bunch of friends around the kitchen table, when one of the friends uttered the words, well, I wouldn’t call it ‘Dinner Music’ per se… For some reason this phrase immediately resonated with Jason and the ironic setting it was presented in. Jason got up, excused himself and grabbed a guitar in the next room…15 mins later he had emerged with all the bones of “Dinner Music”. The song just unfolded in front of him, and after arranging the structure he sent the music to John Agee in Missouri. Three days later John and Joe sent Jason the demo back with the vocals. As soon as he heard it, he declared:
Well damn, that’s some Dinner Music!
