Written by Brooks Thompkins
Photo courtesy of Broken Circles Records
With a sound that could have come right out of the ’80s racing arcade game Out Run, Triathalon’s newest album “Nothing Bothers Me” is the much needed groove for this winter break. The former SCAD students go for music gold in this album and they, well… they freaking got it.
Starting off with “Mellow Moves,” we get dropped off in a surreal and sketchy fantasy. They get right to it. Adam Intrator singing and guitar playing is a phantasm of Triathalon. It’s all groove and all play. With its crisp melody, drummer Chad Chilton holds everything together and marches the band along hitting the drums like a punching bag, but smoothes his style when it is called for. “Mellow Moves” gets everything on the right foot, setting up the playing field for the rest of the album.
The whole album is like the psych-surf Beach House and jazz-rock Steely Dan came together happily to make a kick-ass album. They divvy out the leading instruments pretty dang well for each song. In “It’s You,” the groovy bass Hunter Jayne plays reigns true. And in their instrumental “Fantasy Jam,” they all come together with a “we came to play” type attitude. The guitar has beautiful ascending, key-changing jelly-like riffs. It just sounds fun to play. The whole song feels like glory in the ’80s, making me think I can walk into any room wearing neon and sunglasses. They had something else in mind for this album than withwhat they intended in their previous album “Lo-Tide.” The instruments have gotten a lot more elaborate: alot less punching on the guitar and drums, and more caressing and loving.
In some ways, Triathalon gets back to their original heartbeat. Intrator’s whispering anthemic voice stays mostly falsetto so he can throw in some nice tones towards the end of each verse. They still maintain the “Miami Vice” jungle beat that the whole album has. The tone is pure, and has a very fresh feel.
And in their early released single “Slip’n,” you kind of feel like you are at a bus stop with Spongebob. It starts out with a very trippy, slo-mo voice, with these thin guitar notes plucking away like an electric harp. “Slip’n” is Triathalon’s quintessence: you could pull influences of all their songs in this one song. This is where the integrating Intrator gets all reverby and the beat picks up, feeling like you are riding a fat grunge wave.
Then comes “Step Into the Dark.” This opens up Triathalon’s bag of tricks, it’s almost like they are saying “we too can get technical.” It’s very progressive, which is new for Triathalon, but it works no doubt. It is not what they need to be doing every song, but for one song in an album, that’s a good move.
The title track, “Nothing Bothers Me,” is perfect. It’s the 80s fantasy we have all been waiting for. It pulls Triathalon together as a unified band, grabbing their debut album and setting it down in this song to show that it all has been one big story.
“Nothing Bothers Me” is the album you need as you celebrate a hard-fought fall quarter done and done. The local band makes you know that the local music scene is not gone or forgotten with Triathalon leading the Savannah music pack. It is growing and nothing can stop Triathalon from becoming a revolutionary band in the world as a whole.
