HEAVEmedia.com reviews 'The Happy Loss'

Son Of The Sun Takes Sound To New Lengths

Buffalo's Son of the Sun propels personal style on 'The Happy Loss'

Son of the Sun

The Happy Loss

Released on Jun 22, 2010

Many bands try to smash together all of their favorite things and make a mess.  Let’s face it, as much as a person can love Neil Diamond, Public Enemy, and Justin Timberlake it’s hard to find a cohesive stylistic link between all three.  It takes a good band to find what works for all of them and construct a style that they can all operate in and still enjoy.  Buffalo’s Son of the Sun has adapted all of their favorite genres into one massive wall of sound.  On their latest full-length album The Happy Loss one can hear 50s pop, So Cal surfer, indie rock, alternative country, psychedelic rock, and even a little bit of shoegaze permeating through ten tracks.  Better still, all of these things combine perfectly together.

The Happy Loss exudes a sense of warmth normally heard on vinyl records.  Lead singer Zak Ward’s vocals positively soar over the slow ballad “How Can it Be?,” each bass note ringing smoothly over the sounds that they’ve built themselves over the years.  With music like this, this warm vinyl sound really pays off.  Each track crackles with vintage intensity without pandering to keeping it strictly old school.  Tracks like “Leopard Print” sound like they’re right off of some hip soundtrack.  From “Leopard Print”’s opening alone it’s hard not to imagine watching a scene of you and a significant other zipping down a desolate road in a car, the sun setting behind you.  This recording style seems to be getting more and more popular as people are starting to realize how bland mp3s and m4as can be.  For some it doesn’t add anything to their recordings but for Son of the Sun it makes The Happy Loss go that extra mile.

Son of the Sun keeps their love for surfer music on The Happy Loss but adds a certain twang that wasn’t present on their previous EP Before the After.  Production-wise this album sounds much more like an alt-country album like Cardinology meeting the new/old style of Brian Williams on Smile.  It’s something that’s been done before but Son of the Sun adds something that puts them apart from the pack.  The problem is I can’t pinpoint it.  Where many rocker/country acts find themselves in Nashville and neu-surfer bands in California and Brooklyn, Son of the Sun hails from Buffalo, New York.  If you’re not familiar with the musical history of Buffalo don’t worry, most people aren’t.  It ranges from Ani DiFranco to the Goo Goo Dolls to Cannibal Corpse.  How the hell did Son of the Sun find their sound amongst so many odd bands?  Either way I’m glad they found it.  Son of the Sun is a band that has a defined style but is ready to rewrite it at any time.  Listening to The Happy Loss is like listening to a melting pot of my music collection - soulful songs, hard-hitting guitar riffs, and that surfer girl sound washing over everything.

Posted by Amy Dittmeier on Sep 21, 2010 @ 10:10 am

M.I.S.S. / Juxtapoz Album Review: 'The Happy Loss'

We Got The Beat: Son of the Sun (album review)

Review by: Randi Hernandez (http://www.missomnimedia.com)  

Son of the Sun doesn’t just have a clever band name – the name of their record company, I Blame Yoko Music, is equally as brilliant. In terms of the band’s sound, I personally blame Tom Petty, the movie Reality Bites, and the early 90’s for their simple (albeit pleasing) debut offering, The Happy Loss.
The members of Son of the Sun got to know each other in the same way as most music geeks do – by sharing their musical tastes over the internet through file-swapping. Son of the Sun formed in early 2007 with two members living on opposite sides of the country. Joseph Stocker (guitar, keyboards) lived in New York and Zak Ward (lead vocals, guitar) lived in California. After Zak moved back to Upstate, New York, the duo went on to add Jeremy Franklin (guitar), Steve Matthews (bass), and Brandon Delmont (drums), and shortly afterward (in 2008) they recorded their EP, Before the After.  Although the band has been described as “melodically detailed rock” by their managers and handlers, their sound can best be labeled “soft rock” – Not the soft rock on the radio airwaves of your local “Lite” channel – but soft rock before it was for pussies. Lead vocalist Zak Ward sounds thrillingly similar to a male version of Juliana Hatfield, and the band provides instrumentation that seems lightly coated in the psychedelic syrup of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. Standouts of the album include the soulful “How Can it Be?”, which would be perfect on an angst-ridden soundtrack for a flick boasting a “love gone wrong” theme, and “April Fools”, which could also work well in the aforementioned movie genre – during, of course, a flashback montage of the happier times. Sometimes the sonically simple songs are the most effective, as they are the ones that make your heart ache the most.  Look, let’s put it this way – not all records can be written by music theory students, or lyrics by poets. But even when writing about peanut butter sandwiches, Shel Silverstein had the power to move his audience. Such is the case with the music of Son of the Sun – It is straightforward, yet still satiates.

To get more information about the band and upcoming gigs, please visit their website at www.sonofthesunmusic.com or their myspace page. To see the band in action, also please check out their Youtube page.

Their Bated Breath - Album Review

ON YOUR RADAR: Son of the Sun is a band that won’t be toiling in regional obscurity for long. Zak Ward coos softly, sounding a bit like Coldplay’s Chris Martin. His band will undoubtedly receive all kinds of comparisons, from Interpol to The Kinks and the Kings of Leon. But maybe Son of the Sun more closely resemble a combo of Brit-rock and San Francisco’s Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This Buffalo, N.Y band is built around Ward’s gorgeous voice, layers of textured harmonies and lots of guitar delay. The most impressive thing about Son of the Sun’s new record, “The Happy Loss”, is how comfortable it all sounds, considering the number of genres the band pulls together. They mix Americana, psychedelia, alt-country and guitar-groove rock with a garage-rock sensibility. Sometimes the kitchen-sink approach makes an album feel like it isn’t unified. But this doesn’t happen on “The Happy Loss”. Son of the Sun have melded all those elements into their own unique style. This is a band with serious commercial appeal, that still maintains a high level of songcraft. Ward sings achingly about relationships, loss and love: “And I will take you out tonight / Wear your leopard-print / And I will sing the song for us / I haven’t tired of that yet / I hope you’re not tired of that yet.” The album-closer “Tell Me” might be the only misstep on this record. It’s a 50s-styled slow-waltz closer with chimes, that feels lyrically light and a bit too perfect of an album wind-down. But that’s hardly a complaint. This is a great debut album.  
– David D. Robbins Jr. (Artwork uses band cover photo.)

From Son of the Sun Blog

Ryan's Smashing Life ---- 'The Happy Loss' Review

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New Music this Week!

Someone You Should Know

One to Watch 2010: sick new sounds out of Buffalo, NY

EXCITING NEW MUSIC - Rolling into Boston sometime over the next few hours for the inevitable music bedlam that accompanies great rock bands on the rise, Buffalo's Son of the Sun are someone you should get to know. My immediate thought on listening to the band is that their a cross of two of my all-time favorite bands: Band of Skulls (the amazing new British atmospheric rock trio I have fallen for in a very big way the last 12 months) and the semi-retired Greenhornes (whose percussion and base were stolen by Jack White and Brendan Benson to form The Raconteurs.

As is the case with many musically familiar modern bands, the players from The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes dipped from the well of bands like The Animals and The Zombies and The Kinks. .So there is a clear British Invasion element here (which I have found, historically, irresistible - if done well) but I digress. Son of the Sun have a brand new album and it falls into the familiar, loving recesses of this listener's mind.

The Happy Loss (to which you are listening as you read these words) was co-produced by Mike Brown and the band. It was recorded in part at Temperamental Recordings in Geneseo, NY and mixed by Alan Weatherhead (Sparklehorse, Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker) at Sound of Music Recording Studios in Richmond, VA.

http://www.rslblog.com/

Son of the Sun

PA's Lounge

Somerville, MA
Saturday 7/10/10

NORTHEAST TOUR STARTS TODAY!

Thursday July 8th, Ithaca, NY @ The Shop w/ The Red Lions
http://theshopcafe.com/
http://www.myspace.com/theredlions

Friday July 9th, New York, NY @ Arlene's Grocery
http://www.arlenesgrocery.net/main.html

Saturday July 10th,  Somerville, MA @ PA's Lounge
http://www.paslounge.com/

Sunday July 11th, Albany, NY @ Valentines w/ Alta Mira
http://www.valentinesalbany.com/
http://www.myspace.com/altamiralive

FensePost.com Music Blog Review

6 JULY 2010 WRITTEN BY RON TREMBATH
http://www.fensepost.com/main/2010/07/06/son-of-the-sun-the-happy-loss-album-review/

Do you have an itch in your neck for some old-school-influenced, void filling, and harmony driven rock and roll? Are you looking to show your father some “new shit” that he might very well approve of? Well, look no further than Son of the Sun’s debut full length album The Happy Loss. Joseph Stocker and Zak Ward, masterminds behind the operation, have a strange sensibility to themselves when it comes to creating the constantly sought “wall of sound” that so many musicians strive to create.

The album’s highlight track, “The Other Side”, would fit amazingly well on your iTunes playlist between Jefferson Airplane and Rush (many fathers’ favorite for some strange reason). The track clocks in at an even 3 minutes, pulls out a touch of surf rock into the well-timed equation, and is an overall joy to endure. The equally catchy, and just as enjoyable quick cut, “Get Together”, might be a bit more updated for dear old Dad with it’s out-of-the-ordinary pop-punk feel. The overall playlist for The Happy Loss is solid. Son of the Sun have a keen understanding of the benefits of guitar-driven harmonies and tantalizing keyboard euphoria.

This New York based band of not so-contemporaries might just be what the mainstream world needs right now. These could very well be the guys that knock Kings of Leon back down off the pedestal the no longer deserve after their latest travesties (pretentious? maybe; whatever). But, when it comes to pure-hearted and perfectly obtuse rock and roll, The Happy Loss hits the proverbial rock dolphin right on the bottle nose of potential mass appeal.