Artist: The Mae Shi Album: HLLLYH Label: Team Shi

Synopsis: The Mae Shi are a six piece band out of L.A. They like to dress in flashy colors and play amazing music. It is soooooooo catchy and sooooooo dance-y, I can’t stop listening to it. It is pop/dance music with some punk vocals, like yelling and screaming, and then other times some 80s vocoder vocals or pop-punk vocals. In almost every song the entire band is singing at the same time – some sweet harmony. I enjoy this so much so, that even though I love their infectious dance songs, my favorite song is the slowest, simplest song on the album because the words are so cool and everyone is singing at the same time – like a choir. The beats are amazing. The riffs are amazing. The vocals are amazing. Period.

Recommended Tracks:

*1. “Lamb And Lion” – A really fast dance song with layers of synth and a poppy drumbeat.

*2. “Pwnd” – Such an intense, fast song with some jaw-dropping parts, like the times where it gets kind of quiet and someone is just talking, or the end when all the music stops and everyone in the band is yelling “get ‘em out of those bodies!”

*4. “7xx7” – A song that starts out with the band going “sh, sh, sh, sh, sh…” all quiet like and then explodes into a punk song.

*7. “Run To Your Grave” – A little more run of the mill pop/dance song, but done sooooo well, and just like their other songs, it just has some amazing parts in it. Like the part where just the snare is banging extremely fast, nothing else is playing, and everyone in the band is chanting. Awesome clapping parts.

9. “I Get (Almost) Everything I Want” – This is the aforementioned simple and slow song, with just a repeated electric guitar riff with really loud drums in one part, but it sounds so cool because everyone in the band is singing the same two lines over and over – like a choir that hypnotizes.

12. “Book Of Numbers” – Another kind of slow song where everything drops off at the end and the entire band is singing – I guess they do this a lot, but they are really good at it and I’m a sucker for it.

Rating (1-10): 9

Reviewed By: Rand Renfrow

* - currently being played on KTSW