Boyfrndz

Full Album Stream, Tour dates included. - A.V. Club

Wow. The cover of Boyfrndz’ new album, Breeder, is...wow. A mixture of terrifying and baffling. It reminds us of that dancing baby screensaver from the 90s. Remember that kid? Well, that baby is 18 now. Don’t you feel old?? Only 90s kids will get this. Retweet if you’re a Belieber. Sorry, we got lost in internet memes for a minute there.

Anyway, Breeder, the second album from the Austin band, sounds like as much of a trip as its cover. Boyfrndz drift into celestial spacey rock territory a la The Mars Volta. Perfect for putting on a certain mesmerizing screensaver and just tripping out.

Listen to "Each Others" from Breeder below and catch the band on tour next month. Pre-order it here. - Noisey

The new video from Boyfrndz is pretty terrifying, even if we’re a little confused as to what type of monster we’re actually dealing with here. The song is called “Shape Shifter,” which would seem to imply some sort of werewolf-ian scenario, yet the young music fan at the center of the violence has a distinctly vampire-esque dietary plan. There’s also a distant, zombie-like look in her eyes? What’s going on here??

You might come away with a similar feeling of confusion after listening to the genre-bending music on the Austin four-piece’s recently released album, Breeder. There’s a noisy psych and shoegaze foundation, but it’s cut through with experimental sounds that straddle the border between ambient rock and electronic — a disputed territory often colloquially referred to as Radiohead-istan.

Lead singer and guitarist Scott Martin isn’t exactly sure how to put it either. “Honestly I don’t really know what that means,” he told ATX Music Mag when asked about their shoegaze roots. “I remember reading once that it was just people staring at their shoes, like pedal stompers or something. Those kind of terms evolve and turn into new things, but sure, I guess it fits.”

If the shoegaze fits, as they say. But, there’s actually a lot more precision going on in this track. The drums roll furiously despite the overall laid-back tone, Martin’s high-pitched vocals flirt between eerie and soothing, and an upstroke guitar line chimes throughout like the beat of a heart-rate monitor in a hospital room.

Pretty fitting, considering how many hearts get ripped out in the video. Erm, enjoy? - MTV Buzzworthy

BOYFRNDZ is from Austin, Texas — a city that’s more or less an island of left-leaning individuals in an otherwise red state; it’s a place of contrast. BOYFRNDZ can feel kind of like that. Take their new single “Design.” It starts with soft, sweet guitar figures before tender, quivering vocals slide into the mix. Soon those sounds of saccharine ferment into something more sour. Frenetic, distorted guitar powers through the quiet textures, a lightning storm of drums inject a sense of urgency. But soon, even that dissipates, as the song pulls back into itself to allow a guitar solo to twist out of it like smoke from a recently doused fire. Give “Design” a listen below. - Stereogum

What’s in a name? A band can give the impression of crappiness via a lame band name, even if that band totally rules. Then, though a listener is rewarded with their awesome music, the listener faces a tough sell to friends. Many a time you’ve cornered a bud with pleas to check out the mind-blowing album by an ugh-monikered band like Lillian Axe. Wrathchild America. Savatage. Tortorum. It’s an uphill battle.
Now, such is not the case with Boyfrndz — that’s a killer band name — yet it causes a similar snag, I think? For that band name primes a listener to expect, oh, maybe a light-hearted grind crew like Tony Danza Tapdance Experience, or maybe a snotty spaz clique à la Mindless Self Indulgence. Whatever the name conjures, its all-important first impression does not point you to ceiling-scraping psych metal from the fourth dimension. But that’s Boyfrndz on their second album Breeder (out today via Brutal Panda): Late-era Mars Volta by fans of Torche and Jesu, and for lovers of riveting, occasionally bluesy songcraft — not something you’d text your teen cousins about. So now we’re cornering you, dear MetalSucks reader, with a little advice: Crank the shit up (below)! U jam? - Metal Sucks

Boyfrndz keeps a tentacle in many bodies of water, from tidal post-rock and crushing typhoons of doom metal to the boiling pools of psychedelia and urgent river currents of Trail of Dead's prog-punk. Breeder, second full-length by the Austin foursome, takes a gallon from each and pours it over the amps all at once. Guitars rise and fall, dragging melodies up from the depths and sending them soaring off into space, while drums crash like a thunderstorm, then pull back into a gentle wind blowing through the fields. Meanwhile, Scott Martin's keening tenor swoops through what little empty space manifests between slabs of swollen riffery. Prolific producer Erik Wofford reigns in the chaos of "Burn Through It," "Dark Braining," and the massive "Make Believe." Like a gelatinous mass of shape-shifting translucence, Breeder doesn't play back so much as flow. - Austin Chronicle

Boyfrndz are an Austin indie rock trio whose album All Day Pass came out today. The LP was recorded mostly live over the course of three days. Impressive, considering how intricate their vocals sound. Here's the slow building album highlight "Surfs Up". - Pitchfork

Austin, TX four piece outfit Boyfrndz had Ikey Owens of Free Moral Agents join them on stage last month in their hometown for a wild ride of improvisation and communication. Free form experimentalism that leads to pointlessness wraps around a tree and winds back into groove and harmony. The drumming is really tasteful and complex, the kind of stuff you would hear in King Crimson live recordings. Beautiful and long stretched out guitar build ups along with Ikey’s distinctive organ and keyboard sound riding on top. Improvisation can lead musicians into territory that is unique to only that period it was played and this is one of those moments where the recording gear was plugged in and captured it professionally.

Boyfrndz and Ikey Owens are a perfect matching of technical approach, raw creative momentum and the ability to let it all hang out without mediocrity. This was a complete surprise as Ikey had mentioned to me he was working with some new guys and the material is mind blowing. Technically out of this world, the sound achieved on this release simply resonates as the beauty of chaos. You will love this ride, it’s one that shocked my senses every single minute. Ikey is also on a new record from Mija who is one of the first bands that we will release on the label we are preparing to launch in the coming months. Expect a full review on that coming in the next week or so. This live album with Ikey and Boyfrndz is free and in FLAC and MP3 formats, don’t skip this listen. ~ Erik Otis
- Sound Colour Vibration

"New Austin, Texas, band Boyfrndz, however, was very well-put-together, with a decidedly math-rock bent. (You don’t pack a six-string bass for nothing, right?) But they’re much more than that. They merge kinetic, head-exploding release with an airy sense of song. This melodic heavenliness makes their technicality an invigorating punch and not a dragging anchor of overreaching display that kills the humanity in their music. It’s the kind of experimental rock with real beauty, the kind that doesn’t lose sight of the emotionality of music. They were the question mark from out of town, but ended up being a surprise find." - Orlando Weekly