The Never Setting Suns

East side rock and rollers The Never Setting Suns are taking the "Big City" by storm. Rock and roll band The Never Setting Suns will be hosting their CD Release Party for their self-titled debut EP at the Rohs Street Cafe in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 6th. The Never Setting Suns are Chris Courts, Corey Larrison and Tyler Griffin. Gathering influence from bands such as Modest Mouse, Johnny Cash and the legendary Neil Young the band has found a way to encompass their musical desires into passionate, energetic, and free for all Rock and Roll.
For the past four months the band has been recording their self-titled EP "The Never Setting Suns" at Live Love Studios in Amelia, Ohio. The rock and roll trio have been experimenting with other worldly sounds creating ambient melodies that can be found on tracks on the album such as "Wrapped in Plaster."
- Eastside Vibe

Funny/strange the way clerks sometimes question what you buy. I was at a quickie-mart buying a Powerbar. Clerk said, “Wow, healthy snack! Same as yesterday!” I was kinda creeped out.

Next girl bought a 12-pack. Clerk said, “You gonna put that all away tonight?” Girl turned red.

It was nonstop. Out of the damn dark, sometimes people do or say or play unexpected shit that shakes you up. And so it is with local trio The Never Setting Suns.

The Suns and I are laughing about super-invasive clerks while hanging out at this same quickie-mart. See, we’re here ‘cause some hippie was jamming his butt off at the coffeeshop where we were supposed to meet. Weird new ambiance, but it’s worth it, just for the people show.

From Cincinnati, The Never Setting Suns have rocked out together since 2008. Their songs might have a structured backbone to begin, but then eight bars of chaos sneak in. They’ll start with a melody, tear it up and then destroy it, as in the tricky, dynamic “Spheres.”

Slick Diesel sneakers on his feet, Corey Larrison (vocals, guitar) has a striking smile that often slips into an evil grin. In seventh grade, Larrison found a nasty, half-charred, beat-up bass underneath the stairs at home, so he headed out for Funk bass lessons with Freakbass’ Chris Sherman.

Later, Larrison switched to bleeding on his guitar. Literally. He rolls up his sleeve, revealing scars. For fun, Larrison hangs out with “realistic brokenness” and a “strange, but very comfortable feeling of hopelessness,” the dark and the deep.

After training camp (high school), Larrison hooked up with Chris Courts (bass) and Tyler Griffin (drums). Griffin and Larrison worked out some Noise Rock in the basement. Larrison laughs.

“We had the cops called on us a lot,” he says. Yeah, their neighbors always hated them.

Courts sports a thick beard and Pumas, and his MySpace bio video is hilarious with ingenious timing. He calls this project “a Noise band with a bassist.”

Griffin isn’t hanging with us at junk food central, but they say that when he hits skins he’s an intense animal. Larrison says, “I look back at Tyler and he has this gnarled face, smashing things, going crazy.”

They describe him as Larrison’s twin with Lego-man black hair.

The band’s new CD, And Now We’re Not Alone, was recorded at Ultrasuede Studio with Chad Wahlbrink. Dave Davis mastered.

On the NSS sound (inspired early on by Modest Mouse), Larrison says, “I’m just taking what I’ve loved from musicians like Isaac Brock and Jeff Tweedy, seeing the things they did, reciprocating that and recognizing that I’m continuing it.”

Introspective with a touch of “bad,” the songs hold a consistent vibe, but they’re far from direct shooters.

Rather than playing straight-up, Larrison says they push moods.

“I love Fugazi’s Red Medicine. Toward the end of their career, they got really experimental and would do these weird songs with all these strange noises,” he says. “I wasn’t into Sonic Youth at the time, but that’s where the Noise Rock came out of, and now we’re into harnessing all of those elements.”

Larrison also gives a shout to Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

“They did it with the mindset of writing all the songs out and then they deconstructed them," he says. "That stuck with us a lot.”

The Suns aren’t cookie cutter. “Into Your Hands” is a whopping 11 minutes long.

“In the middle of the song, we stop playing, and it goes into dissonance," Larrison says. "In a live performance, I’ll just scream into the pickups or scratch it with my fingers, do things like that to get any kind of strange sound I can out of it.”

Body movement, effects pedals and weird sounds are as much a part of the show as the instruments and vocals.

“Our drummer destroys his cymbals, shredding sticks everywhere," Courts says. "There are many moments where it’s high intensity, high energy and we bring it back down to an actual jam or a melody.”

Whether shocking the audience or drawing them in, Larrison explains, “There’s a thing that I have to get outta me. It’s a release. The performance, the energy, all of that stuff is much more important to me than even our album. In my mind, my dream is for (the audience) to just go crazy, to experience something that’s collectively ours.” - CityBeat

Who they are: Corey Larrison (guitar and vocals), Tyler Griffin (drums) and Chris Courts (bass)
Hometown: Cincinnati
Latest Project: "And Now We're Not Alone," out March 20
Sounds like: Indie rock with a hint of noise and a nod to Neil Young.
First Show: All-night laser tag party at a pirate-themed laser tag arena—it was the first time Chris ever played with Tyler and Corey

This group of friends, who have been playing together for almost year and a half, are getting ready to release their first album, which was recorded at John Curley’s Ultrasuede Studio. Their debut just happens to be a concept album. They talk with us about that album, as well as a personal identity crisis, the cuteness of Kelly Clarkson and a new fashion line from the Kings of Leon.

Name two records that really influenced you
Corey: I guess to answer that for me, the two records would be Modest Mouse, their first album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, and Built to Spill’s first album, which was called There’s Nothing Wrong with Love. I want to hear Tyler answer this one since he really likes hardcore music.
Tyler: I don’t really have any favorites of anything. I listen to everything pretty much. I’ll listen to rap; I’ll listen to hardcore.

OK, then what were the last two albums that you listened to?
Tyler: I listened to the Von Bondies’ album [Pawn Shoppe Heart] on my way over here.
Chris: This is kind of a hard question. I would say that I listen to a lot of stuff. I really enjoy Explosions in the Sky. I listen to them a lot. I love that, you know, post-rock. And Kings of Leon stuff, like before they got on the radio and were really popular in the U.S. Because of the Times and Youth & Young Manhood, like their very first, that stuff is awesome, far better than what they are doing now.

You know they’re putting out their own fashion line, what do you think of that?
Chris: Are they really? Ahhhh. I just lost respect for them.

Are you going to burn your records now?
Chris: [dejectedly] Maybe. That sucks.

You have a new album, how long is it and are there any themes to your songs?
Corey: It’s exactly 60 minutes and 2 seconds. It’s only 10 songs. We’re kind of strange songwise. One song is 11 minutes long and another is only about 6 minutes long, but completely instrumental. We really take a lot of postrock [influence]—Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You Black Emperor. There’s a lot of that powerful intensity. Thematically the album has a storyline to it. It was written as a concept album.

Your first work and already it’s a concept album?
Corey: I’m a big sucker for Wilco, Modest Mouse and really Neil Young. So really, the idea of the songs working together, it stuck out to me. I really love "The Moon & Antarctica," by Modest Mouse, and how Isaac Brock in interviews that he did and whenever he talked about it, he just talked about how he wrote the whole thing as a story. The first five songs deal with, I guess, personal reflections. They are written from that vantage point. At least the lyrics are; they are from my perspective. And they are looking at my own life. A lot of it has to deal with depressing things, like I really feel incapable of bettering myself. So the songs deal with the anxiety involved with doing things that I don’t want to do, just sort of centralizing around an anti- self-help mindset. If you heard some of the songs, it would be really clear. There are a lot of just dark elements to those songs.

You’re only 21! That’s awfully young to be having a crisis of identity isn’t it?
Chris: Wait ‘til the second album comes out!
Corey: Well, actually, it’s funny you should say that. Eric Ericson’s last stages of personal development, identity happens when you’re in high school and ends when you’re about 20. So most people who have identity crises are people who by the time they’re 20 haven’t figured out who they are.

How do you know this?
The Eric Erickson thing came from an English class I had recently. It was actually about pop culture. I wrote a paper on Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears and how they are both in the middle of an identity crisis according to psychoanalysis.

What’s your take on current pop culture? Any guilty pop-culture pleasures?
Chris: I already said Kings of Leon. Hahaha.
Corey: Actually, I’m going to confess for Chris right now. He’s obsessed with Kelly Clarkson.
Chris: That’s not true! I thought she was cute when she was on American Idol. I don’t listen to her music.
Corey: Hehehe. Tyler and I both secretly watch "Project Runway."
Tyler: Thank you.

It’s OK, I’m sure the Kings of Leon are fans as well. So, tell me, on typical weekend night, where would I find you guys?
Corey: Chris and I, we live together. Tyler lives with us but he doesn’t have to pay rent.
Chris: Hahaha. He just hangs out here a lot.
Corey: We just hang out I guess. We spend a lot of time with each other and our close friends.
Chris: Yeah, we’re usually hanging out at the house or catching other local shows.
Corey: We’re really excited about what’s been happening locally. This past November, we played with a band called the Whigs, and The Features and The Dead Trees with them. In December we played with The Pomegranates and All the Day Holiday. It’s cool for us because we really, really want to try to be a part of Cincinnati. It’s seems strange, but it’s cool that with this album and with the shows at Southgate House and just everything we’ve been doing, we’ve become a part of Cincinnati’s music culture. It’s really cool and encouraging because for the longest time, it really felt like, if you want to be a good band in Cincinnati, you have to go to Chicago or somewhere else to prove that you have a national following. If you’re not playing nationally, you’re not recognized locally, which is really frustrating if you’re a local band. We’re really trying to fight that. We’ll play in the future more shows nationally, but it’s cool that we don’t have to make up a false identity about ourselves. We’re not trying to pretend that we’re something bigger than we are just so that people accept us.

If you go
What: Never Setting Suns CD release party with Charlie Hustle, Irela and Joel Jacobsen.
Where: Southgate House, 24 E. Third St., Newport
When: 9 p.m. Saturday, March 20
Price: $8 ages 20 and under, $5 ages 21 and up
Contact: 859-431-2201 or www.southgatehouse.com - Metromix

The Never Setting Suns - an indie rock band with members from Anderson Township, Bethel and Amelia - will celebrate the release of their first full-length album, "And Now We're Not Alone," with a show at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, March 20, at Southgate House in Newport, Ky.

Vocalist and guitarist Corey Larrison said he met drummer Tyler Griffin and bassist Chris Courts shortly after graduating from Anderson High School in 2007.

"There's just something about music that comes out of the three of us," Larrison said.

"The more we know each other, the more intimate the performance."

Griffin, of Amelia, said being such good friends has helped the band with their music, both in the studio and on the stage.

He said the tight-knit trio was able to pen new songs and rework old ones for the album.

This album is more melodic than some of the band's early songs, Larrison said, with darker undertones and themes in the music.

"The album itself is kind of a cumulative effort by all three of us to be together and write together," said Courts, of Bethel.

"A lot of people pick up on the unity between us as friends and a band."

Courts said the band has a natural chemistry that allows them to play off each others' intensity and improvised stage tricks.

Larrison said the connection between the band members helps The Never Setting Suns connect with the audience.

"I really feel like what we're doing is an expression of feeling," he said.

"We either turn off or move people. They dance or they stare."

Regardless of how each audience member reacts to the music, The Never Setting Suns are leaving an impression on the local music scene, with a following at Anderson High School and close to 1,400 MySpace friends.

And they're making a dent on a larger scale, opening for national acts such as The Features, Crash Kings and The Whigs. - Community Press Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio-based trio of musicians Corey Larrison (vocals, guitar), Chris Courts (bass) and Tyler Griffin (percussion) make up The Never Setting Suns who happen to be front and center at Southgate House this evening for their record release party. The album, titled And Now We're Not Alone, was recorded last summer at local Cincinnati studio Ultrasuede with producer Gary Shell and engineer Chad Wahlbrink both lending their talents to the finished product. Now having listened to the impressive preview track we have featured, as well as a pair of additional songs on The Never Setting Suns MySpace page, our curiosity is very much piqued. Could the crisp, clear and frequent transitions in song structure be an influence stemming from fIREHOSE? Are the teetering vocals an homage to David Thomas of Pere Ubu? These questions, however ear-provoking, can probably be postponed as the band presents a sound that forges a path of its own with this new release. Tonight's show opens at 8:00 pm so be sure to arrive early as local bands Charlie Hustle and Irela will be performing as well. Looking forward to it. - Milk Milk Lemonade