Two Knights

Two Knights
If My Love, the Woods is the first sign of a burgeoning '90s emo resurgence, I'd be enthralled. Arlington guitar/drums duo Two Knights (twoknights.bandcamp.com) has a math-minded approach – finger-tapping guitars interweaving with jazzy, filly-heavy drums. It's technically impressive, but Parker Lawson and Miles Debruin also know how to write a good pop song and never seek to merely overwhelm. - Quick Magazine

Two Knights
If My Love, the Woods is the first sign of a burgeoning '90s emo resurgence, I'd be enthralled. Arlington guitar/drums duo Two Knights (twoknights.bandcamp.com) has a math-minded approach – finger-tapping guitars interweaving with jazzy, filly-heavy drums. It's technically impressive, but Parker Lawson and Miles Debruin also know how to write a good pop song and never seek to merely overwhelm. - Quick Magazine

Practice pays off for young Arlington duo
Thursday, November 4, 2010
By Cole Garner Hill / Liner Notes

So much of one's senior year in high school is defined by a burning sense of restlessness. Naturally, most kids can't wait to break free from tightly enforced structure and live life on their own terms.

Considering that typical spirit, Arlington's Two Knights (myspace.com/ thetwoknights), a guitar-and-drums duo of 18-year-olds, is wise beyond its years. Hearing the complex, propulsive music on its debut EP, My Love, the Woods, leads us to believe that the band's been hatching an escape for years.

Parker Lawson and Miles DeBruin spent the past two years in intense practice mode. The friends since middle school had never picked up their respective instruments. During the process of honing their sound, Lawson learned guitar and DeBruin schooled himself on drums. By late 2009, things finally clicked. With constant performances throughout 2010 at DIY venues such as Arlington's Love and Reason and Fort Worth's 1919 Hemphill, things haven't slowed down.

It's doubtful Lawson and DeBruin would have things any other way. The band's music sounds primed for exposure. Songs like "Talking With Myself" are spilling over with brainy, boundless energy. The band's math-minded, intricate style is head-spinning, but never overwhelming – innately charming in its fierce, youthful audacity. Lawson's soulful, vulnerable vocals impose just the right amount of pop structure. DeBruin's fill-heavy, jazzy drumming technique is insatiable, constantly transitioning into surprising bridges.

The approach fits with the deceptively minimal, finger-tapped guitar, recalling bands like American Football and Hella.

"We're good friends, we hang out a lot," said Lawson in a recent phone chat. "We kind of feed off each other."

My Love, the Woods is available to stream now at twoknights.bandcamp.com. Dallas' Razzmatazz Records will release the EP for download and on CD Nov. 12. Two Knights will play a free show at J&J's Pizza in Denton on Friday, with Alphabet, Mitch McNeely, Innards and Sarita Solita. - Quick Magazine