Eureka Gold

Eureka Gold may be a tough band to classify, but they're easy to describe.

Is it indie? FOlk? Country? New Wave? Sure, all of that and more.

That's not how I put it when I sing their praises and spread the work.

I must say they’re good. Really Good.

If I must be permitted an unfortunate pun as a way of introduction to Eureka Gold, I must say they don’t glitter. I mean that, of course, as the highest complement. It’s not often that you hear a new band with so much substance and so little fuss.

I could care less about shiny things. If you’re like me, you look at the bejeweled with bewilderment. But there is a reason gold has value in every civilization, and it’s not just because it’s soft on the eyes. Gold is an incorruptible substance. It doesn’t rust, it doesn’t rot, and no matter how many times, how many ways you cast it, it maintains its allure.

Eureka Gold is aptly named in this sense. They’ve survived a transplant from the chilly, bookish climes of Boston to the decidedly different landscape of Nashville, TN. Unsurprisingly, they’ve prospered. After only a few months, they’ve already earned a reputation as a reliably fantastic live band, building a following even faster than they did in Boston. And that’s saying something.

In another sense, with such incredible raw materials, great tunes are foregone conclusion in any form. Boasting an intuitive songwriting duo of Jordan Lehning and Buddy Hughen, Eureka Gold sound delightfully out-of-place among today’s self-serious indie-elite. Their debut album, Eureka Gold, may be self-titled, self-recorded, self-released, and self-promoted and, most of all, self-assured, but self-serious it ain’t. Though the record is overflowing with catchy hooks and smart choices, you can tell the band hasn’t spent all they’ve got in the bank. They’re not afraid cast their songs playfully, and there’s an inviting sense of fun and experimentation behind the spectacular melodies.

WIth dexterous and sympathetic support from bassist Zack Matthews, keymaster Adam White and drum-buddy Adam Gold, Hughen and Lehning have a lot of room for bold arrangements. An operatic vocal interlude doesn’t squash the lovely “Rest in the Dew” while “My Heart and Soul” rattles and creaks the way a hootenanny oughta. Neither sounds out of place next to the warped new-wave of “Just North” or the expansive Stars Wield.” Anything goes, and goes well.

As students of songcraft and musical history, they’ve read widely. Wary of genre worship and hipster sacred cows, Eureka Gold are songsmiths first and foremost, as hard to classify as they are easy to like. Twisted echoes of everything from the Kinks and Simon and Garfunkel to Joy Division and XTC pop up o their self-recorded debut, but the powerfully catchy songs often manage to conceal the alternately morbid and mordant lyrics.

Eureka Gold, as it turns out, are an exceedingly generous bunch. Their songs have smarts, depth, hooks and style (sometimes a couple of them), and they don’t stop giving after one listen. Eureka Gold doesn’t always dress up their songs in gossamer and rosewater. Sometimes the socks doesn't match. But for a debut album by a young band, Eureka Gold gleams with a very rare substance indeed-promise.