Mass Shivers is band's name, desired effect
Most bands hope their audiences will feel something—some sort of connection or emotion—when hearing their music. Local band Mass Shivers has a very specific feeling in mind for their audience. As guitarist and vocalist Brett Sova said, Mass Shivers is not only the band’s name, it’s the best way to describe the intended crowd reaction.
“Like a large group of people shaking violently,” Sova said. “It’s like the experience is so cathartic, and people are freaking out.”
(Courtesy)
MASS SHIVERS
CD release party
with Cave and Shopping
10 p.m. Friday
Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.
Tickets: $8
Visit ticketweb.com or call (773) 276-3600
Churning out verifiable party music with a nod to ’70s rock, Mass Shivers is a Chicago-based trio whose original line-up consisted of two guitarists and two drummers (drummer Sean Wilke is joined by pal Dylan Ryan for live shows in Chicago). Since the 2007 release of their second album “Ecstatic Eyes Glow Gloss”y on local label Sick Room Records, the LP was re-released on vinyl last month. Over the summer, the band exchanged one guitarist for a bassist (Andy Johnson), allowing for more fully realized tunes.
“When our original guitarist quit, we recruited a friend to play bass and it’s been amazing,” Sova said. “It opened up the sonic field of what we can do. It’s nice when you can take these compositions you’ve made and stretch them out and flip them around.”
While Mass Shivers has yet to record with the new line-up, they have been touring extensively in support their second album, touting the vinyl version that they pressed themselves. The band has heard many times that they play “experimental rock,” but Sova thinks that’s just what people say because they don’t know how else to describe their shiver-inducing sound, which has also been described as pop and post-punk.
“Maybe it’s just easy to put that tag on [our music] because it’s not so cookie-cutter,” he said. “It’s not traditional. I think we arrive at traditional things, like the classic rock, but the way we get there is often kind of out of left field. We always want to be creative with what we’re doing.”
Sova said their brand of rock has even crossed into hip-hop territory on their recent tour.
“We just played this show in Brooklyn and people were juking,” he said.
Jamie Murnane is a Chicago freelance writer.