Don’t call it a throwback, but Chess Club checks a lineup that will have ATX Gen Xers recalling 2000s-era Red River. Knife in the Water resurfaced their ambient waves when Aaron Blount reconvened the band for 2017’s Reproduction, the late Nineties outfit floating pensive, mellow rock tones that meditated in the same space as Bedhead and American Analog Set. Conrad Keely recently marked the 20th anniversary of …Trail of Dead’s seminal Source Tags & Codes before releasing XI: Bleed Here Now, but flies solo after the John-Pauls open, prepping sophomore LP Bon Mots with driving riffs that sound like a slowcore Television.
—441513
— Doug Freeman