Infantree Bring Hero’s Dose to Santa Barbara

Just out of the studio with Niko Bolas, a producer whose past collaboration credits include the likes of Neil Young, Secret Sisters, Melissa Etheridge, and KISS, L.A.-based quartet Infantree is set to play Velvet Jones this Friday, June 29. The band is currently touring on behalf of their newly-released sophomore album Hero’s Dose. Like their debut record, it’s full of gratifying light alt-rock.

Infantree is slated to embark on a summer/fall tour with Neil Young and the Crazy Horse, accompanying the old-time rockers from Ontario to the Midwest, South, and ultimately back to their stomping grounds of Los Angeles by October. The band will also squeeze in a few summer music festival stops, swinging by Outside Lands, Austin City Limits, and Voodoo.

On Hero’s Dose the band wanders away from the more folksy, banjo-tinted sounds of their 2010 debut disc Would Work, but carries over their signature mellow grooves.

Hero’s Dose opens with the loungey track “What You Wanna Do.” Musically and lyrically, the song feels like the long-awaited fulfillment and released tension of a suppressed crush. The band kicks up the tempo with pleasing vocal harmonies in the merry “Bag of Tricks.” Single “Fibber,” which the band is set to perform on Conan on June 28, presents resentful undertones in an upbeat setting, with lyrics like: “Could you help to pay the rent? / Not so independent are you?” Later, “Forgive Me First” reverts back to the denouement-like, happily resolved feel of the opening track.

Title track “Hero’s Dose” resumes the passionately indignant lyrics of Fibber with lines like “I’ll wait for you until I’m dead… Get over it. You get over yourself.” The entire record seems to revert back between these two themes, consistent throughout with a vibe of letting go of pent-up feelings.

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Infantree play a 21+ show at Velvet Jones with The Royalty on Friday, June 29 at 9 p.m. Call 965-8676 or visit velvet-jones.com for tickets and info.