If It's Too Loud...

Photo via Facebook When I saw Escape Durgin at The Town and the City Festival in April, I loved how they didn't seem to have a specific sound and their set was all over the place musically. Last month they released "Like Vultures," which was an alternative/emo song with 80's influences. Now the Lowell band is back with "Free Shipping," which changes up their sound somewhat. This new single is more 90's alt-rock with modern touches. It starts off as an early to mid-90's ballad along the lines of Candlebox, and the morphs into a faster but still melodic track before swiching once again to something more punk based, complete with killer gang vocals. "Free Shipping" is a great mish-mash of styles that I can best compare to a combination of The Lemonheads' Taang! Records and Atlantic Records years. You can listen to "Free Shipping" below. For more on Escape Durgin, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram .

Photo via Facebook When I was young, Lowell was kind of a joke. There was a 1995 documentary called High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell  and it took literal decades to get that reputation off the city. The city has undergone an amazing transformation over the past decade or so, and nowhere is that more evident than its music scene. There isn't exactly a Lowell sound, but it seems to birth bands that take traditional genres and then add something unique to make it their own. I first discovered Escape Durgin earlier this year at The Town and The City Festival, and last Friday they released their debut single. "Like Vultures" is an alternative/emo song, but in true Lowell fashion that barely scratches the surface of what they do. It's a power ballad of sorts, but there's something oddly 80's sounding to the song... to me at least. It's kind of like if emo had sprouted up as a cultural force fifteen years before it did. Something about the guitar riff h...

Coming back to downtown Lowell for the evening portion of The Town and The City Festival, I knew I had to move between The Old Court and Thirst First. I started out at The Old Court just before Escape Durgin took the stage. The Old Court was a showcase for Lowell artists Saturday night, and Escape Durgin started it off with an eclectic set that spanned multiple genres, usually within the same song. The first song started off as more of a 90's second wave grunge power ballad in the vein of Candlebox, and quickly veered off into 70's psychedelia territory. They reminded me of a modern take on the college bands that dominated central Massachusetts in the 90's, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. Gross Girls were up next, and they may end up being my favorite musical discovery of 2025. You know how most music is either happy, angry, or sad? Gross Girls' songs seem more annoyed than anything else. It's like they took the overall vibe of the 90's and recreated i...