Far

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have certain Jonah Matranga projects that were my favorites. I’d also be lying if I said that, of those projects, the ones where Matranga gets more growl-y and more epic jam-y weren’t top ranked. Point being, Matranga’s a skilled and emotive vocalist capable of doing great things with his voice, but when backed by his Far band mates, he’s even better. It’s been 12 years since the band put out a full-length album, so needless to say, some new material from these guys has been a long time coming. More than that, half the emo and indie bands on your iPod right now would probably cite them as one of their influences, so this is a perfect jumping-on point to see why all those bands got stoked on Far back in the day. At least, those bands whose members have already gone through puberty and are old enough to know who Far is. - Brien Overly