Modern Vices

Howling like a wolf in heat, Modern Vices uses rock and roll as a mating call. The dark alleys of noir youth rebellion, the band concocts a loud and raucous release that pairs with the like of the Modern Lovers, Rock A Teens, and The Strokes to a lesser degree.

On some level, you can expect to get reeled in by the hooks, on another level, you are attracted by the darkness the band emits. For a self-recorded debut, it packs quite the punch. When you first hear “Keep Me Under Your Arms,” you feel like the band is on the verge of collapse and their sound will implode within itself. Alex Rebek’s vocals go higher, guitars get louder, it’s the definition of chaos done well enough you won’t find yourself repulsed by its disconcordance.

“Smoke Rings” is late ‘50s garage croon from the ashes of Detroit sweat that wears its nametag. For a band coming out of Chicago, it’s not too far from the epicenter of garage rock, punk, and soul legends the Motor City created.

“Nothing So Cold” is perfect autumn festivities. Jacket wrapped in torn denim roaming through the city. The song is as exploratory as it is lonely. From the Windy City to the City that Never Sleeps, Modern Vices will be tearing up CMJ this year with these songs.

Wipe off those lipstick stains, light a smoke, and make sure that hair is slicked back because Modern Vices are for the heartbreakers and thrillmakers. - Selective Memory Magazine / Andrew Duncan

CMJ is a frenzied, overflowing affair. Under its umbrella exist a countless number of shows — thanks to all the unofficial get-togethers that cling on like barnacles — meaning no single music writer (or anyone else) can make it to even a quarter of all of the shows going on in New York during the six-day spectacle.
Despite the sheer immensity of the thing, we did our damnedest, trekking out to the city’s frontier and, in the end, cutting a pretty good swath through the festival — getting exposed to all manners of sludge-y psychedelia and jangly twee pop and “dirty doo-wop” and everything in between, from bands all across the U.S. We dumped the whole clattering mass of bands through a strainer and came up with the five bands we were most excited to discover at CMJ 2014.
Modern Vices
We don’t know what it was like to see the Strokes in New York City in, like, 2000 (when they still had that sheen of the new and the exciting), but we imagine it was a little like watching Modern Vices, who played at Rough Trade on Friday night. Straight from Chicago, they call their style “dirty doo-wop,” and we can see it — to compliment his Julian Casablancas inflection, singer Alex Rebek has a whole crooner thing going on, like Dean Martin on speed. Plus a whole mane of luscious, wavy brown hair, which isn’t that relevant, except that we couldn’t stop looking at it.
Check out: ‘Taller In the Sunshine'; ‘Keep Me Under Your Arms’


Read More: 5 Great Bands We Discovered at CMJ 2014 | http://diffuser.fm/5-great-bands-cmj-2014/?trackback=tsmclip - Diffuser / Chris Kissel

Chicago indie rockers Modern Vices have given their style of music the interesting classification of “dirty foo-wop,” which probably makes them the only band to represent that genre.

And that’s OK, because this young, gritty quintet seems to have made a comfortable home in a land of fuzzy garage rock mixed with soaring vocals from singer Alex Rebek. Modern Vices recently showcased their sound in a session at Audiotree Studios in their hometown, performing several tracks off self-titled 2014 album, including “You’re So Special” and “Smoke Rings.”

In all, Modern Vices performed five songs, and you can watch the set below. - Fender Artist Magazine

Modern Vices (self-titled)
Chicago rockers Modern Vices lace their lean, Strokes-ian guitar licks with enough fuzz and grit to make Kevin Shields proud but never rely on these immediately recognizable influences to prop up their music. Describing their music as "dirty doo-wop," the band appropriates the melodic core of bands who inhabited the late '50s world of pop-centric radio and slathers it in a haze of grime and churning rhythms, creating something that sticks in your head like only the best pop music can. But Modern Vices do not make pop music—or rather, they don't make pop music with any discernible antecedents.

And on their self-titled debut record, they successfully make the case that there are still some corners left to be mined, even in the most worn of musical genres. Buoyed by the fierce vocals of lead singer Alex Rebek, these songs exist in a terse no-man's-land between the angular rock of Franz Ferdinand and the cocky swagger of Arctic Monkeys. Rarely has a band so perfectly captured the sound and feel of what it must have been like to live in New York City in the mid-'70s—these tracks exude an unpredictable nature, as if they were some feral thing, ready to lash out at the slightest provocation. Modern Vices may not claim a long history for themselves, but their music seems to stretch back decades, and pulses with a fierce and resolute heart. - Nooga.com / Joshua Pickard

For the past two years, Chicago has been regarded as a “hot bed” for new bands. Like The Strokes kicking it off in NYC in 2001, this “garage rock revival” of sorts has found new roots in the Midwest. While many have started to break through, the most-promising of the lesser-knowns, Modern Vices prove that they’re not far behind at all.

Their self-titled LP blends lo-fi buzz, light psychedelia, ’50s-inspired pop vulnerability, and echoes of west coast surf-rock to create their own, lovingly self-proclaimed “dirty doo-wop.” A sort of dance hall rock and roll. Vocalist Alex Rebek’s rasp-laced howl soars like a young Brandon Flowers (come on, The Killers *used to be great) on tracks, “Cheap Style” and “Keep Me Under Your Arms,” but he also has the ability to croon like a doo-wop Danzig on “(Don’t) Hold Me Down” and the album’s lush, stand-out closer, “Baby.”

Modern Vices aren’t comparable to other Chicago acts in the sense of having two-minute, squealing, punk outbursts or channeling anything that could be too easily simplified. Between the musicianship and lyrics, the solid melodies and effortlessly hypnotic sway created by these fives guys shows they’re potential to be bigger than any punk outburst could hope to be.

Be sure to check them out when they play Empty Bottle on Dec.16 or with Yoko + the Oh No’s, The Liqs, and The Evening Attraction at Beat Kitchen. - Local Loop / Jessi Roti

How can a band be so young and so good? For Modern Vices, a group created in 2013 and consisting of 19- and 20-year-old Elmhurst natives, the quality is not a fluke.

The band's rise from Chicago-area house shows to appearances at music showcase CMJ in New York, and sets at Metro and Beat Kitchen came after only a few short years of dedication, experimentation and hard work.

Composed of Alex Rebek on vocals, Patrick Hennessey on drums, Peter Scoville and Thomas Peters on guitar and Miles Kalchik on bass, Modern Vices makes music that's easy to fall in love with and very difficult to ignore.

And after a quick spin of the group's self-titled debut from October 2014, it'll be difficult to believe the quintet hasn't broken through in an even bigger way than it already has (It's not every day that an underage group gets to headline venues it normally couldn't visit.)

Modern Vices is not a band that found success by accident, and its members refuse to see the music they've created and want to create in such a limited capacity.

"You can always do better," Scoville said.

And it's true. The members take their music as something of a full-time commitment, even as most of them maintain part-time or full-time jobs to pay their bills.

But going all in is usually the sort of choice young men like the Modern Vices crew make later in life, after getting a taste of the 9-to-5 routine.

Luckily for Modern Vices, it didn't have to grapple with the creative limits of the real world before diving right into the music career. The members dropped out of college (DePaul University, Columbia College and Skidmore, in upstate New York) to pursue music on their own terms. They now all live together in Lakeview.

The decision wasn't the easiest one, but they also didn't mull over it. The most difficult part was finding a good band name. After originally settling on Baby Baby, they learned another group had the same name. In the end, Modern Vices is a sturdier moniker, one built to last the ups and downs of burgeoning music stardom.

It also didn't hurt that the band had a strong background of musicianship and a smart, infectious album of material to support their dreams. Group members built their chops in the surprisingly strong underground rock scene in Elmhurst, typically playing house shows in their fellow classmates' homes.

Later, when most of the members moved to Chicago for college, they quickly soaked up the opportunities of the city's live-music scene.

When they finally came together as Modern Vices, building work was simple. Members used previously created songs that were then altered and shaped in the group setting. Rather than trickle into the music world, they decided to dive headfirst into a full-length work.

"We just wanted to release a whole album out of nowhere, really," Peters said.

Though the members describe themselves as a dirty doo-wop band, their album is a brilliant collection of throwback rock, garage and new wave.

And though the band's list of influences includes Radiohead, the Beatles and Twin Peaks (a Chicago band that Modern Vices both admires and is friends with), the sound most closely resembles a perfect mix of the heavy, energetic guitar riffs of the Strokes coupled with the yearning of British new wave/post-punk act Orange Juice. Songs like "Cheap Style" or "Taller in the Sunshine" are super-short, yet charismatic and catchy.

Modern Vices sounds immediately familiar, a quality found often in music that speaks to our most trusted and desirable sonic aesthetics.

The group's small body of work is melodic, the sort of music that should have no problem finding an audience.

And speaking of the future, the band's looks especially bright: 2015 should bring more sets (including more house shows, the group's favorite performance venue) and a new album.

For the ensemble's members, success is "making music, meeting people, traveling and making it a career," Rebek said.

But more than anything, as Peters added, "We just want to be free to do what we want to do." - Chicago Tribune

Modern Vices describe their sound as “dirty doo-wop,” but don’t get too confused. These Chicago-based rockers — vocalist Alex Rebek, bassist Miles Kalchik, drummer Patrick Hennessey, and guitarists Peter Scoville and Thomas Peters – owe more to the heritage of the Modern Lovers and the Velvet Underground than the group harmonies of the Del-Vikings or the Flamingos. In the case of Modern Vices, the doo-wop tag is more an abstraction, a descriptive nod to the prevailing mood that dominates their self-titled debut for Autumn Tone. Even at their hardest, on songs like “Cheap Style” and “Taller in the Sunshine,” there’s a tender, lovelorn spirit hovering over Rebek’s bathed-in-reverb vocals. Like Hamilton Leithauser before him, the young front man ditches the detached persona that plagued indie rock through much of the ‘Aughts, instead going all in, crooning with crazed passion and force, like Sinatra or Bobby Darin fronting a punk band.

Sonically indebted to the tangled rock of Television and the sharp pop of the Smiths, the album is a blur of guitars and drums, and occasionally Rebek sounds as if he’s climbing to get out from under it all, but his straining only makes lines like “Let the night begin/let it never end” all the more compelling. And when the band does overtly embrace their R&B influences, like on the smoldering “Smoke Rings” or closing epic “Baby,” they indicate that that whole doo-wop thing kind of transcends stylistic concerns, tilting toward universal themes and concerns: quick glances, heavy breaths, and broken hearts. words / j woodbury - Aquarium Drunkard

No rules as things got rowdy when Chicago’s Twin Peaks rolled in to play a packed non-descript DIY space called the HiFi Deli. It was a scene of chaos and excitement as fans arduously endured the sweltering conditions and the risk of being trampled. Cadien Lake James’ head spun as did the room. The guys had to take a break or two when fans became a little too frenzied and kept knocking the keyboard off its stand. Good times. Also from Chicago, Modern Vices brought with them their dirty doo-wop vibe to the show. Vocalist Alex Rebek’s crooning voice was on full display during their sweet song “Smoke Rings.” LA’s own Ferbus played a few songs including their single “Explain Yourself. Local band Slow Hollows got things started for the night playing stuff from their upcoming album “Atelophobia.” - Maximilian Ho

One of my favorite records from last year was the self-titled debut from a band out of Chicago named Modern Vices. Back in July, we premiered their first single, "Cheap Style," and now the group is back with a video for "Smoke Rings," which we're giving you below. These dudes make what they call doo-wop music, and this track and video is a perfect example o their sound and aesthetic. It's the kind of music that feels like 3 AM on the weekend, when you're loose and dancing and making poor decisions. The visual matches the song's swinging feeling, too. On that note, Matthew Weiner, are you reading this? Let's get this on an episode of the final season of Mad Men. Imagine with me for a moment: Peggy says a biting comment to Don, drops a stack of papers on his desk, and walks out of his office. As she strolls down the hallway, Modern Vice's sweeping guitars start to chime in. Credits roll. Emmys won. - Eric Sundermann

Chicago's Modern Vices make "dirty doo-wop", as they call it. Like The Orwells, they pack a pretty hefty punch caught live. Fans of wild garage-rock, look alive. - NME