Vug Arakas
Los Angeles, CA | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | SELF
Music
Press
L.A. RECORD is honored (and even a little emotional) to have the chance to premiere the new video “Strange Way” by L.A. musician Vug Arakas, currently on tour now. (Dates below.) “Strange Way” is a very specific kind of song—subtle and artful in a way that makes hard things seem a little easier, and if you’re thinking of the Replacements circa Let It Be or the Feelies circa Only Life or maybe even something by the too-obscure Elliott Murphy … well, then as a wise guy once said, “You think like I think!” Or to put it simply: it’s not fancy, but it’s got soul. This video was directed by Dustin White (for Country Boy Cancer Vibe) with no equipment dated later than the 80s—yes, VHS, but all the post-production, too. (“Technology you would have found at a public access TV station,” we’re told.) The “Strange Way” cassette single was produced by Luther Russell, who is currently and appropriately in a band with Big Star drummer/Ardent Studios mainstay Jody Stephens, and is out now and available here. Arakas is on tour with a full band (including members of Pink Mountaintops and and TK Webb and the Visions) between residency dates at Union Pool in Brooklyn. That info below—and get ready to welcome him home soon! - LA Record
“Strange Way” is like the hurting songs from the Replacements’ Let It Be and the hopeful ones from the Feelies’ neglected Time For A Witness (crushingly appropriate nerd joke: sooner or later, I will dare?) and the against-the-world rock ‘n’ rollers the Mice’s Bill Fox made with his brother on drums, too: Midwestern guitar rock, I think they call it, which is just shorthand for “unsatisfied and a guitar,” and that brings us to Vug and his guitar. Everything here sounds like its barely holding together, especially Vug himself, who writes and sings within the few inches between desperate, desolate and determined. These really are artful, crafted, heartfelt songs, but he doesn’t treat them gently. Instead, he gives them more than he probably thought he had to give: “Honest, like I promised / nobody wants this, nobody knows … for sure,” he sings on “Strange Way.” Side 2’s “Your Appeal” is like pre-major-label Shoes (thanks for the insight, Ale of dublab) via Paul Collins or a de-glossed Elvis Costello that starts with, “How could I trust her?” Turns out, that’s half of the appeal. (Or as a young Paul W. wrote, “The way I used to love you is the way I hate you now.”) Credit production as well to Luther Russell, by the way, who turns these songs into exactly what they needed to be. Highest recommendation if you like a song that isn’t lying to you. - LA Record
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Vug Arakas is a resident of Los Angeles; a songwriter who left Columbus, Ohio in 2012 to see what the other side of the country had to offer.
While Los Angeles is full of sunshine and endless “goodtimes”, it’s also full of broken dreams, harsh realities, psychic vampires, and vapid mysticism. Not to mention those endless “goodtimes” often come with a hell of a price. After settling in to LA Vug quickly experienced all of the above and did what any songwriter worth his salt would do: he wrote about it.
Plenty of songwriters have thrown their hat into the ring of describing the characters that litter LA at 2am and those who spend the next day with sunglasses held tight by shaky hands. The lovable losers. This batch of songs is something different though. In these songs you feel the alienation that drives those characters to do what they do. To feel what it’s like for the only person you know in town is the waitress at the restaurant who brings you eggs the morning after. Not that it’s all darkness. There is plenty of hope that things will get better in the end sprinkled throughout. It’s all here, but not in black and white – it’s all in shades of grey.
They tend to throw around the term “old fashioned” these days for anybody who “just” plays rock ‘n roll and while this band does play rock ‘n roll there is nothing “old fashioned” about this. It’s absolutely timeless without being regressive or retro or falling into cliché. It’s simply good.
Band Members
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