Ears Wide Open: NO

Kevin Bronson on
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Bradley Hanan Carter sings with the weight of a guy who’s wrestled some demons, or at the very least covered a lot of miles. The latter, in Carter’s case, is inarguable – he’s the former guitarist/backup singer in the New Zealand rock quintet Steriogram, largely idle (except for a digital album in 2010) since 2007, when he settled in L.A. Since then, he masterminded the intercontinental rock band Pistol Youth, worked on solo material and, he says, “went through quite a rough season personally from mid-2008 till quite recently.” A year ago, ensconced in Echo Park, Carter began working on new music with bassist Sean Daniel Stentz, and NO was born, eventually including Joseph Sumner, Reese Richardson and Mike Walker. No attempt to thumb its nose at Google, the band’s moniker instead is conceptual – “a response to the limiting idea behind the word … an effort to reclaim it, and reinterpret it as more than just an antithesis to possibility.” So it’s is a case of no not meaning no? Maybe. But judging from the gravitas in NO’s first single “Stay With Me” – off the fivesome’s forthcoming EP “Don’t Worry, You’ll Be Forever” (due Nov. 11) – redemption is but a life-affirming anthem away.

||| Download: “Stay With Me”