Beacon Within

Nashville, TN based psychedelic rock band Vinyl Soup returns in the Spring of 2013 renewed and reinvented. With their upcoming release, The Beacon Within, the band has completely grown into what the blogosphere has always believed they were : a true songwriter's jam band. The group has prepared their most mature statement to date, tackling issues of a more personal nature set to tunes and riffs that won't easily escape the mind. Witness the new lyrical subject matter that is addressed (along with headphone worthy sonics) with a focus on strong melodies and uncluttered arrangements - an individual's plunge into the state of the American health care system in the hard bluesy opening single 'Mr. Blue Shield', the fight to rise above soul crushing loneliness in the Beatlesque 'Leave Me Alone', the B-3 organ driven reap what you sow fable of 'What You Gave', the consequences of addiction set to a buzzing circus of psychedelia in 'Corner Cafe', and the plea for a modern world peace from which the album derives it's title in 'Reminding Us All', set over a Pink Floyd style insistent groove, for example. The closing trilogy of tunes ('You Live To See This Day' / 'A New Me' / 'Perspectives') speaks to the effects of the passage of time and the sense of a personal reset songwriter Andrew Hooker felt after emerging from a recent surgery, all with a Qudrophenia sense of drama and drive that goes from folky to stomping. Further defining aural textures permeate the songs on The Beacon Within : the driving yet dreamy tones of the lap steel, the eerie otherworldly strings & choirs of the mellotron, burbling and buzzing synth sounds and thick chords from the Fender Rhodes electric piano. The band is visibly excited to bring these new songs to the stage this year, with original and freewheeling improvisations often attached. Catch a band clearly hitting their prime with this new release and the forthcoming tour dates. This is Vinyl Soup.