Ager, hailing from the south bay and from various punk/hardcore bands,  is gazing hard at its sneakers with their debut demo.  I mean look at their band photo they are actively shoegazing.  (I am guessing Johnny from the band took this photo.  He is a great photographer and does videos and photos for bands through his company DreamFilmsLA.)

The first thing I have to say is that most band’s demos in general are getting a lot better. The band notes on their bandcamp that they recorded this themselves at home.   They did a really nice job recording.  While the band has the signature low mixed vocals and guitars drenched in effects, these songs are a lot more hard hitting and intense than your average shoegaze song IMO.

Secrets Slipped – This would be a fun song to make a really trippy video to.  It has a real heavy driving beat in the verses that almost has a hardcore feel to it.  The song’s solo breakdown is also really driving and almost has a pulse to it.  I always feel lost in effects in shoegaze music.  I really feel like the drums stand out most to me on this song.

Feign – This I think is an instrumental track.  I really dig it, but I think the song is out of place. It really needs to be on a full record.  It could be a nice transitional track with some samples over it from a film or something.  (Now I am trying to be in the band)  Anyways, This song is also pretty hard hitting and is fun on the demo.

This demo was self-recorded and self-released.  You can listen to it below and hopefully they record an EP soon.

6.5/10

-Mahaffie