Transit celebrates the North Shore on its new album.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Especially when you’re living on a tour bus.
“We spend six to nine months out of a year traveling. The more you do that, the more you appreciate where you’re from,” says Tim Landers, guitarist and vocalist in the North Shore-based band Transit. At just 22 years old, the Stoneham resident has gone from gigging with his buddies at “every church and VFW within a 50-mile radius” of their North Shore hometowns to hitting the road on a national headlining tour. (They play Cambridge’s new concert hall, The Sinclair, on May 14.) Their new album, Young New England, plays like a pop-punk paean to the land of the bean and the cod-and the Red Sox, too.
Influenced by Saves the Day, Taking Back Sunday, and other “emo” (emotional) rock bands that emerged in the late-’90s, Transit has rapidly earned devoted fans and critical thumbs-up from the alternative music press. Like those groups, Transit pairs rollicking, fist-pumping tunes with melancholy lyrics about love and the (magnificently misspent) glory days of suburban youth. Every energetic anthem is tinged with nostalgia, making it the perfect soundtrack for hopping like a pogo stick at a crowded club show or singing aloud as you cruise through town.
“We wanted to write an album about how blessed we were to grow up around here,” says Landers. Recorded at Maximum Sound Studios in Danvers, Young New England features lyrical tributes to everything from Lynn, “the city of sin,” to the cobblestone streets of Boston. Even the album cover is a composite photo of scattered autumn leaves and houses on the Rockport shoreline.
Beverly’s Caspian
Transit may now be touring with their idols and selling out their own shows on a cross-country trek, but that just makes the group appreciate its small-town roots even more. “It’s cool growing up in a close-knit town where everyone knows one another,” reflects Landers. It won’t be long before even more people know their name. transitband.com -Scott Kearnan
Where Transit tracks chug along with verve, Beverly-based instrumental band Caspian is masterful at building slow-burn drama. The experimental act serves up ambient, orchestral rock arrangements, with synthesizers swelling and bass guitars throbbing. Listening to the results-like their latest album, Waking Season-is the aural equivalent of walking across a gorgeous lunar landscape. They’ve played everywhere from North Shore venues to renowned national events like SXSW-next is Boston Calling at Boston’s City Hall Plaza, May 25-26. They’ll share a bill at the Hub’s inaugural indie music festival with major names like fun., The National, and Of Monsters and Men. caspianmusic.net, bostoncalling.com