Back in the days when I was a teenager1, before I had status and before I had a lovely smartphone with physical keys, keyboardist Dylan Maida was a kid from Queens who followed me on last.fm, which means early on I could see he had good taste. The City College of New York student is older now, learning more about his craft, playing gigs here and there, and has just released an album with a trio including bassist Arden Yonkers and drummer Dan Keegan. Together, they are Pink Ride and their new EP, available now at their Bandcamp and on Spotify, is a more than respectable release from these young guys just starting to make their way in the music world.
The six-song EP has the bedroom album feel that one would expect from a trio of music students, bringing with it all the jamminess and earnestness that one should expect. However, as the album seems to open up track by track, stirring little punches of amazing crop up like hearing Maida’s solo in “Limber” when he really goes on a tear or how everything comes together perfectly on “George” with Keegan holding things down, Yonkers’ game-changing distortion, and Maida’s shifting between keyboard and organ tones. There are plenty of little moments throughout the album that definitely make the whole EP worth your attention. These guys are going places and this is a wonderful little early work documenting the greatness that is to come.
Stream Pink Ride’s debut self-titled EP
1 Early twenties, really, but I’m going for the joke here.You understand. ↩
Nextbop Editor-in-Chief Anthony Dean-Harris hosts the modern jazz radio show, The Line-Up, Fridays at 9pm CST on 91.7 FM KRTU San Antonio and is also a contributing writer to DownBeat Magazine and the San Antonio Current.
