Vundabar
Vundabar is an American indie rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band consists of Brandon Hagen (vocals, guitar), Drew McDonald (drums, synthesizer), and Zack Abramo (bass).

Vundabar released their first full-length album in 2013 titled Antics. In 2015, Vundabar released their second full-length album titled Gawk. In 2017, Vundabar performed at the Boston Calling Music Festival. In February 2018, Vundabar released their third full-length album titled Smell Smoke which was recorded by Keith Abrams at Headroom Studios in Philadelphia. In March 2020, Vundabar released their fourth album Either Light. Vundabar released their fifth full-length album Devil for the Fire on 15 April 2022.

On September 16, 2022 they released their sixth full-length album Good Old, which consisted of seven songs recorded between the releases of Gawk and Smell Smoke and four acoustic versions of previously released songs. On May 5, 2023 they released the singles Digital Forest and Sugar Pill.

Band history

Before Vundabar, Brandon Hagen and Drew McDonald were in a band with a few school friends called No Nada, but the band separated in 2012, everyone going their separate ways, except for Hagen and Mcdonald. Some of the old  songs have been found by fans through Hagen's now retired SoundCloud, and through other sources. When McDonald was attending college he met Zack Abramo. McDonald introduced him to Hagen and they decided they would make a good pair for music composing. In 2013 they released their debut full-length album titled Antics. They adopted a more gritty tone on their second album Gawk in 2015, which added a more post-punk sound to the mix. 

In mid-2016, a new member of the band was present in an interview. The former bassist, Zack Abramo, appeared to have left the band to  work on his own music group, being the lead vocalist and guitarist for Crag Mask. Their new bass player was Greyson Kirtland. He continued to appear in live shows and interviews until late 2018, when the band tweeted about their next show, in which Abramo would be joining them again.

In 2018 their third studio-album was released titled “Smell Smoke” originally called “Crack Mask” according to an interview with Audiotree. For their fourth album Either Light they changed their style and their songwriting technique. Hagen revealed in an interview with Allston Pudding that they wrote much of the songs on piano or synthesizer instead of guitar. The album featured jangle elements on a few songs and different instrumentation such as synths, vibraphone or acoustic guitar. In 2021 their song "Alien Blues" went viral on TikTok and has since been streamed over 300 million times on Spotify. In 2022 Vundabar released their fifth album titled Devil for the Fire and their sixth album, Good Old, was released in September of the same year.

On May 5, 2023, they released two new singles, "Digital Forest" and "Sugar Pill."

Musical style

Their musical style is described as indie rock with elements of post-punk (Gawk and later albums), jangle pop (Either Light and later albums) and surf rock. Allmusic describes their style as "jangly, fuzzed-out math- and surf-tinged indie rock shot through with plenty of post-punk spirit".

As influences, the band named Dick Dale, singer Brandon Hagen also named the Osees, bassist Zack Abramo named electronic music such as Burial, and drummer Drew McDonald named Tame Impala. 

On their first three albums, Vundabar mainly played their music on guitar, bass and drums. On their albums Either Light and Devil for the Fire, they also used synthesizers, electronic drum sounds and other instruments like piano or Omnichord.

Gawk Records

In an interview with Sound of Boston, McDonald explains that the band started a cassette label named Gawk Records in order to avoid financial pressures of signing to a label and to foster a community of artists.

Band members

Current
Brandon Hagen (vocals, guitar)
Zack Abramo (bass, background vocals)
Drew McDonald (drums, synthesizer)

Past
Greyson Kirtland (bass, background vocals)

Discography

Studio albums
Antics (2013)
Gawk (2015)
Smell Smoke (2018)
Either Light (2020)
Devil for the Fire (2022)

Compilation albums
Good Old (2022)

EPs
Vundabar on Audiotree Live (2017)
“Vundabar”(2014)
“Devil for the fire”(2022)

Singles
"Vundabar" (2014)
"Shuffle" (2017)
"Acetone" (2017)
"Devil for the Fire" (2021)
"Alien Blues (Redux)" (2022)
"Time" (2022) 
"Shadow Boxing" (2022)
"Digital Forest / Sugar Pill" (2023)

References

Musical groups from Boston
Musical groups established in 2012
2012 establishments in Massachusetts
Rock music groups from Massachusetts