The Latest from Duval Rockers Ducats Stays Faithful to Their Lo-Fidelity Psych Sensibilities 

Ducats performance photo
Local rock band Ducats, captured here performing at the Walrus in Murray Hill, has a new single | Courtesy of the artist

The latest from Duval rockers Ducats takes the continuous-release, narcoticized-guitar maneuvering of peak My Bloody Valentine and halcyon days Teenage Fanclub well into the 21st century.

Painless” is stylized but hardly flatlined or constrained by any rockist demands. Wobbly guitar shimmers over, under and around vocals unintelligible to the point of any distinguishable words — and that is a compliment.

The band — Trent Holton(vocals/guitar), Rachel Pendergrass (bass/vocals), Ryan L’Heureux (guitar/keys/vocals) and Brian Kim (drums) — are more than adept at creating a walloping rock murk void of production glitz or modern-rocker bombast. Who knows if there’s nobility in suffering? But it sure is fun figuring it out in a band room.

Ducats singer Holton told the Jacksonville Music Experience that “Painless” is “about anxieties and perception of self (true/false, good/bad),” and that emotional tone bleeds loud and clear through the song’s Tascam 4-track production. In lesser hands, the vast hall-reverb outro of “Painless” could be gimmicky; Ducats spin-cycle the song into a kind of cosmic grandeur. 

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