Quiz Show come into “XONO” with guitars doing most of the talking. They are loud and slightly unruly, but there is a bounce underneath them that keeps the track from feeling heavy. Chris Matthews’ vocal fits that same space. It is wiry, playful, and a little off centre, sitting somewhere between punk directness and something more mischievous.
That combination gives “XONO” its personality. The song has the lift of bright guitar pop, but the playing is rougher and more physical. At certain points, the guitars seem to open upward, almost euphoric, before the rhythm pulls everything back into a tighter groove. The result is immediate without feeling too clean, catchy without sanding away the stranger edges.
The contrast becomes sharper once the lyrics come into focus. Matthews wrote “XONO” around the hopes people place on friendship and love, and the point where those hopes stop matching what the relationship actually is. The music keeps its lift even as the lyric admits something is failing.
That makes the brightness feel more interesting rather than less serious. The guitars still move with confidence, the beat still has that loose, almost funky kick, and the song never collapses under its own disappointment. There is still energy in wanting something to work, even when the outcome has already started slipping away.
Matthews describes the song as tight, quick, and complex, and that fits the way it moves. There is plenty happening in the guitar work, but nothing feels crowded. Jesse Krakow’s bass keeps the centre firm while Joe Billy III’s drums give the track its punch, leaving enough room for the guitars to flare out around them.
There is also a slightly funky looseness in the way the rhythm and vocal interact. It keeps the track from settling neatly into straight punk or straightforward alternative rock. Quiz Show leave the odd corners intact, and that is where much of the charm sits.
“XONO” opens the band’s new three song EP of the same name, which catches Quiz Show in the middle of a shift. After working largely as a power trio, the band are beginning to bring more acoustic material into the picture without losing the noisy guitar attack that made the earlier work feel so immediate. The other two tracks push that change in different directions: a slowed and heavier cover of Guided By Voices’ “Haircut Sphinx,” and an acoustic reworking of “Pom Pom Boy.”
Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ray Ketchem at Magic Door Recording Studio in Montclair, New Jersey, “XONO” still sounds rough enough around the edges to feel alive. The guitars are loud, the vocal has its own peculiar character, and the rhythm keeps enough bounce underneath everything to stop the song from becoming weighed down by what it is about.
That is what makes “XONO” stick. It carries disappointment without sounding defeated. The guitars keep lifting, the beat keeps moving, and Matthews’ vocal gives the whole thing a slightly crooked smile.
“XONO” is out now via Magic Door Record Label, with the three song XONO EP available everywhere.
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