The latest single from Bonus Room, “Blessed Be,” is a darkly compelling cocktail of surf-rock swagger and spectral synths, a song that sounds like it was written for one of the nights when all the ghosts rose from their graves to boogie. The band engineers something at once spooky and spine-tingling, a séance that drags you to the dance floor while making your hair stand on end.
Growing up in a home where half of His family were fundamentalist Christians and the other half were atheists is a tug of war that throbs through every beat on “Blessed Be.” It’s a meditation on contradiction, believing, and the weird ways both sides of faith can reflect one another. The title alone, taken from a bumper sticker on Brice’s family car and repeated here as a mantra that’s equal parts earnest and sardonic.
Decked with the group Bonus Room, formed under quarantine conditions, is a schizo of influences and restless energy. The band combines Brice’s trailblazing Alaskan mystique with the compelling songwriting and multi-instrumental prowess of Chris Lee, backed by guitarist/engineer Wes Phillips, bassist Erik Brownfield, and Oregon-raised drummer Ben Dorothy. Together they create a sound that is both striking and polished yet pulsing with life.
“Blessed Be” is a hymn in reverb, a testimony for the religious desirous, and evidence of Bonus Room finding life in the cracks between the light and the dark. Somewhere between holy and feeling, they have found their niche, and it is gloriously unusual.
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