Panther Style

Left - Right:  Al Rodis, Melissa Koehl, Jeanne McClure, Dan Lutger
(Photo by: Kirsten Miccoli)

“Bring earplugs and be ready for fireworks,” says Melissa Koehl, guitarist of Chicago-based Panther Style, talking about the band’s eponymous new EP, coming Friday, May 10 via Triple Helix Record Co. First recorded seven years ago at Chicago’s famed Electrical Audio, the collection of songs mirror the ups and downs of a band first formed 19 years ago that has truly been through it all – relationships, jobs, family, children – and come out more bonded than ever.

“There has been musical downtime during our band’s history, but we never stopped being in good relationship with each other. The love and friendship comes first and the music is a beautiful byproduct of that,” adds guitarist Al Rodis.

Along with fellow bandmates Jeanne McClure (lead vocals, bass) and Dan Lutger (drums), the eclectic four-piece are veterans of the Midwest scene having collectively logged time in indie and DIY rock acts Mary Tyler Morphine, Dyslexic Apaches, Siderunners and Reptoids, where Koehl would later ask Jeanne and Dan to join.

Drawn together by a love of The Cult, Failure, The Posies, New Order, U2, Van Halen, and Chicago legends Naked Raygun, the quartet behind Panther Style have cultivated a palette of groovy riff rock that’s as heavy as it is dancey, and as reliant on rhythm as it is distortion. Or, as McClure likes to call it, “A mix of UK Merseyside shoe gazer greatness and solid cock rock. The best of both worlds.”

The EP is led by first single “Dynasty,” a layered, lush rock opus teeming with angst and trepidation, and was arguably the most complex song for the band to tackle. It’s paired with an emotive video that was the vision of artist and long-time friend Yeva Dashevsky.

“’Dynasty’ made me feel that frustration of how the world currently works that could lead us to our dooms, but yet maybe we can all wake up and see we’re heading towards the cliff and recover,” says Lutger. “I was thinking about how in every election for both sides, we’re told ‘But wait, I’m different and I’m going to solve all these problems!’ And no matter who wins, nothing improves, no promises are kept. It’s always the same thing every cycle and breaking free of that cycle depends on us recognizing how broken the system currently is, and how both sides are being misled, as opposed to blaming the other side. We need to start looking at this problem as a systemic one at a higher level.”

McClure adds, “I totally agree with the dystopian themes with a tag of hope. I was going through a lot of different emotions while working on the music and writing the lyrics. The idea of safe environments vs chaotic ones and how to best navigate between the two really influenced the way the track was pieced together. In the end, I wanted to embrace the clear-cut definition between what is truth and what is fact.  Truth can include facts, but also beliefs. Life in general is much more manageable when you’re relying on information that’s indisputable. That became my takeaway from Dynasty.”