Inn house - The Wonder Life

Inn House

The Wonder Life
self-released; 2016

3.4 out of 5

By Jamie Funk
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Inn House is a band from Australia comprised of Tom Crane (guitar/vocals) and Gene du Vergier (drums). On their recent four-song EP they play an eclectic blend of rock. Although the band has a limited arsenal of instruments the four songs are a bit scattered in terms of general direction. The opener “When She Did” is a straightforward hard rock blues song. The similarities to The White Stripes are undeniable on this track. It’s a rocking song in the end but this type of style has been running rampant for a while now. Towards the end of the song they started shifting to sounding a bit like Led Zeppelin.

The next track “The Wonder Life” has more in common with ’90s alternative bands like Hum or even The Smashing Pumpkins. The initial riff certainly sounds similar to something you might hear off of Gish. That being said the song is relatively clean and crisp especially the singing style which has some resemblance to Julian Casablancas.

The band reverts to a more hard rock blues style on “Woman.” It’s a straightforward predictable sounding song but is well delivered. They close with “Montague Street AM” which doesn’t sound like anything that came before. It’s an instrumental song and has the tone and aesthetics of  a Mac Demarco song. 

The band has some skill in terms of raw talent but still has some work ahead of them. Most Importantly they need to start working on defining their sound. Two of the four songs sound related on this EP. Creating an identifiable, original sound is in my opinion the hardest thing for a band to do but this really is a crucial part to building an audience. Inn House falls into a category of wait and see for right now. This EP demonstrates they have some chemistry together but still need to start chipping away and digging deep to become a band that has a more firm foundation.

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