Courtesy of The Garden

The Garden, a self-described '€œconstantly evolving, conceptual punk band'€ from Orange County, California, will headline the next event by Jakarta-based music-collective Studiorama.

The concert will take place at Kemang'€™s Ecobar 365 on Oct. 9 with local bands Gizpel, known for their jangly 80s sound, and chaotic rockers Kelompok Penerbang Roket as opening acts.

The band'€™s tour here is in celebration of the release of their new album, Ha Ha.

The Garden'€™s minimalist-yet-aggressive punk is certainly a fitting nighttime soundtrack for Jakarta'€™s hip urbanites.

With songs that are mostly executed with a seemingly-simple bass and drum setup, The Garden'€™s music never feels incomplete; it is stylish, artsy '€” at least in aesthetics '€” and well cut out for some metropolitan-goths to rock out to.

The two musicians that make up the band '€” twins Fletcher and Wyatt Shears '€” retain a playfulness which keeps their songs from sounding morose and dour, evident by the humor in their videos and live performances.

It doesn'€™t hurt that they have model looks too. The twins have taken part in shots by famed French designer and photographer Hedi Slimane, even walking the catwalk in Paris at the Saint Laurent AW13 menswear show in 2013.

Though the band members have said in interviews that their aspirations are staying strictly on the musical side of things, the association with Slimane does them no bad favors either.

Muhammad '€œGonzo'€ Fahri from Studiorama said that his team is excited about showcasing the American duo here, hoping that the concert and Studiorama will continue to play a part in the growth of the local creative industry.

When in their very-early 20s, The Garden formed in 2011 and almost-immediately released a self-titled tape on the trendsetting Burger Records label.

The album was chockfull of 13 very short, very catchy tracks '€” with titles all beginning with the word '€œthe'€ '€” and showcased the two Shears ability to push their minimalist setup into different territories without ever sounding dull.

It certainly did not hurt their musical knowledge and ability to have a father who was involved in the local underground scene, playing in punk bands Final Conflict and Shattered Faith.

They followed the debut with an EP filled with 10 songs all running under 2 minutes, called Everything is Perfect in 2012. The next year, the twins again released another record, this time titled The Life and Times of a Paperclip, which followed their template of short songs, and minimalist arrangements with hair-trigger riffs and melodies.

The year 2013 also saw the release of yet another batch of songs. The six tracks that make up Rules bended the band'€™s direction further into goth territory and with a lot more electronic influence strewn around the songs '€” Though they retained the energy and catchiness of their early material.

With Ha Ha being co-released by legendary punk label Epitaph Records, it is clear that The Garden has a lot of exciting things ahead of them.
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For details, log on to studiorama.net

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