Patois Counselors

***"As the sun goes down in the West, it is more than past due to acknowledge Patois Counselors as one of America’s greatest bands. Protection Racket is the fourth full-length for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based group, who are still riding the wave from 2024, when they put out Limited Sphere and the live-in-the-studio Enough: One Night At The Daisy Chain (all on Ever/Never, natch). On Protection Racket, the quintet—leader and singer Bo White, guitarist Lenny Muckle, bassist Robin Doermann, synthesist Krizia Torres and drummer Taylor Knox—are locked in tight, but they keep the screws loose so that the Southern breeze can waft in and provide some essential lift. Patois Counselors write songs for the twilight, to be played as day slips into night and the possibilities remain boundless, even if only for one magical hour. But what gives Patois Counselors their power is the way they contrast their romantic inclinations with a discerning eye that harshly analyzes and defuses the nonstop stupidity of society in

2026."—Erick Bradshaw, Spin Age Blasters with Creamo Coyl on WFMU