Shone Releases New Album Through Scavenger Hunt Adventure

The best thing about the modern music industry is how quickly and suddenly it can take an unexpected turn. In a digital era, things happen instantly—you don’t really have time to think about it much. You stream a song, decide whether you like it or not and either move on or press the repeat button.

But what if there was more to it than that? After all, the Internet is a community. On certain websites, people discuss new songs all day long—what they like, what they hate, what they are indifferent to—for no reason besides a sheer love for music. But what if the musicians were listening? What if they knew that this online presence is at the heart of the modern underground music world? What if they figured out exactly the right formula for pure word-of-mouth viral marketing?

On Dec. 21, 2012, members of veteran alternative rock bands began directing their fans towards heatthing.com via their social media accounts. The website showed a creepy video of a windmill in a desert with the words “SHONE” and “be patient” and a signup page for a mailing list.

Cue the madness.

For weeks, members of Tumblr and AbsolutePunk.net were obsessed with solving what became a full-scale music mystery. People in the Long Island area received letters from a mysterious “Levi Gudmundson” and were sent on scavenger hunts to find artifacts from his life (such as birdhouses and songs). Participants began to piece together Levi’s story, a haunting tale of murder and moral struggle. Once they put the clues together, it formed a complete album titled Heat Thing by the band Shone.

While there is certainly more mystery to solve (specifically, no one knows who is actually in the band because they don’t play their first show until this Thursday, Feb. 7), we have a record to listen to, a concept album that raises more questions than answers.

After this massive viral campaign, the question remains: is the music even any good? It became evident pretty quickly that Shone’s debut album is the most polarizing collection of songs since Brand New’s Daisy rocked our ears. People either love it or absolutely despise it.

I am rather fond of Heat Thing. It has some of the most interesting musical choices I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t be happier with how this whole ordeal panned out. “Piano Wire Number 12” is an innovative rock tune, perfectly mixing electronic sounds and raw patience and urgency. Meanwhile, “Metal Bones” and “Kin” are slow and thoughtful, drawing influence from Radiohead’s more recent works. And “Bestial” sounds absolutely huge, showing off a catchy, epic confession of a chorus that will float around in your brain for days. Although, you probably want to be careful. You don’t want to be singing “I Killed A Man” in public. People will stare.

However, it isn’t the musical elements or viral mastery that fans are arguing about. No, the most controversial aspect of Heat Thing is the vocal performance by (we think) Andrew Accardi, whose dramatic portrayal of Levi Gudmundson is over-the-top and manic depressive—sounding stable and ponderous at one second while crossing over to nearly psychotic the next second. In some songs, Accardi’s delivery can be just a little bit too much, particularly in “Baby Shakes” and “Slithering.” But, as Levi has told fans in his letters, there is a story to be told here, and the point may not have gotten across so clearly had it not been for these instances.

While Shone’s music has created a splash of controversy across the board, there’s no denying that the intricate marketing campaign is a work of art purely in itself. The story that unfolds throughout the nine songs on Heat Thing will leave you clamoring for more information. While the music may not be for everyone, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. Heat Thing is certainly worth a listen or two if nothing else.

Critic’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Jordan Walsh can be reached at jordan.walsh@spartans.ut.edu