Kestrels’ Chad Peck’s new solo side project We Need Secrets, is—as the title implies—an intimate and musically contemplative affair, while still being about the love of what a guitar can become. Especially the closer “He Do the Police in Different Voices” which is 25 minutes of drone and echo musique actuelle best suited for rainy Sunday afternoons. The first four tracks, while more familiar for those that know Kestrel’s pop-punk aesthetic, are stripped bare drums and two channel guitar gems—with “Copper Black” and “Fear” being the poppier counterparts to the slower, lo-fi “Christmas Day” and (my personal favourite) “Dear You.” Only 60 of these cassettes exist—so act fast.
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.