Richard Vain

Led by Jered Gummere, whose prior recognition stems chiefly from his tenure in the Ponys, Richard Vain delivers wailing garage punk laced with pronounced psychedelic elements through its reverberant depths, blankets of fuzzy or chiming guitars, and spare keyboard motifs, all captured on the band’s first full-length effort, the 2018 album Night Jammer. Following the dissolution of his post-Ponys outfit the Bare Mutants, Gummere formed Richard Vain, initially conceiving it as a one-man endeavor. The project’s earliest shows, staged in 2011, presented Gummere solo onstage, armed solely with guitar, keyboard, looping pedals, and an iPad. Over time he elected to favor live collaborators over electronic assistance, and in 2014 he recruited Carbomb— a Storm Clouds member who had known Gummere since his Ponys touring years—to handle keyboards. Carbomb in turn enlisted her Storm Clouds colleague Lugs on drums, expanding Richard Vain into a three-piece. The band commenced regular performances throughout Gummere’s native Chicago and secured sessions at Jandek Recording Studio to track an album. That recording, Night Jammer, appeared on Big Neck Records in December 2018.