King Falcon hit the gas and forget about the brakes in their high-octane single and joyriding video Cadillac — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The latest track from the New York City outfit is a vintage power-pop nugget driven by a punchy backbeat and a funky bassline, turbocharged with slashing guitar riffs and harmonized licks, and fueled with melodic and lyrical hooks sharper than the red tailfins on the cherry-red ride that co-stars in the cut’s animation-enhanced video. That rare 1957 Eldorado actually belonged to a buddy of King Falcon singer-guitarist Michael Rubin. “Long story short, I got to drive this beauty with no brakes, no plates, and a flat tire,” he says. “Everybody, including the cops, waved as I cruised this spaceship around the neighbourhood.”
But the journey that put him behind the wheel of that Caddy began years ago, when Rubin and drummer James Terranova were12 and 15 years old, respectively, playing in a band called The Inoculated Canaries. Weaned on classic rock and pop from studying at School Of Rock, the teens gigged around town for years. “We were little birds when we started out,” Rubin says. “We’ve been doing this for a lot of our lives, but we’re not canaries anymore — we’re full grown.”
King Falcon’s ultra-catchy songwriting melds indie-rock adventurousness with classic swagger, recalling Cage The Elephant, The Black Keys, Royal Blood, The Killers and Strokes. The music brims with bluesy riffage, sticky-sweet pop-punk choruses, soulfully melodic vocals, and vibrant sonics. King Falcon are produced by Marshall Altman (Citizen Cope, Matt Nathanson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd) and mixed by Grammy-nominated mixing engineer and producer Mark Needham (The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Fleetwood Mac, Airborne Toxic Event). Their music represents a powerful story of friendship, self-growth and the bravery to chase a rock ’n’ roll fantasy.
Rubin is the creative driving force behind King Falcon, but drummer and recording engineer James Terranova is essential to the band’s spirit. His fastidious, plan-ahead persona is the perfect counterpoint to Michael’s freewheeling personality, and the pair have an old-married-couple connection. “I would take a bullet for him, but I may also be that person to shoot him,” Michael jokes. King Falcon have been a guitar and drums duo, but the duo recently welcomed drummer Tom Diognardi, with James moving to bass.
Michael’s fascination with music began through Guitar Hero, but his father kept poking fun at his steely determination to master the game. “My dad would say, ‘You spend so much time in front of the TV with that thing, why not learn real guitar?’ ” Michael recalls. He took his pop’s words to heart, got a guitar, and studied at School Of Rock for six years. Eventually he and Terranova formed The Inoculated Canaries, who quickly left their N.Y.C. next, gigging throughout the northeast and showcasing at SXSW and NAMM.
Michael and James decided to go in a new direction, so TIC disbanded and King Falcon were born. In 2020, the duo released the funky and infectious single Shake! Shake! Shake! But the pandemic cleared King Falcon’s calendar before they played a show. They made the most of it with the single When The Party Is Over, an irresistible mid-tempo rocker with earworm melodies.
Now, King Falcon have resumed their pre-pandemic plans of playing and touring. “It took two and a half years to get here,” Michael says. “If you asked me when I first got my guitar if we would get a label and be where we are today, I would have said, ‘Oh yeah, no problem,’ but I’ve learned the reality of it all isn’t that simple. It is amazing to be where we are today, but it was definitely a challenging journey.”
Watch Cadillac above, sample more music from King Falcon below, and cruise over to their website, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
