The Rise Of Jam Bands — Album Review: Squash — Squnction

Jam bands can be some of the most polarizing. Their extended improvizations can alienate many fans, who prefer more structured and shorter songs. But in a city where Phish was able to play a college football stadium, the style is sure to have a following. The resulting movement has been largely led by Squash. On 1 May, they relaqsed their album Squnction, which is not only their debut album, but the first album from the local jam band movement.

The album opens with “Squnction,” the title track. The song predominantly features a clean guitar riff. The first solo is 23 seconds long and is not the most technical. At the 2:47 mark, there is a change to a slower tempo. After a slow riff, it speeds back up from around 4:05 to 4:15 and features a final solo. Live, Squash has become known for their extended solos, but that does not feature on this song. Nor does it feature on the rest of the album. Any first-time listener would likely think this Squash is more of an indie band than a jam band if they only listened to the album and did not see the band live.

That is not to say that they don’t explore other ideas. In early 2024, the band added a keyboard player to their lineup, which up to that point only featured two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer, with vocals being done by the guitarists. While “Squnction” featured no keyboard usage, the next song, “El Zopenco,” did. Here, rather than the keyboard just being in the background, it takes a leading role and plays some riffs, sometimes in place of the guitar. At other points in this short instrumental, the guitars are active and the keyboard is not. Between this and the tempo changes on “Squnction,” Squash shows that even as it scraps technicality, it is still interested in more progressive styles.

The rest of the album flips back and forth between songs with and without the keyboard. “Take Me Home” features further experimentation by being largely acoustic guitar-driven. “If You Want” then goes back to the style found on Squnction, this time with the keyboard in the mix. Here, there is a long instrumental section, but there are times where it gets too repetitive. Live, the band does not have this problem, which suggests that little on the album was improvised.

Squash’s style-mixing continues on “Lay Down Flat” and “Fifty Five Degrees,” which was the second of two singles released before the album. While the preceding songs were generally consistent on their own, “Fifty Five Degrees” takes experimentation to its extreme by featuring multiple tempos and styles in the same song. Curiously, the other single, “Hell On Wheels,” is not on the album. The final track, “Save Your Words,” goes for a more emotional song that one would expect from the indie-style production and that favors feeling over technique, in contrast to other jam bands, who would likely prioritize technique over all else. As many listeners prefer feeling, they would therefore be more drawn to this band than others in the movement.

The different styles and the lack of extensive solos takes Squash away from their basis as a jam band on this album. The trade-off is that it sets them up as experimental and avant-garde in a way that most local bands, even those that don’t adhere to one genre, are not, which is sure to set them apart and inspire other musicians to begin incorporating different ideas themselves.

Final verdict: 7/10