We caught The Yugos on stage at Urban Artifact last weekend, with locals PHYSCO and Sun Delay in support. Check out our photo gallery above!
Article by Elia Burkhart
Over a year on from its release, the energetic pop songs filling The Yugos’ third full-length, Weighing the Heart, still set a summery mood. On a closer listen, however, lyrics about uncertainty, fear, and a lingering worry about the future reveal a more wintry sensibility. This move towards introspection was a step up for the band members, who spent more than three years working on the 2017 album as they grew up out of their teens.
Formed in 2009 in northern Kentucky by brothers Jordin and Christian Gough (also of Moonbeau fame), the band was enlarged by the addition of Jackson Deal and later Jeremy Graham to the present four-piece. An EP and two full-lengths garnered them a fair bit of national press, as well as appearances at the Bunbury and Midpoint music festivals, among others. But it proved more difficult to maintain their interpersonal relationships than their bubbly New Wave sound. Drummer Jordin Gough said, “We had to have a band-in-crisis meeting. We're like, 'We don't communicate with each other and we internalize everything.'"
This newfound maturity is on display throughout Weighing the Heart, production decisions echoing the songs’ juxtaposition of lighthearted fun with the shadow of doubt. It’s the same band, though, and they lose none of the spirit that animated their prior releases.