Aloud members remain vocal on political issues

Boston-area band Aloud is flying south for a Valentine's Day Show at Village Tavern in Mount Pleasant.

The band released its second album, "Fan the Fury," last March. The brainchild of lead guitarist Henry Beguiristain and Jen de La Osa, the band combines two voices for triumphant harmonies.

Individually, each singer brings something different to the table. De La Osa's deep, almost Joplin-like voice adds thickness to the songs, while Beguiristain's vocals steadies the John Lennon-inspired tracks.

Beguiristain says the band's influences come from an array of artists, from the Arctic Monkeys to Feist, and like many of their musical influences, they are unafraid to get political in their lyrics.

Chalking it up to artistic liberty, Beguiristain says that they used their talents to get out frustrations built up from a bad political climate.

"We felt that as songwriters, we had to say something," Beguiristain says. "We wanted to take world events and put them into songs in an especially personal way."

The making of "Fan the Fury" was something that they wanted to set up thematically, but Beguiristain says this was no easy task.

"You have your whole life to write your first album, but maybe a year for your second," he says.

While writing the songs, they combined feelings of helplessness with guitar-led rock tunes.

Songs "Fan the Fury" and "Hard up in the 2000's" deal with world issues such as the war in Iraq and the terror attacks on 9/11, but other songs on the album change the pace of the band's sound.

"The Last Time" is a bittersweet relinquishing of a lover while "Sometimes I Feel Like a Vampire" returns to Aloud's socially conscious theme.

For their show Saturday, Beguiristain promised an energy-packed, sweat-till-you-drop atmosphere.

"We save up our energy for these shows," Beguiristain says. "We give everything we have for our audience."

Looking forward to visiting Charleston for the first time, Beguiristain was still unsure if they will do something extra for the holiday.

"I don't know, maybe we'll throw out candy hearts or something," he says.