Though Cole Guerra has found success with previous musical endeavors, his latest project – titled I Am Casting – is ready and rearing to release its debut project, an album titled Carnival Barkers. We’ve got the exclusive premiere of the next taste of this collection with brand new track “Clay”. A relatively upbeat song, there are points where it meanders a bit, making it the perfect track to play in the background of a small get together. You can hear hints of Train and Bob Dylan in his sound, though it is completely his own. This is especially evident with the percussive nature of some of the guitar chords, a sound that is just different enough to take hold of your eardrums and carry you away.
It’s time to let “Clay” do that. Get lost in its sound.
Chattanooga, TN-based power pop/garage band Mythical Motors – comprised of Matt Addison, Mike Brown, Brad Smith, & Johnny Wingo – might be gearing up for the release of their new album, but we were a bit impatient. So we caught up with Matt briefly to chat about what’s to come, the mystery of Bigfoot, and so much more! Check out the fun interview below!
What was your first musical memory, and do you think it has any bearing on who you are as an artist now?
Matt Addison: I’m not sure if has an impact on me now, but I have a memory of being around 4 years old, and running around and trying to make up songs. I think I had been watching The Muppets on TV, and I wanted to make up a song about the characters I had seen. I didn’t attempt to write a proper song, however, until 10 years later or so.
Do you think being from Tennessee has any bearing on your sound?
Matt: Probably not. In high school, I discovered indie bands like Guided By Voices, Sebadoh, Superchunk, Pavement, etc. There wasn’t a lot of awareness in Tennessee of those types of bands, so that just meant I had to dig a little deeper to discover new music.
You have such an interesting blend of influence in your sound. We honestly feel transferred back in time when we listen to your work. What made you choose to go in this direction with your music, as a team?
Matt: I think it occurs somewhat naturally when you’re a fan of a wide range of music. We’ve all been huge fans of rock music for many years, and we celebrate what Robert Pollard (of Guided By Voices) calls the 4 P’s of rock – pop, punk, prog, and psychedelic.
Elevated Levels was released last month. What made you choose to include 22 songs?
Matt: Our last album, The Life Stage, had 26 songs, so I had originally planned for the follow-up to be much shorter. But, I ended up with around 30 songs or so. So, I chose songs from that group that flowed well together, and it seemed to work.
What’s the most integral track on the album for each of you?
Johnny Wingo: “Exalt The Highway” Brad Smith: “Endless Distance of Belief” Mike Brown: “Endless Distance of Belief” Matt: “One Seventh Of A Shadow.”
“Shape Shifting Nightmare Celebration” is one of our favorites. What inspired that track, specifically?
Matt: “Shape Shifting Nightmare Celebration” is one of the most unusually structured songs on the album, and was probably inspired by Robert Pollard’s solo material. He has a penchant for writing songs that are inspired by progressive rock, with very unconventional song structures. So, I was attempting to write something in a similar vein, where the song does not follow a predictable verse/chorus structure. The song’s coda was even taken from a completely separate recording, and added in later.
What’s the recording process like for you guys? Does it start with a hook? Are the lyrics all written out first? Do you just play and sing until something makes sense?
Matt: I have several different methods for writing and recording. I’ll usually start with a riff or a finished guitar instrumental, and try to write a melody over that. Then, I’ll write lyrics that fit the melody. Other times, the lyrics come first, but I usually start the process with a song title in mind. I keep an ongoing list of titles, and I find them to be a constant source of inspiration for songs. Another method that I’ve developed recently is to attempt to write a melody for a complete set of lyrics. I’ll then record the song A Capella as a reference, and then complete the song by assigning a chord progression to it later. I find this method particularly exciting. It’s fun and easy.
Any fun anecdotes about the recording process for Elevated Levels?
Matt: Actually, the first thing that comes to mind was not fun at all. The hard drive on my 16 track recorder crashed during the recording of the most complex song on the album, “Over Caravan Park.” I probably spent more time on that song than anything else I’ve written, and once I purchased a replacement machine, it had to be re-recorded from scratch. Not fun. But, it worked out, and the version that appears on the album is the second attempt.
If you could choose any movie or TV series to have your music placed in, which would you choose and why?
Matt: The Man In The High Castle or The Handmaid’s Tale would be pretty incredible. I’m a big David Lynch fan, so it would be amazing to be included in one of his projects.
If you could have your dream rider list, what would be included on it?
Matt: Beer, maybe some tacos. We’d be happy to just have a rider.
Calzones or pizza? Substantiate your claim.
Matt: Pizza. I mean…it’s pizza!
Do you believe in Sasquatch? Why do you think we should or shouldn’t?
Matt: I don’t know much about Sasquatch, so I have to defer to the wisdom of the late Mitch Hedberg on this one. He said, “I think Bigfoot is blurry, that’s the problem. It’s not the photographer’s fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that’s extra scary to me. There’s a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside.”
___
Keep up with Mythical Motors – and maybe Bigfoot – here.
Run Tiny Human is your 8th album with Jeff Stuart Saltzman, what makes the musical relationship between you and Jeff last so long?
Rachel: When you work with someone for that long–especially on something so personal as your own music–you’ve both seen one another at your very best and very worst. It’s intense, recording an album. And we’re both kind of intense, very opinionated people, on top of that.
I learned to trust Jeff. We became very good friends at some point, but even early on, he won my trust because he was clearly not one to b.s. or throw compliments around. I could tell I’d get the truth out of him–he’s brutally honest, though not in a mean way. He can’t help it. I tend to like people like that. Critical, but not cruel. And unstinting with honest praise. And he wanted to help me to get to what I want–not what he wanted, though his contribution to my records is vast and invaluable.
We’ve been working together long enough that we have a kind of shorthand, now. We know each other, and he really knows my music and the way I work–the way my mind works and the way I actually like to work while recording. I become aware, working on Run Tiny Human, that Jeff’s been very observant and made a lot of changes over the years in working with me, on the process, based on his observations–trying to go with my flow and make it easier for me. It’s not always easy with two such strong-willed people in a room, but I rely on him to give it to me straight, and he has never failed.
Many artists have contributed on Run Tiny Human from some amazing bands, who were they and what was it about their style that fit so well with your sound?
Rachel: Ben Landsverk (Wonderly, Hawks & Doves, OK Chorale) is a dear friend and has been playing with me for many years, now. When we met we were singing a concert of Bach and Charpentier for Trinity Consort, which is weird to think about, now! We discovered one another’s other musical lives and we started playing together in a few bands. Ben’s my righthand man–he does everything. He’s a super quick, versatile singer with a freakish range (it’s just him and me, multi-tracked and asthmatic, singing that backup on Wedding Song/Bag of Bones), he can play anything–viola, bass, guitars, keys, percussion–and he’s just beautifully musical. He makes everything seem so easy, but it’s not.
Jeff Langston (Antony and the Johnsons, Mo Phillips) is in my band and has also become a treasured friend. He grew up in Oregon and moved back from NYC with his wife and son a few years ago. We met backing up a mutual friend for a radio show. Jeff’s an incredibly sensitive player–he pays attention more closely than almost anyone I know to what’s happening musically, and he always tries to serve that. He’s been a real stalwart for me–a total pro and supportive in myriad ways.
Leigh Marble (Leigh Marble) has also been in my band for years now and is a well-regarded songwriter/performer and also a great friend of mine. I like the way Leigh thinks, and I like the way he plays guitar. He can get a very raw sound and he’s never noodly–doesn’t overplay. He makes interesting choices and he’s way more fun to watch play than I am!
Justin Harris is a good friend of Jeff’s and a friend of mine, too. He happened to be in town between tours with Bloc Party and kindly came over and played bari sax and bass on Gitcher. He and Danny Seim (Menomena) played on a coupla songs on my album World So Sweet. What I had him doing on Gitcher was incredibly repetitive but Justin’s got a loose, kind of loopy way of playing that I really like, and it gives life to the repeated bits.
Joe Mengis (Eels) and Mark Powers (Robert Wynia) were both suggestions of Jeff’s–he’d worked with both of them right before we started recording. Both are pros and lovely people. Mark is a fiend at anything you set before him–no limits. And Joe took a very weird, counterintuitive request from me and hit it out of the park.
Katie Taylor (Opera Theater Oregon) is my sister, who also does the graphics for my albums, and who is my guinea pig whenever I’m writing songs. I can sing a harmony or melody or whatever to her and she can immediately sing it back. Katie’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever known, and we’ve sung together forever. She sings in the choir on “Heir Apparent” and “Yourself/You Reprise.” That’s her doing the high “C” on Heir (if you can hear it!).
Lisa Stringfield-Prescott (Ages and Ages) is a prized friend who was in the bands Carmina Piranha and Carmina Luna. She’s sung on several of my albums and I love the quality of her voice, and her stage presence. Lisa’s also been a huge support over the years–I don’t know what I’d do without her.
Jim Brunberg (Box Set, Wonderly, Roam Schooled) is a friend and I asked him and his daughters, Dana and Vern, to come sing on a track. Jim’s a truly great musician and one of those people who can sing anything in any range, so I grabbed him. Jim’s also been a good friend to me and my music.
Phil and Gayle Neuman (De Organographia) have played on, I think, four of my albums, now? They’re specialist on Renaissance and Baroque (and some ancient) instruments. They are famous in those circles–hence their playing on the Ben Hur remake soundtrack. 🙂 They’re good friends of mine and can play any instrument, and their collection of instruments–most of them made by Gayle and Phil–is awe-inspiring!
Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Cerebral Corps, Sunset Valley) I talked about already….but not many know he’s a great musician and songwriter. I exploit Jeff’s musical talents for all I’m worth when we’re recording–he’s very handy. That’s him muttering on “Gitcher,” at my request.
How did you interpret what your mind was thinking about the world in to a lyrical and musical form?
Rachel: I don’t know! I don’t really think about it so clearly when it’s happening. Ideas just knock around and then they come out. I’ll get up and go record them, I’ll get up and go to the piano, I’ll write down a lyric. It all kind of comes together when you look at it as a whole, later. Then, I see the pattern and where my brain was dwelling.
I personally love the idea behind Little Gyre, can you tell us more about that specific song?
Rachel: I was lying in bed, half awake, and I don’t know what prompted the thought but I started thinking about the junk in space peering down at the ocean garbage (the Pacific Garbage Gyre). Garbage high, garbage low! I have no idea why I thought I might want to write a song about that. I got down (on digital recorder) what I was thinking and I went to sleep. When I worked on it later in my typical misty fashion, the space garbage began to morph into a kind of stalkerish entity, obsessing over the ocean garbage. In the end, it breaks orbit to fall into the sea. I feel bad for the ocean garbage (forgive me, ocean garbage)…
I think this came from my almost constant stewing over climate change and our fucked over world. I am chock full of Apocalypse.
When do you feel was the era when Americans had sense and at what point do you feel it started to get crazy?
Rachel: I keep coming back to the FDR era (for sense), and that’s a sad thought because it was so long ago. But one of the things I most admire about that era is the community-mindedness, as opposed to the lunatic focus on the individual in the America of now. Americans are so belligerently self-serving now, nothing gets done. It’s literally impossible for so many hellbent “individuals” to pull together. We all want what we want when we want it, and we all deserve it, and damn you to hell if you get in the way of what I want, cuz I got muh rights!
I think the ’60s and ’70s took a kind of latent, inbred American crazy and tipped it into overdrive, what with the whole “reality is subjective” thing, the questioning of fact and truth, etc., coloring it all relative, nothing tethered to anything real anymore, just free-floating bullshit. An early triumph for the wretched Cult of the Individual.
Kurt Andersen wrote a wonderful, horrifying book called Fantasyland; How America Went Haywire: A 500 Year History. He posits that we started out crazy–that the people who settled America set the groundwork for the crazy. And I think he’s right–I think Americans from the get-go regarded themselves as exceptional and that that, unfortunately, has stuck and transmogrified into something truly sick–what we have now. I like how a reviewer of Andersen’s book put it (Hanna Rosin): “Fake news. Post-truth. Alternative facts…. The country’s initial devotion to religious and intellectual freedom, Andersen argues, has over the centuries morphed into a fierce entitlement to custom-made reality. So your right to believe in angels and your neighbour’s right to believe in U.F.O.s and Rachel Dolezal’s right to believe she is black lead naturally to our president’s right to insist that his crowds were bigger.”
The Reagan years were another milestone of crazy, of a different sort. The onset of the GOP’s ever-so-patient-and-deliberate, decades-long Grand Plan of Selfishness–deregulation, the handing over of America to corporate interests, circling the wagons, the insistence on America First!… all wrapped up in shameful jingoistic posturing, one hand waving a flag and the other taking your wallet. USA! We had gone from the heartening scenario of the gas crisis in the Carter years, which is, I think, the last true example of Americans actually acting with a sense of pulling together. They did real things, made real (if not great) sacrifices–drove less, got smaller, more gas-efficient cars, etc. It almost seems mythical to me when I think about it now, because everything around us (climate change, for one) dictates bigger sacrifices and changes than we successfully effected back then; only today’s Americans do exactly the opposite of what is required–buying bigger bigger BIGGER vehicles, traveling/flying more, ordering more shit from Amazon, building bigger homes, getting bigger appliances, sucking up more resources and eating everything in sight. That those Keurig machines could even exist in this day and age boggles the mind. Americans, of course, love them.
What is your own favourite part of American history and what makes it special to you?
Rachel: Well, this is cheating on the question a little, but I’d sure like to see pre-Columbian America, mainly so I could see what nature–flora and fauna and sea–was like, pre-trampling and despoiling. I know big civilizations already existed with the tribes, and land clearing was happening even then. But–as far as I know–First Peoples weren’t hunting things to extinction or extracting/cutting/plundering nearly so well as later peoples did. I’d love to see my own region (Pacific NW/US) when the forests were full of gigantic trees, and that dense forest floor. I’d like to see the land and all the creatures, the ocean and all its creatures, breathe the air. I’d really like to see it all pre-people, actually. The answer, therefore, to “what would make it special to me” is: no people at all. 😉
I’ve heard you are a fan of BBC costume dramas, which is your favourite one and why? Also if you could star in one of them then which character do you think suits you as a person?
Rachel: OOOHhhhh! So many! So many! I do love a good costume drama! And the BBC really does do them best. 🙂 Gah, how to choose? Faves include: Jane Eyre (1983–I’m a purist–but I do like the 2006 version–Ruth Wilson is the only actress I’ve seen who approaches the greatness of Zelah Clarke’s Eyre); The Forsyte Saga; The House of Eliot; Our Mutual Friend; Middlemarch. But I’d have to pick either Persuasion (1995) or Pride and Prejudice (1995–wow! That was a good year!) for my absolute favorites. I have watched those too many times to count. If I could star in one, which character suits me?… hmmm. I’d like to think I’m Lizzy Bennet, but I’m probably more Mr. Rochester. 😉 NOTE TO THE BBC: Please make Villette!
For the majority of your life you have lived in Portland, what is it about Portland that keeps you there?
Rachel: Ugh. Nothing, anymore. I and mine and my sister moved out a year ago because we couldn’t take living there anymore. It’s changed so drastically over the past 10-20 years, it’s unrecognizable…so depressing. I went through a long period of frantically dragging my poor husband all over town to try to escape the awfulness (constant construction/overdevelopment/razing, decades of it now; increased crime; tagging, garbage, lines and cars everywhere; displacement; pollution; soaring prices; noise; and some really up-their-own-asses new residents hashtag NOT ALL NEW RESIDENTS) and find peace. Alas, it was not to be had, so we finally got out. I only wish we’d done it sooner. I feel like I was in mourning for my city for the past decade plus. I felt like a stranger there in my hometown, my lifelong home. By the time we left, I didn’t care anymore what happened to it. Just exhausted and sad. It has been “loved” to death death death.
Can you please tell us of your aunt Mette who formed inspiration for one of your songs on your album Half Hours With The Lower Creatures?
Rachel: I don’t remember much about her because I was so little when she was still alive. I never met her in person. But she corresponded with me from Madagascar, where she was a missionary. I remember writing to her and I remember her spidery handwriting–she was very very old when she was writing to me. She was from Norway. I would give anything to be able to talk to her now.
Can you remember the first demo tape you ever did? How did it feel to hear your music recorded for the first time?
Rachel: My brothers and sister and I recorded ourselves doing stupid shite, growing up, so I was pretty familiar with the sound of my own voice. My husband bought me a Tascam Porta 05 when I was in my twenties, not long after we married, and that was a turning point–he made me start to take my songwriting more seriously. It was so wonderful to be able to record multiple tracks, because I’d been using two tape machines to do that! Going back and forth until things got faster and faster and higher and higher, hah! Anyway–it was a great spur to creativity and made my brain just GO. I really loved it.
I think I just felt….satisfied, when I first heard my music recorded. And also twitchy and dissatisfied, because there are always things you wish you’d done differently. But I generally self examine as I go along with a ruthless rigor that prevents (most) later regret. If I don’t like something, I can always tell, and I’m not shy about changing it. I follow my gut and my ear. That’s a weird visual…
Kansas City, Missouri-based garage rock psych pop band Eggs on Mars – comprised of Brad Smith (vocals, guitars, keys), Justin Longmeyer (bass), and Mason Potter (drums, percussion) – recently released a 10 track album titled Mama Pancake. As absurd and wonderful as the title is – and the name of the band – the album itself is so much more. First track “Sod is Good” is all types of amazing, from the realness of the track’s name to the calming mood that passes over us as we dwell in its slow, mellifluous glory. While “Placeholders” speeds up a bit and gives us a very 60s psych punk vibe, “Many Minds” brings more of a 90s feel to it. “Red Haired Darling” slows it all down a bit, a love song for all of the red headed beauties in our lives.
“Doing Fine” gives off a bit of a melancholic feeling sonically for the first half, and the title isn’t quite convincing if you ask us. It gains momentum, though, and leads pretty nicely into simplified instrumentals with “Not to Regain”. The sentiment given off in the lyrics of “A Song” makes it feel a little more than “just a song”, while “Don’t Listen” speeds it up, giving us something fun to move our hips to. “Prayer for a Troubled Son” continues in that vein, a fun guitar riff to keep us on our toes throughout.
Eggs on Mars rounds out the album with “Meet Me in Hannibal” – Hannibal is a small town in Missouri where Mark Twain grew up, for those of you wondering – and anyone who has been carried away by a long(er) distance relationship can relate. It’s a beautifully bittersweet love song, slowly and carefully concocted to give us starry eyes as the music fades.
Mama Pancake is available now. Keep up with Eggs on Mars here.
You put your all into your music, it’s all you. You do everything yourselves with no other input from anyone. What is the importance of this to Filmspeed, to do everything yourselves?
Filmspeed: As indie artists? It’s everything. We’re in a modern industry that lives and dies by the innovation of musicians. Time, budget, schedules- these are all things you’ve got to constantly balance. The more we can do internally as a unit, the better chance we have at long term survival, and with any luck, success.
You thrive on the live experience, describe your typical emotions and feeling when you are all on stage?
Filmspeed: Its the rush. Its the purpose. Its home. A live audience is our drinking buddies, our close friends. It’s not quite the same to type it out in words. Its those moments where a whole room gets together and collectively loses their minds if only for a split second.
You hail from Orange County, I don’t know Orange County but I do know that rock and roll is everywhere and at it’s heart. How does Orange County reflect in your music?
Filmspeed: Well… although we live and work in OC and around Los Angeles. The soul of the music is directly channeled from the Motor City, Detroit. Nick and Craig are born and raised with the whole family still living there. “You gotta lose your mind in Detroit, Rock City”. Over the years though Orange County has sprinkled in refinement, professionalism, and tripled down our drive and passion. In a place where the weather is always great, it means we can gig 7 days a week.
You have your own podcast, so tell us more about it. Why did you decide to do the podcast and apart from the music what is all your artistic input into your podcast?
Filmspeed: Well it’s a recent development for us. We actually wanted to get much more candid with our fans. Since theres so many outlets for bands to reach people, (social media, gigs, albums, etc.) we wanted to peel back the curtain and have folks get to know us on a friend-level. So the podcast, “Consistently Off” is really just a recording of the 3 of us catching up for the week and whatever rants ensue thereafter.
Not good to hear about the break in to your rehearsal space guys, how did this make you feel and has it stopped you from doing what you do so well musically?
Filmspeed: Yeaaa, thanks so much! We appreciate the wishes. Being on the losing end of thievery is never great. Immediately following though, our close friends and fans all jumped into action. GoFundMe accounts were opened, plans were made, and guitars were replaced all without our knowledge. A few days of sorrow for sure, but instantly being reminded that we are loved, supported and respected is more than a fortunate turn; its fuel to put the pedal down and take this thing to the top!
Tell us a little more about Beer 4 Boobs, I personally take my hat off to you gentlemen for doing this but please tell the world more about the whole event?
Filmspeed: These events are always a privilege. Its not even a soft spot for us, it’s a requirement. Everyone has had their lives affected by cancer, most recently, both Nick and Craig had parents taken by cancer. Cancer benefits will be on our show schedule as long as folks ask us to appear.
Loving the Cold As Ice cover guys, what made you want to officially cover Foreigner then do a phone video of it?
Filmspeed: Hey thanks! Its all about thinking “outside the box”, as you can probably tell from the video, we didn’t take it too seriously. Best part is that all our closest friends got together for a night of laughs and drinks. In our opinion, theres no better way to make a music video.
Purple Rain, great choice of film and it’s soundtrack, can you all tell me your favourite films that have just as good soundtracks apart from Purple Rain?
Filmspeed: Sh^ttt manggg… theres no better production. That’s prime Prince. Better than that? Let’s put a small vote in for “Team America: World Police”, there’s a genuine brilliance to that whole work of art.
It’s time to go Hexadecimal, it’s time for you to have a great big plug of the great musical wonder that is Hexadecimal. Time for you to tell all Wicked Spins Radio readers and also their listeners (Will be plugging it on my show) all about Hexadecimal. AND 3….. 2….. 1…. GO
Filmspeed: ATTENTION ALBUM LOVERS! Repeat! ATTENTION ALBUM LOVERS: We have self-produced, full length album that covers over 2 years worth of material. It spans a massive range of stories, moods and energies. It is non-stop sound, filled with interludes and segues. It’s a record that you’re encouraged to press play and strap in for the ride.
At a very important time, Kansas City-based alt garage rock band The UK’s – comprised of Noah Bartelt (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Scott Combs (Guitar/Vocals), Katelyn Miles (Bass), and Tarquin Eugene Kellough (Drums) – has released a 5-track EP, affectionately and poignantly titled American Way of Death. From the very first, melancholic sounds of “Why Don’t You Go” – which hits a stride that makes you want to add it to your “walking the streets of the city like a badass” playlist – through the 60s punk-influenced soundscape of “Wake Up”, all the way through third track “AWOD” which follows suit, there is an electricity that makes you realize that incredibly underrated music comes from the midwest. (Hello, Holy White Hounds and Mess!)
Cut to “The Poison Squad” and you’ve got a track we could easily find ourselves barbecuing to on a chilly autumn day, dancing to at a sweaty basement party, or driving to down the Kansas City streets. It all comes to a head with fifth and final track “Other Team”, which brings in that fun, vintage, upbeat feel again. If you’re not careful, you just might find yourselves on the ceiling too…
One part June Carter sassing Johnny Cash along with two dashes of Itzhak Perlman on a midnight hayride, Mad Crush’s songs contain theatrical, back-and-forth performances between their singing protagonists Joanna Sattin and John Elderkin. Complete with humor and heartbreak, their songs are in fact bright little dramas about fussing, fighting, and occasionally making up—universal truths sprinkled with brand-new magic dust. Below, Elderkin discusses his first musical influences, which are readily apparent upon listening to Mad Crush’s recently-released debut LP.
I have a habit of dismissing great albums on my first listen. I had friends with an advanced copy of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” who freaked out when they heard it, but when I listened, I thought it sucked. Later, I gave it another try and realized I was way wrong. Like the rest of the world, I ate it up. I had a similar reaction to R.E.M.’s first EP, called “Chronic Town.” Friends I respected said that it sounded unlike anything they’d ever heard anywhere. I listened and shrugged. It was different, but what was it? But when I pulled the record out again a few months later, I was flabbergasted. Those guys were speaking my language!
The one time I got it right came before these albums, on my first listen to The Clash’s “London Calling.” I was a teenager but I’d never heard of The Clash, and I bought it because I liked the cover picture of the bass player smashing his guitar on stage. I turned on my record player and by the end of the first song I was jumping up and down on my bed like a maniac. When my younger brother came in to ask what the hell was going on, I pointed to the record player and sure enough, he jumped on the bed, too. The only time I got down was to turn over the sides. I didn’t own a lot of records yet, and afterward I probably assumed that most albums would knock me out this way, that life would be one “London Calling” after another. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t so impressed later with other records that were supposed to bowl me over. Or maybe it’s just that great…
Chicago-based shoegaze/pop collective Lightfoils releases new five track EP Chambers today, and we’ve got your first listen below! (Or fourth, or fifth, or twelfth… who’s counting?) The five-piece – comprised of Zeeshan Abbasi (guitar), Jane Zabeth (vocals), Cory Osborne (bass), John Rungger (drums), and Neil Yodnane (guitar) – wastes no time getting into the psych feels with the kaleidoscope intro to first track “The Bitter Over”, which layers into a cacophony of sound that seems to envelope your senses. “Duende” brings the same level of otherworldly vocals to it, a little more depth to the guitar parts than its predecessor. While “This Time Is Up” brings with it a punk garage band instrumental soundscape, we’re still left wondering how Zabeth can reach such insane places with her vocals. But I digress.
“Summer Nights” might, at first, make you feel a little bitter about the warm evenings being long behind us, but it also provides that whirring nostalgic feeling that makes it feel like summer might not ever end. (And it doesn’t have to if you don’t want it to!) Last track “Honeydew” brings with its title the same lust for warmer months, though we know we can relive those nights with this as the backdrop any time we damn well please.
New Orleans-based Sexy Dex and The Fresh – comprised of Dexter Gilmore (Guitar, Vocals), Gabrielle Washington (Vocals), Andrew Landry (Bass), Evan Cvitanovic (Drums), and Ben Buchbinder (Keys) – has been winning awards left and right in the south, and we can see why. As a young band, their technique – and, truly, pure chemistry – is undeniable. Not to mention the alluring genre they’ve almost created unto themselves. You can witness this in their new EP Don’t Play My B-Sides.
Though you’ll hear some psychedelic influence amidst the funk in “SDTF”, hip hop makes its way in there, as well as some interesting pop-infused dance breakdowns. We could see ourselves dancing to “Play Me Birdie” at a sock hop, but there’s an 80’s flare to it as well as a quirky, fast tempo that is a total earworm. “These Young Charms” exists in a more quintessentially 80s soundscape, while “!Wait!” presents a cacophony of sound that is otherworldly in its disposition. Last track “Fotographs” begins with a speaking part that truly captures the otherworldly, as the song blossoms into another 80s-inspired dance track.
