Friday, November 3, 2017

Friday Stuff from SLEEPiES and Blushing


Friday Listening

It's been kind of a free-form day around here. I've spent some time listening to new releases. I set up one of the guitars that I use alone in my room every day to play the same 5 or 6 songs over and over again. I tried getting the last-minute word out about our free Brixton Riot record release show tonight at Asbury Park Yacht Club that also features Dentist and The RockNRoll HiFives (This was a plug). I ate a big salad.

Here are two kinda newish things that I've spent some time with while doing all of that super-important stuff.

SLEEPiES, Melt To You

SLEEPiES are a favorite of mine from the early days of CoolDad Music. It's been almost five years since I glommed onto their Weird Wild World, and that album is still one I find myself going back to even to this day.

About a month ago, SLEEPiES released the four-song Melt To You on Mirror Universe Tapes; and it reminds me of the things I've always liked about this band. "Barf Haus" and "Detective Behavior" are both high-strung, brittle, jittery. Vintage SLEEPiES. "Hive Shadow" trades some of SLEEPiES' manic energy for darker, more bass-heavy post-punk. Melt To You closes with kind of a surf / spy rock / western take on Gary U.S. Bonds's "I Wanna Holler."

I've always been drawn to SLEEPiES' attention to detail. A quick listen to a SLEEPiES track, and you may come away thinking that this is lovably messy punk rock. But just an extra minute reveals a deep well of influences -- from 80s punk / post-punk / hardcore to the aforementioned surf sound -- deployed in all the right spots.

Melt To You is out now on Mirror Universe Tapes.



Blushing, "Weak"


Blushing by Jake Soto

Let's stay with the idea of 80s influences for a minute, but we'll move on to a slightly different set of sounds: The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Lush, The Sundays (first single, 1989). Early dream pop / proto-shoegaze. Whatever you wanna call it, it's a big influence on Austin's Blushing.

Blushing formed in 2015 when Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) shared some songs with her friend, classically-trained vocalist, Christina Carmona (vocals, bass). They fleshed out Soto's ideas and filled out the band with their spouses Jake Soto (guitar, keys) and Noe Carmona (drums).

Back in January, the four-piece released their debut EP, Tether. Earlier this week, they announced that their second EP, Weak, would arrive on January 26, 2018 via Austin Town Hall Records. Blushing also shared the EP's title track.

"Weak" goes all in on that combination of swirling and explosive that shoegaze nerdlings (a phrase I stole from a tweet by SLEEPiES, funnily enough, and still use often) like me swoon over. The intertwining vocals, all the delay, reverb, chorus, whatever. It's just my thing. What can I say?

You can stream "Weak" over at Blushing's Bandcamp page.



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