The Shining Hours may have titled their new EP Wasted Time, but the new Brooklyn band hasn’t been wasting time at all, playing a spate of shows across New York City this summer. The EP is short in tracks, including only three, but the tracks themselves clock in from three to six minutes and give a good introduction to the bands’ overall sound, which (for me at least) rides the line between classic midwestern and Brooklyn indie.
The first track, “Retrograde,” is an energetic rock song that even touches power pop territory (in a good way). This is slightly deceptive; the second and third tracks, “Not Far Away” and “Diamonds In The Dirt” tread into more familiar indie soundscapes, ala’ The Replacements or Superchunk. The basslines of Fernando Pascual and rhythms of drummer Bill Peluso smoothly carry the songs along, as they glide rather than push forward, and allow the guitar stylings of lead guitarist Joe Peters to ride along top. Singer and rhythm guitarist David Tsai has a voice perfectly suited for this kind of music, strong enough to be forward but very melodic. The lyrics are introspective, from lines like “It’s hard to forget, my memory counts every inch” and “I can’t seem to be open today, thinking of you and my mind chooses not to stay.”
While Wasted Time is a bite-sized treat, it piques curiosity for a full length release in the future. In the meantime, you can catch The Shining Hours at Our Wicked Lady on August 9th, or Rockwood Music Hall on August 21st. Find them on Instagram, Soundcloud or Spotify.
Twee punk band The Loneliers are back and with a new record just in time for summer. The trio never really went away, but it’s been four long years since their last album, Best Night Ever, and the follow up single “Sunblock.” The ensuing dark days of the pandemic kept the band pretty quiet, so it’s refreshing to see them return to the stage to support their latest release, Enough Already, signaling that the world of pop punk is indeed healing itself.
Kicking off with an instrumental intro that is a bit mathier than we’ve come to expect from the band, the long-awaited EP signals right away that while it in fact delivers on all the things we’ve come to love and expect from The Loneliers, this record has a few surprises up its sleeve. “Caution: Distracted Driver” immediately smacks us in the face with their signature sock hop bop pop and bubblegum harmonies, but with a nod toward more sophisticated songwriting that quickly rears its purple-mohawked head.
Don’t worry though, sisters Jessie Rodriguez (guitar/vocals) and Debbie Rodriguez (bass/vocals), along with drummer Caitlin McMullen, haven’t abandoned the summer-soaked, beach and convertibles and sunglasses style of punk we can’t help but love, but this time it’s more mature and wrapped in a cool leather jacket. And this time around, the band tells us, they “had enough time to figure out how to make this EP sound amazing (and) are very excited for everyone to hear it. As you hear Enough Already, you can hear how different it sounds from our past albums.”
Despite the band’s penchant, however, for humorous catchy hooks and pop sensibilities, they often function merely as an overlay for some heavier topics and more serious issues. The band explains the darker guitar riffed “No,” with it’s punchy beat and chunkier melodic lines addresses “gaining the voice to say no and fighting for your autonomy in a society that almost just lets it happen and victim blames” in situations of sexual abuse. “BA in Uselessness” is a 2-steppin bass drive with a killer guitar lead soaring right into the vocal line, which describes “being told that you’ll be successful if you do all the right things, but you get stuck at a job you hate. You feel helpless and useless.” The Loneliers have always spoken their truth and put it all up in the forefront for you to take it or leave it. They seem to dive into their experiences a little deeper on this one, and the result is a more vulnerable yet more confident record.
Whether they’re singing about love or loss, or just simply equal rights for all humans (“The Rights Song”), this tightly knit trio knows exactly who they are, and that voice is apparent on every song. So while Enough Already may fall somewhere on the scale between Chixdiggit! and The Beach Boys on too much coffee, I’d say it in fact more accurately falls exactly on The Loneliers and in a place that is uniquely them. I’m very pleased to see the band putting out new music and pumped to see them on this year’s Punk Island on Saturday July 23rd at Maria Hernandez Park. (Read more about the fest.)
Enough Already was self released and is available on all streaming platforms now.
Brooklyn-based band Minaxi certainly have been prolific over the last few years, releasing a number of EPs as well as their 2020 debut album Khwab. This June finds multi-instrumentalists Shrenik Ganatra and Liam Christian and drummer Steve Carlin back in familiar territory, moving through shoegaze, psych, rock, and Indian classical music on their sophomore LP Lazuleen.
The album kicks off with bright, shimmering guitars on “Hey,” bringing a thread of optimism right from the jump (“hey look outside it’s such a beautiful day / I – I’m at your doorstep calling your name”) before moving on to buzzing guitars and quiet-loud dynamics on “Mother.” Minaxi often go for the ethereal side of shoegaze rather than the total wall of sound, but they do beef it up in places, such as on “Adore” and “Manchala,” a track sung in Hindi, bringing to mind Gish-era Smashing Pumpkins. Dare I say there is a bit of Sunny Day Real Estate in here as well? (“Adore” also features bass and vocals from Theadora Curtis of Climates, who sings on “Alive I Feel When I Look In Your Eyes,” too.) In particular, the drum production is crisp and well-mixed; the band notes they were recorded live with no metronome as to capture their live energy.
The lyrics, both in English and Hindi, are lilting and poetic, as on the track “Reese:” “fiery ropes / in the snowfields / wrapped around / the glacial sheets / dance away / in the winter wind.” There is a lot of beauty and love here, but also doubt, longing and loneliness. Lazuleen is in fact a bit of a concept album, as the songs are (according to the group’s Bandcamp) “addressed to the oceans, skies, trees and winds through the lens of the lazuli bunting, the blue songbird.” The album ends on an upbeat note, with things coming full circle in “August,” when “it feels like once again joy is in the air.”
(On a personal note, THANK YOU to Minaxi for including the lyrics on their Bandcamp page, seriously that makes not only my job of reviewing easier, but enhances the pleasure of listening for everyone! More bands should do this!)
Lazuleen as an LP is ten tracks long, available from Bandcamp on vinyl, cassette, and digital; all versions include a download that also features a number of b-sides and remixes, featuring a 13 min ambient-leaning remix of “The Deep Blue Sea Conveys Your Love” from Slowdive drummer Simon Scott. (Of the extra tracks, I was a fan of “Phir Manchala,” sung in Hindi and absolutely groovy.)
Let’s talk about Dopamine for second, Debbie Dopamine that is. Their debut single, “Eat Cake,” came out very recently along with a pink frosting music video directed by FTA contributor Jeanette D. Moses, with the help of several members of local bands who contributed to the creative process, but we’re here to talk about Debbie.
Debbie Dopamine is the songwriting project of Katie Ortiz (vocals/guitar/synth) who self-describes as “a marriage of indie pop sensibilities and grungey guitars, constantly teetering on the edge of a breakdown.” The three piece band is rounded out (or triangulated about) by Dylan LaPointe (bass) and Zach Rescignano (drums) and set to release their debut EP, Pets, in July.
Those familiar with Ortiz’s other projects (Mean Siders, batsbatsbats ghostghostghost, The Senior Year, etc) already know she has a keen understanding of melody and astute execution of infectious hooks often landing not quite where you’d expect. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Katie in the past, so I have witnessed firsthand her ability to expertly craft lyrical quirk and embrace playful song structure that zigs and zags perfectly.
“Eat Cake” (artwork by Dylan LaPointe)
“Eat Cake” delivers on all the levels a pop song should, due much in fact to the talent of its members, but also the organic nature of the project itself. The Debbie character, a longtime figment of Ortiz’s imagination, was just waiting for the perfect catalyst of pent up creativity and to cross paths with equal measures of vulnerability, frustration, and fear. Ortiz saying via a press release: “The video is about exploring the whimsical and disorienting world of an unstable, dissociated mind. Written in the midst of lockdown, the track explores the terrifying and magical world of extreme isolation exacerbated by emotional instability. You might feel that it’s safest to stay inside, only to find that all your most persistent monsters are inside your own candy-colored mind.”
The real strength here though are in the places you can feel the nuance. It’s subtle, but there’s a real honesty between the breaths and the empty spaces. Powerfully disarming, it leaves you completely exposed those complex highs and lows of an almost Liz Phair “fuck it” style sadness. But not without wrapping the whole thing up in a sugar sour indie-pop tune that lands somewhere between Exile in Guyville and Whitechocolatespaceegg.
Staten Island’s favorite trio, Jigsaw Youth, have been making music and mischief together since they were teenagers. Though longtime favorites of ours, their latest release, the two song EP Are You Who You Wanna Be? makes it clear they are just now embarking on the first steps of a much larger journey together, one whose destination is determined only by how far they choose to go. It’s no surprise in the last year, they got scooped up to go on national tours and have played sold sold-out shows with the likes of Destroy Boys, Sasami, Foxy Shazam, and Wargasm. I’ve spent some time in the trenches with this fierce group over the years—we’ve shared the stage and I’ve moshed in their pits. Maria Alvarez (bass/vocals), Nastacha Beck (guitar/vocals) and Alex Dmytrow (drums) sweat and hustle their asses off for every bit of every thing they do, and it shows.
Oh, and they write killer songs. I’m a sucker for a good side A/side B, and their new single release swings the pendulum hard in both directions. “I Cud Crash & Burn” has a poised restraint that we don’t often hear from Jigsaw Youth. It’s like laying asphalt and smoothing gravel over a layer of 90s fuzz. It’s dismissively gratifying in its delivery that never quite breaks out, but instead lures you in with a satisfying melodic growl that Brody Dalle would be proud of. The titular “Are You Who You Wanna Be?” is closer to the unyielding sonic barrage we’ve come to expect from the band and in it they unleash an onslaught of slithering vocals and guitar lines—Alvarez and Beck ducking and weaving between Dmytrow’s thunderous fills and pounding stagger beat.
The release strikes a great balance for a band whose scales seem tipped toward fortune. And though their future may be unwritten, it’s clear these Staten Island punks are just getting warmed up and are on the precipice of some big things to come.
Are You Who You Wanna Be? is out now on all major streaming platforms. Keep up with the band on their Instagram.
Written and recorded in their home studio in Maspeth, Queens over five weeks at the end of 2019, The Maspeth Project’s visceral and hypnotic new album, Birth, was then postponed for release until the end of March 2022 due to the pandemic lockdowns. But the delay also gave Venuzuelan producers and musicians Diego Ramirez, Johann Sánchez, and Carlos Rey bountiful time to revise and polish the content, and the result is “introspective dance music” featuring “dry analog textures” mixed with “fierce drum machines,” and some moving vocal work and lyrics from Columbian visual artist Lluvia Pinzón (or Lluvia PM). Birth evokes the pleasures of the crowded dance clubs we’ve all been missing these past two years, but it’s dance music on a reflective pilgrimage, inspiring colorful visions and journeys internal.
Birth begins with the brief instrumental track, “YEAH!,” where the undulations of what sounds like an electronic marimba riding a giant space worm glides through your brain, roiling slowly to almost stop before jumping back to life again, putting you firmly into the sonic explorations of The Maspeth Project. The tracks that follow feature expressive singing from Lluvia PM, Ramirez, and Sánchez, often with Lluvia singing in unison but an octave above, or in lush harmonies over the swells of synth. “The Lesson” stands out for its seductive mystery; slow and steady, but undeniably catchy, it will make you move as Rey and Pinzón’s lyrics seduce you with the sensual: “You should have found it / see how you feel…I went by the midnight moonlight / I can feel my breath / despite all the fog and numbness / it won’t be too late for me.”
The moody “The Pressure” has been released as the first major single from Birth, and Lluvia PM stretches out the syllables in the opening lines: “My mind has gone blank / yet the moon forces me to cry.” The lyrics for “The Pressure” come from a poem Lluvia PM wrote many years ago. Her voice often quivers, pained, as the music underneath her travels from sparkling pauses to driving dark beats. She sings of “the vast emptiness of her emotions” and her search for “reasons to justify these tears” and the reminder that she’s “only animal / driven by instinct.”
Birth finishes off in the way it began, with another instrumental track, entitled “ThAnKs,” as if The Maspeth Project is offering gratitude to the listener. But the intriguing juxtaposition of acoustic guitar sounds over loops of spacey delays in this last track will leave you feeling like the thanks should come from all of us who have gone on this sonic wandering with this talented group.
Birth brings to mind some of the best offerings from Massive Attack and Portishead, but perhaps more hallucinatory and experimental. Mastered by Brok Mendes of Friends of Friends Recording, featuring album art by Venezuelan visual artist José Andrade, and released by the Amigos de la Casa label, Birth may have been many years in the making, but it’s well worth the wait.
