It’s been seven years since I last posted a Speaker Gain Teardrop song (damn, I’ve been doing these for that long?), so here’s the lushly beautiful “Galveston”:
What a band from Hiroshima is doing naming a song after a Texas port I couldn’t tell you…
The Hope Slide is a Canadian Band named after a natural disaster and, like Great Northern, has a name that make it hard to search for information about them on Google. Evidently the two principles were previously in a different Shoegaze band called Hinterland. Here’s “The Prince William Sound.” (Speaking of songs that are hard to Google…)
Here’s “Faded Hearts,” another track from School of Seven Bells’ Put Your Sad Down EP. When I first listened to the EP, I kept skipping it because I didn’t like the sound of the first 15 seconds or so. But once you get past that it’s a really engaging song. And Alejandra Deheza still has a great voice.
The music for both this and “Put Your Sad Down” are both sort of pop-electronica on the surface, but lyrically and emotionally, both are dealing with the same affecting subject matter: how to convince someone who’s dying to keep living.
Imagine Mazzy Star on Quaaludes, but not as good. That’s Trespassers Wiilliams, a sort of twangy Shoegaze-meets-Slowcore outfit. Here’s “Lie in the Sound,” which strikes (as much of their work does) as slight, pleasant chill-out music.
Here’s “Innocent,” another track of Japanese band Civic‘s debut album Toilet Monster.
Civic gets compared to Supercar, and while I can hear the resemblance, Civic has a rawer sound, like a garage band who just started meshing a few weeks ago. I like that high energy rawness, and some have labeled Civic “Noise Pop,” if that’s a real thing.
I’ve found and ordered Toilet Monster from a domestic source, and I hope to have a more detailed report if/when it comes in.
Honestly, the only thing I know about Jesus on Heroine is that they have a Facebook page. Here’s the slightly differently spelled “Jesus on Heroin.” It’s probably best I didn’t play this on easter Sunday…