Bright Sparks is posted every few weeks and offers a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar. Volume 16, reporting for duty.
Weakened Friends – Blue Again
Weakened Friends are a trio—Sonia Sturino, Annie Hoffman, and Cam Jones—from Portland, Maine. The band are readying their debut LP, Common Blah, a record that promises to deal with the Millennial despair that label Don Giovanni Records describe as “the feeling of being young, stuck, and settling for less,” through sheer catharsis. The outlet comes via heavy instrumentation and Sturino’s intense vocals, the band looking back at a whole host of bad feelings with the force of a hurricane.
Sturino says lead single ‘Blue Again’ is a song about “how tempting it can be to just follow suit and do what you think others would want from you, in art, life, careers, politics, etc., and all the insecurities, anxiety and feelings of worthlessness that can come with that.” It’s an angry yell in the face of expectations, and one that leaves us the listener feeling empowered, a determination to follow our own path, whatever that might be.
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Common Blah is set fro release on the 19th October via Don Giovanni Records and you cab pre-order it from Bandcamp.
Primo! – You’ve Got a Million
Hailing from Melbourne, Primo! are a band who this summer put out a new full-length album, Amici. The trio favour a short, sharp brand of pop punk that nonetheless allows the vocals room to breathe. The result is a sound that dripping in attitude and energy that retains a lyrical clarity, an intersection between pop and punk that focuses not merely on making a racket or melodramatic sincerity, but rather something more interesting and sardonic and strange. Take ‘You’ve Got a Million’ as an example, fizzing into life and kicking into rhythm, the vocals having something of a mantra-like quality.
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Primo Amici is out now via Upset the Rhythm an you can get it from Bandcamp.
HALEY – Infinite Pleasure Part 2
HALEY is the new moniker of the artist you probably know as Haley Bonar. After 15 years of recording, Haley decided to drop her paternal surname (and legally change her name to Haley McCallum, her maternal family name). The decision was explained in detail in a post on Stereogum, but the important thing is that HALEY has a brand new album on the way. Pleasureland promises to be something of a change of direction, a stark and minimal album that features no vocals whatsoever.
Our first taste of the record is ‘Infinite Pleasure Part 2’, what Haley describes as “a requiem for a beautiful world. It represents death, chaos, capitalism, self-imprisonment, and the realization of the self through outer and inner turmoil.” If all that sounds rather grand then wait until you hear the song. HALEY proving that you don’t need a human voice to convey emotion as fuzzed-out guitar burns across the track’s shadowy background like a beacon, creating something as rich and epic as life itself.
Pleasureland is to be released via Memphis Industries on the 12th October, and you can pre-order it now via the HALEY Bandcamp page.
Doe – Heated
This autumn sees London three-piece Doe follow up their previous record, Some Things Last Longer than You, with a brand new full-length, Grow into It. So far we only have one single to go on, though all evidence points to another exercise in ultimately optimistic chaose. Indeed, the record itself aims to be the “antithesis of the overdone trope of male bands singing about rejecting adulthood and wanting to stay young and get wasted with their friends forever.” Instead, Doe confront aging with a sense of hope, what lead Nicola Leel describes as “finding light and freedom in age and finding autonomy in death.”
‘Heated’, the album’s first single, starts poised and tense, but eventually hits periods of pure unrestrained pop punk joy. Talking of which, the accompanying video, directed by Jack Barraclough , sees the band have lots of fun with paint and houseplants and lots of orange.
Grow into It will be released on Topshelf Records (US) and Big Scary Monsters (UK/EU). Pre-order it now via the Topshelf Bandcamp or BSM webstore!
internet boy crush – ghost friend
internet boy crush is a collaboration between Hector from Texas and Carlos from Caracas. Taking inspiration from the bedroom pop classics, the pair make an intimate sound shrouded in melancholy, late-night elegies for what is now lost. ‘ghost friend’ makes this clear, as lonely and intimate a song as you could ever wish to hear, taking on something of a lullabic quality, a hypnotic murmur in the dark.
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‘ghost friend’ is available to download via Bandcamp now, and more material is due to be unveiled soon.
Kin Hana – You
Kin Hana is the solo recording project of Aaron Carroll Hodges. After ten years of recording under his own name and the moniker Longshoreman, Hodges has adopted Kin Hana, the name of his Japanese grandfather, a sailor who came to the US in the early 1900s. Hodges recently released a new album, Au Sable, via his own Black Meadow imprint, and ‘You’ is the record’s closing track. Fragile but strangely elemental, it sounds like soundtrack to shifting weather patterns, the ominous sense of an approaching storm. It’s not all gloom though, as Hodges’s vocals glimmering within the murk, lighting it up from the inside.
Au Sable is out now on Black Meadow and you can get it from Bandcamp.
Bodega – The Truth is Not Punishment
Bodega are a post-punk band from New York who, as the title of their latest album Endless Scroll might suggest, are keyed into the peculiar, soul-destroying world that is our own. Rather than facing this with hopelessness or sorrow, Bodega channel all of their fury and dissatisfaction into a frenetic flow, taking shots at anything and everyone who might deserve it, from the obviously soulless bodies of late-capitalism to the banal attempts at protest that end up forming just another boneless arm of the many-tentacled beast. Closing track ‘The Truth is Not Punishment’ is a perfect example of the playful and cutting style, the tone falling somewhere between furious, bemused and sarcastic.
“I visited my mother in a Tampa Bay complex
Klonopin and vodka all day
She was pulling on bottles
No pull to eat
Strapped inside of cathode rays
What was most sad of all is that you didn’t want to leave your imprisonment
You said that ‘I’m happy’
I was arrogant I said that you weren’t”
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Endless Scroll is out now and you can get it from the Bodega Bandcamp page.
The Cordial Sins – Not Enough
Based out of Columbus, Ohio, The Cordial Sins combine riot grrrl energy with shoegaze soundscapes and 00s indie rock tendencies. Amidst this lay Liz Fisher’s vocals, equally comfortable in nostalgic croon or impassioned yell, as displayed on new single ‘Not Enough’. The track is more atmospheric and grand than much of their previous release, Only Human, forming something of an anthem by the close and forming a considered exploration of human connection and the search thereof. Still, the newly soaring sound does not negate a sense of intimacy and personality, meaning The Cordial Sins achieve the best of both worlds.
‘Not Enough’ is out now and you can find more info from The Cordial Sins webpage.
Upstairs – Trust the Process
Working out of Cincinnati, Upstairs are something akin to what might result if Protomartyr and Parquet Courts were placed in a blender—a verbose brand of indie rock that can’t quite decide between cynical detachment and sincere shouting. Latest album Our Ass is in the Jackpot Now displays an impressive range of styles and sounds, though its closer ‘Trust the Process’ that best captures the Upstairs spirit, a frantically wordy sermon that veers between hip sing-speak and momentous outpouring, all the while weaving a lyrical monologue that is as urgent as it is amusing.
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Our Ass is in the Jackpot Now is out now and you can get it from the Upstairs Bandcamp page.
Fanclub – Leaves
Fanclub are a trio from Austin who make music that combines the heartfelt songwriting of Jay Som or Anna Burch and adorns it with dreamily retro electronics, creating pop that sparkles and shimmers like a valentine-pink neon billboard. Their debut single, ‘Leaves’ displays these traits perfectly, Leslie Crunkilton’s vocals the perfect accompaniment to the honey sweet synths and blissful dream pop guitar, creating a song that sounds like a nostalgically fuzzy digital embrace.
You can buy ‘Leaves’ now from the Fanclub Bandcamp page.
Con Davison – Talk
Having been a drummer for various recording projects like Bad Bad Hats and Dreamspook, Minneapolis’ Con Davison has decided to start recording music on his own terms. Set for release this autumn, Far Off Distant Plans is his debut solo EP, wresting back full control and allowing for a process of artistic self-actualisation that has been a long time coming. New single ‘Talk’ gives some idea as to what shape this might take, a half-paced and expressive brand of indie pop that kicks into insistent rhythms, changes of tone that signal the emergence of a sense of earnestness. Therefore, while remaining fun, the Con Davison sound displays a far wider range, ticking all the boxes within a sweet three minute croon.
Far Off Distant Plans will be released on the October 19th so keep an eye on the Con Davison Bandcamp page for more info.
Our Fastest Typist – It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me
Our Fastest Typist is an indie rock multi-instrumentalist from Austin, Texas. Their latest album, Group Therapy For Imaginary Monsters was released last month, a collection of songs that draw on influences both classic (see Bowie and The Rolling Stones) and contemporary (fans of Car Seat Headrest will find a lot to like). Ranging from the intimate bedroom pop of ‘The Day Vacation Saved My Life’, to 11+ minute rock epic ‘Imaginary Monsters (Go to Heaven)’.
The standout is second single, ‘It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me’, all grainy lo-fi guitar and witty but affecting lyrics. It’s a song about it being sunny outside but feeling cloudy on the inside, and captures nicely how Our Fastest Typist confronts worries and bad feelings with liberating indie rock.
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Group Therapy for Imaginary Monsters is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp.