Noise
Triple Seven
I had been reading a lot of buzz around the Indianapolis band, Wishy, and their seamless blend of shoegaze and indie pop lately. Their debut album Triple Seven was stashed in my queue for later listening. Thursday morning, I browsed through the bands playing in clubs downtown for the free Day Parties, a staple of the annual Hopscotch Music Festival. The schedule app revealed Wishy was playing at a fairly small venue later in the afternoon. I quickly cranked up the streaming and fast-tracked listening to Triple Seven with just enough time to garner an appreciation for the recording before my trek downtown to see them play.
Wishy stays true to their description: “Wishy was born as a kaleidoscope of alternative music’s semi-recent history, with traces of shoegaze, grunge and power-pop swirling together.” When I shared this assessment with my son, he remarked that was how most indie bands today could be described. I’m wondering when my 18-yr.-old became so wizened and cynical, but I’m also not sure he’s wrong. For my part, the description reminded me of a band like Hotline TNT. Indeed, at the Wishy show, I spotted someone wearing a Hotline TNT shirt.
My son had class in the afternoon, so we couldn’t get to the Wishy show until just after it started. The venue was packed and the guy at the door let us know he could only let one of us in (fire codes being what they are and all that). Since I was the one pushing to go to that show, I did what any good father would… I asked my son if he would wait outside while I enjoyed the band that I had only earlier that day discoverd I was really into. He questioned what he was supposed to do while I was at the show. I didn’t have the heart to ask him to go to the open-air hip-hop show across the street where you could plainly hear the curses and racial epithets that are such a staple of the genre. Fortunately, our dilemma was quickly solved when someone left the club and the door guy permitted us to go inside.
Wishy’s set seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye. When the band’s Kevin Krauter introduced a song with “this is the song that has the same name as the name of the album,” I found myself yelling, “Title track!” in a hasty attempt to help him articulate. Krauter responded, “Yeah, the title track,” and the band kicked off “Triple Seven,” a slice of Sundays-esque indie pop as dreamy as it is nostalgic.
Following the title track in the album sequence is “Persuasion,” no less glistening in its approach and even more careful in controlling the chaos underneath that could threaten the saccharine sweetness of the approach.
“Game” sounds like something from Love Tara by Eric’s Trip, an up-tempo fuzzed-out rocker that features a striking lead guitar line and hushed boy/girl vocal harmonies.
Hopefully, there is enough there to sample and find yourself convinced to check out the whole album. It’s always fun to find a band like this at the beginning of their musical journey.
Noble Oak - Eveningstar
Recently, a friend on Mastodon asked followers about their first cassette purchase. I had no trouble recollecting getting Starship’s Knee Deep In The Hoopla when I was in the fourth grade as my introduction to the world of music on tape. I wore that tape out playing the all-too radio friendly songs like “We Built This City” (some might say the song was pandering — the shoutout to all the cities hasn’t aged well). Following that popular anthem in the track sequencing was “Sara,” a ballad at a time when that was almost a separate genre within a genre. Rock bands used to touring arenas had their slower, more romantic songs interspersed with the more upbeat anthemic fare on their records.
The rocker vs. the ballad dynamic was perhaps never more obvious than on hair metal albums. The rockers were dangerous, lecherous and debauched while the ballads were tender and romantic. The ballads were always fewer in number, but reminded fans — especially those of the female variety — that even the baddest boys (the ones with most Aqua Net and makeup) had a softer side.
Noble Oak’s “Eveningstar” is a balled in the rock tradition. Like Starship’s “Sara,” the song has an sophisticated urban sheen with its immaculate mix of keyboards and guitars. The lyrics flirt with unabashedly straightforward metaphors around love and loss. Lines like “the memory of you becomes a shining light, when you were in my life,” would have sounded perfect in the earnest and overdramatic eighties.
Noble Oak - Eveningstar (YouTube)
One Actress And A Melon
The creative forces behind Ginger Root have a concept for a show featuring one actress (it’s all they had the budget for). Their Japanese protagonist changes looks and activities often to keep people of the world glued to their sets. In the end, it seems, what suits her best is rockin' out.
The song “There Was A Time” itself has a breezy 70s feel, with a healthy dose of tropicalia in the mix and a smidgen of psychedelia. There is a warped cassette haze on the whole track that wouldn’t sound out of place in the heyday of chillwave a little over a decade ago (this could be due to the Toro Y Moi influence). Ginger Root’s mastermind, Cameron Lew, describes the project as “aggressive elevator soul.” “There Was A Time” is a fun listen and matches the rest of the currently available tracks from the upcoming Shinbangumi in style.
Ginger Root - “There Was A Time” (YouTube)
Shinbangumi by Ginger Root will be released on 9/13/2024 by Ghostly International. The cloud vinyl version includes a pop-out paper building!
Sharing Is Caring
In many ways, though not in all, it’s gotten much harder to share the music you love with others. I was reminded of this a couple of days ago. For my wife’s birthday, my sister made her a playlist on Apple Music. This was thoughtful and kind, but unfortunately, we don’t have Apple Music. So my wife had to copy down the tracks that made up the list and find the songs to make her own playlist on Qobuz.
Back in the day, when you had a crush on someone, or simply wanted to spread the gospel of superbad tunes for getting down, you made a mixtape. If the recipient of your tape had a cassette player (which everyone did — they were standard government issue), they could listen to your creation until their heart's content. Or until the tape wore out (this is a real thing).