Spooky Cool, Existential Pie It’s almost spring. You’re starting to be able to count on sunny, warm days. Crocuses, Daffodils, allergies, Redbud blossoms. It’s all creeping back and Sunday was even warmer in the shade than Saturday was -- as the soak from Friday is brought to a more acceptable room temperature. Step out in confidence. Be overdressed and sweat off the winter cold. Let the chafing of an old canvas coat be your aging process, your weathering on the surface of a Tulip Poplar tree or a Sweet Gum. Take it in and let it out. Only letting passing joggers into the periphery of your bubble, inject your suburban landscape with the poppy-metal sounds of Spooky Cool’s 2022 album, Existential Pie. First out-of-date connections for me are to Arcade Fire, Naked & Famous, Animal Collective and the end of Beatles 1 — in other words, happy times – in its aggressive and energetic, complex drumline, an explosive introductory sound matching decisive, simple and mellow lyrics with sparkling, hi-tone lead and rhythm. I love the way underneath this layer of dazzling treble and vocals coming at you through a hookah cloud, a tin pan?... a sludgy, atonal bass rhythm, like a hidden character, lets itself be known only in maybe the second track and periodically thereafter. These are the introductory tracks on an album that I feel is well-titled. “My life is drowning me out,” says Track 01, Net Ignored. Fun that several song titles refer to familiar places around our city of Richmond: “VMFA” being the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which is currently exhibiting a history of guitars, and “Bad Night At Bamboo–” would send me curiously nosing my way toward the familiar yet unexplored cafe....
Yet in this fast-paced, kaleidoscopically self-aware album, there's no time to rest or reflect on - just lots of blossoming tension. Suspended energy on Track 2, Time Will Tell, between vocal melody and melody of the guitar – there is space (a hovering sharp climbing melody) versus coming in for a landing onto a nearly, nearly, nearly resolved chord. This is like an interlude between an assertive, confident first track and a more honest, open third track. Among the local influences on this album, a Hindu, meditative style on track 03 “End of Rage,” makes me think of art rock at Gallery 5. Feminine vocals take over on this one, and, as if picking up a conversation with the first two tracks, yet mirroring them, Track 03, End of Rage involves a lot of acknowledgement and repetition. Isolating the feeling and acknowledging its simplicity until the feeling itself lifts away? This one makes me think of genre music too - by meditating on letting go of rage, a more extreme emotion than anger, the artists take up a unique place. In my mind, some genres of music are more about feeding a fire of strong emotion than letting go of feelings, especially rage. But there are just so many flavors to this music! Thinking about everything from life as a war to having intrusive thoughts on the way to the grocery store (slightly inappropriate.) This is my favorite track for sure! It makes me feel like a small part of some greater consiousness. It's appealing. Track 04, VMFA involves trading shift work in favor of exploration - seemingly by the universe's swaying demand, free association lyrics, memories of whiskey drinks, and melody like a diving bird! This is as good as TuNe YaRdS, that movie about the cab driver, or Dirty Projectors! Joyful headbanger kind of song! And a little bit funny and inspiring, since the outcome is so driven, motivating and exciting. Here, I want to include a quote from Matt Mitchell's Bandcamp interview with Lucy Dacus: Big Ups: Lucy Dacus Picks Her Bandcamp Favorites | Bandcamp Daily. Dacus says. “Because I think, in order to make an album that you want people to listen through and not turn off at some point, you need to organize it in a way that feels like a fluid story.” This cool interview shows Lucy Dacus rooted in her musical surroundings and tuned in with her peers. Like the Newlin Music Prize, the interview paints a picture of a local Richmond scene (a little more transient since Dacus connected with college peers at VCU,) in which Dacus even includes last year's prize-winning album, For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her! While Spooky Cool isn't listed among Dacus' favorites, I think this year's nominee, Existential Pie, puts a story together, too! And whether credit is due to "art rock" for art's sake, or to the inner workings of the universe, or to hard work, I think this band's story-crafting is well-wielded to pack a punch! Track 05 Only Colour, is more personal and “standing face-to-face with my own transience,” the down notes are heavier and doubtful. The intro is familiar-sounding, and the texture of the refrain -- softly electronic and trill electric, is unique and loveable. Track 06 Bad Night at Bamboo: I think everything gets mixed up and a little hard to understand on this breakdown track. “Can I still sing?” “Who would I be without my lover?” it demands of itself. Bringing back the rhythm of track 04 - where tambourine brings some festivity to this challenging album, but blending joy with darker meditations - what comes out is ::::: heavy rock and then a transition to a more pop sound on a brief dreamy interluding Track 07, Sedan, which is pop, smooth, ending in uncertainty…. RVA Mag reviews pointed to hip hop influence on this album. Maybe this is true? Here, I think, the group looks back at where they came from, with stronger underlying metal and rock sounds - and why they got to where they are. As Mitchell classifies Lucy Dacus' recent release, Home Video, "at its core, an act of propelling oneself forward into a new lifetime through interrogating the past, rather than letting its stagnancy remain," thus I think of Existential Pie -- a creation that documents coming of age and a turn to look at the past. Side note, I was listening to these later songs while my dog was starting to drag me by the leash, and low-fi (low-key) pretending my basic iphone was an actual decent listening device, running with it in my hand sans any kind of earbud thing – this produced a similar auditory effect to actually headbanging, and when it became necessary, squeezing the bottom of the phone into the aluminum double walled coffee cup and letting it echo… basically, I decided this is a super cool album! Definitely spooky, and spookiest here on “S’Bleak,” Track 08. I am too creeped to find out how this one ends, cutting it off before the final ascending transition, so you will have to pick up where I left off! #wouldrecommend and now on to... #forgottonominate CARO sweet+sour I wanted to add a shoutout to this artist! I had forgotten their name (was searching for Clairo, and briefly thought a Richmonder had appeared on a Kanye sample. This is NOT SO! Clairo's song, Amoeba, is amazing, btw, and being at my familiar keyboard rather than on my iphone allowed my to clear up my own confusion!!!!) But back to the genre, bedroom pop! I had decided the song from this 2022 nominated artist, "summertime," was my absolute favorite single track, not album. And I see that they have 2 new releases to check in with. Trending now, Nicky Youre, dazy and Sunroof is so catchy! It makes me think of the Gorillaz: Picture you getting down in a picture tube Like you lit the fuse, you think it's fictional? Mystical? Maybe Spiritual hero who appears on you to clear your view When you're too crazy I really thought the line read you're too dazy!!! Was this the same dazy, Out of Body, another 2022 Richmond album that I failed to nominate and am now tuned into on bandcamp that my dad told me he heard about on NPR? Caro calls herself queer, dreamy, dazy and disillusioned! Loving the genre monikers. sweet + sour The acoustic, singer-songwriter songs are sparsely decorated with synth experiments. This album has more rhythm and is more transgressive and experimental than her last one, but still boldly combines pop and her own writing in a fun mashup! I'm def excited for this artist and their new release. track 01- "same old lucid dream" Caro's sound is so distinctive and delicate, and she hasn't traded her from my room recording perspective. She is still looking out her window. Vocals are a little maxed out on this recording, so I wish -- and this is a very wishful and regretful kind of music -- as much as this music does- and it almost gets to a princess ballroom concert piano vibe at the beginning of this song for a second before returning to grounded, start, and remorseful realism. To arpeggios, peppy casiotones and humble, stubborn realism. But I wish the artist had better recording equipment! XD track 02- explicit - "i guess we weren't perfect" Even a little bit of an outlaw country swing in the end of this refrain is instantly perceptible, a matter of altering a note or two in the steady arpeggios. Delicate crafting. This is really well done and exciting to hear. (Please check out my best friend, Sugarlift!) Mixed up feelings that come from being so emotionally engaged and open - that leads to a particular kind of betrayal and hurt! These songs are the outlet and a version of the story that is still tender. track 03- "heading south" the hint of outlaw swing becomes the sweet familiarity of a Crosbystillsnash-like embellishment on the end of these verses. Singer full of regret. track 04- "summer" Poppy and just as good as my favorite from the last album "summertime." Please stay in your room though, because you deserve so much better than you expect from the other person in this song. The only good advice is "take a year and recover." It kills me that you give such good advice to others and expect them to step on you to get to a better place, right?! Honestly, this is such a confusing, true and awesome song! I have to set aside the desire to make it make sense, and just enjoy the catchy melody!!!! This song could be written for many people at once! track 04- "dance dance" samples the Fall Out Boy song, track 05- "sunflower interlude" this is an off-beat observation and the feeling I get, maybe, is that the whole music is just a little bit like when too much light comes in through the window and everything looks a little bit like shadows or an overexposed photo. I'd call this one my favorite on the album. track 06- "wouldn't change a thing" caring, loving and kind - bringing in a concert-piano sounding sweetness from the first track again. still- the visual images are everyday and plain, stoic. track 07- "right words wrong time" dark intro, as a contrast to the last song which was so convincingly sweet, this one is un-forgiving. very smooth refrain! great songwriting work on this track! track 08- "little boxes" might sound familiar! I like this song and have only heard the original recently. track 09- "kraken" this is why i might drink too! <3333 love this one! brings back really good memories! dazy out of body Here is some press coverage for this album: Dazy's exhilarating 'OUTOFBODY' sustains its quality all the way through : NPR Pop Rock Puzzle | Music | Style Weekly - Richmond, VA local news, arts, and events. track 01- tambourine plus 4x4 - ummm beatles again?, but there's an edgy side to the vocals that's very gritty, like a barenaked ladies kind of song! track 02- fast moving rhythm of 90's pop rock bowling for soup kind of music, but softer and more upbeat! track 03- gentle metaphors and a nice swooping melody that feels the dropping of tracks and sharp turns of life the artist talks about 06- motionless parade - this is my favorite song - its kind of the end of the prom dance slow song but still punk 07- choose yr ramone- back to the edgy track 01, and the very Hindu-influenced harmonies that i hear on Spooky Cool's album as well. not ramonesy-sounding if you ask me! 08- ladder - I think the metallic bongo sounds in the background are really nice. This would be the alt ending of the prom when the good guys were right the whole time and no one ever questioned them! 09- AWTCMM? sincere and unflappable 10- Asking Price- harder rock and distortion, Bits from the NPR review of this Album: TUCKER: Listen to any song on "OUTOFBODY," and you may eventually think, have I heard this song before? My mental list of the influences I heard included the propulsive guitar drone of The Jesus and Mary Chain, the sweet-and-sour romanticism of Matthew Sweet, the bratty anger of Oasis and the pounding catchiness of Cheap Trick, T. Rex, Teenage Fan Club and - well, I could go on. The nice thing is James Goodson as Dazy doesn't go on. He makes his points in songs that rarely exceed two minutes, and he imprints those precious seconds with enough force of character to refute the idea that he's just a copycat. TUCKER: That's "Choose Yr Ramone." Oh, yeah, Goodson was also influenced by the harsh brevity of The Ramones. Goodson sings most often in a voice that's high and urgent, just this side of hoarse and exhausted. His version of power-pop is noisy, ragged, full of feedback and clatter, the sound of a person trying to jolt himself out of a bad mood or worse.
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AuthorWe are Kieran and Michelle, two 32-year-old William & Mary grads living in Virginia. Archives
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