Carinae

If time travel is farfetched as a scientific pursuit, we can at least console ourselves knowing we’ve mastered it by other means. What is music if not a vessel for travel to the past or to futures most of us can scarcely imagine?

Two present-day bands on tour together, Carinae and Sun Parade, are well-matched examples of time-warping sound. Escaping winter in their home state of Massachusetts, these kindred spirits will descend on South Florida with complementary and contrasting versions of space-time intoxication.

Formed from the swirl and stellar dust of earlier psychedelic rock explosions, Carinae are aptly named for an unstable star that somehow survived a massive explosion. Here on Earth, Carinae also survived a tornado — a twister that swept through western Massachusetts in February 2017 and toppled a tree on to the band’s group home. No one was injured, but the house and its contents were demolished.

Sun_Parade by G. Teensma

Carinae can be enigmatic, bombastic, thoughtful and eerily calming all in the same breath. The music made by this collective of star children has an airy beauty that is distinctively indie in character, but it’s also immersive and deeply rhythmic. Carinae are the multiverse under a groove, and on songs such as “Someday” and “Empty Headed Animal,” the effect is transporting. Band member Kasey Greene tells PureHoney that Carinae are readying a new album that could be released as early as March.

Also hailing from the final frontier, Sun Parade have a time-tripping, atmospheric sound of their own On songs like, “Steal My Thunder,” from the band’s 2018 album, “Shuggy Mtn Breakdown,” the band displays a ’70s musicality with vocals tiptoeing into the ’80s and an audio layer of mid-’90s grunge. On their new single, the coming-of-age tale, “Young Adult,” Sun Parade deploy Bowie-esque lyrics and harmonies reminiscent of The Turtles: “… hanging around in the outer space/ it’s looking up, you’re in tip top shape/ You’re a young adult, a big American baby/ You don’t like the things you don’t understand.” As an expression of youthful angst and a dig at American exceptionalism, “Young Adult” is timeless. 

Carinae and Sun Parade perform with Ben Katzman and Coral Canyons on March 10 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach.  carinaeband.bandcamp.com, thesunparade.com ~ Freddie Zandt