PH Pre Party at Gramps
There is a beauty to the freedom of shoegaze music that lends itself to almost any genre. Shoegaze bands can be heavy, introspective, dark, folksie, jazzy, pop affairs, or just straight indie rock with distant vocals. It’s an interesting dichotomy that lends itself to some pretty interesting and memorable shows.
Seafoam Walls, is a band that appears to wear all of these ideas on their sleeve. They are poetic and mournful, while distant and jazzy with smudges of indie folk. They seem to take the nugget of an idea and water it until it blooms into whatever they want it to. Which is pretty cool.
One might say it’s fortuitous then that they are joined at Gramps by Peyote Coyote, a band that skews more towards the psychedelia rather than jazzy folk. Peyote Coyote is more washed out beach day than late nights spent writing poetry in your bedroom while tripping. There are flourishes of Neil Young and mid-century rock and roll that temper their timbre. it’s a modernized sound that would make Marlon Brando’s point in The Wild One, but, you know, after he discovered peyote.
The Stargazer Lilies (Graveface Records), are the headliners to this beautifully dark night of music. The band describe themselves as, “a sort of The Shangri-La’s meets Slowdive meets Pink Floyd live at Pompeii.” Which is to say dreamy, lush vocals accompanied with loud guitars and minimalist persuasion.; so, My Bloody Valentine and the Bad Seeds in an unholy conglomeration. Beautiful, heavy and poetic in a way that leaves the listener swooning; drowning in a pool of longing and wishing that anyone could feel that lost without them.
The cinematic nature of shoegaze, psychedelic and garage rock lends itself to many different interpretations of the genres. These bands seem to have the market cornered on heavy, lush, dreamy and psychedelic spaciness. It would be wise to bring an open mind, a keen ear and whatever else may help to bring out the inner alien, demon, lover, et, all; in order to enjoy the sounds of another dimension.
The Stargazer Lilies, Seafoam Walls, Peyote Coyote play Gramps, Friday, September 16; for the PureHoney 5 year pre-party, $5, doors 9pm.
~ Tim Moffatt
