Dehd get lucky, Knife Knights dream in technicolour, Yoke Lore goes beige, Blessed roll in glass and more in today’s Roundup. Only four more days until the weekend.
1 Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you? You should. If only because Chicago garage-pop trio Dehd is giving you an incredible gift — the single Lucky and its accompanying video. The former packs all the ramshackle jingle-jangle, twangy surf-guitar licks and vocal reverb you need to make your life complete. The latter delivers all the glitz and glamour of a weeknight floor show at a suburban casino hotel. It’s a win-win. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Emily (Kempf) first ever learned how to sing by singing along to Britney Spears on her boombox. In Lucky, we wanted to pay homage to that memory (and to the pop star’s music video of the same name) by enlisting our very own Chicago star, Alex Grelle. We shot it in only a few long shots to showcase the performances by all our talented friends (and not to mention all the set design, costuming and makeup done off screen). The shoot was trippy, glam, gross and messy. But most of all, it was a lot of fun.” Hit me:
2 There’s a fine line between a fantasy and a hallucination. A dream and a nightmare. Or a cartoon and a mind-blowing short film. All of them — but mostly the last one — apply to Knife Knights’ video for My Dreams Never Sleep, which is apparently about a man whose spirit or ghost or essence or something ends up wandering the streets in the company of a disintegrating cat that invades his brain and a naked yellow seductress — until he reunites with his former lover. Or something. Maybe it will make more sense to you. It definitely goes with the subliminal, otherworldly vibe of the trippy song. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “The slightly NSFW and psychedelic visual was directed by animator Joe Garber (illustrator for Foo Fighters’ The Making of Concrete and Gold) and is a meditation on love, loss and letting go both on a mortal plane and in the afterlife. Garber offers this on the video, “In a dream, she calls him onward, and in sleep, she calls him back.” Oh, of course:
3 What’s your favourite colour? Today, it should be beige. Though not the bland, mid-tone brown shade you know. The version you need to experience is actually Beige (unburdened), a heart-tugging piano-ballad version of New York indie-pop singer-songwriter Yoke Lore’s 2017 song. Though really, this version — which will appear on the choirboyish vocalist’s upcoming acoustic EP Meditations — is more of a blue-grey than beige. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “This song turned out to mean a lot of important things to people,” says Adrian Glavin (Yoke Lore). “In re-interpreting it, I wanted to clear out everything but the song itself, so that people to whom it means something can get a more refined picture of what the song means. Clear out the clutter, unburden yourself.” Dim the lights:
4 Some people like to know what they’re getting. Others like to be surprised. Those in the latter group should stroll through Rolled in Glass, the new single from Fraser Valley indie outsiders Blessed. The track — a preview of their next LP Salt — keeps you guessing with its mathy, off-kilter time signatures, freewheeling arrangement and fusion of post-punk, Krautrock, prog and more. If the rest of the album is this interesting, that will definitely be another pleasant surprise. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “The album explores the nuances only touched on in previous releases, with songs that range from short, staccato, punk-tinged flares to lengthy escapades that recall Deerhunter’s noise-rock freak-outs and Do Make Say Think’s lush cinematic passages. Rolled In Glass fits into the latter category, beginning with an increasingly frantic instrumental passage that gives way to an atmospheric swell of keyboards and guitars before finding a Can-like groove over final third.” Have a Blessed day:
5 Speaking of dreams: We all dream. And we all dream differently. One friend of mine has dreams where he pursues an elusive entity who’s always hiding behind the next door down the hallway. Another says she can go to bed thinking about a story and have it manifest itself in her dreams. I’m not that lucky. Maybe I should listen to Long Beach electronicist honey.bear’s somnambulist soother REM No. 4 — not to mention the rest of his seductively sleepy Sauce EP — before I go to bed. It couldn’t hurt. Of course, it’s even better to spin it while you’re wide awake — or in any other state of consciousness. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Blending elements of dream pop, vaporwave, and synthwave, honey.bear’s debut EP Sauce explores young-adult aimlessness and depression through the lens of nostalgia and sleep disorders. REM No. 4 is about getting lost in your own subconscious.” Sweet dreams are made of this:
