Bleach the Sky – GIN
There’s a voice murmuring about uncertainty going on in your head once in a while. Sometimes it sounds like your high school teacher, and speaks in a really clear tone. There are even cases when it ends up going off like a mad, screaming politician.
Of course, you ignore it! That’s what most people do. You’ve studied them. You can’t be certain that they hear the exact same voices. But, you’re sure that when the panic does set in, they do their best to silence them.
The vast majority of people go through life while hearing an inner-dialogue that amps up their insecurities. They’d like to do something about it, but have found no practical strategy. Musicians like the ones that are part of Bleach the Sky, fortunately, for them, have found a way to confront the voices.
It must’ve been therapeutic writing and performing a song like “GIN.” The raw, emotional lyrics certainly feel like they could just as well be the transcript of a session in which you tell your deepest secrets. And the musical accompaniment, one based on 90s alt-rock and 2000s emo, feels incredibly apt. However, the biggest thing of all is how, by the time the song is over, it stops being merely about the songwriter and provides some relief to anyone who hears it.
sheep eyes – Horn Of Plenty
I was walking through this museum in Peru a while ago. And, I guess I must’ve taken a wrong turn at some point, confused as the Sun outside had made me, and stumbled into a room adjacent to the actual building. It looked like a giant warehouse, and when I looked closer, I saw thousands and thousands of statues, all more impressive than the other.
But, they weren’t impressive enough, of course, to push one of the actual exhibits from the actual museum from their actual place. And this is a problem that museums all over Greece, Italy or Egypt have. They end up using marble statues of gods and emperors out in the parking lot to save a spot. And while this is not a problem that the U.S.A. has, if they ever make a documentary about these issues, it’ll be an American production company making it and American music soundtracking it.
sheep eyes are inspired by the modern Shangri-La of the U.S.A. on the single “Horn of Plenty.” How can the band not be? Their musical heroes, art punk-rockers like Television and The Feelies, come from there, as does nearly all of pop culture. Lo-fi, but carefully designed with melodies that weave in and out of the guitar-heavy arrangement, sheep eyes are dreaming of a world where the U.S. can solve all of your problems with a Coke and a guitar riff. And that world is gone.
