The Mellons – What a Time to Be Alive
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Lo-fi Rock, Garage Rock
Similar artists: Foxygen, Lemon Twigs, Temples, Fur, Electric Looking Glass, Beatles, Beach Boys, The Association
Somewhere around California, there are hordes of long-haired people that have renounced their ordinary lives under the vague promise of some kind of sonic bliss to which they are to be delivered. They wear their smiles proudly and chant in unison. You can recognize them by the image of their prophet that they carry around, a fellow by the name of Brian Wilson.
There are many legends surrounding their ultimate goals. And, there are ever longer stranger fables about what they are willing to do in order to achieve their Kingdom Come. One thing only is certain. They are basing all of their belief on the healing, celestial power of pop music. To them music is something that occurs naturally all around us, but that only a few richly talented individuals, like Wilson, can capture.
The Mellons continue to sound their appreciation for the legend of the Beach Boys and their assurances of endless summers on What a Time to Be Alive. Make no mistake, this is not music that is not revealed to those unwilling to make the studio their mistress and vocal harmonizing something akin to a religious ceremony. The Mellons have long ago taken the plunge. We are merely around the benefit from their fearlessness.
The Confusions – 1664
Genre: Punk, New wave, Indie Rock
Rock music has found perfection a few times over. There are enough versions of perfect sounds, crafted in just the right manner for modern audiences to listen in awe and young artists to want to gift the world something equally as alluring.
It’s no mean feat either, and rock musicians didn’t arrive at this state of grace by coincidence. Any scholar of rock history will tell you that there is plenty of garbage that you need to sort through in order to reach something worthwhile. Rock’s many permeations and its continued metamorphosis are what have allowed these remarkable forms of music to exist.
The Confusions have witnessed this excellence of human expression and were ready to carve it apart and reassemble it into their language in 1664. The tune is really a complex strategy that aims to marry punk, 60s rock, and even modern indie. All of these forms achieved an incredible sort of tightrope balance. Now, it’s The Confusions’ turn to dare to reach something of similar effortless beauty.
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