with Julian Never
“Effortlessly tuneful jangle pop” - Pitchfork
QUIVERS [Spotify]
>> QUIVERS from Melbourne, Australia (via Tasmania) are FINALLY touring their cathartic lyric-driven guitar pop around the USA. Guitars and tape loops that glimmer and glisten. Four distinct male and female voices. Hard jangle about grief, friendship and love. Quivers were originally slated to tour in 2020, but at least the delay has brought a 2nd album, Golden Doubt (out on Ba Da Bing), and a full cover of REM’s Out of Time which the band themselves endorsed with fire emojis. As for Quivers’ sound, Pitchfork calls it "effortlessly tuneful jangle pop" and "like a Go-Betweens with Coachella ambitions", while NPR’s Otis Hart says Quivers write “earnest earworms, and I am here for every one of them”. You can check out the band’s performance for KEXP. DJ John Richards said the single “You’re Not Always On My Mind” was one of the best songs he’d heard in years and he listened to it “8 times in a row”. Quivers recently supported The Hold Steady at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne, which has only furthered the longing for them to return to the US. It is music for road tripping with your friends and ghosts, and that is what Quivers will do as they traverse the American landscape and pull up to the bumper for 14 or more shows. We can’t wait.
See video for “Hold You Back”
See video for “You’re Not Always On My Mind”
See live session for KEXP Seattle
Interview with NME
Interview with Trouble Juice
MASSAGE [Spotify]
>> The kind of music Massage makes—sunny, bittersweet, tender—is less a proper genre than a minor zip code nested within guitar pop. Take a little "There She Goes" by the La's, some "If You Need Someone" by the Field Mice; the honey-drizzled guitars from The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love," a Jesus & Mary Chain backbeat, and you're almost all the way there. Indie pop, jangle pop, power pop—whatever you call it, pushing too hard scares the spirit right out of this sweet, diffident music, and Massage have a touch so light the songs seem to form spontaneously, like wry smiles. Massage resurrects a brief, romantic moment in the late-'80s, right after post-punk and immediately before alt-rock, when it seemed like any scrappy indie band might stumble across a hit.
See video for “In Gray & Blue” at Brooklyn Vegan
See video for “Half A Feeling” Brooklyn Vegan
Interview with Chickfactor
JULIAN NEVER [Spotify]
>> Julian Never is the recording project of long-time Sacramento CA underground players Julian Elorduy (formerly of Fine Steps) and Mark Kaiser (formerly of Male Gaze, 3 albums on Castle Face Records), both of noise-punk legends Mayyors. A melting pot of influences ranging from 70s-80s U.K./Aussie/Kiwi D.I.Y. & post-punk to American power-pop of the same era colliding to form a punchy, layered web of sound anchored by Elorduy's dreamy tenor.
“Been a while since I’ve heard rumblings from Mayyors’ camp, but this new project from the band’s Julian Elorduy and Mark Kaiser embraces a less gritty vision of pop, setting their sights on the sun-warped jangle of ‘80s Flying Nun this time around. Backed by ethereal synths and beset with jangles, the title track to this single is a bittersweet gem that would fit in well with the acolytes of the Nun that have currently cropped up all over Australia in the last few years. Elorduy and Kaiser have worked out a pretty solid handle on pop here, shedding some of their raucous punk past (Kaiser was also in Male Gaze), and it all comes crashing to a head on “Silver One.” On the flip, the band postures in am more tender vein, opening with the somber strains of piano, given a slight nod to their more lo-fi past before swapping the keys for strums that, like new works from The Tubs, rope in some of the more tender side of the Creation catalog to the mix with touches of Felt and The Sneetches sneaking in. A solid single from the new band and one that gives cause to keep an eye on them. Hoping that this works itself out into something longterm. “ - Raven Sings The Blues
Hear “Silver One”
Hear “Radio Memphis”
