Julie

One Liner: I guess maybe I am a shoegaze guy now?
Wikipedia Genre: Nu gaze, shoegaze, noise pop, slacker rock
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 15
Day: Sunday
Weekend Two Only.

American Express Stage at 2:30.

Thoughts:  I had been expecting another pop starlet sort of thing, and am pleasantly surprised to hear immediate fuzzy guitars and bashing drums.  I get to let this one play for a while.

The names of the three band members are sorta weird, they list them as so: Keyan MTA (aka Keyan Pourzand) – vocals, guitar, Alex Brady (aka Alexandria Elizabeth) – vocals, bass, Dillon Lee – drums.  No clue why they have changed up their names.  Teen Vogue has an article about them!  That is cute!  The first paragraph is entirely about guessing the band members' star signs.  But at least it gives me some useful info - Lee and Pourzand met in high school in a suburb in Orange County.  Pourzand was raised on Middle Eastern music, while Lee had always tried to avoid his mom's great taste in 90's alt rock.  They met Brady and recruited him to play bass, and the band was born.  They moved to L.A. when Pourzand and Brady enrolled at the Southern California Institute for Architecture (which is odd? But they later dropped out).

The music is heavy at times, a little dark and moody, and I like it when both singers join on a track, more than the ones where only one or the other sings.  Only one album, 2024's my anti-aircraft friend, and none of the tracks on there have become their top tunes.  Which is too bad, really, because some of them are very tasty.  "catalogue" is the top one from there with 4.4 million streams.

Sort of smells like The Breeders at first.  I like the whole thing - the vocals are a little mysterious and muted, the drums are raucous, the guitar very insistent.  I also like the artwork on the album - not that bit above - that is like a sketch of a skinny girl with a big guitar in hand.  Their top track overall is their first single, 2020's "flutter" with 47.2 million streams.

Wall of guitars action right there.  So much dissonance that I think it sounds cool.  The track that has made me look up from my work multiple times to see what song is playing is called "clairbourne practice."  The riffs in that one are heavy and tasty, just straight out of the Buzz Bin from the 90's.

I think the booking people hate me.  Yet another band that I really like coming only for weekend two.  Dumb.