Comfy and the lovely pop heaviness of "Every Day" is food for the soul (Official Video)

 

"though I know companionship is difficult"

Maybe when life is hard you seek things in your life that has a tender underbelly (in the least) and a total gentle soulful spirited piece of art or food for the soul (at best). I was lucky enough to wake up to find Comfy in my email this morning. Comfy has been, in the past and maybe in the future, a band, a duo and everything in between but at the center the musical, artful creation is Connor Benincasa. Unfortunately for me, this is my first introduction to this artist.

As Press notes indicate, beautifully expanded below, [Comfy recently relocated from Philadelphia to Rochester and signed to Dadstache Records for their new album "Volume For" due out 1/15/21. The first single "Every Day" and the accompanying video continue the band's trajectory of smart, concise power pop in the vein of Weezer, Fountains of Wayne, Squeeze and They Might Be Giants.]

I can see the connection to those aforementioned artists but I thought of others too. Proto indie ones, like The Lemonheads and within some of the twisting sadly ascending melodies, Joe Jackson. The course, yet beautifully rock chamber pop-esque heavy lead work does swim in that sort of Rivers Cuomo's romance and listen for the jammy Farfisa-esque keys that are going off in between the spaces. I love the tenderness punctuated so brilliantly by lovely backing vox and I love, crave, the pop heaviness. To some, songs like this are considered to be like fast food but to those people, I say, you have probably lost that youthful glow of crushes and the hopefulness of dreams of better days and places. It is hard to dip into those feelings during these cynical bitter times but you can, you need to. We all do.

-Robb Donker Curtius 

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS STUFF:


The power pop band's new record will be out on limited edition cassette and CD via Dadstache Records on 1/15/21

"awesomely jittery feelings-core" - Rolling Stone

12/3/20 Rochester, NY - Comfy have recently relocated from Philadelphia to Rochester and have signed to Dadstache Records for their new album "Volume For" due out 1/15/21. The first single "Every Day" and the accompanying video continue the band's trajectory of smart, concise power pop in the vein of Weezer, Fountains of Wayne, Squeeze and They Might Be Giants.





The push and pull of trying to get out of your own way can be challenging. It’s as if there’s a doppelganger of each of us, a slightly distorted, funhouse version of ourselves we judge ourselves by. As Connor Benincasa, better known as Comfy puts it, “It’s about trying to love and accept someone that you really can’t stand, but who you’re stuck with one way or another.” The contradictions of how we interact with ourselves and others are central to Comfy’s new album Volume For.

Comfy was formed in 2013, after Benincasa dropped out of college and moved back to his dad’s house in Utica, NY. “It was a typical Central New York winter and was freezing cold. I was eighteen years old and depressed, and was only working a few hours a week, so I spent a lot of time in bed,” he recalls. “I can vividly remember having the idea to call my band Comfy while I was falling asleep under a pile of comforters one night.” Under various lineups over the next few years, Comfy would become a mainstay at shows throughout western New York.

As members came and went, sometimes the band would be a duo of just Benincasa on guitar with a drummer, at others a five piece with three guitarists. Eventually Benincasa would move to Philadelphia, then to Rochester, NY - all the while welcoming new members of the band to the fold. The transitions between place and people are reflected in Volume For. While Benincasa’s previous effort Thanks For The Ride was a solo affair, Volume For became Comfy’s most experimental and collaborative record so far, featuring contributions from members of Remember Sports (Father/Daughter), Another Michael (Topshelf/Run For Cover), A Million Dollars, Certain Self and more.

Recorded with Scoops Dardaris (Prince Daddy and the Hyena, Diva Sweetly) at the Headroom in Philadelphia, Volume For became so collaborative by necessity. “I was suffering from carpal tunnel and tendonitis during some of the recording sessions for this record, and called in a bunch of friends to play parts that I would typically have played by myself, acting as a producer during these sessions,” Benincasa says. “I tried to let go of the reins more than I’m usually inclined to, and that made for some really interesting contributions from other people, and a finished product that I wouldn’t have gotten by myself.”

The record opens with the brief, sparse “B Fun Demo” - a drum machine, with Benincasa deftly soloing over top. It’s an apt introduction to the way Comfy works, a band who once set a guitar on fire at a DIY show in a park. “Someone told me after a show in Buffalo that I shouldn’t play guitar solos behind my head anymore because it made me look like an asshole,” Benincasa recalls. That idea of grand gestures in small, unassuming spaces permeates Volume For from the dual guitar solo that leads into a string arrangement on “Should I Try” to the brief and autotuned “Destined.” The lyrics of album closer “Safehouse Monument Committee” are filled with these contradictions, sung by a narrator who is certain things are not what they seem, but does everything in his power to stop himself from revealing it.

In one sense, the record sounds like what you’d expect a Comfy record to sound like - sharp, witty power pop songs with earnest stadium rock heroics and studio pop productions that call to mind They Might Be Giants, Harry Nilsson, Fountains of Wayne and Weezer. On the other, the textures are new, the viewpoints changed - the benefit of letting others look at the doppelganger you’ve created.

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