"Parasite City" by Dallas / Philadelphia based electronic pop band Welcome Center has an accompanying Official Video that, as directed by Richard Krause, is wickedly fun and features a wonderfully possessed performance by Scout Smith. Apart from the video, the song is a vast driving diorama that feels like a cross country jaunt with jagged bits of deep longing and searching. This big sound feels like Americana rock filtered through pop indie chambers of sound. I thought of the romantic sweep of The Killers and of elegant fury of Arcade Fire.
Welcome City is Jesse Smith and Aaron Sternick who write, record and produce together but apart, remotely via Dallas and Philly. Maybe this kind of set up, this long distance collaboration heightens their sound, their wanderlust rock aesthetic. Coupled with their long time friendship of 14 years since their college years and nearly a decade of exploring this countries landscapes, this countries roads and haunts and you have a wealth of fodder for songs, for art.
"Parasite City" is from the band's EP "Talk Talk Talk" dropping this July 16th, 2021.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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Welcome Center is a Dallas/Philadelphia-based electronic-pop band that formed in 2017. Jesse Smith and Aaron Sternick write, record, and produce all of the band's music from Dallas and Philadelphia, respectively - a long-distance collaboration only made possible by 14 years of friendship and a cloud storage account.
One of the very first songs the band wrote together, 2019’s "Is This All There Is?", embodies what makes their camaraderie click: the buoyant rhythms of early New Order, the throbbing house-influenced bass, and the existential dread of DFA records, meditating on the banality and meaning of materialism. PopMatters called it an “instant hit.” Central Track placed it among the top 20 songs released by a Texas band in 2019.
On July 17, 2020, Welcome Center will release This House Will Be Filled With _____. The EP digs deeper into what the duo built on "Is This All There Is?" – five tracks of rhythmic grit, glimmers of swirling analog flourishes, and Smith’s trademark moody and introspective lyrics, recently compared by NPR’s KXPN as “equal parts Gibbard and Robert Smith.”
The band postponed its summer/fall tour of 2020 and has re-focused its efforts on writing/recording a string of singles throughout 2020. They are hopeful to pick back up touring in early 2021.
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