"Sleepwalker" by Brooklyn's Namesake is a scintillating puzzle piece of a song. I absolutely love the running down hill drum beat, the curvy bass line and snappy guitar downbeats. It is like every emotionally empty space is graced by sounds full of verve, full of something between jazz pop and hardcore punk. Somber post punk with big grand ascensions. The synth line has a lo-fi crush like late 70's proto punk, that aforementioned bass is exquisite in conception, the vocal aesthetic by frontman, Patrick Phillips, has a snarky almost dismissive lip curl to it but feels earnest and true. The combatting lead guitar lines soar.
Phillips shares:
“I’ve lost many nights drinking to the point of blacking out,” said Namesake frontman Patrick Phillips. “Alcohol was a way to keep secrets safely hidden, a numbing escape from past traumas, a quieting of fears. From nights passed out on the train, to regretfully not remembering early times with my now fiancé, living your life this way takes a toll. Chipping away at your core. I saw alcohol’s hold on my father, my grandfather, drinking up their souls and potential. I fell into a similar trap throughout my 20’s, sleepwalking my way past 4AM, past the point of comprehension.”
The Official filmic video as directed / shot by Jennifer Medina shows a bath robed Phillips ambling through a city dead asleep with his arm in a sling. The more locales you see him in, you begin to notice that he is looking worse each time. Wonderfully shot, it amps up the emotional gravitas of the song.
"Sleepwalker" is the second single off of Namesake's upcoming sophomore album, "Redeeming Features" due October 15.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://namesakenyc.com/
https://namesakenyc.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/namesakenyc
https://www.facebook.com/HondurasBand
https://www.instagram.com/namesake.nyc/
From Bushwick basements to opening slots for Blur and Interpol, the band Namesake (fka Honduras) has remained a fixture in Brooklyn's DIY community. The beachy-punk quartet experienced some early success with their free-spirited 2015 debut Rituals, including opening for Interpol (thanks to an introduction from Tony Hawk), a wrench was thrown into their beachy punk in early 2018, when Phillips was arrested at work. As Phillips recalls it, the night cops swarmed the venue where he was bartending was his worst nightmare. However, now he looks at the ordeal, and the night he spent in jail, as a dark stroke of serendipity, forcing him to reevaluate the coping mechanisms in his life that—to put it mildly—were simply not working. It was time to embrace his bisexuality, confront the abuse he had experienced in the past, and address his addictions and anger.
Namesake recently announced the October 15 release of their sophomore album Redeeming Features via Get Better Records. Redeeming Features is ultimately a sprint through the healing process. But perhaps more importantly, it’s a fun listen, evoking both the dark rooms of independent music venues and nights spent driving around hometowns, volume up and windows down. Phillips is proud of how far he’s come and what his band has created. And with a little luck, he’ll be able to infuse other people’s journeys with a sense of joy - especially at their long-awaited album release show at TV EYE in Bushwick on October 19 - only their second live performance in two years.
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