"Hey, don't lose that longing / Lift up your head / There is life all around, can't you see?"
I have been into music a long fucking time. So long, sometimes it scares me. I only bring this up because I get a sense that when I get so old that dementia creeps in my brain I will probably get some rare form of it that only allows me to communicate via songs, tens of thousands of songs that are forever implanted in my gray matter. I bring this up because the track "Hi-Elixir" by Berkeley, California's Curling, and from their current album "No Guitar", their self described " jubilant celebration of death, birth, unemployment, sex and love, anxiety and depression, loneliness, and canine companionship", that took 5 years to record (over time) is a remarkable sonic pastiche of many genres and eras.
Now, again, I listen to too much music really and I could likely mention at least half a dozen bands from 1965 to 2018 that might have the same D.N.A. but I won't bore you with this kind of dissertation. I will say that the combination of alt indie rock bravado and vast jangly power pop dreaminess has me thinking of a beautiful amalgam of circa 1979 American Power Pop outfit 20/20 and the light end of Norwegian experimental jazz metal band Yawn (circa 2014). Most of you certainly know Yawn, some of you may not know 20/20 but most of you probably do. Anyway, I love the sound Curling is giving us here, love it a whole lot, make me feel warm inside. Besides the song feeling too fucking short, I am smitten.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.facebook.com/curlingband
https://curling.bandcamp.com/album/no-guitar
Recorded bit by bit over the course of five years, "No Guitar" is our jubilant celebration of death, birth, unemployment, sex and love, anxiety and depression, loneliness, and canine companionship.
Many of these new songs were complete studio creations where we laid down basic tracks after only a handful of rehearsals. It wasn't until many months later that additional parts were written and recorded, so the songs truly evolved from the studio process and working closely with our engineer, Ian Pellicci.
Our goal was to create sonic paintings full of light and dark hues, imbued with life and character. Each song has its own palette of colors and techniques: from the silvery sheen of 12-string chime adorning 'Pastoral' to the impressionistic harmonium hum of 'Husk' to the choir of pocket piano drones wavering on 'Dysfunction.' "No Guitar" is an album that is incredibly personal for us and our most creative yet.
Curling, alt rock, indie rock, power pop, post rock, progressive, alt pop, cross genres, new album "No Guitar", "Hi-Elixir" (Official Video),
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