"I'm already with you / you already know..."
I couldn't help but like "Hole In The Ground" by IN LIFE, Oakland, California's indie rock duo comprised of Nick Noro (vocals) and Omar Moon (guitar, production), right away, like instantly. While not all the words are easy to discern, the lo-fi beat, psychedelic guitar shapes, and vox with a decidedly sort of 90's post punk drawl appeals to me. There is something experimental, weird, wonky, off kilter in the blend of synths, floating musical melodies and what feels like inebriated stream of consciousness vox.
Within the subversive sense, the unfettered creatively ID possessed exorcisms I thought about a cross generational bevy of wonderfully sideways bands like Royal Trux, The Butthole Surfers, Flaming Lips, Mudhoney, etc even though IN LIFE has their own sound, their sonic vision here.
As press notey stuff indicate:
[Nick, a beat boy and scat vocalist, has roles in Oakland bands Survival and Adjudicator. Omar, an indie rock guitarist and music producer, has composed scores for independent films and played in Los Angeles rock band Fiction Nation.]
About this track the boys share:
“'Hole in the Ground' was one of the first songs we wrote together. We were listening to a lot of Boy Harsher at the time, and we wanted to make a song with a dark synth beat. As soon as we put together the best, the lyrics followed easily. It was one of those songs that flowed so easily, and was done in after about a day. Now, it’s our favorite song to play live, because it gets people moving. It’s also one of the first songs we wrote together, so we just had to put it on our debut album.”
[The duo’s influences include Curve, Arthur Russell, SPC ECO, Cocteau Twins, Nothing, and Deerhunter. In their time outside of music, Omar runs a small carpentry business, and Nick is a full time urban gardener, planting seeds of hope across the Bay Area in place of decay.]
That debut album is "Strawberry Blonde" dropping September 8th of this year (2023)
That debut album is "Strawberry Blonde" dropping September 8th of this year (2023)
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://inlife.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/inlifeoakland/
This September, IN LIFE returns with their first full length album, Strawberry Blonde.
Sonically, the album rolls in elements of shoegaze, indie rock, and psychedelia for an energetic yet dreamy sound. Its booming drums, twangy guitar riffs, haunting synths, and rich vocal harmonies converge to form a sound that somehow feels both strangely familiar and refreshingly new. Thematically, the album covers themes like death, addiction, lust, and alienation, and is inspired by life in Oakland.
Lyrically, Strawberry Blonde was written throughout 2020 as a way to transcribe the bleak new human condition. The anorexia accompanying the modern day death of individualism. In spite of its dark origins, this is a lively, energetic rock album that preaches persistence and faith during hard times. This album perfectly encapsulates the bold, defiant energy that IN LIFE is so well-known for in the Bay Area scene.
Strawberry Blonde’s sinewy licks, haunting synths, oracular vocal harmonies converge to form a grossly misanthropic atmosphere. A vibe both strangely familiar and refreshingly new for indie rock/shoegaze. Listening to this album will feel as if you found a dusty, nondescript cassette, gave it a whirl, and ended up discovering your new favorite band.
This album combines elements of shoegaze, indie, punk, and psychedelic rock. Nick Noro, originally a rapper and break dancer, brings an unstoppable energy to these songs, salivating like Rammellzee one moment, crooning like Arthur Russell the next. Omar Moon’s rhythm guitars, on the other hand, are distorted, ethereal yet playful. An ADHD Kevin Shields off his medication. Moon’s twangy riffs and slide guitar work are reminiscent of old school psychedelia like Popol Vuh and Love.
The album’s lead single “Deliverance” starts off with a bang. Reverb-soaked cymbals fill the air, the fuzz guitar kicks in, and Nick Noro belts out the chorus, “I’m cutting you off now”– a line that reflects a recurring theme of the album– death, and the freedom of accepting its inevitability.” Its accompanying music video features footage of IN LIFE performing at Bay Area venues 924 Gilman and The Caravan. Nick and Omar said about the single, “We wrote Deliverance (and most of the album) in the midst of COVID, by emailing each other instrumentals and vocal tracks. For us, the song represents the anxiety we felt about the precariousness of life, society, and stability we took for granted. That’s probably why we started out the song with those frantic cymbal crashes and building guitars– to convey that weird, frantic feeling so many of us felt at that time.”
Their second single “De Tout Mon Coeur,” which translates to “With All My Heart”, is an auditory portrayal of the dark, frenetic nature of addiction. It features spoken-word French vocals, psychedelic sitar synths, and hypnotic shoegaze guitars. As the song develops, it switches from a dark and brooding intro, to a soothing shoegaze beat, and finally swells into an anthemic chorus of vocal harmonies that repeatedly cry out “I can’t be faded” over bright synths and a rock groove you can dance to.
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://inlife.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/inlifeoakland/
This September, IN LIFE returns with their first full length album, Strawberry Blonde.
Sonically, the album rolls in elements of shoegaze, indie rock, and psychedelia for an energetic yet dreamy sound. Its booming drums, twangy guitar riffs, haunting synths, and rich vocal harmonies converge to form a sound that somehow feels both strangely familiar and refreshingly new. Thematically, the album covers themes like death, addiction, lust, and alienation, and is inspired by life in Oakland.
Lyrically, Strawberry Blonde was written throughout 2020 as a way to transcribe the bleak new human condition. The anorexia accompanying the modern day death of individualism. In spite of its dark origins, this is a lively, energetic rock album that preaches persistence and faith during hard times. This album perfectly encapsulates the bold, defiant energy that IN LIFE is so well-known for in the Bay Area scene.
Strawberry Blonde’s sinewy licks, haunting synths, oracular vocal harmonies converge to form a grossly misanthropic atmosphere. A vibe both strangely familiar and refreshingly new for indie rock/shoegaze. Listening to this album will feel as if you found a dusty, nondescript cassette, gave it a whirl, and ended up discovering your new favorite band.
This album combines elements of shoegaze, indie, punk, and psychedelic rock. Nick Noro, originally a rapper and break dancer, brings an unstoppable energy to these songs, salivating like Rammellzee one moment, crooning like Arthur Russell the next. Omar Moon’s rhythm guitars, on the other hand, are distorted, ethereal yet playful. An ADHD Kevin Shields off his medication. Moon’s twangy riffs and slide guitar work are reminiscent of old school psychedelia like Popol Vuh and Love.
The album’s lead single “Deliverance” starts off with a bang. Reverb-soaked cymbals fill the air, the fuzz guitar kicks in, and Nick Noro belts out the chorus, “I’m cutting you off now”– a line that reflects a recurring theme of the album– death, and the freedom of accepting its inevitability.” Its accompanying music video features footage of IN LIFE performing at Bay Area venues 924 Gilman and The Caravan. Nick and Omar said about the single, “We wrote Deliverance (and most of the album) in the midst of COVID, by emailing each other instrumentals and vocal tracks. For us, the song represents the anxiety we felt about the precariousness of life, society, and stability we took for granted. That’s probably why we started out the song with those frantic cymbal crashes and building guitars– to convey that weird, frantic feeling so many of us felt at that time.”
Their second single “De Tout Mon Coeur,” which translates to “With All My Heart”, is an auditory portrayal of the dark, frenetic nature of addiction. It features spoken-word French vocals, psychedelic sitar synths, and hypnotic shoegaze guitars. As the song develops, it switches from a dark and brooding intro, to a soothing shoegaze beat, and finally swells into an anthemic chorus of vocal harmonies that repeatedly cry out “I can’t be faded” over bright synths and a rock groove you can dance to.
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