'Rock' Bands // p 2 of 20

BALTHVS

Hailing from Bogotá, Colombia. BALTHVS can be seen as spearheading a musical psychedelic revolution in their home country, where it's conservative roots have historically shunned counterculture. But their sound is not about freaking out, rather it's about flowing and grooving gently amidst the general anger and chaos of 21st century society. After all, the band doesn't know anything else, it was formed 2 months before the rise of the COVID pandemic, making them one of the first pandemic bands out there. They are not strangers to the digital realm, embracing it fully, while retaining time tested values such as live musicianship, steady songwriting and journeying into different musical traditions from all over the world. The trio composed by Balthazar Aguirre (Guitar) Johanna Mercuriana (Bass) and Santiago Lizcano (Drums) explore the limits of funk, disco, dream pop, vaporwave, soul, r&B and world music while enveloping everything with their innate psychedelic essence.

So sit back, relax, and melt down the cosmic grooves

MACROCOSM is BALTHVS' first LP. The name implies the diverse nature of the music, the substantial genre blending throughout the record and the general psychedelic vibe of the songs. It's a cross continental trip across time, styles, languages and rhythms.

^{Source spotify.com}

Band of Annuals

Specializing in a kind of atmospheric country-folk-pop, Band of Annuals formed in 2004 in Salt Lake City, UT, with a lineup that included Jay Henderson (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Jeremi Hanson (vocals, keyboards), Brent Dreiling (pedal steel), Trevor Handley (bass), Jamie Timm (guitar), and Charlie Lewis (drums). Initially known as the Annuals, the group self-released the lo-fi Respondez shortly after coming together, following it up with the Live Warehouse EP. A full-length album, Let Me Live, appeared in 2007 and a second, five-song EP, available only at the group's live shows, was released in 2008.

By Steve Leggett

^{Source allmusic.com}

Beabadoobee

Beatrice Laus[a] (born 3 June 2000), known professionally as Beabadoobee (/biːbəduːbiːˈ/; stylized in all lowercase), is a Filipino-born British singer-songwriter. Since 2018, she has released four extended plays under the independent label Dirty Hit including Lice (2018), Patched Up (2018), Loveworm (2019) and Space Cadet (2019). Her debut studio album, Fake It Flowers, was released in October 2020.

Beabadoobee served as a supporting act for labelmates The 1975 during several legs of their Music for Cars Tour, as well as American singer Clairo during her Immunity Tour. She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards, and was presented with the Radar Award at the 2020 NME Awards. Beabadoobee was also predicted as a breakthrough act for 2020 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020.

Early life

Laus was born in Iloilo City, Philippines on 3 June 2000 and moved to London with her parents at the age of 3. She grew up in West London listening to original pinoy music as well as pop and rock music from the 1980s. While she was a teenager, she listened to indie rock including Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Florist and Alex G. She was expelled from Sacred Heart High School before completing her thirteenth year at Hammersmith Academy. Laus spent seven years learning to play the violin, before getting her first guitar second-hand at the age of 17. She taught herself how to play the instrument using YouTube tutorials. She was inspired by Kimya Dawson and the Juno soundtrack to start making music.

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Beach House

Beach House is an American musical duo formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2004. The band consists of vocalist and keyboardist Victoria Legrand and guitarist, keyboardist, and backup vocalist Alex Scally.

Their self-titled debut album was released in 2006 to critical acclaim and has been followed by Devotion (2008), Teen Dream (2010), Bloom (2012), Depression Cherry (2015), Thank Your Lucky Stars (2015), B-sides and Rarities (2017), 7 (2018), and Once Twice Melody (2022).

2004–2007: Formation and Beach House

Vocalist and organist Victoria Legrand, who graduated from Vassar College in 2003, and guitarist Alex Scally, who graduated from Oberlin College in 2004, formed the band in 2004 after meeting in Baltimore's indie rock scene, producing music composed largely of organ, programmed drums, and steel guitar. Of the origins of the band name Scally said: "We’d been writing music, and we had all these songs, and then there was that moment where you say ‘what do we call ourselves?’ We tried to intellectualize it, and it didn’t work. There were different plant-names, Wisteria, that kind of thing. Stupid stuff. But, once we stopped trying, it just came out, it just happened. And it just seemed perfect." In an interview with Pitchfork, Legrand addressed their being a two-member status thus: "It's a way to challenge ourselves: What do you do when it's just the two of you? ... One of the reasons this has been such a fulfilling experience for me is that with two people, it's so much easier to achieve things that feel exciting and new."

In August 2006, their song "Apple Orchard" was featured on a Pitchfork MP3 mixtape. By October 2006 the band's self-titled debut album, Beach House, was released through Carpark Records, and was ranked 16th on Pitchfork's Best Albums of that year. The album was recorded on a 4-track over a two day period in Scally's basement.

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Beck

Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known professionally as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical collages of wide genre styles. Today, he musically encompasses folk, funk, soul, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia. He has released 13 studio albums (3 of which were independently released), as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.

Born in Los Angeles in 1970, Beck grew towards hip-hop and folk in his teens and began to perform locally at coffeehouses and clubs. He moved to New York City in 1989 and became involved in the city's small and fiery anti-folk movement. Returning to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he cut his breakthrough single "Loser," which became a worldwide hit in 1994, and released his first major album, Mellow Gold, the same year. Odelay, released in 1996, topped critic polls and won several awards. He released the psychedelic Mutations in 1998, and the funk-infused Midnite Vultures in 1999. The soft-acoustic Sea Change in 2002 showcased a more serious Beck, and 2005's Guero returned to Odelay's sample-based production. The Information in 2006 was inspired by electro-funk, hip hop, and psychedelia; 2008's Modern Guilt was inspired by '60s pop music; and 2014's folk-infused Morning Phase won Album of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards on February 8, 2015. His thirteenth studio album, Colors, was released in October 2017 after a long production process.

With a pop art collage of musical styles, oblique and ironic lyrics, and postmodern arrangements incorporating samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects, Beck has been hailed by critics and the public throughout his musical career as being among the most idiosyncratically creative musicians of 1990s and 2000s alternative rock. Two of Beck's most popular and acclaimed recordings are Odelay and Sea Change, both of which were ranked on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The four-time platinum artist has collaborated with several artists and has made several contributions to soundtracks.

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Benjamin Booker

Benjamin Booker (born Benjamin Roderick Evans; June 14, 1989) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He cites The Gun Club, Blind Willie Johnson and T. Rex as influences. His music was described by the Chicago Tribune as "a raw brand of blues/boogie/soul,", by The Independent as "frenzied guitar-strumming and raw, soulful vocals that are hair-raising in intensity" and by SPIN as "bright, furious, explosive garage rock."

Early life
Benjamin Booker was born in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His family relocated to Tampa, Florida, where he attended all-ages DIY punk shows as a teenager. He attended Orange Grove Middle School, a magnet school for the performing arts, followed by Hillsborough High School, where he studied in the International Baccalaureate Program. He then attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, studying journalism with intentions of going into music journalism. After college, he moved to New Orleans to work for a non-profit organization and began playing shows. He self-released the four-track EP Waiting Ones in 2012, a collection of "low-fi blues-influenced folk-punk recordings and handclap percussion" that gained the attention of music blog Aquarium Drunkard. The track "Have You Seen My Son" eventually landed on Sirius XM satellite radio. In 2013, he began touring as an electric duo and signed with ATO Records to produce his debut album.

Career
2013–present: Benjamin Booker
Booker's self-titled debut album was recorded in December 2013 at The Bomb Shelter, an analog studio in Nashville. Produced by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff), the album was released on August 19, 2014 via ATO Records in the United States and Rough Trade Records in Europe. The first single from the album, "Violent Shiver," was released in April 2014. The album received early praise, debuting in the top 10 of Billboard's Alternative Albums and Independent Albums charts and leading to Benjamin Booker being named an "artist you need to know" by Rolling Stone, "the best of what's next" by Paste Magazine and a "contender for rock record of the year" by SPIN. Benjamin Booker also performed on late night television programs Late Night with David Letterman, Conan and Later With Jools Holland.

Since release, in addition to touring with Jack White and Courtney Barnett, Booker, accompanied by drummer Max Norton and bassist Alex Spoto, has played international headlining tours and performed at a number of festivals. In 2013, he performed at FYF Fest, the Newport Folk Festival, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, Voodoo Experience and Lollapalooza, where Rolling Stone named his performance the festival's "best rock star moment... best experienced live and turned up to 11". Internationally, he has appeared on the lineups of France's Festival Les InRocks Philips and Australia's St Jerome's Laneway Festival.

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Big Thief

Big Thief is an American indie rock band with folk roots based in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Its members are Adrianne Lenker (guitar, vocals), Buck Meek (guitar, backing vocals), Max Oleartchik (bass), and James Krivchenia (drums). All four members of Big Thief attended the Berklee College of Music, but only formed a group after each had graduated.

The band's first album, Masterpiece, was released on Saddle Creek Records on May 27, 2016.

On April 4, 2017, Big Thief premiered a new single, "Mythological Beauty," on NPR. The following day, the band released the single's official video and confirmed that the song would appear on their next LP, Capacity. The full album was released on June 9 via Saddle Creek.

In 2019, Big Thief released two albums and several singles. In the lead up to their third album, U.F.O.F., the band released three singles, ''U.F.O.F", "Cattails", and "Century." The album was released on May 3, 2019. The band's fourth album, Two Hands, was later released on October 11, 2019. Its release was preceded by the singles "Not" and "Forgotten Eyes." Both albums received critical acclaim.

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Billie Holiday

Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), better known as Billie Holiday, was an African American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.

After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by the producer John Hammond, who commended her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson yielded the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, but her reputation deteriorated because of her drug and alcohol problems.

She was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall. Due to personal struggles and an altered voice, her final recordings were met with mixed reaction, but were mild commercial successes. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958. Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959.

She won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972. She is the primary character in the play (later made into a film) Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill; the role was originated by Reenie Upchurch in 1986, and was played by Audra McDonald on Broadway and in the film. In 2017 Holiday was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

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Björk

jörk Guðmundsdóttir (/bjɜːrk/; Icelandic: pjœr̥k]; born 21 November 1965) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, actress, record producer, and DJ. Over her four-decade career, she has developed an eclectic musical style that draws on a range of influences and genres spanning electronic, pop, experimental, classical, trip hop, IDM, and avant-garde music.

Born and raised in Reykjavík, she began her music career at age 11 and first gained international recognition as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Sugarcubes, whose 1987 single "Birthday" was a hit on US and UK indie stations and a favorite among music critics. After the band's breakup, Björk embarked on a solo career in 1993, coming to prominence as a solo artist with albums such as Debut (1993), Post (1995), and Homogenic (1997), while collaborating with a range of artists and exploring a variety of multimedia projects.

Several of Björk's albums have reached the top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, the most recent being Vulnicura (2015). Björk has had 31 singles reach the top 40 on pop charts around the world, with 22 top 40 hits in the UK, including the top 10 hits "It's Oh So Quiet", "Army of Me", and "Hyperballad". She is reported to have sold between 20 and 40 million records worldwide as of 2015. She has won the 2010 Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in recognition of her "deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice." Björk was included in Time's 2015 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She was ranked both sixtieth and eighty-first in Rolling Stone's 100 greatest singers and songwriters lists respectively. Björk also won five BRIT Awards, and has been nominated for 15 Grammy Awards.

Outside her music career, Björk starred in the 2000 Lars von Trier film Dancer in the Dark, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I've Seen It All". Her 2011 album Biophillia was marketed as an interactive app album with its own education program. Björk has also been an advocate for environmental causes in her home country Iceland. A full-scale retrospective exhibition dedicated to Björk was held at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2015.

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Blake Mills

Blake Mills (born September 21, 1986) is an American songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer based in California.

Biography

Blake Mills was born in Santa Monica, California, United States, and grew up in Malibu, where he attended Malibu High School with Taylor Goldsmith. Mills and Goldsmith began their musical careers in a band they co-founded called Simon Dawes. Simon Dawes released its debut EP What No One Hears in 2005, and its first LP Carnivore in September 2006 via Record Collection. After the band broke up in 2007, Goldsmith and his younger brother, Griffin, formed the band Dawes with Simon Dawes bassist, Wylie Gelber, and Mills went on to serve as a touring guitarist for Jenny Lewis. He went on to tour with Band of Horses, Cass McCombs, Julian Casablancas and Lucinda Williams. As a session musician, Mills has collaborated with Conor Oberst, Kid Rock, Weezer, The Avett Brothers, Paolo Nutini, Norah Jones, Carlene Carter, Jesca Hoop, Dixie Chicks, Zucchero, Pink, Lana Del Rey, Dangermouse, Vulfpeck and more.

In 2010, Mills released his first solo LP, Break Mirrors, via Record Collection. The original intent for the album was to serve as a calling card for Mills to get session work. Break Mirrors was touted as the album of the year by many websites and fellow musicians, despite its limited release. In late 2011, after spending back-to-back years on tour and in the studio playing on other people’s records, Mills made the decision to begin producing in order to explore musical concepts beyond guitar. Analog Edition Records released a Blake Mills double A side 7" in 2011, featuring the songs "Hey Lover" and "Wintersong" in 2011.

In January 2012, Mills appeared on Conan O’Brien for his first national televised performance as a solo artist. He covered Bob Dylan’s “Heart Of Mine,” which he had recently played at an Amnesty International benefit. Later that year, he went on to co-produce Jesca Hoop's album The House that Jack Built, produced Sara Watkins' album Sun Midnight Sun, wrote and produced "Sad Dream" on Sky Ferreira's latest EP Ghost and an additional two tracks on her upcoming LP I'm Not Alright. Mills was featured on electric slide guitar on the track '"Go Home" from the 2013 debut album from the group Lucius. For the compilation album Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac, he co-produced and played with Billy Gibbons and Matt Sweeney on the track "Oh Well". Mills also served as the opening act and guitarist for Fiona Apple during her 2012 tour through North America. Mills co-produced the track "Artifact 1" on Conor Oberst's album, Upside Down Mountain, which was released in May 2014. He also produced the forthcoming untitled release from Jesca Hoop and Mt. Egypt's III.

Mills released his second full length album, Heigh Ho, on September 16, 2014. This self-produced album combines a range of genres. Along with friends and inspirations including Fiona Apple, Jim Keltner, Don Was, Benmont Tench, Jon Brion, and Mike Elizondo, Mills recorded Heigh Ho at the legendary Ocean Way Recording studios in a room built for Frank Sinatra. He also produced the sophomore release from Alabama Shakes. Recording took place at Sound Emporium in Nashville, a studio originally built for Sun Records house producer Cowboy Jack Clement.

In 2015 Mills was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for his work on Alabama Shakes breakthrough album Sound & Color.

Mills' 2016 producer credits include albums from former bandmates Dawes, along with upcoming albums from John Legend, Laura Marling, Jim James and Perfume Genius. In the same year, he also performed guitar and various other instruments on Andrew Bird's album Are You Serious. In 2017, Mills took part in Randy Newman's Dark Matter as a guitarist.

In November of 2018, Mills quietly released an almost-entirely-instrumental EP entitled "Look" on his own label imprint New Deal Music. The album was created almost entirely using Roland guitar synthesizers from the 1970s with collaboration from saxophonist Sam Gendel, singer Natalie Mering of Weyes Blood, and violin and string-arrangement virtuoso, Rob Moose, who has appeared on nearly every release Mills has produced. "Look" was the second release on New Deal Music. The first New Deal release, in September of 2018, was a soundtrack by Colin Stetson, Canadian-American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer based in Montreal, for the short-lived dramatic television series The First (TV series).

On December 5th, 2019 Mills teased a clip of a new song via an NPR piece by Grayson Haver Currin titled "Songs In An Emergency" that centers around the urgency of climate change. The new song, from his upcoming and yet-to-be-titled third full-length album, is titled "Summer All Over." It is a piano-based ballad musing on the Malibu fires of 2018 and co-written with Cass McCombs. When describing the spacious sound-landscape that the song embodies and the title, Mills commented that "writing about the season of summer inherently evokes a Beach Boys vibe, maybe because I'm in Los Angeles, but the implication of the warmest season happening all over the world at the same time is an 'endless summer." The third full-length is expected to be released in 2020 on New Deal Music with management support by Record Collection and distribution by Verve Label Group, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

In 2020, Blake Mills played guitar on Bob Dylan's album Rough and Rowdy Ways.

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Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead is an alternative rock band composed of Kazu Makino (vocals, keys/rhythm guitar) and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace (drums/keys and lead guitar/keys/vocals, respectively) that formed in New York City in 1993. The band's earliest albums were noted for their noise rock influences, though their sound evolved by the early 2000s with the releases of Misery is a Butterfly (2004) and 23 (2007), which both incorporated elements of dream pop, shoegaze and other genres. They have released nine regular studio albums and have toured internationally.

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Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career spanning nearly 60 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.

Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which mainly comprised traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the following year. The album features "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". Many of his songs adapted the tunes and phraseology of older folk songs. He went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966). Commenting on the six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965), Rolling Stone wrote: "No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time".

In July 1966, a motorcycle accident led to Dylan's withdrawal from touring. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were released as the collaborative album The Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes in John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969), and New Morning (1970). In 1975, he released Blood on the Tracks, which many saw as a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s. Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind marked the beginning of a renaissance for his career. He has released five critically acclaimed albums of original material since then, the most recent being Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). He also recorded a series of three albums in the 2010s comprising versions of traditional American standards, especially songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour.

Since 1994, Dylan has published eight books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 125 million records, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize Board in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

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Bobby Long

Bobby Long (born Robert Thomas Long, 18 September 1985) is a British singer-songwriter, whose largely acoustic body of work has its roots in folk. Born in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, he moved at the age of four to Calne, Wiltshire, where he grew up, though he still holds deep roots in Wigan. He currently resides in New York.

Long learned cello and guitar and started writing songs when he was 18. His earliest performing experience was as lead guitarist in a local grunge band. Long moved to London in 2005 to attend London Metropolitan University where he studied sound and media for film. He began playing open-mic nights at local clubs, meeting a coterie of likeminded young musicians, among them Sam Bradley, Marcus Foster and Robert Pattinson, whose career as an actor was just beginning. Long’s career trajectory took a major leap when Pattinson performed the song "Let Me Sign," co-written by Long and Foster, in the 2008 blockbuster vampire film Twilight.

Long graduated from college in June, 2009 (earning a degree in music for film after writing his senior thesis on the social impact of American folk music) and commenced performing full-time. A spring series of showcase dates introduced him to American audiences in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville, and, by July, he embarked on the critically well-received "Dangerous Summer" tour. Long fans, who first discovered his music via the "Twilight" soundtrack, turned out for shows throughout the U.S. and Canada and pushed his MySpace page well over one million page views. He recorded the 10-song collection Dirty Pond Songs to be available at his shows. Recorded in his London bedroom, it included traffic noises and all. "Left to Lie" from Dirty Pond Songs, became an iTunes favorite, topping the site’s "Unsigned" chart and reaching #8 its folk music chart. "The Bounty of Mary Jane" from Dirty Pond Songs and a live version of his "Being a Mockingbird," recorded at Arlene’s Grocery in New York City, were also released via iTunes. "The Dangerous Summer" tour continued until the end of 2009, logging some 80 performances in all.

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Bodywash

On the song “Sunspots”, Bodywash vocalists Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter sing, “When everything is so serene, it’s hard to see/We miss the cracks that open up beneath our feet.” It’s the perfect distillation of the Montreal band’s new full-length record, Comforter, both in mood and sound. Long Decter and Steward’s harmonies rise over an icy sheet of programmed drums and a fog of synth and guitar, deceptively peaceful on the surface, hiding the roiling chaos underneath.

Bodywash was formed in 2014 when Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter began jamming in a basement rehearsal room at McGill University. Bonding over a shared affection for shoegaze and dream pop, the two found an immediate chemistry. “There is an excitement that comes from having people of diverse backgrounds and personalities in one room,” says Steward, “trying to make something beautiful together.” Tom Gould joined soon after on bass, and they recorded an EP in 2016.

When it came time to make a full-length album, Bodywash enlisted Nigel Ward to record the LP. However, the road to Comforter wasn’t easy. The recording process spanned two years and five recording studios, with the band constantly rewriting, reworking, and rearranging songs, until every note and tone felt exactly right. Drummer Ryan White joined the band mid-way through the recording process. “The album evolved as we were evolving as a band,” says Long Decter. “You can hear us grow and change with each song.” The final product was mixed by Taylor Smith and Austin Tufts of the band Braids, and was mastered by Evan Tighe.

“The joy of experimentation is everything,” says Steward. “The whole thing is alchemic, trying to combine a bunch of ingredients together to make gold, or whatever gold is.” Long Decter agrees. “We’re perfectionists,” she says, “but it comes from a place of feeling.”

The result is the perfect insomniac’s record, a late-night album of emotional extremes, from the enveloping warmth of shoegaze to the stark electronics of 90s trip-hop and IDM. Guitars blur in and out, melodies vanish and appear, synths blinking like lights in a fog. It’s an album of obsessive detail buried in a blur of reverb. It draws you in and pushes you away in equal measure.

Album standout “Twins” began as a thirty-second guitar loop, with Steward adding layer after layer of synths. It careens from despair to an exhilaration, a manic scream of a song that reaches a full catharsis. “We deal a lot in sonic moments of anxiety,” says Long Decter, “but the goal is to live in that space between extremes, between worry and comfort.” The band’s restless experimentation can best be seen on the shimmering “With Heat.” Initially a guitar-driven indie rock tune Steward wrote for a contest, the song took on new life when Long Decter broke the song into spare parts on a computer, slowing it down, changing the key, adding layer after layer until something entirely new emerged, and the song took its final form.

The album closes with the epic “Another Plane.” Built on a combination of krautrock-style rhythms and breakbeats with a haze of guitars and synths hovering above, it glimmers with possibility. The song is a harrowing account of the frantic moments when reality begins to blur, a gaze over the emotional edge of things. With its increasing emphasis on electronics, “Another Plane” is also a look into what sonic possibilities might lie ahead for the band.

Comforter is a document to a band’s own becoming, the exhilaration that comes from constant exploration, the drive for perfection and the joy of learning how to let things just be. It’s a mix of contradictions, the smothering warmth and the frigid cold, the chaotic and the peaceful. It’s a testament to the way that from many familiar ingredients something new can be formed, the joy and wonder of what’s possible when four people are in a room together, trying to make something beautiful.

– Jimmy Cajoleas

^{Source luminellerecs.com}

Boogarins

Boogarins is a brazilian psychedelic rock e Neo-psychedelia band formed in 2012, in Goiânia, by members Fernando "Dinho" Almeida (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Benke Ferraz (lead guitar). To complete the quartet, later joined Hans Castro (drums) and Raphael Vaz (contrabass). In 2014, Ynaiã Benthroldo replaced Hans in the drums. The band played in a variety of international festivals, such as Rock in Rio Lisboa, Primavera Sound, Porão do Rock, Coquetel molotov, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Lollapalooza and South by Southwest.

History

Boogarins was formed by Benke and Dinho, two childhood friends who got together and recorded an EP at home (As Plantas Que Curam) while they were still at school. After the release of the EP, Boogarins signed a contract with Other Music, the debut album As Plantas Que Curam was released in 2013.

After the LP's release, the band toured and performed more than 70 shows across Europe, the United States, and in Latin America, plating in festivals such as South by Southwest, in Texas, and the Primavera Sound, in Barcelona. In 2015, the band played in the festival Lollapalooza, in São Paulo

After the long tour, the band recorded their new album, Manual, ou Guia Livre de Dissolução dos Sonhos, in Spain. The album had its release by the end of October in CD, vinil and all streaming platforms.

In 2016, the band participated in Rock in Rio Lisboa, played in Seattle's influential alternative radio [KEXP]] and also in the famous festival Levitation. In the same year, their album Manual was nominated in the Latin Grammy Award for Best Portuguese Language Rock or Alternative Album category.

In 2017, the band released a live album, called Desvio Onírico,. The album is composed by 4 tracks with more or less 10 minutes each, with jams, improvs on material recorded during their USA and Europe tour. In June of the same year, the band shared their new studio album, Lá Vem a Morte, by surprise in YouTube. The work was considered by the magazine Rolling Stone Brasil to be the 9th best Brazilian LP of 2017.

In 2019, they released Sombrou Dúvida, which was considered one of the 25 best Brazilian albums of the first half of 2019 by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics.

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