Thrushes

More and more from good ol' Baltimore ...
Except this time, it's no Panda Bear, Dan Deacon, Santa Dads, Ponytail, no none of that ... Thrushes (MySpace) is the name, and they've a different sort of vibe than those other hip Marylanders. The quartet plays super dense, super fuzzy, super atmospheric shoegaze that you've not heard this good since the Jesus & Mary Chain, I'm certain. Wash upon wash of distorted guitar, layer upon layer of moody, mellow, and under spoken female vocals, with a rather primitive and sparse drumming style to keep everything in order and terribly catchy.

Shoegaze seems a little too easy to mess up to me: what an easy way to hide all your guitarist's flaws and dilute a weak voice with echoes and reverb that could match an empty amphitheater. This is not the case with Thrushes, though. The four-piece instead uses heavily layered guitar, bass, and noise melodies and bass lines to accentuate swooning melodies and heart-wrenching riffs. Instead of cowering behind the supposed grandeur that the shoegaze aesthetic is prone to produce, Thrushes proudly brandishes it. This is truly neo-shoegaze, the way I see it, and cannot be missed.

Stream and buy the whole LP, Sun Come Undone, right here. Wonderful.

Thrushes - Heartbeats
Thrushes - Aidan Quinn