Apologies for the Bandstand reference, but here's a brand new song and accompanying video that conjures up a couple of Proustian madeleines, as it were.
"Chandeliers," by Summer Fiction.
I'm informed that Summer Fiction is the bandname for Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter Bill Ricchini, and that his/their influences include The Beach Boys, The Smiths, The Zombies, Nilsson, Ronnie Spector, the third Velvet Underground album, plus " bad girl crushes and Catholic School blues." Sounds about right, actually.
This sort of thing can often verge on the oppressively twee, even for somebody like myself who shares a fondness for (most of) the above, but "Chandeliers" got under my skin almost immediately.
It helps that the video looks like every party the awkward high-school aged me ever attended in a suburban finished basement, of course.
In any case, you can hear more from Summer Fiction over at summerfiction.bandcamp.com
I'm also informed that the band will be performing at The Living Room in Manhattan on Saturday, Dec.4th. I'm gonna be in Brooklyn seeing my pals King Hell, alas, but if you're in the neighborhood check out Summer Fiction and tell 'em PowerPop sent you.
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7 comments:
Did kids in Teaneck actually wear suits & ties to those suburban basement parties?!?
Actually, what that video really looks like is my Bar Mitzvah.
:-)
But I seem to recall at least a few where we were suited up, yeah.
I must be feeling twee, cause I like the song and really like the video. But to listen to a CD where every song is a variation of this same tempo and style, oh mama give me some ear muffs.
Dude never heard a mixing it up a bit? Why back when I was young the bands used to rock out and play the occasional slow song...
I wanted to hate the song but the vocal takes it far away from the too-cutesy and the music just gets in your head and stays there. I really like it. Which surprises me.
It's a nice change of pace and a very cute song, but I'm with Michael -- a whole disc of this might induce diabetes.
There needs to be some power in power pop.
This pretty much had me by the time the Beach Boys harmonies kick in.
OK! I give the song 85 for melody, 75 for beat, and 100 for pure friggin' angst. Rated at misery/second, this is the most heartbreaking thing I've seen in a long long while.
Musically, the few moments of dissonance per verse cracked the sugared surface just enough that my cavities didn't hurt. Didn't love the bare piano but then that harpsichord-sounding-thing came in and it was exactly the right amount of texture.
Steve, plus or minus a few Nehru suits and the medley from Hair, my bar mitzvah (and every one I attended that voice-cracking year) was also like this.
AP
Coulda been a little more adventurous in the instrumentation, as Michael, et al, say. I suppose that's what makes twee twee. That infernal modesty. There was a time when producers insisted you add some kind of audacious instrumental hook to make the song leap out of the radio. Lacking that, this song is nice, like that party. But not fun.
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