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“Dreamy underwater soundscapes” Gorilla vs Bear

“What music would sound like from the womb. In a good way.” The Tripwire

Hailing from St. Petersburg, FL Blind Man’s Colour is the psychedelic brainchild of 19-year-olds Kyle Wyss and Orhan Chettri.

Spending their early teen years playing in various psychedelia-influenced and electronic projects, (“Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin stuff,” they attest), their sound evolved into a very diverse range of organice folk, psych-drone, desert-rock and electronic ambiance. With the help of friend Sheridan Willard, the three spent senior year of high school recording experimental pop tracks in each other’s bedrooms.

Blending the modernity of Animal Collective, the experimentalism of Krautrock pioneers like Can and Faust, and the psychedelic leanings of early Pink Floyd, their debut album Season Dreaming is a hodge-podge of ambient pop drawing from the band’s ‘oceanic experiences’ – sounding something like a day at the beach with nothing but a peyote towel and a busted boom box.

Awash in glistening keyboards, swirling acoustic guitar, stealthily recorded found sounds and harmonic, gleefully distorted vocals, Season Dreaming does a breathtaking job at mixing the natural warmth of an analog 4-track with the crisper, more contemporary vibes of your favorite lap top bands.

In 2009, through participation in an Animal Collective covers compilation titled Collected Animals, Blind Man’s Colour suddenly found themselves the subject of tastemakers attention. Indie Rock Cafe named them a 2009 Band to Watch, I Guess I’m Floating ventured, “A good chance of becoming my favorite find of 2009 less than one month in,” Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste twittered about his discovery and Kanye West got in on the action, with a blog post titled: “Some dope shit for my apartment” and urged someone to sign the band.

And so to Kanine found, fell in love with and is set to release Season Dreaming on August 18th.

JULY 24: Blind Man’s Colour, Viernes & TBA @ New World Brewery – Ybor City
AUGUST 29: Blind Man’s Colour @ Crowbar – Ybor City (Summer Jam 5)

BLIND MAN'S COLOUR – Heavy Cloud Hustle

ALL ACOUSTIC SHOW!
Anthony Raneri (Bayside)
Andy Jackson (Hot Rod Circuit)
& Travis Adams (Inkwell)
7:00pm | $10 in advance, $12 day of show | ALL AGES!
@ Crowbar
1812 N 17th Street | Ybor City | 813.241.8600

Gliss
Interview with Victoria Cecilia
Words: Becca Nelson

Photo: Glissgirl

Appearing with:
Mogul Street Reserve, Vera Violets and Ladyfair
Saturday, April 25
Crowbar, Tampa FL
$7/18+

Gliss is Victoria Cecilia, Martin Klingman and Dave Reiss, who live in L.A. and have been in a band together since 2004. They just released their second full-length album, Devotion Implosion, and they play music Cecilia describes as “experimental fucked-up pop.” Gliss has toured with Smashing Pumpkins, the Raveonettes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Editors, and while that makes them pretty cool in their own right, they just think it’s awesome they got to watch their favorite bands play for free every night.

Gliss is a schizophrenic sort of band, in the best way possible. This is music for anyone that truly misses Mazzy Star, for the shameful few that harbor a secret crush on Courtney Love’s voice (hey, present company admittedly included), but wish she sang vocals for Interpol, or those of us that dream of a love-child conceived by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Velvet Underground.

The band is currently in the middle of a US tour promoting the new album, and I spoke to Cecilia from a tour bus somewhere between Chicago and Pittsburg. In a genius marketing move, Gliss has decided to intentionally label this a “budget conscious” tour, dropping their ticket prices and selling cheap-ass merch in an effort to fill the room no matter what.

“It definitely helps,” Cecilia admits, referring to the lower door price. “We’re selling our CDs for $5. But fifty or sixty percent of the people that show up are buying our CDs, or a t-shirt, or even vinyl. We just got our 12-inch shipped from the label like a week and a half ago, and people seem really into that. All of which is really good. Especially considering they can download our album for free online.”

The album is absolutely worth your pennies. Devotion Implosion, released in April on Rykodisk/Cordless Recordings, is a deliciously dirty, dark and messy “romp through the streets of L.A.”

“Our studio is right in downtown L.A.,” explains Cecilia, “in a very industrial area, and that makes a huge difference.”

Just as bands like Interpol and The Editors are quickly filed under “New York sound,” Gliss easily provides a soundtrack to the messy glam found in the underbelly of Los Angeles. But the reference is important to the band: they embrace their hometown, and they view it as integral to their project.

“What you do and where you live is always going to affect the way the music sounds. If you live in the middle of nowhere, your music will sound different than if you live in a big city.”

Beyond the dirt and grime, though, Devotion Implosion is a deftly composed work of indie rock-n-roll. The record is truly beautiful, offering up pleasantly distorted vocal lines (Cecilia and Klingman trade off the task) that muse on love and self-doubt, atop equally gorgeous melodies that mellow all that warm, fuzzy noise. This is pop, exactly as Cecilia terms it: experimental and fucked up.

The album opens with aptly titled “Morning Light,” a song that starts with accidental reverb, but quickly owns you with distorted guitar melodies floating atop a ’50s-pop bass and drum line, maybe what the Ronettes would sound like from six feet under. You can’t help but feel your heart swell listening to Cecilia moan about “morning light/in your heart,” and you can’t help but get agitated when this lovely girl-in-love moment is disrupted by a treble- and anxiety-heavy guitar lead, one which effectively drowns that moment of romance and renders you needing a drink and/or a one-night stand.

The next song, “29 Acts of Love,” sounds like what should have been the best song on Live through This. Courtney, Stevie, Gwen, eat your heart out. Oh, and that Blonde Redhead song, “23”? Lovely as it is, if it grew past its perpetual swooning mellowness, it might turn into this track. Without going into an equally intricate analysis of every song, let me just say this: the record is an amalgam of everything you love, but achieved without ego or intention.

And so goes the album, influences bouncing like a tipsy ping-pong ball from rock to pop to soul to electro and back.

“I do like black metal,” admits Cecilia (who originally hails from Denmark.) ”We all come from very different musical backgrounds. David grew up listening to a lot of blues, a lot of singer-songwriter stuff, and loves Ray Charles. I love metal, but it’s not all I listen to. I think one of the most exciting bands out there right now is The Kills.”

As a band, Gliss really loves music, apart from their own, and Cecilia is quick to rattle of a list of albums in constant rotation on the tour bus.

“We saw Babyshambles in London recently, and that was an amazing live show. We also love the Libertines, and the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs is really great. We’ve always loved Black Motor Rebel Motorcycle club … we’ve been so lucky to tour with bands we admire.”

Gliss performs this Saturday at Crowbar with local crowd pleasers Mogul Street Reserve. Also on the bill are Vera Violets and Ladyfair.