Footage: Aüva's Swaying Surf-Pop Gem "Better"

We've had our figurative eye on Boston indie pop upstarts Aüva for a year or so, ever since turning on to the genteel, large-ensemble sound captured on its 2015 EP Light Years. The young act hit a steady stride straightaway and remained busy and gigging on the regular into 2016, when it settled in to self-record a full-length debut. "Better" is the first single from the sextet's eponymous long-player, and you can check out the video supra. The tune is a swaying, surf-pop gem built up from skittering drums and an insistent bass line, over which clean guitar leads, rhythm-guitar jangle and tasteful, vibrato synth embellishments gently make their case.

The video dabbles with a romantic concept that pairs up co-fronter and keyboard player Miette Hope with the other members of the ensemble, but the real charm is in the faux performance shots, wherein Aüva posse waver between goofing around and playing it earnest. The external shots are particularly compelling, including a dreamy shot of trees, a pastiche in which the band members are lined up against a wall and then shuffled, and a shot of a beer bottle getting smashed in a firepit around which we suspect a number of Clicky Clicky readers (and at least one Senior Writer) have consumed adult beverages. The clip was primarily filmed and edited by Aüva guitarist Jake LeVine, with the help of friend-of-the-band Evan Xiner Hong. Mr. LeVine would seem to wear a lot of hats, as he also mixed the forthcoming record, and pitched in on songwriting and arranging with the rest of the groups's six members.

The single and indeed the entire aforementioned 10-song debut Aüva was primarily recorded in the Boston Conservatory's dance studios; both the single and LP will be available as free downloads Aug. 6. Aüva's intention was to have had a quiet summer, but fortunately for fans things have not gone precisely as planned. Earlier this month a truncated line-up of the band jumped in at the last-minute for an appearance on WMBR's crucial local music program Pipeline (hosted by the inimitable Jeff Breeze). On Aug. 13, the band embarks on a two-week tour that will take it down to Florida and all the way back up to New Hampshire. There, on the 28th, it will play on a beer-branded second stage prior to a performance by the legendary Brian Wilson. Mr. Wilson, in case you don't know, is out playing Beach Boys' Pet Sounds to celebrate the album's 50th anniversary. So, not a bad gig for an indie pop band that formed only 18 months or so ago, yeah? Aüva will be available via Bandcamp, Sporkify, ITunes and Apple Music; whet that appetite with repeat viewings of "Better" and mark down the tour stops below in your daily planner.

Aüva: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internerds

08.13 -- O'Brien's Pub -- Boston, MA
08.14 -- The Gateway -- Brooklyn, NY
08.20 -- The Bends -- St. Petersburg, FL
08.24 -- The London District -- Asheville, NC
08.25 -- Joe Squared -- Baltimore, MD
08.26 -- Firehouse 13 -- Providence RI

Related coverage:
Together Again: Clicky Clicky Presents Two Nights of Adventurous Electronics And Under-Pop May 18+19
Review: The Beach Boys | Pet Sounds [40th Anniversary Reissue]

Today's Hotness: Today Junior, Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam, Under Electric Light

>> We're starting to wonder if there will be music coming out of Norwood, Massachusett's Hanging Horse Studios that we DON'T like. The latest set birthed there to traverse our proverbial desk is a very rewarding debut long-player from Allston indie-pop upstarts Today Junior. The trio is comprised of brothers Mike and Harry O'Toole, who execute drumming and guitaring duties for the outfit respectively, along with bassist Anthony Ambrose, who may or may not be someone's brother. Today Junior's new LP Ride The Surf touts uptempo tunes that work bright, recognizable motifs in ways that don't sound tired or trite, gliding all the while through a steady, sock-deep reverb. What sets Today Junior's music apart from that of other acts chasing a sun 'n 'surf-inspired sound is the passionate singing and mindful breakdowns and grooves that the Allstonians work into their concise pop nuggets. The band's music is less noir and melancholy than that of presumably defunct Chicagoans Distractions, who put out one of our favorite records of 2010, but the bands are similar in that they twist the familiar into something memorable. And there are many, many memorable numbers on Ride The Surf, including its cracking, well-calculated title track, which, incidentally, plays host to a really hot guitar solo. One song that memorably checks both the "breakdowns" and "grooves" boxes is the deeper album cut "Daydrifter." The waning moments of the terrific strummer "What I Said" show the act minds the p's and q's of songcraft; there perfect, classically California-sounding vocal harmonies manifest as cool "oooh la la las" and point to Harry O'Toole's final, passionately delivered vocal, which rolls off punctuating guitar chords and onto a fading trickle of stick clicks. Ride The Surf was recorded between May 2014 and May 2015 at the aforementioned studio, which has also generated recordings we like a lot by hitmakers Julius Earthling and Soft Fangs. Today Junior fêted the release of Ride The Surf Monday night at Cambridge, Mass.'s Middle East Rock club, and we presume additional live engagements are forthcoming. For now, get your ears around the record while its summery sounds can properly contextualize this golden summer. Stream the entire set via the Bandcamp embed below, and click through the purchase it as a digital download.



>> Indie rock luminaries Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam returned this past weekend with a new EP and a tantalizing promise of yet more new music to come before the year is out. The Birmingham, England trio's Neighbours EP boasts three rockers spanning fewer than nine minutes, boisterous bar anthems all that bash and pop from within folds of reverb and slapback. The title track initiates the proceedings by cycling two towering chords, and the guitars buzz and feedback into the corners of the mix during a dynamic pre-chorus. When the massive, shout-along chorus of "Neighbors" -- which gets a dazzling video treatment here -- hits, it is characteristically huge and grand, and recalls a revved up take on precursor band Calories' stein-swinging "Let's Pretend That We're Older." What's that? You don't recall Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam's impressive lineage? The act sprang from the desperately great Calories, which itself was begat by the dissolution of Birmingham legends Distophia, something we've recounted in these electronic pages regularly. Neighbours' two additional numbers are similarly stirring: the belter "New Womb" throbs under the weight of its own crumbling distortion, driven by a straight-ahead beat and a staccato, descending guitar melody, while "Part Time Butcher" ratchets up the syncopation and conjures yet larger clouds of crash cymbal to buffet its ragged, but bold, vocal. The EP comes relatively hot on the heels of a digital single released in June featuring the tunes "Paradise Telephone" b/w/ "Real Romantix," and based on this Facebook post, it would seem we are entering a period of renewed activity for the wildly under-rated trio. Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam's next gig is Aug. 15 at The Wagon And Horses in Digbeth, Birmingham, and the band has also snagged a choice slot opening for highly regarded noisemakers Metz in Birmingham Oct. 30. We don't have any inside information, but we'd lay strong money that there is more new music from SFL around that time of that Metz show (as that would pretty much epitomize striking while the iron is hot). In the meantime, stream all of Neighbours via the Bandcamp embed below, and click through the acquire the set as a paywhutchyalike digital download. More bulletins as events warrant.



>> Veteran Montreal 'gaze project Under Electric Light first hit our radar with its stirring 2011 rocker "Waiting For The Rain To Fall," whose big melodic sound band founder Danny Provencher ascribed to his love of the Beach Boys and classic shoegaze records. None of us, Mr. Provencher included, could have known then that four years on we'd be living in an age where My Bloody Valentine, RIDE, Slowdive and Swervedriver are once again active. Which we suppose is neither here nor there, but it is amazing to consider how far we've come, and in some ways how much the future looks and sounds like our cherished past. For his part, Provencher (along with vocalist/lyricist Marie-Eve Bouchard) seems no less enamored of the aforementioned classic shoegaze sounds and big melodies in 2015, based on much time spent with Under Electric Light's recently self-released EP Never Lose Another Day. To be sure, the beat-driven and guitar-drenched opener "Pieces Of Me" is the collection's most immediate (if a bit by-the-numbers) song. However, it is the EP's solemn closer "Runaway Sun" that is the real stunner. Gentle and subdued, the track builds up from a bed of synth and acoustic and e-bowed guitars into an ethereal fog, recalling at times the more melancholy tunes of The Ocean Blue (whose first three records, incidentally, will be released by Shelflife on vinyl for the first time ever in November). Stream all of Never Lose Another Day via the Bandcamp embed below, and click through to purchase the set. Under Electric Light recently contributed a cover of the RIDE rarity "King Bullshit" to the digital compilation Leave Them All Behind, which was issued by The Blog That Celebrates Itself in March; check it out here. It is worth noting that Liverpool's Hail Hail Records has since taken on Never Lose Another Day, and is offering it for sale via its own digital storefront right here.

Review: Lubec | The Thrall

It often seems that dream-pop is more about the atmosphere and less about the dream itself, about checking the right boxes, dialing the right reverbs, fetishizing the right gear. Which is not to say that production concerns are not something that Portland, Ore.-based guitar-pop quartet Lubec contemplates. But the rising band is about so much more, and with its new full-length The Thrall it has so decisively delivered on its vision for a sonically sculpted, gloriously melodic and viscerally present sound that it is stunning. The set is not the quartet's first long-player -- 2012's Wilderness Days, collects an EP and other early recordings -- and we've been covering the act since its earliest days in 2009. So there is a substantial body of work, of research and development, that has brought Lubec to where it is today.

And all of that toil has paid off: The Thrall is, simply put, a revelation, a fully realized and kaleidoscopic guitar-pop masterpiece that presents the band's striking songcraft and bright optimism within a shifting aural landscape that brilliantly balances clean, jagged leads, crystalline reverbs and thunderous percussion and fuzz. The band refers to its sound as "basement philharmonix," and in years past as "sculpt-rock," but we'd suggest "elegant cacaphony" as an equally suitable alternate. Whatever you want to call it, and although its core members migrated to the west coast years ago, it is undeniable that Lubec has finally arrived, and they've brought with them one of the best records of 2014.

The Thrall is like the beautiful girl in the room whose feet don't seem to touch the ground. It's a diary that captures fleeting moments, and the inherently tragic beauty of impermanence. The narratives therein confront coming of age, aspiration, nostalgia and even disappointment, and are constructed from remarkably literate and thoughtful prose that is as nimble referencing classical mythology ("Sunburn!") as it is describing the incalculable hugeness of life and its possibilities ("The Thrall"). Fronter Eddie Charlton sings with devastating poignance in the climax to the stunning late album track "Another Ghost Song:" "how long has it been? since you lived on a whim?" Indeed, the album's emotional payload is largely driven by the pairing of Mr. Charlton's airy tenor with pianist Caroline Jackson's ethereal backing vocals (Ms. Jackson's piano, interestingly, anchors the band's low end, but makes tasteful forays into its upper register to splash more color across the band's already colorful sonic palette). The pairing of the voices follows a formula that worked for Clicky Clicky fave indie legends Lilys on its early singles and first LP two decades ago, and it works immaculately here within Lubec's smart and dynamic compositions, especially the driving album highlight "Gold Protege."

But The Thrall is so much more than affecting vocals, too. The set thrills by pushing a relatively conventional four-piece band to overachieve. Where indie titans Spoon dazzle by imposing a certain stripe of minimalism onto amazing songs, Lubec's aim is decidedly maximalist, instrumentally, although never redundant. All of Lubec's moving parts really move, and move with purpose in complementary cycles that all support central melodic and rhythmic ideas. And all of it supports the record's wide-eyed, full-hearted and still partly innocent appraisal of the bigness and odd magic of life. The Thrall marvels, and it is marvelous.

Indiana-based Like Young Records is releasing The Thrall in a limited edition of 50 red cassettes on Sept. 21. The first pressing of the cassettes sold out on pre-orders, which should give you some indication of the power of The Thrall; a second pressing is already planned. The band does have a limited amount of product on its collective person, so if you are lucky enough to live in Portland, you may still be able to get your hands on the tape. Lubec fetes the release of The Thrall with a hotly anticipated hometown performance at Mississippi Studios Sept. 21, an evening which also features music from Night Mechanic and Old Wave. Lubec has another in-town performance at The Firkin a couple weeks thereafter, and is planning a strand of house shows across the Pacific Northwest for later in the fall. Stream The Thrall via the Bandcamp embed below.

Lubec: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud



Selected Previous Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Lubec
Today's Hotness: Lubec
Review: Lubec | Wilderness Days
Today's Hotness: Lubec
Today's Hotness: Lubec
Be Prepared: Lubec | Nothing Is Enough EP Teaser "Cherry Adair"
Show Us Yours #13: Lubec

Today's Hotness: Warm Weather, Spanish Prisoners

>> Upstart indie pop trio Warm Weather recently issued a remarkably accomplished debut EP. The five-song release is titled Dances, and it showcases impressively developed songwriting and arranging -- not to mention musicianship. With Beach Boys-grade harmonies, busy Afro-pop inflections and tasteful production, it is hard to believe Warm Weather has been a going concern for less than a year (the LA-based band formed only last fall after its members were graduated from college). Listeners will likely identify a superficial likeness to the light and tightly organized pop of Vampire Weekend, but given the group dynamic on display here we don't think the typically trite Beach Boys reference point is off-base (not too shabby for a three-piece); Paul Simon fans will also likely dig this. Dances is available to download from Bandcamp for free in its entirety right here, and we think you will be glad you availed yourself of the opportunity. Below is an embed of the title track to whet your appetite. Dances was self-released by the band June 9; Justin Lerman from the band tells us the three are at work on a follow-up EP that will likely contain four songs and be released before the end of the summer.



>> Brooklyn-based psych-pop quartet Spanish Prisoners are preparing to release in early October a terrific debut full-length of '60s-influenced pop titled Gold Fools. The nine-song collection is filled with understated, hazy but charming dreamers including the snappy "Rich Blood," the slow-burning, mod swayer "Los Angeles Guitar Dream" and the deliciously psychedelic "Slow Decay." The foursome, fronted by a chap named Leo Maymind, is promoting Gold Fools with a free digital single "Know No Violence," which you can obtain for as little as zero American dollars from Bandcamp; check out the embed below. "Los Angeles Guitar Dream," was previously issued as a digital single in 2009 (check it out at Bandcamp here), but an updated version is what opens Gold Fools. Spanish Prisoners has four hometown gigs on the horizon, and we list them below "Know No Violence."



07.30 -- Fireproof -- Brooklyn, NY
08.04 -- Littlefield -- Brooklyn, NY
08.18 -- Shea Stadium -- Brooklyn, NY
08.27 -- The Schoolhouse -- Brooklyn, NY

YouTube Rodeo: Wrapping Paper's "You Don't Hold Back Anything"

Sometimes it is just nice to see people sticking with it. We downloaded Wrapping Paper's jaunty lo-fi gem "Hold Up The Neon Sign" from the band's MySpace casa way back in 2006, and played the track a fair amount over the last four years. The Sioux Falls-based act, as far as we recollect, is a one-man affair (the man being a dude named Tim, according to an email we received recently) that notably wrote personalized songs for anyone who purchased the Hold Up The Neon Sign EP when it was finally released in 2008. The new news is that Wrapping Paper released late last month a 10-song, digital-only set called Superhero, and those who purchase the collection may once again avail themselves of the customized song offer. Pretty ace, right? Equally cool is the band's new tune "You Don't Hold Back Anything," a delightful, instantly hummable piece of sunny power pop with Beach Boys harmonies and dense guitars. We think we like it even more than "Hold Up The Neon Sign." Dig the video above. Superhero is available through Wrapping Paper's label Giantship Records right here; the entire record can be previewed here.