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Shimmering Stars | Nervous Breakdown
Lo-fi, reverbed guitar-driven garage-pop is done a fair amount these days - not gonna make any claims as to whether that’s good or not, it just is - but I think few bands get it right. Vancouver’s Shimmering Stars definitely do, exuding a sense of cool and demonstrating their grasp on what makes songs great (note: not just the effects). A self-description from their bandcamp serves as a purpose statement for the band:
The music embodies an attempt at drawing out and illuminating the subtle darkness inherent in the seemingly wholesome, innocent music of the 1950s and 60s. The result filters older influences like the Everly Brothers, Del Shannon, Phil Spector, and Bo Diddley through a contemporary indie lens. Songs about being in love, not being in love, the painfully modern condition of floating in a state of suspended adolescence – all tinted with the slight self-deprication of knowing how trite it is to be writing songs about these things at all.
The song above comes off their Violent Hearts album, which can be downloaded (partially?) at bandcamp, or picked up at Hardly Art. Download the track for Nervous Breakdown here (or above), and I’m Gonna Try here. Watch the rather humorous video for Nervous Breakdown below:
