If you haven’t caught Philly’s Bleeding Rainbow in concert or online over the past few months, here’s a mindblower for you: the minimal noisepop duo formerly known as Reading Rainbow (who last year expanded into a trio, then changed its name) is now a full-blown, epic-sounding indie punk foursome. In its Friday evening South by Southwest showcase at Austin’s The Iron Bear, Bleeding Rainbow delivered a raging half-hour long set of entirely new material that carried tones of Sonic Youth’s Goo and Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. New drummer Greg Frantz kept a fierce backbeat while founding members Rob Garcia and Sara Everton alternated between guitar and bass, their trademark vocal harmonies floating nicely above the fray. Over on stage right, guitarist Al Creedon wailed on his guitar so intensely, part of its headstock splintered off by set’s end. I was already amped to hear the new record the band just finished working on, but this has sent it into overdrive – check out a slideshow above, read the setlist below, and experience the noise for yourselves when Bleeding Rainbow opens for Cloud Nothings at Johnny Brendas on March 30.

SETLIST
Get Lost
Pink Ruff
Yr Not Alone
Go Ahead
Drift Away
Inside My Head
Shades

Thanks to The Swollen Fox for noticing this update via the band’s (new) tumblr:

READING RAINBOW = BLEEDING RAINBOW

REASONS WE CHANGED OUR NAME FROM READING RAINBOW TO BLEEDING RAINBOW:

- We like the name Bleeding Rainbow better.
- It is trippy as shit.
- We didn’t want to get a cease and desist letter from PBS.
- We were sick of being named after a children’s t.v. show.
- We were sick of people fixating on it and making dumb jokes/comments about it. (even though it was our own damn fault.)
- Carrie Brownstein didn’t like the name Reading Rainbow.

Holy Ghost

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25
In case you missed it, yacht house is now a genre of music. Or at least, that’s what techno-pop duo Holy Ghost! (and its contemporaries like Chromeo and Washed Out) would have you believe. After meeting in high school, band members Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser were first inspired by the day’s popular hip hop, eventually mixing those influences with a palate of ‘70s and ‘80s-era keyboard dance. Though not as innovative as James Murphy (founder of DFA Records, to which the band is signed, and the mastermind behind LCD Soundsystem), Holy Ghost! maintains a mostly sample-free existence, inching ahead of other neo-house acts who fail to make anything noteworthy or new. Original or not, the band’s self-titled debut album, which was released earlier this year, delivers many tunes for a good time—particularly if you find yourself on a boat. Holy Ghost! performs with Jessica 6, Midnight Magic, and Eli Escobar at 8:30 p.m. at Union Transfer; tickets to the all-ages show are $13-$15.—Marielle Mondon

Also Playing: Allman Brothers Band at Tower Theatre (7:30 p.m., $49.50–$125); Snowing + Algernon Cadwallader, 1994!, Glocca Morra, The World Is… at First Unitarian Church (7:30 p.m., all ages, SOLD OUT); Sick Of It All + Trapped Under Ice, Hundreth, Back Track, Take Offense, Betrayal at Broad Street Ministry (7 p.m., all ages $15)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26
Nightlands + Dustin Wong, Norwegian Arms at PhilaMOCA (all ages, $7–$10); Reading Rainbow + Woven Bones at Johnny Brenda’s (9:30 p.m., 21+, $10); The Bailey Hounds + Ruby The Hatchet, Wendy at Kung Fu Necktie (7:30 p.m., 21+, $8)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27
Simple Plan + Forever The Sickest Kids, The Cab, Marianas Trench at Electric Factory (6 p.m., all ages, $30.90)

For more photos by Eric Ashleigh, visit eashleigh.com.

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Brian McGee (outdoor stage)
12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m The Parson Red Heads (outdoor stage)
1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. John Byrne (indoor stage)
1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Wigwams (outdoor stage)
2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Pinemouth (indoor stage)
2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Birdie Busch (outdoor stage)
3:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Toy Soldiers (indoor stage)
3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Nicos Gun (outdoor stage)
4:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. North Lawrence Midnight Singers (indoor stage)
4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Reading Rainbow (outdoor stage)
5:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. Avi Wisnia (indoor stage)
5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Viva Voce (outdoor stage)
6:00 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. Stephen Lyons (indoor stage)
6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Jukebox The Ghost (outdoor stage)
7:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Thao with the Get Down Stay Down (outdoor stage)
8:00 p.m. – 8:45 p.m. The Head and The Heart (outdoor stage)
9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Good Old War (outdoor stage)

Reading Rainbow – Dead End by RRPhilly

HVNLP85 The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart by heavenlyrecordings

SOLDIER by nicosgun

Reading Rainbow‘s previously canceled Vitamin Water Uncapped show has been rescheduled for September 28th, according to the band’s Twitter. The earlier date, August 27th, was cut when Hurricane Irene intervened. The 21+ concert will be free and take place at Sigma Sound Studios. Reading Rainbow will be accompanied by The Homophones and Cat Vet.

UPDATE 9/8/11 (1:30 p.m.): An earlier version of this post stated that the show was on September 29th, as was originally mentioned on Reading Rainbow’s Twitter. As Johnny Brenda’s Chris Ward mentioned below, the show is on the 28th.

According to the band’s web site:

Listen to our new song “Dead End” that we did for our secret split 7″ with SUPER WILD HORSES for the HoZac Hook up Klub!!
Sadly you can only get copies if you were a Hook up Klub Round 2 member – BUT we should have these for sale on tour in September!

FACTS ABOUT THE SONG “DEAD END”:

- Recorded before Al joined the band, but the guitar feedback in the beginning and end of the song includes Al wailing on guitar. (Al also recorded this song for us)

- Feedback at beginning and end of the track also includes Rob wailing on guitar as well as SARAH* wailing. (*look for more Sarah guitar playing in future)

Reading Rainbow – Dead End by RRPhilly

Reminder: The band are playing a free show this Saturday August 27th as part of the Vitamin Water Uncapped Live show curated by The Raveonettes and also featuring The Homophones and Cat Vet. The show is at 8 p.m. at Sigma Sound Studios. Admission to the 21+ show is free by making a reservation here.

Philly is apparently the place to be for free music this summer. Vice and Vitamin Water have just announced a free show to take place next Saturday, August 27th at Sigma Sound Studios. As part of the Vitamin Water Uncapped Live series, the concert will feature an all-local lineup: Reading Rainbow, Cat Vet, and The Homophones. The evening will be curated by The Raveonettes. The show is 21+ and free with an RSVP, which you can easily fill out here.

A somewhat interesting sponsor/curator/artist partnership, but we’ll take it! Thanks to The Deli Philadelphia for the tip.

All photos by John Vettese

Whether its experimental screenings by local filmmaker Ted Passon or captivating ambient improvisation by national names Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon (performing as Mirror/Dash, back in 2005), you can always count on Chinatown’s Vox Populi Gallery to keep the Philadelphia arts scene fresh, thrilling and alive. But that doesn’t happen on its own. Like most cultural organizations, Vox relies heavily on fundraising, and this Thursday is a tremendous opportunity to give back. A benefit for the gallery is being thrown at Johnny Brenda’s, and it includes performances by today’s Philly Phile artists – Key Studio Sessions alums Reading Rainbow and Creepoid (pictured above). Also on tap is a collaborative appearance by local guitar mindbender Steve Gunn and drummer John Trucsinski, and a DJ set from mega scene supporter Dan Murphy, of the venerable photo-zine Megawords. Information about the Vox Populi benefit this Thursday at 9 p.m. at Johnny Brenda’s can be found here. Below, download Key Session tracks from Reading Rainbow and Creepoid.

• Dream Outby Creepoid from their Key Studio SessionDownload

• Restlessby Reading Rainbow from their Key Studio SessionDownload

“Everton and Garcia’s music is sweet but not lacking a punk-rock backbone, made clear by the way Reading Rainbow was born: the two were in another band together, when their previous drummer suddenly announced that he couldn’t go on a tour. They improvised and created a new band they could tour with — Sarah took a floor tom and snare and taught herself to play drums. With that stripped-down set-up they’ve created some of the best pop songs we’ve heard this year, including “Always on My Mind,” recorded at Philadelphia’s Miner Street Studios during a session of Weathervane Music’s video series ‘Shaking Through.’”

(Poor Washington, D.C.: Not only do the residents of Our Nation’s Capital still not have the right to vote for representatives in Congress, but the district’s local music scene doesn’t even count in the eyes of alt-weeklies any more. That’s just harsh.)

You can listen to our own Key Studio Session with Reading Rainbow here; our recent interview with the duo-turned-trio (including the new third member, Al Creedon) can be found here.

Hey, where's the new guy?

On a sticky Philadelphia evening, The Key caught up with Reading Rainbow in the patio garden behind Rocket Cat Café in Fishtown. The band, with new member Al Creedon, had just finished dinner at a restaurant down the street, and we sat behind the coffee shop, where drummer Sarah Everton works. (At one point, the interview was interrupted to help Sarah’s co-worker locate paper airplanes that she had let a customer’s son make out of car insurance papers.) All of this is to say that, even if Sarah and Rob Garcia hail from Virginia and have only lived in Philadelphia for four years, the affinity they now have with their city and neighborhood is almost palpable. “You could have just come to our house, it’s right down the street,” said Sarah. Since their first full length Mystical Participation was released in 2009, Reading Rainbow has been playing around in the gray area between internet flare-up sensation and lasting psychedelic shoe gaze punk rockers, but since the November 2010 release of Prism Eyes, Garcia and Everton are determined to prove their staying power and serious musicianship. Catching the band between tours, The Key spoke with Sarah, Rob and Al about feeling inadequate, Al’s arrival, and why they hate being called “cute.”

The Key: So, how did you guys meet Al? How did he end up becoming your third member?

Rob Garcia: We actually go way back.

Al Creedon: Years.

RG: When we first started playing in Philadelphia, we played with this band called Hermit Thrushes, who live in South Philly. A lot of those dudes are from New Jersey.

AC: Yeah, and I grew up in Jersey, kind of in the same circle as Yianni Kourmadas from Hermit Thrushes, and that’s who introduced us.

RG: Sarah and I were in the process of recording a whole bunch of songs, and we had put out a CDR. Al had his own record label at that point, which he still has, and he helped release our first album, Mystical Participation. Ever since then pretty much every other 7” we’ve ever done, and most of the songs on our last album Prism Eyes, were mixed by Al. So when Sarah and I were thinking, “Gosh, it’d be great to have a third person, who would it be?,” it made the most sense that it would be Al, since he’s familiar with all of our songs… As the band is moving along, and we’re trying to grow and progress and evolve, having another person to help move that along and be able to play live songs with a lot more stuff going on is what we wanted.

Sarah Everton: On the last tour we did, when we were out with The Dodos, we felt really inadequate the whole time. Well, no, I mean in a good way. An inspiring way. We were just like, “We have to get another guitar player.” And we were already leading Al on a whole lot, like, “If we ever get someone, it would be you!” And then finally I was texting Al saying, “Learn all of our songs.”

AC: And I just said, “OK.”

TK: So Al, you’ve been working with them for quite a while. Have the dynamics of making music changed, or has that not been explored much yet?

RG: Well, Sarah and I, our “Rainbow” is going into the recording studio in a few weeks to try to record three songs really quickly. We’re still in the old style of writing, so we’re going to try to do these recordings really quick, to rev up to record for the actual album. When we start writing songs for that we’ll have a more cohesive writing process and a better idea of how it changes.

AC: We’re still learning the old songs, and they’re gearing up with some new ideas, but we haven’t really done it together yet.

RG: We were definitely hoping that for live performances, for some songs we were thinking Al could play keyboard or an organ part, since there’s a lot of that on the record already. Or we thought that now maybe Sarah and I could switch up parts.

TK: Do you still keep day jobs?

RG: Yeah, I’m starting to feel the burn, or burn-out. I’m actually taking a week off to do these next recordings coming up. I work at a green engineering firm.

SE: It’s really intense for Rob, because he has a career-type job, it’s not just like a part-time thing, it’s full-time salary. And I work here! [gesturing to Rocket Cat Café’s back door] We live right around the corner actually.

RG: We’re pretty much at the stage where we’re really gonna go for it and tour hard. That’s also why we’re happy to have Al with us, because for the last tour, driving around for six weeks with just Sarah and I in the car, that was kind of intense just to do all the driving by ourselves.

AC: And I’m a teacher. I teach basic music production courses and a live sound course at Burlington County College, in Pemberton, New Jersey—way out in the sticks. The last recordings we did, we did there, for Cover The Sky. With school teaching, it makes it easy to stay on top of that stuff with these guys.

SE: Al actually played on one of the songs he recorded for us.

AC: Yeah, it was foreshadowing I guess. For the song “The Rat.” That was the first time all three of us played together—the first taste.

TK: How will this change the sound you guys already have?

RG: Well, I mean, we’re still the same people, so it’s not going to turn into some post-punk dance group or something.

AC: There’s a lot of two guitar tracks on Prism Eyes as it is, which we were discussing while I was mixing it, so the ground work has already been laid for the second guitar.

RG: Even when there’s not two distinct parts, the way we’re playing it now, the guitar styles are a lot different, so it just makes it really full sounding. Just going on the Dodos tour, playing in these huge venues, and just being two people who play standing up kind of facing each other, it’s scary honestly. And then ultimately, only being capable of playing with two people, our songs are pretty stripped down punk songs, so being able to play fuller songs, it makes us feel more legitimate as a full band that can have orchestrated, really beautiful sounds.

SE: For me, there was always this disconnect between when we played live as opposed to our recordings. Because people would get one vibe from it if they were listening to us on the recording, and they wouldn’t recognize the punk element to us until they saw us live. And then there’s people who were thinking that it was more cutesy, which is fine I guess, but kind of weird. It’s nice to be able to have more nice, droney, fuzzy guitar parts.

TK: So if you don’t want people to get the impression that you’re cute or soft, how do you want them to think of you?

SE: Well it’s really complicated and loaded, because trust me, I get it. I get why people think we’re cute. I get that. I know a lot of our songs are really catchy and upbeat. It’s like pop music, I know that. But I don’t want people writing us off or being belittling because we’re not being pretentious and serious. We’re not all posey in photos and stuff, you know? That shit turns me off so much, and it would be so fake if we were acting like that.

RG: Another thing is that being able to add a third member and expand and show how diverse we are as musicians, it also takes the focus off of just Sarah and I being up there. One of the things we’ve become aware of, especially after the JUMP magazine thing, that’s going to be the last time we talk about our relationship, ever. Our band should not be about our relationship; it should be about the music. If people know you’re a couple, and then they see you playing music together, and it’s just the two of you, they might get this preconceived notion that, oh, that music is cutesy or wimpy or whatever, or that there’s no meaning behind it. Like we’re just two lovebirds writing cute songs about each other.

SE: Obviously we’ve had this tirade between ourselves before. I mean, I bitch about this all the time. I don’t want to look ungrateful for any attention or anything anyone’s ever said that’s meant to be flattering, and I’m not in denial about anything either. But just because some of our music is upbeat it doesn’t mean it’s really all light and carefree, it’s some fucking dark shit sometimes. But people take it very literally, like, “Oh, this song is just about hanging out and smoking weed and doing nothing.” And it’s not about that at all. And as far as genres go, I feel like if people understand it’s not too much of one thing, and that they get the punk aspect, but also see the shoegazey parts, they’ll understand where we’re coming from. I guess I like being seen in context. I don’t like being seen as an Internet band that’s really cute and sings about doing nothing and getting wasted.

TK: Then if you could craft the perfect line up to put yourselves in the context you’d want people to see you, who would you play with?

SE: Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo.

AC: And a Glenn Branca secret set.

RG: Playing early stuff, music off of his first two records! But really, if we could play with them, we would shit ourselves, because we really look up to them as musicians. And Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo both have couples in the bands and people still take them seriously.

SE: I feel like everyone we talk to now thinks that every band needs to have a story, and everyone needs to know it. Why do people have to know shit? And even if they do, why does that have to mean they have to know about our relationship?

RG: But now we’ve got that story out there, and now we’ve got Al in the band, and it can be about his relationships with other people.

SE: Yeah, Al can just talk about his dating scene.

AC: Hey, I’ve got stories.

Reading Rainbow’s next local show is Thursday, July 21st, at Johnny Brenda’s; the band also recently announced a series of tour dates with Eternal Summers, which you can find on their website. —Danielle Wayda

And, if you missed John Vettese’s Philly Local Phile from last Friday—which featured the new three-song Norwegian Arms EP, Trimming Of Hides, in its entirety—you can give it a listen here prior to tonight’s opening performance at Kung Fu Necktie. Norwegian Arms performs with Oh No Oh My, Arrah And The Ferns, and Cow Pals at 8 p.m. at Kung Fu Necktie; tickets to the 21+ show are $8.

Also playing: Low (touring in support of its recently released full-length album, C’Mon—which we mentioned here) + Stick And A Stone at First Unitarian Church (8 p.m., all ages, $15); Philadelphia’s Reading Rainbow headlines a lineup that also features Grass Widow (Kill Rock Stars) + Broken Water, Acid Kicks at Danger Danger Gallery (8:30 p.m., all ages, $5-$10)

READING RAINBOW “Cover The Sky” by HellYes

Below, you can listen to Reading Rainbow‘s new song, “Cover The Sky,” which comes from the local duo’s upcoming one-sided 7-inch (due April 11th on the Italian label Hell, Yes!). Only 400 copies of the limited-edition, hand-numbered single will be available; you can pre-order it here.

READING RAINBOW “Cover The Sky” by HellYes

Photo by Bruce Warren

Meet George, quite possibly the world’s biggest fan of Reading Rainbow. I couldn’t help but take his picture last Saturday evening at SXSW in Austin, as I was hanging out on 6th Street. I was just surveying the thousands of people out on the street, and there came George—wearing a big smile and a new Reading Rainbow t-shirt. George is from Los Angeles, and took some time off from his job managing a couple of record stores to go to the music conference and festival. He told me that seeing Reading Rainbow at SXSW was one of his favorite shows and that we should be happy to have a band as great as Reading Rainbow in Philly. We agree.

Reading Rainbow

One of the many good things about being a duo is the relative ease of setting up and breaking down your equipment. In an environment like SXSW, where bands are rushed on and off the stage with barely enough time to perform a five-song set, that kind of hassle-free setup can save a band a lot of aggravation. So we hope that—while five- and six-piece bands are sweating it out, trying to get all of their guitars, synthesizers, laptops, basses, and drum kits from one show to the next—local duos such as Reading Rainbow and Slutever get to take their sweet time and actually enjoy the experience. Reading Rainbow and Slutever perform at the WXPN/YVYNYL showcase on Thursday, March 17th, at the The Broken Neck. You can find both bands’ additional SXSW dates on their websites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVJWzVLG4JQ&feature=related

The electronica band Golden Ages are performing several shows in Austin (including our local showcase with YVYNYL). Last summer, the music blog universe raved over Golden Ages’ cover of Toto’s “Africa” (which you can download below), and many a blog referenced Animal Collective as a point of comparison. We, on the hand, hear a young band with a sophisticated sense of melody set to an electro-rhythmic, somewhat noisy background.

• Africaby Golden Ages from the Africa EPDownload

We’ve been fans of Kurt Vile’s singer-songwriter stoner haze for a long time. His new album Smoke Ring For My Halo is his best yet, with Pitchfork giving the album a Best New Music award. Kurt is performing Saturday at Auditorium Shores Stage at 4:30 Central Time as part of NPR Music’s live radio broadcast on WXPN (4:30 Eastern).

12:00 – 12:20  - Nicos Gun
12:30 – 12:50 – Suede Uppers
1:00 – 1:20 – Arrah and the Ferns
1:30 – 1:50 – The Armchairs
2:00 – 2:20 – The Spinto Band
2:30 – 2:50 – Slutever
3:00 – 3:20  - Far-out Fangtooth
3:30 – 3:50 – Creepoid
4:00 – 4:20 – Golden Ages
4:30 – 4:50 – Reading Rainbow
5:00 – 5:20  - Nothing
5:30 – 5:50 – The Spooks

If you’re new to the Reading Rainbow experience, check out the Key Studio Session they did for us here, as well as the video below that they recently did at some pizza shop in New York.

Photo by John Vettese

On the heels of their acclaimed sophomore album Prism Eyes—and just before they dropped a split 7” with NYC’s Coasting—we welcomed Rob Garcia and Sara Everton into our studio earlier this month for the Reading Rainbow Power Hour on Y-Rock. We’re giving you their entire set as the final Key Studio Session of 2010; since it was played live to the HD Radio airwaves, there were no retakes. It’s raw, blistering, and there’s a bit of a reverb flub in “Wasting Time” that causes the duo to crack up laughing. It’s all the awesomer for it. Credit goes to Eric Schuman of Y-Rock (and Ugly Rumors) for his sharp engineering and Reading Rainbow for their fierce performance, from the rimshot-happy early single “Restless” to the bring-it-all-home drive of “Must Be Dreaming.” We look forward to capturing more of these performances in 2011.

• Always On My Mindby Reading Rainbow from The Key Studio Sessions 12/29/10Download

• I See Lightby Reading Rainbow from The Key Studio Sessions 12/29/10Download

• Must Be Dreamingby Reading Rainbow from The Key Studio Sessions 12/29/10Download

• Restlessby Reading Rainbow from The Key Studio Sessions 12/29/10Download

• Undergroundby Reading Rainbow from The Key Studio Sessions 12/29/10Download

• Wasting Timeby Reading Rainbow from The Key Studio Sessions 12/29/10Download

• White Noiseby Reading Rainbow from The Key Studio Sessions 12/29/10Download

Reading Rainbow at Danger Danger
Thursday December 16, 2010
Photo by John Vettese

Creepoid

Oh, who are we kidding? You’re going to stay in tonight because of the snow.

If, however, you plan on dusting off the old dog sled and mushing your way through the city, there are two excellent shows featuring local bands with new music that has either just been released or on its way. Philly’s favorite garage-pop duo Reading Rainbow performs at Danger Danger Gallery tonight. Most of the Internet has been freaking out over the band’s debut, Prism Eyes, since it received a positive review from Pitchfork earlier this month; tonight’s show is the officially official release party for the band’s new split 7-inch with Brooklyn’s Coasting, which is also on the bill. (Also playing: Moon Women. 8 p.m., $5-$10) Meanwhile, over at Kung Fu Necktie, local psych quartet Creepoid will be opening for The Notekillers (which John Vettese highlighted earlier today in his Philly Local Philes); look for Creepoid to play songs off the band’s upcoming full-length, Horse Heaven, due out in January on Ian Records. (8 p.m., $8)

And speaking of our friends Rob and Sarah from Reading Rainbow, they play Thursday night at Danger Danger Gallery w/ Brooklyn’s Coasting and Philly’s Moon Women to celebrate the release of Reading Rainbow’s fine new album Prism Eyes.

Reading Rainbow

Huggy Bear, “Her Jazz”
Reading Rainbow, “We Are Too Young”
______________________________________
LIVE READING RAINBOW PERFORMANCE
“Restless”
“White Noise”
“Underground”
“I See Light”
“Always On My Mind”
“Must Be Dreaming”
“Wasting Time”
______________________________________

Crash Course in Science, “Cardboard Lamb”
Wire, “Another The Letter”
Devo, “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize”
The Zombies, “Tell Her No”
The Breeders, “No Aloha”
The Wipers, “Can This Be?”
Urinals, “Black Hole”
Native Tongue, “When The Walls Close In”
The Velvet Underground, “Rock & Roll”

Amy Granzin, who gives the album a 7.7 on the Pitchfork scale, writes:

Hazy, undefined nostalgia is Reading Rainbow’s stock-in-trade. And when Everton and Garcia work with rose-colored 1960s pop sounds and feisty punk ‘tude, the results are wonderful. Not so when they capitulate to the false imperative to write slow, ballady songs in a vaguely 50s prom mode (what, for the sake of historical diversity?). Soggy duet “Let’s Dream Tonight” never rises above formal exercise, because it lacks the emotional conviction of the album’s brighter, uptempo numbers. But that’s a relatively minor demerit, and Prism Eyes’ winners far outnumber its skip tracks. Maybe it’s the season, or maybe I’ve grown weary of a musical landscape scorched by twitchy dubstep, witchhouse drones, icy synths, and apocalyptic visions, but comfort and joy sounds awfully appealing right now.

You can listen to and download “Always On My Mind” from their new album here.

Oh. And we give the album a 9.2