Mercury Lounge

showview

Submarines 8:30

Headlights 7:30

Fri 5/30

Tickets

$10

Submarines

http://www.myspace.com/thesubmarinesmusic
http://thesubmarines.com
John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard recorded HONEYSUCKLE WEEKS, their second album as THE SUBMARINES, as summer vines blossomed and the sun coaxed green grasses up around the stones leading from their East LA home to their garage-turned-home-studio. Honeysuckle Weeks weaves together themes drawn from their immediate surroundings and experience: the garden outside, and the push and pull of life and love inside.

After touring behind their debut, Declare a New State, in the US and Europe, The Submarines were ready to make an album that felt good not only to record but to play in a live setting. “Our first album was hugely cathartic for us to make, dealing with a breakup and getting out the sorrow, but we’ve been ready to freak out and have a lot more fun this time around. We’re thankful not to have to make that record again, to be in a better place,” says Hazard. Honeysuckle Weeks also marks the duo’s first album made collaboratively; Declare A New State was written separately during a breakup and recorded upon their reunion.

Sonically, Honeysuckle Weeks is a glorious collage of The Submarines’ wide-ranging influences, from old-school dub (most evident in tracks like “1940” and “Fern Beard”) to intricately layered electronica (as in the psychedelic-classical “Submarine Symphonika” and “The Thorny Thicket”) to 60’s pop (as on “Swimming Pool” and the Santaria-inspired “Xavia”). While some songs started with a traditional guitar-in-hand approach, many began with instrumental tracks composed by Dragonetti, which Hazard then completed with words and melody, drawing on each of the their musical strengths. Dragonetti--who masterminded the recording--says, “The glitch is enjoyable, but so are the Beatles, so I just try to follow what the song calls for.” The duo was also joined on a number of tracks by the phenomenal Section Quartet.

Headlights

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=14397535
http://www.headlightsmusic.com/
Though the Illinois natives share the shambling, otherworldly energy of bands on the Canadian label Arts & Crafts (Stars, Broken Social Scene), the similarity is more spiritual than sonic. Whenever Headlights' sweet swirl sounds like it might falter and spin off course, they always swerve back, shining even more brightly. -SPIN

A quartet of strings opens "Your Old Street" like a white tunnel to heaven evolving into a summery twee ditty. "Songy Darko" finds Erin Fein going it alone in a quirky piano-driven pop songâ€¦ "Hi-Ya!" is the perfect mesh of New Wave and French Nuevo with synthetic accordions and pounding organs twirling like a tornado. "Lullabies" is like listening to a lounge pop circus with some wonderful space rock guitars revisited at the end... Headlights are a band to watch on the indie rock radar. -Under The Radar

Combine the strength in gender equity with the bandâ€™s flare for orchestral symphony and Kill Them With Kindness becomes likely the best indie release to come out of the Prairie State since Sufjan Stevens epic journey down Route 1. -Absolute Punk.net