If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Rachel Loomes Shangri-Lass is the solo project of Sister Wives bassist Rose Love. Her debut single is "Parallel," and this one is going to hit a sonic sweet spot for a lot of us. The song has a very 60's sound to it. It combines girl group pop with the grooviness of a spy show theme. But "Parallel" is a dark song. As dark as a girl group song could get thematically, they always had more of a pop shine to take the edge off. Shangri-Lass take that sound and just turn it into a brooding track. This is still a fun song, but expect to get a little grimey listening to it.  Rose Love says of the new song: “Parallel started out as lyrics written years ago at the beginning of a relationship that started intensely and ended badly, leaving emotional carnage in its wake. It’s about loving someone and wanting to help them but ignoring your gut instinct.” You can watch the video for "Parallel" below. Over & Over is due out April 28 on Redundant Span Rec...

Just when I think I can't possibly like Scrunchies (the Minnesota band made up of members of Baby Guts, Kitten Forever, and Bruise Violet), they go and release a song like "Parallel." I'll let vocalist/guitarist Laura Larson explain how the song came together: "We wanted 'Parallel' to be like 'Squirrel Song' by Shellac, and have these jarring, uneven measures to the verses. I was also very interested in having Danielle do this Kim Gordon-esque deadpan call-and-response vocal delivery in the bridge, almost as a juxtaposition to the song's loose theme of both self-imposed and external hope + idealism vs turbulence + obstruction of being a woman making art during late stage capitalism." Besides being inspired by Shellac and Kim Gordon, I'm getting some major early Sleater-Kinney vibes from this one. It doesn't quite have the aggression of some of their other recent singles, but when a song is going to be this straight up great no one...