Album review: The Bright Light Social Hour released first new music in three years Friday
Ed note: Typically The Cosmic Clash publishes (loosely) using AP down style guidelines (which means we refrain from writing in the first person). Today’s story, however, is more personal as the inspiration for the material came from the passing of Alex O’Brien who was the band’s manager and brother of bassist Jackie O’Brien. He was also a personal friend. Consequently this story is told in the first person.
The Bright Light Social Hour performs this evening for the second of two performances at Cheer-Up Charlies. Doors open at 7 p.m. Fans are encouraged to pay what they want to enter. I strongly urge you to attend. You won’t regret it.
After covering The Bright Light Social Hour for nearly a decade, since their debut album The Bright Light Social Hour dropped, I can honestly say I couldn’t be more excited for the group. If you clicked the link, you saw tens of thousands of plays their debut has on Soundcloud which isn’t even the most popular streaming platform they’re found on. The band was hot. You couldn’t turn on KUT (KUTX didn’t exist yet) without hearing one of the band’s singles. They were the party band of the moment. Fresh out of college, ready to slay the world. And they did. They toured constantly for four years, playing over 400 shows. As Walker Lukens pointed out, that’s more than The Doors ever played. The band opened for popular acts like Aerosmith and later Dr. Dog and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. TBLSH were going places. Then the guys set out to make a follow-up album. They didn’t know what obstacles were in front of them though.
As TBLSH prepared to make a follow-up record, their manager Alex was spiraling downward after being diagnosed with severe bi-polar disorder. Before the band could put out a sophomore effort to their incredible debut record, after reworking the new material a couple times, Alex took his own life, succumbing to his terrible diagnosis. I was stunned when I heard the news. Alex was one of the happiest, most gregarious people I’d met through the local music scene. Everyone loved him. He was always smiling and had a kind word for all. How could he be gone at such a young age?
As you can imagine the band was reeling from the loss of their friend and manager. I’ve seen his brother, Jackie O’Brien (bass/vocals) post inspiring words on Facebook as he dealt with the loss of his sibling. Because Alex was really like a fifth member of the band, the loss hit the group particularly hard. Frankly, the news negatively affected the entire local music scene.
The new EP (which dropped Friday), Missing Something is inspired by Alex’s death. I cannot imagine how many emotions must go through the guys when they play the recordings back. My own mind ran through a gamut of tumultuous feelings as I listened to all five tracks on the record. While the subject matter is sober, the music illustrates the group’s continuing evolution. Stylistically the new material is closer to their sophomore effort, Space is the Place which is decidedly darker, more psychedelic, shoegazy and atmospheric in direction than the first record. It was a stark departure from the music that got the band attention.
You can hear elements of Afrobeat, shoegaze and even electronic music on the new record. According to guitarist and vocalist, Curtis Roush, the album is meant to be an introduction to all the new music they’ve made that will be released after this deeply personal, gorgeously self-produced record The Bright Light Social Hour made in their own Escondido Sound Studio. The record was mixed by Spoon’s Jim Eno (Pubic Hi-Fi) and mastered by Dave Cooley (Wolf Alice, J Dilla, M83).
“…it’s a prologue for new music to come and opens doors for us — psychedelic soul, heavy shoegaze, krautrock and afrobeat-inspired rhythms all swirled together. All the love and loss we’ve felt since our last release can be found in the words, melodies, textures and pulse.”
Frankly tears came before I was done listening. Not of sadness but exposure to the raw emotion I felt coming through the music. It is a hauntingly beautiful record. Opening track “Missing Something” is more of an extended introduction than a complete song. The weird sounds and effects by keyboardist Edward Brailiff that are joined with distorted vocals to start the song led into a slow drum beat and harmonized melodies that sound as though the band were chanting the words like a mantra or prayer. The effect is hypnotizing.
Track two, “Trip with Lola” is equally compelling but has a more conventional song structure while it reveals the new sonic textures the group is employing. TBLSH made the track the subject of the first video made from the album. The Cosmic Clash is currently featuring the clip as our “Video of the Week.”
“Alternate Living” the third track on the record might be my favorite. Those afrobeat rhythms Curtis mentioned on Twitter are present front and center. The song features drummer Joseph Mirasol’s incredible talent on the skins behind Roush’s sublime, slow guitar strokes which evoke surf-rocker Dick Dale’s more psychedelic songs. I can clearly understand the lyrics despite a certain level of distortion or effects on the vocal track.
Frankly this record makes me eager to hear the additional new material the band recorded in Los Angeles last year. According to O’Brien they’ve got almost two more albums worth of music The Bright Light Social Hour has made. The audiophile in me is salivating at the thought of listening to those songs soon.
A limited edition version of the translucent pink vinyl album (pressed at Austin’s Gold Rush Vinyl) featuring a hand printed sleeve by Austin’s Fine Southern Gentlemen is available by pre-order only here https://bit.ly/2MLepkM.
